ARGREY

This is an ongoing story about Argrey, a multigenerational family home in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, and the keeper of its history, Shelley Francies.

Shelley moved into this home with her parents during her childhood, and she raised her own family here with her husband Jim. The home was originally a conjoined duplex in the 1800s, when it served as living quarters for local millworkers. Shelley’s father took down the wall that separated the two homes, creating a single family home, and built an addition that later became her grandmother’s living space until she passed. Shelley hopes to one day renovate that addition into an art studio, but she is not yet able to let go of her sentimental attachment to it as her beloved grandmother’s room. Caring for the home and its many belongings handed down by elders is her passion, but also extensive and costly work. 

On the opposite end of the house, Shelley’s mother used to run an Irish store. She and Shelley’s father once visited Ireland to find their family roots, and they fell so in love with what they found that they came home to name the house Argrey, and to open the shop. The shop eventually closed, and her mother switched careers to work as a book reviewer. In recent years, Shelley converted that far end of the home into the wing where she cared for her ailing mother. Shelley installed an elevator since her mother was no longer able to climb steps, decorating the shaft with family photos so she could see her loved ones as she took the lift up and down from her bedroom each day.   

Shelley’s children are all grown and moved into their own homes now, but she and Jim often care for their four grandchildren here. Shelley’s role as the family historian parallels her former career as a high school history teacher. Shelley cares deeply about preserving her family’s history and that of Argrey itself, both in tangible objects and in stories. She is not sure who might carry on this work after her.