Generations later, family fights to keep 18th-century Chester County farm

Since 1703, at least one member of the Mendenhall family has lived on the same patch of land in Chester County, near Chadds Ford.

But now Frank Mendenhall, the eighth-generation owner who tools around on a faded old tractor, is in danger of losing what remains of the 200 acres an ancestor bought from William Penn's agents. Mendenhall owes lenders $1.76 million.

The debt came from the construction in 2007 of a stable with room for 24 horses and an expansive indoor riding arena. It's called "the airplane hangar" by neighbors because it jolts the eyes and blocks views along a country road lined with elegant farming estates set back at the end of long lanes.

Mendenhall's hold on Springdale Farm, the oldest continuously operating farm in Pennsylvania, has weakened. He and his wife, Patricia, filed for bankruptcy protection in Philadelphia on Nov. 30 to escape the immediate grasp of Stonebridge Bank, the lender with the first claim on the property.

The reprieve on the 88-acre farm - where the white, hulking riding shed sits up a gentle hill from older farm buildings that are now dilapidated - appears to be only temporary.

The Mendenhalls have no bankruptcy attorney, and the U.S. trustee overseeing their Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed a motion last month to have the petition either dismissed or converted into a Chapter 7 liquidation, citing a lack of progress toward reorganization.

Frank Mendenhall, who is about 70, agreed to an interview in early January, but he canceled the appointment and has since maintained that he is "too busy."

Carol Ann Mueller, senior vice president and counsel at Stonebridge Bank, based in West Chester and one of the region's most troubled banks, declined to comment on the Mendenhall loans, which are among the millions that still clog the banking system.

Stonebridge and the Mendenhalls are small players in the financial world. But if the nation's financial wreck of 2007 and 2008 can be compared to a derailed train, the engines in front - such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. - have already been set back on the track and are gaining speed, while cars at the rear, carrying the Mendenhalls and their biggest lender, Stonebridge Bank, are still derailed down an embankment.

Given that neither the Mendenhalls nor the bank will discuss the case, it is difficult to patch together how the family, which has two daughters, ended up in such an agonizing financial position.