The Goshenville Ghost Walk Sold Out. The Blacksmith Shop It Haunts Has Open Days Left This October.

"Opened in 1740...it is still in operation, despite the ghosts." That line is from East Goshen Parks and Recreation's registration page for the Historic Goshenville Ghost Walk, which runs Saturday, October 10, 2026, at the Goshenville Blacksmith Shop on North Chester Road. The same page also says this: "The Ghost Walk is sold out as of Sept 14th." The township is keeping a waitlist through Jason Lang at [email protected].

Missing that ticket doesn't mean missing the building. East Goshen's page for the shop says it is open for free forging demonstrations and tours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Sundays, April through October. The evening event sold out in October, which is also the last month of that regular schedule. The hearth room has no heat, so from November through March the forge opens on the same days only when the weather is mild. The sold-out event and the free open days share the same stone walls, and the open days are the ones running out.

The building on the township's own logo

East Goshen uses an image of the Blacksmith Shop as its official township logo. Most residents see that logo far more often than the building itself, so the building's history is worth knowing.

According to the township, Arron Ashbridge built the shop in 1740 to rent out as a wheelwright shop, and the hearth room went up first. Around 1750 his son Joshua finished an apprenticeship at the Willistown Forge and opened his own blacksmithing business there. A one-and-a-half-story addition on the south side housed the wheelwright work. Around 1800 that addition was rebuilt with a full second floor, used for painting wagons and carriages. At some point in the 1800s the fieldstone was covered in stucco, and patches of the original stucco remain. The township also points out that iron ore is mixed in with the fieldstones in the walls.

The township lists the people who worked the forge over two centuries:

1. Joshua Ashbridge, 1750
2. James Garrett, 1806
3. William Hagenbottom, 1844
4. Lewis Farra, 1860
5. Edward Dougherty, 1886
6. William Sharpless, 1890
7. Moses and James Brown, 1905
8. Wiebe Velde, 1915

Wheelwrights J. Davis Ashbridge, 1840, and William Delinger, 1880, also appear on the list.

Velde is the name worth remembering. He was born in Holland, and his family moved to America in 1893. He apprenticed at John Armstrong's blacksmith shop in Willistown and bought Moses Brown's business around 1915. He worked at Goshenville until about 1948, when car traffic made it impractical to bring horses to the shop. After that he towed a portable forge from farm to farm on a two-wheel cart behind his Studebaker. The end of the shop came from the traffic on Route 352, the same road that runs past it today.

How a closed shop became a working forge again

After Velde left, the building fell into disrepair. Restoration started in 1980, when Bernard Hankin deeded the land north and west of the two branches of Ridley Creek to the township. Crews replaced the windows, doors and wood shingle roof and rebuilt the stone hearth. Planks from a nearby barn now cover the concrete floor in the hearth room.

In 1982 East Goshen marked the tricentennial of its first residents, Welsh Quakers, by reopening the restored blacksmith and wheelwright shops. The working forge came from Benson Rohrbeck, a local historian and Revolutionary War reenactor. He guided the rebuilding of the original forge and chimney, found an anvil, blower and pole vise, and gave demonstrations there for years. On June 4, 2016, the East Goshen Historical Commission dedicated the shop to his memory.

"The tools, knowledge, and happy memories we share in this shop exist because of Ben."

That dedication explains why a Thursday or Sunday visit shows a working hearth room. The building shows the past, and the forge inside still works.

Why this crossroads keeps coming back in 2026

The shop is part of a larger village. East Goshen's history places Goshenville at the crossroads of Paoli Pike and North Chester Road, where the first Friends Meeting was built in 1702. The village grew to include a Grange, gristmill, sawmill, wheelwright shop, general store, post office and schoolhouse, along with the forge. Goshenville was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

That history is the reason this corner is at the center of the township's America250 year. East and West Goshen are running a full calendar of events together because, as the township puts it, in 1776 the two were one place known simply as Goshen Township.

The Revolutionary War part of the story comes from the township's own account. On September 16, 1777, Cornwallis's British forces marched up North Chester Road and reached the Goshen Monthly Meeting at Paoli Pike and North Chester Road at about 9 a.m. Skirmishes followed that afternoon, which became known as the Battle of the Clouds. Then a downpour soaked the gunpowder and stopped the fighting, and Washington withdrew. The township's two pages tell this part in different ways. The America250 page says British soldiers camped in the Blacksmith Shop. The history page puts the main encampment at George Hoopes' farm, just north of the Goshenville School.

This year the battle got some formal attention. At the May 30 America250 celebration in East Goshen Park, the Daily Local reported, state Rep. Chris Pielli, county commissioners and leaders from both townships joined reenactors in the first ceremony recognizing the veterans of the Battle of the Clouds. Pielli presented flags that had flown over the state Capitol to East and West Goshen.

The Ghost Walk adds its own stories. The listing names its themes as "The Hessian Soldiers buried at the Blacksmith Shop," "Witchery in East Goshen" and "Sandy Flash the Haunting Highwayman." Those are the event's storytelling, not settled history. The walk runs about 30 minutes, with timed check-ins. Afterward, guests go inside the shop with the Chester County Paranormal Society. Rustin High School Theatre Department is a partner on the event, and it is one of the America250 programs held with West Goshen Township.

October 10, from the pumpkin patch to the forge

The Ghost Walk falls on the same Saturday as the annual Friends of East Goshen Pumpkin Festival, which starts at 10 a.m. The Friends list hay rides, a kids' drawing contest, a family pumpkin carving contest, frozen turkey bowling, a petting zoo, pony rides, free pumpkins for kids, a raffle for a giant pumpkin, farmers' market vendors and a pumpkin pie eating contest. The festival draws more than 2,500 people.

The shop is also on the township's trail system. The township describes a trail network through the Township Park on both sides of Paoli Pike that connects to the Plank House and Blacksmith Shop along East Boot Road. Different parts of the network have different rules. Trails south of Paoli Pike, including Applebrook Park and the Paoli Pike Trail, are open to walkers, bikes, e-bikes, scooters, skateboards and rollerblades. Trails inside East Goshen Township Park are for walking only.

Without a Ghost Walk ticket, Saturday the 10th works as a festival morning. Saturday isn't on the shop's posted schedule, but Sunday the 11th is, so the forge can come the next morning.

The forge days left on the calendar

The township posts a standing schedule, Thursdays and Sundays from April through October, not a list of 2026 dates. Mapped onto this month's calendar, it lands on the days below. The shop page is undated, so check with East Goshen Parks and Recreation before you go.

That makes eight Thursdays and Sundays left before the cold-weather schedule takes over, compared with one sold-out evening slot.

Where the Goshen story goes after October

The America250 calendar continues in November with a talk. Historian and author Thomas Maguire, whom West Goshen describes as nationally recognized as the leading scholar of Philadelphia-area Revolutionary War battles, will speak on Thursday, November 12, at 7 p.m. at the West Goshen Township Building, 1025 Paoli Pike. His topic is how events in this area helped shape the country, and registration is through the township's form. If the Ghost Walk tells the evening version of the Goshen story, this talk covers the documented history.

Before then, on Saturday, November 7, from 9 a.m. to noon, the township holds an e-waste event at the park at 1661 Paoli Pike. PECO customers who bring their account number can skip the $10 charge on working room air conditioners, dehumidifiers and mini-fridges. The Friends of East Goshen close out the year with the Tree Lighting on Tuesday, December 1, at 6:30 p.m. It includes Santa, caroling, a dance performance and the winners of the house decorating contest and the canned food drive for the West Chester Food Cupboard.

From November on, the shop's hours depend on the weather. Until then, the township's posted schedule has the forge open Thursdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the demonstrations are free.

At Anne Townes, we think this kind of local detail matters as much as any listing sheet, and we're always glad to talk about the places that give East Goshen its character. If you have a question about the township, or just want to compare notes on your favorite corner of Goshenville, Contact Us.