A Collection of “DAY” books
by Michael Pilligalli
It occurred to me this past week or so, that I have been remiss in supplying the Chester County Day Newspaper with a good book review or two. So my thought led me to three books on the subject of “The Day” that all are digests of the longest running house tour in the USA! The trio of books probably have spaces in or on the shelves of many of our long time tour goers, but to many of the crowd who have joined our tour lines in the past fifteen or twenty years, the knowledge that this collection of tomes may be unknown. All three of these onetime very, very collectable books were written by Mrs. Bernice M. Ball, or Bernie as we lovingly called her, and sold at auction at the time for a lot of money as they were from limited editions with a first printing only.
Let’s start with her first book to highlight both Chester County Day and her love of Chester County. In 1970, Mrs. Ball sat down for many hours and weeks and months to compile a two hundred twenty five page tribute to her beloved tour and surroundings. After all, she was the founding co-chair of the house tour which first took place in 1936, and after years of sitting at the helm, she felt it was necessary to put all her knowledge and information on the tour and the county on paper and make it into a book that would be a best seller in 1970. She simply entitled her first work on the subjects, Chester County & Its Day and it was a limited number of books of 3000 copies, each one hand signed by the author. The book was considered her “talking book” as anyone who heard her lectures of wending their way through the route beforehand now read the material presented in the same way as sitting in an audience with your “Day” map at hand. The inside sketches, pictures, drawings and art are all from local artists that Mrs. Ball got to donate all their time and artwork to the book as a money maker for the Chester County Hospital. Some of those listed are still collectable names today to include Andrew and N.C. Wyeth, Barclay Rubincam, Henry MacNeill, Harry Cann, Philip Jamison and Paul Westcott. The end papers were done by Eloise Waggoner and depicted South High Street just off Market Street as it was and still was seen in 1970, except for the modern addition of power lines. The book, which celebrated the first 30 years of Chester County Day Tours, grossed $21,000 which made it a very handsome gift to the Chester County Hospital.
She opens her story with a review of “The Day” as it became known from its conception in 1936 to publishing time of 1970. She then takes us into the next sections where she spreads knowledge of how we became known as the Athens of Pennsylvania, thanks going to designer / architect Thomas U. Walter who also is known for the final version of the Washington D.C. Capitol Dome. She not only chaired the tour, wrote this book, lectured to ticket holders before the day to help plan their route, but she also edited, wrote for, and masterminded the Chester County Day Newspaper which started in 1947. She gives us all the inside information on how that got started. The paper continued after her retirement for a total of 70+ years before it was curtailed due to COVID. She gives us highlights of our world renown Longwood Gardens, visits the Hibernia mansion and grounds, and gives us an inside look at Waynesboro, the country home of Anthony Wayne. At the end she lists all the homes and owners, public spots and historical landmarks that made up each tour from the beginning of 1936 through 1969. She also has one section dealing with the covered bridges of Chester County and another of her love of the barns of Chester County.
It was the chapter on Chester County Barns in her first book that led her in four years’ time to come out with her second tribute to the tour with Barns of Chester County Pennsylvania. Her first book was such a great seller with all 3000 signed copies sold out, the number of printed and signed copies of this book was raised to 5000 copies. She opens this book with this thought: “The past that shaped our present predicates the future. It is not so much what is saved from it that matters but how and with what dignity it survives to serve the present. How fortunate we are that so much of the past is still a part of our lives.” She adds the thought of what this quote was from our Bicentennial Slogan of 1976: So your children can tell their children of the heritage here. And, that still applies 50 years after the publishing of this book and as we prepare for our America 250 celebration in 2026. Barns added $30,000 to the donations from the 1974 tour to the hospital and an additional $10,000 to the Restoration Fund of the Chester County Historical Society. Again a public outcry for a second printing, but a first printing only as with her first book!
There are 241 pages jam packed with info on our county’s barns and their beginnings starting with early log, brick and stone barns to include the local serpentine stone. There are pages and pages of photos of every style of county barn here and history and background for all those listed. Again, the artwork depicting barns and outbuildings of Chester County farms was donated to the publication of the book. She includes the fencing, the silos with the barns, the ice houses and the spring and carriage houses that are attached to the barn or closely associated with its presence. At that point in time, some of these early barns were being turned into dwellings and that is covered in a separate section of her book. Many of these we have had the pleasure of visiting on a Day Tour. She leaves no stone unturned in her research and writings of the barns and outbuildings of our Chester County Barns and a rather complete pictorial history of every standing and non-standing barn in our area. It is easy to see how it became her second hit in the world of books as this was also an instant sell out best seller.
She finished Barns of Chester County Pennsylvania and started right in on her third book which she waited to publish six years later in 1980, as the title was: Forty Years of Days. It was written to commemorate the tour celebrating forty years of popular and profitable tours through Chester County Day homes and properties. In this edition, of 4000 copies, again all signed by Mrs. Ball, every open home and property is listed at the end from the 1936 tour to the tour of 1980. She has a chapter on homes in the area and open for The Day made of stone, brick, and /or wood and the building traditions that dictated the construction of the early dwellings in our rural area of Penns Woods. She gives some history to restarting the tour after the war in 1936/7 and the history of our area rich in its Revolutionary War years and the major part we played in that segment of history and the people involved in that history. Our involvement with the Bicentennial celebration of 1976 is written about and how successful the tours were during those years for the hospital. The troubling times of planning a Day Tour with a gas shortage in the mid to late 70’s is heavily discussed as it allowed one to get gas on a day where days of Monday, Wednesday, Friday were even and Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday were “odd” days you could get gas if that day number matched your license plate last number- odd or even. Those years of “gas shortages/ rationing were some of the most successful to date for the committee. It took ingenuity to modify the span of the tour and to make as many multiple house visits with as little traveling from area to area as possible. This was the start of dividing the tour into quadrants, a practice that we still continue.
A lot has taken place with the tour over the past forty five years since the trilogy was finished. I am sure that there could be another book of stories and practices that have taken place over this span of time and the various people and committees that have kept us going strong over the decades. I have used all three of these books over my years working with the committee and the newspaper and find them a valuable resource even today with the early history of the county, The Day, and the construction of early dwellings.