John Chads, heir to his father's 500-acre plantation along the Brandywine, commissioned a house of Brandywine bluestone on the banks of the creek, its moderate style and simplicity reflecting his Quaker heritage. In 1729, about four years after the house was completed, he married Elizabeth Richardson, and by 1736 he was operating a ferry across the Brandywine in an area often called Chads' Ford. After his death in 1760, his widow remained in the house and witnessed the Battle of the Brandywine on Sept. 11, 1777. The house and springhouse, built sometime in the early 1700s, stayed in private ownership until 1968, when the dilapidated buildings were purchased and restored. John Chads may have lived in the springhouse loft while his house was under construction; its lower level provided spring water and food storage, and the rooms above were later likely occupied by tenant farmers. During the early 1800s, the springhouse served as a schoolhouse called Birmingham School No.1. After extensive restoration under architect John Milner, both buildings opened as house museums in 1971. In 1991, a new visitors center was built on the foundation of an old dairy barn below the John Chads House, designed to resemble a Pennsylvania bank barn and used for exhibits, collections, events, and educational programs.