User talk:Lorilouise

I grew up in Devon, Pennsylvania on North Fairfield Road, five miles from Valley Forge Park. It is at a higher elevation than the Park, up Devon State Road. A block up the street from my family's home (which was on North Fairfield Rd), was a mansion that was owned by a famous French general who helped the Americans during the Revolution. It was stone, had a beautiful parquet floor in the ballroom, a large stone threshold where carriages could pull up to allow guests inside without getting wet. It was an elegant threshold that was decorated like the top of a castle would have been. It had a circular driveway of stone. It was torn down during the 1960's (if my recollection is correct) and about twelve houses were built* where it stood and on the land that remained with the house. (The housing development is Dundee Place off of Highland Avenue...next to the Devereux School...not far from the Devon train station.) I was a young and thought it was so sad that so great a home, of historical value, would get torn down like that. I believe it was General Duportail's home. I believe I saw the name on one of pillars at the gate. I believe this may have been where his farm was when he returned to America to escape the Jacobins during the French Revolution...reign of terror. It is not far from Valley Forge, and was in a prestigious area outside of Philadelphia with beautiful countryside and near other estates. I didn't know then, but know now, that he was the founder of the American Corps of Engineers.

Hi Lori, thanks for the above contribution. I put a link in to the General's page. John 16:01, 27 February 2011 (UTC)