The Reverend John T. Faris was a curious man. Born in 1871 in Missouri, raised in Illinois, married in West Virginia, educated at Chicago and Princeton, he arrived in Philadelphia around 1907 at age 36 and spent 30 years here as editor for the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education.
In his lifetime, he authored more than 50 books, but the one he is best known for locally is his 1917 “Old Roads Out of Philadelphia.” In the forward, he noted, “Someone has compared the old roads out of Philadelphia to the sticks of a lady’s fan.” His chapters then follow his travels on ten of the oldest roads in the state: the Kings Highway (Chester Pike, Baltimore Turnpike, West Chester Turnpike, Lancaster Turnpike, Gulph Road, Ridge Road, Germantown Road, Bethlehem Pike, Old York Road, and the road to Bristol and Trenton. In over 300 pages, with 117 photos, he documents and highlights the most interesting buildings that were still standing along those roads.
He reports that when Judge Darlington traveled 24 miles in a day, he said to his companion, Olof, “What a long road from Philadelphia to West Chester!” Olof replied, “It is a good thing for us that it is so.” “Why?” said the judge. “Because if it was not so long, it would not reach.”
In Newtown, he reports on the Octagonal School and the house on Goshen road that was “one of Washington’s outposts during the British occupation of Philadelphia in 1777-1778” and the soldiers quartered there who were “charged with the duty of cutting of supplies of all kinds designed for the use of the army of occupation in the city.”
He also notes that “Newtown Square, the cross-roads settlement a short distance beyond the Octagon School, for many years had a struggle with its rival, the old Square, at the intersection of the Newtown and Goshen roads, three-fourths of a mile to 
the north. When Thomas Holme made his map of 1681, he said that William Penn had planned a town at the crossroads, which should be “the first inland town west of Philadelphia.”
The roads he traveled through were in transition – the automobiles and trolleys replacing stage coaches, and macadam roads replacing rutted dirt roads. He spoke to the locals, gathered stories and anecdotes, and with his camera, he captured many old buildings that no longer exist today. We are all familiar with these roads today, but if you want to travel them 100 years back in time, you can do so with a delightful companion, Rev. John T. Faris. You can find this book in a number of local libraries as well as online.
For more history on Newtown Square, Delaware County, and membership information, please visit our website at: https://nshistory.org/