Page 10 - The Hunt - Fall 2022

EDITOR’S NOTE
Last Woman SItanding
n parts of this region, September is well known for the Revolutionary War’s pivotal Battle of Brandywine. Some
245 years later, there’s still plenty going on with the battlefield
acreage in Chester County, including a prolonged modern-day fight (or at least a waiting game) that was recently settled.
To understand the Brandywine Conservancy’s uphill battle to
secure all of Birmingham Hill from the estate of Roberta “Bobby” Odell, you don’t need to look much further than her unique 13-acre property.
“It was perhaps the quirkiest aspect of a 25-year, $17.3 million quest to acquire and preserve 485 contiguous acres around the Meetinghouse Road corridor in Birmingham Township, where the fiercest fighting took place in September 1777,” says J.F. Pirro, who wrote this month’s cover story on Odell’s steadfast legacy. “A bit of a stubborn general, Bobby lived alone on what she called Skirmish Hill Farm. She was a determined and rightful squatter, surrounded by oddities.”
Among them was a Civil War prison wagon. For maximum effect, Odell would often dress in black-and-white garb. “When she saw an ad for a zebra for sale, she thought it’d be hysterically fitting to have it pull her one-pony vehicle, so she had it shipped,” Pirro relates.
Zippy the zebra, however, didn’t mix well with domestic animals, including Odell’s horses. “That curtailed prison wagon appearances,”
Pirro says. “But she remained adamant in her refusal to part with her beloved property.”
The conservancy finally purchased the Birmingham Hill “donut hole” in September 2018, a little more than a year after Odell passed away at age 93. Right now, plans are moving forward for Birmingham Hill Preserve, with the goal of keeping it open to the public while preserving the property’s historic integrity, conserving natural resources, and developing interpretative and educational programs.
To the patient, it seems, go the spoils.
Hobart Rowland Editor-in-Chief
PRESERVIN
PRESERVING A COUNTRY
A COUNTR
WAY OF LIFE
WAY OF LIF
Since 1976
Siince 1976 WNileliwstloinwnToTwonwNsnheswihplipn Township
ChaPrmericnhgesdtohnigehhaotuospePawer/coshplleicndtgahchiguihllaraotnvoip3ew.a2s0roanlclis1n,4g+h/i-ll on 3. a4cBreRs., O3.u2tBbuhiolduisnegfs4i,lBlseqRdu,wa3s/.hl2igBchohtuor&tu,se2exfbqialulyeisdgitawera/llgoiegnhg&t & exqui art svtiuedwios .wBitahnk1sbtafrlono,vrpieospwlersabwaliritnhg&1mstbafaslrtoneoryrassurpdirtawew/isnltionngemaster s
the Unionwvailllse. LCohtchadetidoUsnFn,oiLorodncvSaictlliheoonCo!hl dadisdtrsicFto.rd School d $$29,52905,0,000 $920,000
View all our fine properties at
TheCountryProperties.com
Viiew allll our ffiine propertiies at
www..TheCountryPropertiies
Mark Willcox ~ Cindy Orr
WestWMilalirsltboowWronueTsgtohMwTnaosrwhlbniopsrhoiupghTown
Amy McKenna ~ Rob Van Alen
“Whi“tLehitatlcekVlea”ll–eyS“FWuaprehmribt”evwhiaietcwhksls,ec”cl–ausdSseiucdp1leo9rcb2a5vtifoeienwld&s,stcolansesic 192 Mark Wiilllcox ~ Ciindy Orr
Jackie Roberts ~ Michele Ashton
muanncorm. pLraormgeisisntognpmeriabvnaorcnry.., 2LRaerpsgteos.rs,etpdoon&oel,sbi2agrnpniof,in2cdaanspt&tlys., pool, 2 eoxuptabnudieldiCnCghsaeosmtAnAeirl6mlCm7eo+oyuyGutabnMrcMutaryieclcsd5iKeKiBinRe~getnshnsCtoneonhnha6e~s7a~fear+trRDmRaocfhoaorcovebobusinsiVeVnseoatranhvne2dA1hA+elalertnof
acreCs whe/ssthoinre &HufrnatmceoCubnahnterksyh.biarernH. unt country. JackiieRobertts~JodyVandegriifftt
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apartment, pool, tennis court on 34+/-
tein aptv.i&ew2swcairthga1rsatgfel.of4oan5r+tsap/s-rtaiwcrlvienisegwmist.ahsternsnuiistceoiunrt acres in Cheshire Hunt country.
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art svtiuedwios .wBitahnk1sbtafrlono, rposplerabwalring&mbaasrtneryasurditwe /isntone house and more on 182 acres.
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“Whi“tLehitatlcekVlea”ll–eySFuapremrb” vwiietwhss,eclausdseicd1lo9c2a5tifoienld&ston meadows wrapped by mature woodlands w/
muanncorm. pLraormgeisisntognperibvarcny., 2Raepstos.r,epdo&ol,si2gnpiofincdans t&ly gentle topography & ultimate privacy. Under
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acreCs whe/ssthoinre &Hufrnatmceoubnantrky.barn.
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8 THE HUNT MAGAZINE
fall 2022
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ED WILLIAMS
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