WEST CHESTER TWP. — Mulling over names for her new pub, Evonne Dudley-Long went behind the building, looked up and had an, er, “grain-storm.”

        Behind and to the west of the tavern and drive-through on Tylersville Road west of Cox Road looms one of the community's largest conversation pieces — a towering blue grain silo with a huge dent in its top — and, if you look carefully, an old tire lying precariously on the peak.

        “I can't think of a better name than the Dented Silo Pub. It's a topic of discussion for all the traffic driving by. It's been a landmark since it was damaged in 1980,” said Ms. Dudley-Long, co-owner of the tavern that opened last week. She and her brother Paul Dudley also own Dudley's Drive-Thru next door.
       

Dented by debris
               The almost-new silo, on the farm of Ms. Dudley-Long's uncle Jim Dudley, was dented by flying debris when violent storms crossed Hamilton and Butler counties in Ohio and Dearborn County in Indiana on June 2, 1980.

        A Kentucky Fried Chicken sign across the street from the farm fell onto the Waffle House next to it. Then part of it flew into the Dudley farm field.

        “We don't know exactly what debris hit the silo to cause the dent. Barns, including one right next the silo and almost as tall ... were destroyed,” said Ms. Dudley-Long, whose uncle deeded her land for the drive-through in May 2000.
       

Commercial boom
               Much of the Dudley land, once a 400-acre dairy farm on then-rural Tylersville Road — has been developed over the past few decades with the commercial boom around the nearby Interstate 75 interchange.

        Farm property to the rear of the Dented Silo Pub and Dudley's Drive-Thru is available.

        A large drugstore and retailer has expressed interest in a corner lot where an old one-room, brick school house stands. That's where Paul Dudley lives. And the Thunderbird Car Wash has purchased Tylersville Road frontage next the pub, Ms. Dudley- Long said.
       

Free history lesson
               The historic schoolhouse will be moved to the township's Voice of America (VOA) Park to preserve it, Ms. Dudley-Long said. The move will occur before Cox Road is widened to five lanes next year.

        Jim Dudley, 73, still lives in the farmhouse part of the year and the rest of the time in San Juan, Puerto Rico. “He's going to keep 22 acres and the farmhouse. That's in a trust and it's not for sale,” Ms. Dudley-Long said.

        Meanwhile, patrons of Dented Silo Pub like learning more about the local landmark while enjoying after-work refreshments.

        “You couldn't pick a better name,” said Dennis Barr, of West Chester. “Everybody talks about that silo.”

        Nancy Nicely, of Fairfax, a sales representative for Frito Lay on Cox Road, stops in after work: “I really didn't know anything about that silo until now; but I've seen the dent all the time as I drive by and have wondered how it got there. Now I know.”

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