Commission meets every first Wednesday 7:30 PM.

Attention: Any historic artifacts pertaining to New Garden Township that you may want to donate to the Township please contact Ted Christie (christiz@bellatlantic.net).

Stop by the Township Building to view the 2013 Showcase “Echoes of New Garden’s Past”.

New Garden’s Board of Supervisors adopted the “Historic Preservation Ordinance”. The ordinance objectives are to:

• Protect historic resources in New Garden Township.
• Identify all buildings and structures which are important to the culture, history and tradition of the citizens of New Garden Township.
• Confirm the establishment of an Historical Commission in and for New Garden Township.
• Establish a process by which proposed changes or demolition affecting historic resources are reviewed by both the New Garden Township Historical Commission and the New Garden Township Board of Supervisors; and
• Encourage the continued use and preservation of historic resources consistent with preserving the historic character of those resources and to facilitate their appropriate reuse.
• Currently 107 houses are recorded as “historical resources”. Click here to view the Historic Resource Map.

Visit the Historical Commission Website to read about its cemetaries, Landenberg, the Pomeroy and Newark Railroad, its stream names, historic bus tour of 2006, and view photos from 2010 Landenberg Bridge Day.
Research the historic Lamborn House.
Research the historic Freed/Brown House.
Research the historic Moses Rowan House.
Research the historic Isaac and Margaret Sharp House.
Research the historic Joseph Wilson House.
Read online Ann Hagerty‘s book “Once Upon A Time in New Garden Township”.
Read the biographies of four New Garden residents of the 19th century .

     Before William Penn, Jr. obtained his patent for land given him by his father in 1706, he arranged its sale. This land included the area known as New Garden Township, an area of steep slopes and rolling hills cut by fast-moving creeks and meandering streams. Homes were built, land was cleared and cultivated and Meeting Houses and schools were constructed. Soon villages sprouted - New Garden which grew around the Meeting House; Toughkenamon on the "road from Brandywine to Nottingham" and where the old inn, best known as The Hammer & Trowel was located; Landenberg which was the home of many mills located along the White Clay Creek (most notably cotton mills and woolen mills); and Kaolin which was the center of extensive clay quarries from which a fine china clay was excavated. As years passed and water power gave way to other sources of energy, the mills closed and many employees moved on to more prosperous industrial areas. The clay quarries filled with water, and the Township returned primarily to farming, and so it remained for many years. The countryside is changing, but all around us we can still see the lovely homes, schoolhouses, Meeting Houses and Churches that date from the 1700s and 1800s.