The House

William Penn was openhanded in deeding land to Quakers newly arrived in the New World; in 1687 a family of early Pennsylvanians named Shallcross got an enormous tract simply by promising him a minute portion of their annual crop. But there was reason for Penn's generosity to the Shallcrosses. The land was no bargain--it was ten miles northeast of Penn's "greene Country Towne" and in the middle of an Indian-infested wilderness. Neither remoteness nor danger, however, dismayed the Shallcrosses. They built a big stone house--with iron shutters to stop flaming arrows and musket ports for return fire--and resolved to stay put.

They were solid citizens. Many were farmers; they lived and died in the big house for 100 years. Then about 1800 Priscilla Shallcross married Samuel Roberts at Abington Meeting House, and the house and its surrounding acres were passed on to their descendants. The Roberts tribe enlarged the place until it boasted 19 rooms and a 110-ft. porch, and they, in turn, tilled the farm for 120 years.

In 1920, however, cheerful, big-boned William I. Roberts-- last of the family to inherit the place -- decided to quit the soil. He became a butter & egg salesman, then a partner in a general store, and finally got into the automobile parts business. But he kept on living on the farm. His son, William I. Roberts Jr., grew up, married and brought his bride to the house. His grandson. William I. Roberts III, grew up, married and brought his bride there too. When William I. Roberts IV was born two years ago, four generations were sheltered beneath its old rafters.

With its ancient hand-carved beams, wide pegged floors,and hand-forged hinges, the house stayed solid and eminently habitable. But the city of Philadelphia, once so distant, finally grew out to the Shall-cross-Roberts house; the three acres remaining of the farm were almost surrounded by new row houses. The Robertses stubbornly refused to sell. Last year the itch for modernity got the better of grandson William I. Roberts III -- he bought a new house in Levittown, Pa. and moved out with his son William I. Roberts IV. The old place seemed empty. Last week Owner Roberts, now 74, finally sold out for a "price that would knock your hat in the creek."

Next month the wreckers will start tearing down the 250-year-old landmark and bulldozers will begin digging basements for the 77 new dwellings that will rise up on the farm. By next spring there will be nothing left of the Shallcross-Roberts farm but the ornate original deed bearing the bold signature William Penn.

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