I am in love with Chester Springs.... (Philadelphia, King of Prussia: best town, sales)

[thenewmainline]

I am and have been in real love with my town Chester Springs. I cannot imagine a nicer place in the World (maybe not counting South of France or Positano in Italy).

Driving down 401 from Charlestown or even a prettier drive- Clover Hill Lane to Malvern has to be the most picteresque drive in the entire Chester County. I feel so lucky to live here. Taxes are high but it is so worth it.

Marsh Creek park and French Creek State park are such beautiful places.

Foliage is comparable to any New England town and the horse farms are just the best.

Seven Stars farm in Kimberton has a co-op. The historic Yellow Springs is another great area.

I actually don't care that people have been calling it the New Main Line as I already think that Chester Springs is better than ML. Better in the sense that it doesn't have the congestion and questionable affluence of the ML. Ardmore, Wynnewood are not crime free and Chester Springs are virtually free of any major crime. For now, that is.

Home prices are still relatively low in comparison with Wayne, Villanova and again, I would never trade this fantastic area for anything on the Main Line. Perhaps demographic wise, CS may not have the Gladwyne like McMansions (although there are some of Horshoe Trail Rd) but we do have some down to earth wealthy CEOs who simply do not flaunt their money in that pretentious ML way.

Like I said, I strongly believe that CS is the best town in the entire state. I mean, where else in the safe, affluent area can you still purchase a new construction home for 300K? Windsor Ridge is a great example. It's a cute community, has a fab clubhouse, fantastic location and it seems so affordable at the same time.

[rainrock]

Very nice landscape. I like Chester Springs but where on earth did you hear Chester Springs called the New Mainline?
Its more like the new Mullica Hill with better scenery.

They dont make places like the Mainline, Chestnut Hill,West Chester or Doylestown anymore.Those towns are relics of the past, built before the automobile,built the right way- with community,neighborhoods and soceity as priorities. Unfortunately we probably wont see another Mainline in our lifetimes although with gas prices setting record highs everyday maybe, just maybe, the light will finally go on for those ridiculous Chester County planners who might figure out that suburban sprawl(Chester Springs) is a gigantic mistake. So much potential for Chester Springs that somehow got marred with dozens of developments and thousands of single family vinyl sided cheap housing.

Take the lake and hills away and you wouldnt know if you were in Chester Springs Pa,Mulica Hill NJ or some pathetic sprawling mess in the middle of Indiana. When your town is built by Toll Brothers,Hovnanian, and Pulte you're just another run of the mill suburban sprawl town.

Nice area but horrendously designed.

[orrmobl]

Why Rain, a point upon which you and I both agree, must be a full moon or something.

Sorry Newmainline but you sound like someone who may be a tad envious of the real Main Line and those who live there. And those large homes in Gladwyne? They're called mansions. The Mc part is about the fast cheap construction, postage stamp barely landscaped lots and cookie cutter amenities.

As I said in another post, you can't buy class or taste, though it seems people flocking to Chester Springs are trying to.

[Tone509]

Group hug, everyone!

Thenewmainline, glad to hear you're proud and content in your new hometown.

[Will Kelly]

I must chime in and ask where else you have lived? I think Chester Springs is a nice community but in no way would I consider it to be one of the best places to live in the world or PA for that matter.

The Main Line is no more pretentious than any other area of affluence in the world. Your post makes you appear envious.

Based upon your love of Chester Springs you should have no need to travel to the Main Line to deal with the congestion. Unless of course you want to take advantage of the wonderful public programs offered by the local universities, communities & charitable foundations.

Have a great Holiday weekend!

Will

[oc2nyc]

I have to say it is at least refreshing to see someone on this board, any board for that matter who really loves where they live. You go newmainline!

[thenewmainline]

19425: It’s The New Hot Spot
It Has Horse Farms and Hills,
and “Snob Appeal”
[SIZE=2]PHILLY.COM, THE REGION’S HOME PAGE
August 19, 2004

By Lini S. Kadaba
Inquirer Staff Writer[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Ed Artzerounian, postmaster for zip code 19425, gets his share of calls from anxious buyers inquiring, rather persistently, about the mailing addresses of their new homes.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]More precisely, they want to ensure that they reside within the borders of 19425. When Artzerounian has delivered bad news, some have asked about moving the mailbox a wee way across the street, inside 19425 (no can do).[/SIZE]

[SIZE=2]"It's the hottest spot in Chester County," asserted the postmaster from an office overstuffed with letters as routes are added - a 10th is on the way - to keep apace of rooftops.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]What's so special about 19425? Those five digits are synonymous with Chester Springs. More and more, it is the address, as sought after as a reservation at Le Bec-Fin. It may not be Beverly Hills, 90210, but some are calling Chester Springs, 19425, the newest pearl in the heirloom string of neighborhoods of the Main Line.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]It has certain upper-crust necessities: rolling hills, horses, fox hunts, a horse show, a private school, and a fine restaurant or two. It doesn't have a stop on SEPTA's Paoli Local - which many folks consider a requisite for Main Line membership - but it is contiguous to Malvern, 19355, which is the stop just after Paoli, 19301. Besides, it has the Pennsylvania Turnpike to carry commuters east. Most important, it has, as one real estate executive put it, "snob appeal."[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]All that without the price tag of old Main Line neighborhoods, or the congestion.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Robert P. Moran Jr., 40, a Merrill Lynch first vice president who moved from Berwyn last fall, agrees that Chester Springs does have a certain cachet. "I go to church and see people I know from prep school," he said.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]He and his wife, Jennifer, 34, wanted "elbow room and less traffic," he said. "You certainly could get a lot of house for the price." At Chantilly Farm, where houses range from $750,000 to well more than $1,000,000, the Morans found 5,800 square feet and 11/2 acres with a horse-farm view for half what they might have paid in Paoli or other points east on the Main Line.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]The Moran family is part of an influx - from near and far - feeding upscale development within 19425 and prompting even Vinny's at Chester Springs, a beer-and-pizza place, to jazz up its menu with a summer wine list.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]"The allure of the address is there," said John J. Roughan Jr., township manager of Upper Uwchlan Township, which has approved 1,300 new homes along the Route 100 corridor, many dipping into 19425. "Folks out here would much rather have Chester Springs than Downingtown. It's like low-digit license plates."[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]"You know what it is? It has snob appeal," said Virginia Jarden, director of sales and marketing for Realen Homes, which recently closed out Pickering Meadows off Route 401. "It has the horse farms and fox hunting, and that gives it that Main Line feel."[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Unlike the old Main Line, Chester Springs, a collection of neighborhoods, has no town center. Its heart is West Pikeland Township, with Routes 401, 113 and 100 as major arteries and the Pennsylvania Turnpike nearby - an easy commute to Great Valley Corporate Center or King of Prussia. West Vincent Township accounts for the rest, along with smidgens of other municipalities.

Few use the township name. Folks are "really muckety-muck about that," said John Schemm of Prudential Fox & Roach in Exton. "We definitely want people to know we're from Chester Springs. It's like saying, 'We're from the Main Line.' "[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Chris Matthews, 53, moved "up" four years ago. "It's the land of milk and honey," she said. "It just captured my spirit... the rolling hills, the twisting roads. It's a refuge for me."[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Joan Kistler, 52, grew up in Berwyn and moved from Malvern, itself an extension of the Main Line, to Pickering Meadows to "go a little further out... . It's country, but close enough to metropolitan."[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Its main municipalities have tried to keep their open vistas. Both West Pikeland and West Vincent have added about 300 homes since 2000 - a number limited enough to add to the zip code's standing. Not everyone can get into it.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Those who do are generally well off and well educated. In West Pikeland alone, median household income is $105,322 - well above Chester County's median of $65,295. Nearly 60 percent of its residents hold college or graduate degrees.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]In 1988, the private Montgomery School anticipated westward migration and moved from Wynnewood to Chester Springs, hoping to boost its enrollment. Now nearly at capacity with 320 students on a farmlike campus, it graduated its largest class - 31 eighth graders - this year, Kevin Conklin, head of school, said.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]"It's a more relaxed pace," he said, comparing old to new Main Line. "Some might say it's a healthier pace."[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Historically, Chester Springs was an agricultural community, staying that way "right through the early 20th century," said Heather Reiffer, executive director of the Mill at Anselma Preservation and Educational Trust, which draws volunteers, including newcomers, interested in preserving the 1747 grist mill.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Philadelphia's old-money families - the Biddles, for one - often had summer homes out here. Then, and now, horses mattered. While not quite the Devon Horse Show, the Ludwig's Corner Horse Show benefit is a draw for the social set.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]All of which helps explain why Moser Builders, based in Berwyn, can put up two nearly identical developments and get more money for one of them: Chantilly Farm is inside the Chester Springs zip code; Cumberland Ridge is outside, in Downingtown.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]"We are building the exact same homes in both communities," said Tricia Scott, director of sales and marketing for Moser. "Both are acre lots. Both are Downingtown schools. We get $100,000 more in Chester Springs."[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Why? Scott does not hesitate: "The zip code."[/SIZE]