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 home on North Fairfield, near the railroad tracks, 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 there. (The houses at Dundee Place off of Highland Avenue...not far from the Devon train station.) I thought 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 home was when he returned to America in exile to escape the Jacobins during the French Revolution. It is not far from Valley Forge, and was in a prestigious area outside of Philadelphia with beautiful countryside, and with other great estates. This would be in Montgomery County.