Painter's Folly is an Italianate style home built in 1857 by Samuel Painter. This historic house is located along Baltimore Pike, just east of the Brandywine Battlefield Park. Painter's Folly was the home of Howard Pyle, the founder of the Brandywine School of Art. One of the many students that Pyle had under his tutelage was N.C. Wyeth. More recently, N.C. Wyeth's son, Andrew Wyeth, frequented Painter's Folly, where he rendered many paintings of the historic house and environs. In March 2018, Chadds Ford Township purchased Painter's Folly as part of Township's Open Space inventory to preserve the house and three and one-half acre property.
Tours
To schedule a private tour of Painter's Folly, interested parties should contact us via info [at] chaddsfordpa.gov. Please include your name, phone number, email, home address, and the estimated number of attendees. The cost is $10 per person, with a minimum of 5 people and a maximum of 30 people per tour. Private tours are available between 10am and 4pm.
We also offer public tours two days each week: Tuesdays at 10am and 11:30am, and Thursdays at 12pm and 1:30pm. The cost for public tours is also $10 per person.
Please note that we do not accept credit or debit cards.
Painter's Folly: A Comprehensive History
- 1700s Painter family purchases land in Birmingham Township
- 1800s Several Painter descendants hold land and construct dwellings on and around the original Painter parcel
- 1828 William Painter purchases the Gideon Gilpin house and farm
- 1845 William Painter deeds 200 acres of farmland and the Gideon Gilpin house to son Samuel Painter
- 1857 William Painter dies; Samuel and Mary Painter build Lafayette Manor (Painter’s Folly)
- 1870 Samuel Painter dies; Joseph Turner buys Lafayette Manor and Gilpin Fam and develops Lafayette Farms
- 1899 Turner leases Lafayette Manor to Howard Pyle who uses the house to operate The Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art, also known as The Brandywine School. N. C. Wyeth and Frank Schoonover are students at the school.
- 1904 Dr. Arthur Cleveland and Richard Mead Atwater purchase Lafayette Manor (and Windtryst and Gideon Gilpin House)
- 1922 Richard Atwater dies; the Cleveland family lives in Lafayette Manor
- 1949 State of Pennsylvania exercises its eminent domain clause and takes ownership of the Gideon Gilpin farm, separating it from Lafayette Manor, and creates Brandywine Battlefield State Park
- 1953 Cleveland family sells the house and its three acres to John and Mary Fisher
- 1974 Fishers sell the house to George and Helen Sipala
- 1989 Andrew Wyeth begins his regular presence at the house, painting inside and out
- 2011 Andrew Wyeth dies
- 2018 George and Helen Sipala sell Painter’s Folly to Chadds Ford Township