| History
of Oakbourne
In 1882 James C.
Smith of Philadelphia purchased 143 acres of land on S. Concord Rd.
Westtown. The Smiths created a 27-acre park amid large trees and a small
stream, building a summerhouse and pond there and enclosing it with a
fancy stone wall running along the Oakbourne Rd. boundary.
Mr. Smith died in
1893 and his wife died three years later. He willed the Westtown property
to the Philadelphia Episcopal City Mission with the stipulation it be used
as a retreat for sick and convalescent white women 21 yrs.
and older.
For more than 70
years the James C. Smith Memorial Home was opened to women guests. By 1971
the operational cost forced the home to close its doors.
Back in 1896 the
Smith Estate had sold 96 acres to the Pennsylvania Epileptic Hospital
& Colony Farm. This land, subdivided several times over the years, is
now part of Gaudenzia House, Oakbourne Park and Pleasant Grove.
In 1974 the
Westtown Township Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to purchase the
Smith Tract for use as a Township Park. Other Tracts, once part of the
original Estate were acquired through purchase or donation, for a present
total of 93 Park Land Acres. |