Chadds Peak Ski Area
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania1963-1988
Shop Chadds Peak Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. Two schoolteachers ran it from a Dutch barn that served as lodge, rental shop and snack bar, and skiers crossed a creek at the bottom to reach the lifts. Locals called the hill Chadds Bump or Chadds Pimple. Browse the styles below, and the full Chadds Peak history is further down. We are an American small business bringing back the signs and logos of places and teams that are long gone but remembered fondly.
5 products
Chadds Peak Ski Area History
Chadds Peak Ski Area in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, sat on a wooded hillside just off Route 1, between Old Baltimore Pike, McFadden Road and the Chadds Ford Knoll neighborhood, about 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia. Richard and Marie Paciaroni, both schoolteachers, started it in 1963 to add to their income (a 2019 historical society exhibit gave 1964). The property was about 32 acres with a farmhouse and a big Dutch barn, which became the lodge, rental shop and snack bar. In summer the same grounds ran as Willow Brook Day Camp, with a swimming pool.
The hill was short. Skiers walked down from the barn and crossed a creek at the bottom to reach the lifts: rope tows at first, then a Poma lift on the main slope, with two or three runs and a separate beginner slope. Estimates of the vertical run from about 120 to 250 feet. Snowmaking and lights for night skiing made up for the climate, and a hanging A-frame sign marked the Chadds Peak Ski School which taught school groups, scouts, churches and colleges. In the 1970s about two dozen nearby high schools raced a slalom league there on weekday afternoons. Locals called the hill Chadds Bump or Chadds Pimple. A shirt from about 1982 carried the area's triangle logo and the line I Ski the Peak.
After about twenty years the Paciaronis retired and sold the business. The new owners ran it for about five more seasons, and the last winter was around 1987-88. The equipment was sold off, the slopes grew over, and later attempts to develop the land did not go ahead. The old barn was renovated as offices, and traces of the lift lines could still be picked out in the woods in the 2000s.