On the market: Large stone house in Phoenixville for $275,000

Patti McCabe Davis isn’t sure when the stone house on the west side of Phoenixville was built. It could have been as early as 1817 or as late as 1847.

But Davis does know it has been in the McCabe family since 1946, when her father’s parents bought it .

After her grandmother died in 1958, her parents — along with Davis, her sister, and her brother — moved in with her grandfather the following year.

“And Dad never left,” she said.

But her father, Thomas McCabe, a stern but loving and generous Marine veteran, died earlier this year, eight years after her mother.

And with his three children having moved out years ago, the five-bedroom, 2½-bath house is up for sale.

“We all own houses,” said Davis, who retired recently as vice president of a marketing research company. “We have families. We’re settled.”

The house has 20-inch-thick stone walls; original random-width plank floors; winding staircases; large, deep windows; and hand-hewn beams in the basement.

There is a large two-bay garage with a loft, a grease pit and extensive storage areas; a basement with a workbench/shop area; and several outbuildings.

The house is adjacent to a now-unused railroad spur, and Davis fondly recalls climbing over the tracks on a trestle to run errands. The steel industry was booming, and the neighborhood was filled with children, noisy but “very comforting, ” she says.

The place needs work, and while it is suitable for a large family — the McCabes always had foster children living there — it is zoned for possible commercial use and is less than a mile from downtown.

And with Phoenixville making a comeback economically, Davis says, it would be perfect for someone wanting to run a business there and live on the premises.

“I hope someone doesn’t just tear it down for the property,” she says, wistfully.

The property is listed with Caleb Fox of Resource Inc. for $275,000.