Craven Hall was built on land which was part of a 551 acre land grant from William Penn to William Bingley in 1681. Within the next 45 years, William Stockdale acquired the land, and in 1726 sold the acreage to James (Jacobus) Craven. The land stayed in the Craven Family until 1761. The Craven Vansant Cemetery (sold to Vansant in 1798) remains to the South of the Hall, where nine Revolutionary soldiers are buried along with others of the Craven Vansant families.

    Traditionally, William Tennent preached in the "house of Craven" in the early 1720’s before founding the "Log College" in 1726. It is unlikely that the earlier portion of Craven Hall could have existed that early, however, it is still the only 18th Century artifact associated with this significant event. The "house of Craven" was then probably a log house, but most likely on the same land, perhaps even the same location.

    The Log College was the direct ancestor of Princeton University and its influence on an evangelical reform of the Presbyterian Church, which reached culmination in the Great Enlightenment under George Whitefield in 1739, was of great cultural importance throughout the colonies.

    The house of Craven is mentioned in perhaps the only significant Revolutionary battle fought in Bucks County. The battle of Crooked Billet, staged mainly in the Hatboro, Montgomery County area spilled over into Bucks County when the wounded were carried across the Jones Farm and into the house on May 1, 1778. Washington had stationed a detachment of 200 militia under Brigadier General John Lacey in Bucks County to interfere with Howe’s communication and foraging expeditions to the north. Lacey’s troops were surprised asleep near the Crooked Billet Tavern in Hatboro, and found themselves surrounded by British cavalry. They were able to cut their way through but suffered heavy casualties and retreated to the north across Thomas Jones's farm where the wounded were given refuge. Twenty six Pennsylvanians were killed and a number missing. Lacey was exonerated but severely reprimanded by Washington.

    On May 7, General Lacey in his official report to General Armstrong speaks of this circumstance in the following manner:
"Some of the unfortunate, who fell into the merciless hands of the British, were more cruelly and inhumanely butchered. Some were set on fire with buckwheat straw, and others had their clothes burned on their backs. Some of the surviving sufferers say they saw the enemy set fire to wounded while yet alive, who struggled to put it out but were too weak and expired under the torture. I saw those lying in the buckwheat straw-they made a most melancholy appearance. Others I saw, who, after being wounded with a ball, had received near a dozen wounds with cutlasses and bayonets. I can find as many witnesses to the proof of the cruelties as there were people on the spot, and that was no small number who came as spectators."

    A monument to those Revolutionary soldiers who died there so cruelly is erected on Jacksonville Road, just West of the SEPTA Station, on the South side of the road. The town of Johnsville grew around the corner of Street and Newtown Road, which was originally known as Craven’s Corner. The name of Johnsville apparently came from John Craven, a son who opened a store in that vicinity in 1814. John Craven's name does not, however, appear on the titles of the subject property. In 1761 the property was sold by Giles Jones to Daniel Longstreth, but Giles retained some interest in it for it reverted to Giles in 1798. In that year, Giles sold it to his "kinsman and friend", Harman Vansant. Harman (Harmon) Vansant was a prominent citizen and well-to-do farmer and at his death in 1823. Inventory of his possessions describes the house as including the additional wing. The house was left to his daughter Alice, but was to remain the property of his widow Alice until her remarriage or decease. The widow died in 1831, but the house was then inherited by Harman’s other daughter, Ann Eliza. Ann Eliza Vansant owned the house until her death in 1871. We cannot believe that the interior decoration of the house should have been undertaken by either the widow or the daughter.

    The elaborate and monumental character of the decoration appears to be part of the original construction of the wing, as for instance the carefully planned center staircase, or the asymmetrical southwest elevation. We are forced to believe that the construction and decoration of the wing took place prior to Harman’s death, and that no significant changes, other than the porches and extension of the gable ends of the roof, have taken place since that time.

    It is very surprising indeed to find such sophisticated Classical Revival detail in a modest farmhouse twenty miles from Philadelphia in 1820. The Second Bank of the United States was not completed at the time of Harman Vansant’s death. Andalusia and Girard College were ten years in the future. Haviland’s Builder’s Assistant, the first American publication of the Greek Orders, was published in 1818 and 1821; Minard LaFever’s first book was not printed until 1829.

    The general concept of the house with its addition is quite typically Federal. The asymmetrical plan and elevations are free of Georgian rigidity, the cornice is small in scale, horizontality is emphasized by the water table, and the grace and elegance of the staircase is characteristic. Even the exposed stone quoins in contrasting color are a common feature of the first decades of the nineteenth century vernacular in Southern Pennsylvania, where red sandstone and gray limestone alternate in convenient quarries.

    The interior decorative trim, especially in the southwest parlor, is so exceptional in a house of this size and place as to raise a question of whether Harman Vansant had personal contact with that extraordinary group of young architects in Philadelphia during the ten years from 1800 to 1810. L’EnFant, Latrobe, John Haviland, Robert Mills, and William Strickland were all working in Philadelphia; even Thomas U. Walter and Gideon Shryock were in Strickland’s office by 1819. They were the architects who designed the Capitol, the Washington Monument, the City of Washington, and literally hundreds of the most important and monumental buildings of the next fifty years, from South Carolina and Tennessee to New England.

    Was there contact with these great architects? Whether the actual contact between these remarkable designers and the designer of The Craven Hall Parlors is ever discovered, the contact was there, and the appreciation and understanding of these interesting and beautiful decorations has now been ensured.

    Over the years the building was known as the Vansant Farm and the Bennett Farm and had a number of other owners from the early 1900’s to 1952.

    In 1952, the Centennial School District acquired ownership and Craven Hall was used as Administrative Offices. In 1979 the Centennial School Board leased Craven Hall to "The Citizens for the Preservation of Craven Hall", headed by Ella Rhoads, former Centennial History teacher who had spearheaded the grassroots efforts to save the Hall. Restoration of the house and adjoining cemetery began and is ongoing, funded by sponsors, events and grants held by the Craven Hall Historical Society, Inc.