Jim,
The land area you're asking about measures out to 108.5 acres...much larger than the 100 acres David was hoping for.
The entire rectangle above the Haverford College boundary is 10.5 acres, with 4.8 acres used as 'the triangle" you mentioned.
You say "how very close it actually ended up being..", but it's really not as I'll show shortly.
Back on that Land Plan it was about 100 yards x 327 yards wide. Today it is 130 yards by 190 yards. That is not close.
To your other question...
I believe the swap clearly happened after that 1910 Land Plan was drawn and the fact that the boundary on that western side
up to and including the triangle land changed so much between the time the Land Plan was drawn and what got eventually built virtually proves it had to have happened later.
All,
Please allow me to illustrate further.
After asking the question last night about the parallel, "doppelganger" road drawn through the Real Estate Portion of land on that 1912 map, and asking if that also was based on some supposed existing golf course routing, I went back and read what Francis wrote again and was struck by a number of things.
First, he says that "the Land now covered in fine homes along Golf House Road was exchanged for land about 130 yards wide by 190 yards long...".
I got to wondering what he is talking about because the entire stretch along Golf House Road from Ardmore to College Avenue is covered with "fine homes". So, that got me thinking....what did that property look like in 1950 when Francis spoke?
Unfortunately, no luck...the length of the road was pretty developed then, as well.
But something else kept bugging me. If they already had a surveyor with Pugh and Hubbard who drew thiese Land Plans, then why would they need Richard Francis on the Comimittee?
Or put better, if Francis was already out there surveying before the November 1910 Land Plan, why didn't they just use HIS maps?More importantly, the "doppelganger road" kept troubling me, as well, so I wanted to go back and see if THAT road got built to the initial spec as drawn on the 1910 Land Plan.
Alas, it was off, as well.
Here is the 1910 Land Plan showing both proposed "approximate" roads followed by a 1948 Railroad Map of the same terrirory showing the roads as they were actually built.
Now, here's the "as built" in 1948.
Finally, let me try to draw something that creates the original intended "doppelganger" effect...
I really think we're looking at the Francis Land Swap right here.