Location: Tredyffrin   •   Acreage: 67 acres

natural characteristics

• 67 acres of meadows, woods, rock formations, large sycamore, ruins, Cedar Hollow Run, and extensive trail system

• Flood plain and wetlands along Valley Creek

directions

From Swedesford Road, take Church Road to parking lot on right

(Click on red marker to open Google Maps for directions from your location)

PRESERVE HISTORY

The Cedar Hollow Preserve has a rich cultural history, starting over 300 years ago. When William Penn arrived in Pennsylvania he sold a large area of land - called the “Welsh Tract” - to a group of Welsh Friends. Expanded to over 100,000 acres, this land included Tredyffrin Township and what is now the Cedar Hollow Preserve.

The land was then sold in parcels primarily through the 1680s-1700s. The 200 acre parcel that includes the Preserve was originally granted to David Powell (deputy surveyor for Chester County and land dealer) in 1705, who then sold it to Thomas David on April 2, 1708. It changed hands many times after that but was generally described as a “plantation having several streams and live springs of water in it, the corn-land fresh, the wood-land well timber’d...”

Farming has been the primary land use over time but was interspersed with small industrial endeavors including a fulling mill (woolen cloth making) built in 1737, which was converted to a grist mill (grinding corn and wheat) in about 1770. Just west of the Preserve is the quarry started by the Cedar Hollow Lime Company in 1856, the oldest, largest, and longest-lasting of all the quarries in the Great Valley (1856-1994). The ruins from several work-men’s homes can still be seen on the south side of Saint Peters Road. The Trammell Crow Co. acquired the quarry (then known as the Warner Quarry) and surrounding lands with funding from Chester County and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania under the “Growing Greener” program. Shortly thereafter, in 1999, OLC acquired a conservation easement from Trammell Crow Co. on approximately 60 acres of land and ownership of the property was transferred to OLC in 2002. The 4.6 acres of hillside between the Trammell Crow parcel and Bulls Corner Road was acquired from Shared Medical Systems in 2001, with funding provided by Chester County. Most recently, an agreement between OLC and Trammell Crow Co. resulted in a land exchange that added 5 acres to the north end of the preserve in 2009, extending the northern boundary of the preserve to St Johns Road.

Today, the Cedar Hollow Preserve protects meadows, forests, wetlands, streams and springs that provide habitat for native wildlife and opportunities for the public to enjoy the outdoors. The Preserve offers the community many forms of passive recreation, such as hiking, bird watching, photography, and trout fishing. As you walk the trails you may see youth groups and other community volunteers planting trees, removing invasive plant species, or picking up trash. As with many of our OLC preserves, Cedar Hollow also provides critical protection for Valley Creek - serving as a buffer that reduces water pollution, keeps the stream cold, and mitigates flooding.