Nantmeal Village Historic District is an American

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

and historic district located in East Nantmeal Township,

Chester County Chester County may refer to: * Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States * Chester County, South Carolina, United States * Chester County, Tennessee Chester County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, th ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. The district encompasses 740 acres with 69 contributing buildings and 9 other contributing sites and structures, all privately owned. The structures span from 1735 to 1934. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2014.

Description and history

This rural district consists of Nantmeal Village and surrounding agricultural and wooded land in the vicinity of Nantmeal, Fairview, Coventryville, and Horseshoe Trail Roads in East Nantmeal Township, extending less than a mile in any direction from the district center. The population of the entire township was only 1,800 in 2014, making East Nantmeal one of the least populated municipalities in fast-growing Chester County. With only 48 noncontributing structures in the historic district, the village has retained much of its rural character. European colonists settled the area circa 1735, when David Stephens built the surviving log section of the Abraham Prizer House, the oldest historic resource in the district. The district includes a mix of residential, commercial, agricultural, and cultural sites, including a smithy and cabinetry shop from 1760, a general store from 1820, a former schoolhouse from 1861, a Quaker meetinghouse (demolished circa 1885) and cemetery, and dozens of historic homes, barns, springhouses, privies, and other structures, along with stone ruins. The most salient feature is the Nantmeal

United Methodist The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelic ...

Church, constructed in 1852 and renovated in 1902 in the Gothic Revival style. The buildings reflect a range of vernacular architectural styles, notably

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Federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

, and Victorian, plus a handful of

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

structures, notably the parsonage. A post office called Nantmeal Village was established in 1876 and remained in operation until 1918.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Chester County, Pennsylvania Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania Historic districts in Chester County, Pennsylvania Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Chester County, Pennsylvania