One of the interesting parts of genealogy research is discovering old pictures of places that no longer exist. In a recent story on my Chester County genealogy site, I talked a bit about the old family home of Isaac G. Reynolds, my great-grandfather. Having an old photo of the house before it became part of the West Chester University campus, I started searching for old photos of some of the other family homes in the West Chester area.
The building shown above was once the Meconkey Mansion , built by David Meconkey, one of the wealthier men of West Chester. After he died in the mid 1800’s, his widow continued to live there for quite a few years, after which the building was tenanted by numerous others until finally being torn down. Somewhere in my files is a negative of an older photo of the mansion, prior to its becoming the Assembly Building. David would most likely roll over in his grave to know that at some late point in the house’s existence, it housed ladies of ill repute.