The Newtown Grill is a fine example of preservation of the old within the new. When the restaurant was expanded in 1972, the addition was built around the original stone house which can be seen just inside the front entrance of the new building. Most of the original paneling remains as well as both fireplaces. The early stone house was built by October 1, 1798, as stated in the 1798 Glass Tax records of Newtown. The indenture is displayed in inside the Newtown Grill. The house was owned by Robert Mendenhall. The measurements of the dwelling (then) were listed as 222ft by 25 ft, and the location was as “near the land of Edward Hunter, Esq.”

Robert t Mendenhall was a blacksmith as well as an innkeeper (having owned the Newtown Square Hotel property from 1783 to1796). In 1805, the stone farmhouse was encompassed by 72 acres of land which contained a log barn and a log shop. Robert Mendenhall died in 1810 leaving his property to his wife, Mary, and his four children.

By 1835, the farm was sold to Samuel Hoopes of Willistown Township, Chester County. Samuel Hoopes died in 1865 ad his sons sold the house and 49 acres to John H. Rhoads, who farmed the land for the next 24 years. His son continued working the farm and raising sheep from 1889 to 1911. Besides the stone house, there was, and still is, a stone barn with a date stone of 1895. Also on the property were an ice house, a smoke house and a spring house. Charles, Road’s niece, Lena (Hall) Summeril, lived there until 1908 when she married David Summeril.

In 1924, the farmhouse was owned by Ludwig T. Brehm, the Danish Consul (appointed by his government -Denmark- to serve his country’s citizens and business interests).The property at that time became a gentlemen’s farm with a stable of Hunting Horses. Mr. Brehm’s daughter, Ruth and her husband, Dr. William Mc Fadden, were married in this house in 1931. In 1981, they celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary with a family dinner in the then Newtown Squire.

Mr. C. Kenneth Hobson purchased the property in 1950 and made his home there until 1961 when he sold the house and the grounds to Carl L. Friedel, the owner of the Newtown Squire. In 1994 the Friedel family sold the Newtown Squire, a landmark restaurant for almost 35 years to Alberto Guadagnini, who remodeled and changed it into a classic Italian restaurant: Alberto’s Newtown Squire.

In 2007, Alberto’s partners purchased the property and restaurant from their senior partner and renamed it “The Newtown Grill”. Marco Tarantino and Alfredo Giannaccari are the current owners and operators of this historic building in Newtown Square.

By Sam Coco , Source: Clara McVeigh Historic Newtown Township