Lynnewood Hall

{{Infobox building

| name = Lynnewood Hall

| native_name =

| former_names =

| alternate_names =

| image = Lynnewood Hall - Evening Facade, 2023 LHPF.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Pictured in October 2023

| map_type =

| map_alt =

| map_caption =

| altitude =

| building_type =

| architectural_style = Neoclassical Revival

| structural_system =

| cost = $8 million
(equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|8|1900}} million in {{Inflation/year|US}})

| status =

| client = Peter A. B. Widener

| owner = Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation (purchased from First Korean Church of New York in 2023)

| landlord =

| location =

| address = 920 Spring Ave.

| location_town = Elkins Park, Pennsylvania

| location_country = USA

| coordinates = {{coord|40|4|30.67|N|75|8|27.01|W|display=inline,title}}

| start_date = 1897

| completion_date = 1899

| renovation_date =

| demolition_date =

| destruction_date =

| height =

| diameter =

| floor_count =

| floor_area = {{convert|109848|ft2|m2}}

| main_contractor =

| architect = Horace Trumbauer

}}

Lynnewood Hall is a 110-room Neoclassical Revival mansion in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. It was designed by architect Horace Trumbauer for industrialist Peter A. B. Widener and built between 1897 and 1899. Lynnewood Hall is the second largest surviving Gilded Age mansion in the United States and once housed one of the most significant art collections in American history, amassed by Peter and his son Joseph E. Widener and donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1942.

Peter Widener died at Lynnewood Hall at the age of 80 on November 6, 1915, after prolonged poor health.{{cite web |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F04E0DF113CE733A25754C0A9679D946496D6CF |title=P.A.B. Widener, Capitalist, Dies |work=The New York Times |date=November 7, 1915 |access-date=January 5, 2019}} He was predeceased by his elder son George Dunton Widener and grandson Harry Elkins Widener, both of whom died when RMS Titanic sank in 1912. The structure changed hands a few times over the subsequent decades, with large portions of the estate grounds sold off in the 1940s. It hosted a Presbyterian seminary from 1952 until the late 90s, when the property was abandoned.

{{As of|2023}} it is being renovated by the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation, which announced a purchase agreement for the estate in February 2023.{{Cite web |last=Robinson |first=Carla |title=Purchase agreement reached for historic Lynnewood Hall: Pottstown investor funds Gilded Age mansion's preservation foundation |url=https://www.chestnuthilllocal.com/stories/purchase-agreement-reached-for-historic-lynnewood-hall,26705 |access-date=February 9, 2023 |website=The Chestnut Hill Local |language=en}}

Description

Built from Indiana limestone, the T-shaped Lynnewood Hall (dubbed "The last of the American Versailles" by Widener's grandson) measures {{convert|268|ft|m}} long by {{convert|215|ft|m}} deep.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KmcnAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HgQGAAAAIBAJ&pg=4618,1123073&dq=ptere+widener&hl=en|work=Boston Evening Transcript |via=Google News Archive |title=Peter A.B. Widener Dead |date=November 6, 1915 |access-date=January 5, 2019}} In addition to 55 bedrooms, the 110-room mansion had a large art gallery, a ballroom large enough for 1,000 guests, swimming pool, wine cellars, a farm, carpentry and upholstery studios, and an electrical power plant. The estate originally encompassed 300 acres, upon 33 of which a fenced ornamental garden was constructed. The fenced area includes a gatehouse and smaller Lynnewood Lodge (also known as Conklin Hall), built in the same style as the mansion. The mansion's grounds have remained contiguous since the 1952 sale.

A 2014 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer described the mansion as "dripping with silk, velvet, and gilded moldings, the rooms furnished with chairs from Louis XV's palace, Persian rugs, and Chinese pottery, the halls crammed with art by Raphael, Rembrandt, El Greco, van Dyck, Donatello."{{cite news|last1=Parks|first1=Jessica|title=The clock is ticking for Lynnewood Hall|url=http://articles.philly.com/2014-08-11/news/52652897_1_peter-a-b-widener-lynnewood-hall-horace-trumbauer|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140813014247/http://articles.philly.com/2014-08-11/news/52652897_1_peter-a-b-widener-lynnewood-hall-horace-trumbauer|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 13, 2014|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=August 11, 2014}} TIME magazine published an account of a lavish party held at Lynnewood Hall in 1932.{{Cite journal|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,753475,00.html|title=Business: Party at Lynnewood|journal=Time|date=October 24, 1932|via=content.time.com}}

Art collection

File:The Raphael Room at Lynnewood Hall.jpg]]

From 1915 to 1940, the spectacular art collection at Lynnewood Hall was open to the public by appointment between June and October.

In 1942, Joseph E. Widener donated more than 2,000 sculptures, paintings, decorative art works, and porcelains to the National Gallery of Art. P.A.B. Widener had originally planned for the collection to go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The paintings included Raphael's Small Cowper Madonna, Bellini's The Feast of the Gods, eight van Dycks, two Vermeers, fourteen Rembrandts, and a series of portraits by Gainsborough and Reynolds.{{cite journal|last1=Quodbach|first1=Esmée|title="The Last of the American Versailles": The Widener Collection at Lynnewood Hall|journal=Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art|date=2002|volume=1/2|issue=1/2|pages=42–96|doi=10.2307/3780924|jstor=3780924}} The sculptures included Donatello's David and Desiderio da Settignano's St John the Baptist.{{Cite web |title=Provenance |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/provenance-info.631.html#biography |access-date=May 24, 2024 |website=www.nga.gov}}{{Cite web |title=Thesis: Olivia Brogan {{!}} Weitzman |url=https://www.design.upenn.edu/yes2024/thesis-olivia-brogan |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=www.design.upenn.edu}}

History

=Construction and early years=

By the time Horace Trumbauer was commissioned by Peter A.B. Widener to build Lynnewood Hall, Trumbauer had already designed the Widener family's Philadelphia townhome and house in New York City. Trumbauer collaborated with the French firm Carlhian et Fils to design the mansion's interiors, utilizing large amounts of salvaged European furniture, tapestries, and rooms. The mansion's 18th-century ballroom, one of the largest on the eastern seaboard, was imported from Italy. Construction began in 1897, and the mansion was opened after only two years of construction with a gala held on December 19, 1899. 400 guests, mostly members of Philadelphia high society, attended, and the New York Symphony and Johanna Gadski provided musical accompaniment to the celebration.{{Cite news |date=20 December 1899 |title=P.A.B. Widener Welcomes Friends in his New Home |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-times-lynnewood-hall-co/38948357/ |work=The Philadelphia Times |pages=2}}

The mansion was built on a property of 300 acres, and its Italian-style ornamental gardens, covering 33 acres, were originally fashioned by head gardener William Kleinheinz. The gardens included a large fountain by Henri-Léon Gréber, one of only two major surviving Gréber commissions in America.

= After Peter A.B. Widener's death =

Upon Peter A.B. Widener's death in 1915, the property passed to his son, Joseph. In 1916, the gardens were redesigned in the French style by Jacques Gréber (son of Henri-Léon), also master designer of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and, later, the 1937 Paris Exhibition. Boasting stables, greenhouses, a polo field, and a reservoir, the estate employed a staff of 100 at its peak.{{Cite web |title=Bonhams : The magnificent and important Widener French patinated bronze figural fountain depicting Tritons and Nereids |url=https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/13994/lot/1235/ |access-date=May 24, 2024 |website=www.bonhams.com}}

Joseph's son, Peter A.B. Widener II, was a passionate dog breeder, constructing extensive kennels on the property starting in 1920. As a result, the grounds were used for training military dogs during World War II. Joseph Widener donated the estate's massive art collection to the National Gallery of Art in 1942, and upon his death one year later, the southern part of the estate was sold for development in 1943.{{cite web |url=http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=usa&screen=HeadlineDetails&iHeadlineNo=1733 |title=Magnificent Fountain to be Featured During Second Annual Garden Sale at Bonhams & Butterfields in San Francisco |publisher=Bonhams |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308213104/http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=usa&screen=HeadlineDetails&iHeadlineNo=1733 |archive-date=March 8, 2012 |access-date=January 5, 2019}} The house, its gardens, and its outlying buildings were sold shortly afterwards to a private buyer who hoped to turn the property into a Protestant seminary; when this buyer defaulted on his $99,000 mortgage, the property was temporarily repossessed by the Wideners.{{Cite web |title=HISTORY |url=https://lynnewoodhallpreservation.org/history/ |access-date=May 24, 2024 |website=Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation, Inc. |language=en-US}}

=Sale and seminary use=

Lynnewood Hall was purchased in 1952 by Faith Theological Seminary, a Christian school of higher education headed by Carl McIntire. The purchase price was {{USD|192000|1952|round=-4}}.{{cite web |date=October 26, 2020 |title=Want to buy a haunted house? 'World's biggest ghost house' is up for sale in Pa. for $16M: report |url=https://www.pennlive.com/life/2020/10/want-to-buy-a-haunted-house-worlds-biggest-ghost-house-is-up-for-sale-in-pa-for-16m-report.html |website=pennlive |language=en}} The Seminary trained hundreds of ministers and Christian leaders at Lynnewood Hall for over 40 years. As the Seminary began to experience financial difficulties, it dismantled large parts of the mansion's interior, selling off what was severable. In 1996, the property was sold to the First Korean Church of New York, a Presbyterian-affiliated church with ties to Faith Theological Seminary, in a Sheriff's Sale. By the time of the property's purchase, all three of the remaining buildings on the property, Lynnewood Hall, Lynnewood Lodge, and the gatehouse, were in various states of dilapidation, with the gatehouse being fully abandoned. First Korean Church sought numerous times to turn the property back into a seminary and church, beginning in 1998, but failed to in a string of applications and lawsuits.File:Lynnewood Hall - Ballroom looking East, LHPF 2023.jpgIn 2006, in First Korean Church of N.Y., Inc. v. Montgomery Cnty. Bd. of Assessment Appeals, the court found that the property had not demonstrably been used for religious or educational purposes since 1998. The church continued to sell off remaining parts of the property. In 2006, Lynnewood Hall's Gréber fountain was sold at auction.{{cite web|url=http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/13994/lot/1235/|title=Bonhams : The magnificent and important Widener French patinated bronze figural fountain depicting Tritons and Nereids|website=www.bonhams.com}} After a final February 2012 ruling that First Korean Church did not qualify for a tax exemption, Dr. Richard S. Yoon, the church's president and pastor, gave an interview to the Philadelphia Inquirer where he stated his intent to finally relocate the church and end the legal battle.Court document, First Korean Church of New York, Inc. v. Cheltenham Township Zoning Hearing Board and Cheltenham Township, Doc. No. 65-6389, February 29, 2012.{{Cite web |last=Lin |first=Jennifer |date=July 20, 2013 |title='Last hope' for pastor's grand estate |url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/local/20130721_Deciding_the_future_of_a_classic_mansion.html |access-date=May 24, 2024 |website=www.inquirer.com |language=en}}

= Further sale and restoration =

This property was on the market for $11,000,000{{cite web|url=https://www.philipcurtisrealtor.com/newlisting/1000274697/A1-ASHBOURNE-RD-Elkins-Park-PA-19027|title=A1 ASHBOURNE RD, Elkins Park PA 19027}} in May 2019. Despite multiple offers above the asking price, the home remained unsold.{{Cite web|last=Elizabeth|first=Mary|last2=riotis|date=September 9, 2021|title=The Mysterious History of a $256 Million Mansion With Ties to the Titanic|url=https://www.housebeautiful.com/design-inspiration/a37528121/lynnewood-hall-256-million-mansion-titanic-abandoned/|access-date=September 20, 2021|website=House Beautiful|language=en-US}} A historical restoration architect estimated in 2014 that it would take about $50 million to restore the mansion to its former glory; however, Realtor Frank Johnson suggests the property could be renovated for $3 million to $8 million.{{cite web|title=Lynnewood Hall Renovation Costs|url=http://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/philadelphia-lynnewood-hall-massive-makeover/?aid=11921783&pid=7597981&cid=aff_cj_rdcandrental_allaffiliates_cj|website=Realtor.com|publisher=Luke Stangel|access-date=June 29, 2017|date=May 30, 2017}}

On July 5, 2022, it was announced that Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation was established with the goal of acquiring "the Trumbauer-designed Widener Family Estate, a true architectural masterpiece, and see it restored to its former breathtaking glory."{{Cite web |last=Hass |first=Kimberly |title=Preservation Group Mobilizes to Save Lynnewood Hall |url=https://hiddencityphila.org/2022/07/preservation-group-mobilizes-to-save-lynnewood-hall/ |access-date=July 6, 2022 |website=Hidden City Philadelphia |language=en-US}}

On February 8, 2023, a purchase agreement was announced for the property by the foundation, with plans for the restored gardens to be open to the public as a park, and to fully restore the hall. On June 27, 2023, the mansion's sale was finalized for $9 million, and ownership passed to the nonprofit Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation.{{cite news |last1=Ladd |first1=Jenn |title=After almost a decade on the market, Lynnewood Hall in Elkins Park has been sold — and saved |url=https://www.inquirer.com/real-estate/lynnewood-hall-sold-gilded-age-mansion-elkins-park-philadelphia-20230630.html |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |date=June 30, 2023 |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |language=English}}{{cite web|url= https://propertyrecords.montcopa.org/PT/Datalets/Datalet.aspx?mode=&UseSearch=no&pin=310000823001 |title=Montgomery County PA Property Records}} A music video for the song "Come on Heartache" by the band The Menzingers was filmed onsite at Lynnewood Hall in September 2023.{{cite web |last=Tanenbaum |first=Michael |date=September 21, 2023 |title=The Menzingers shot a music video at Lynnewood Hall, the Gilded Age mansion in Elkins Park |url=https://www.phillyvoice.com/menzingers-music-video-lynnewood-hall-gilded-age-mansion-elkins-park/ |access-date=November 3, 2024 |website=PhillyVoice}}

References

External links

[https://lynnewoodhallpreservation.org/ Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation]
[http://lynnewoodhall.wordpress.com/ Site dedicated to Lynnewood Hall and its preservation.]
[http://historic-structures.com/pa/elkins_park/lynnewood_hall.php Historical Information]
[https://digital.hagley.org/islandora/search/widener?type=edismax&islandora_solr_search_navigation=1&f%5B0%5D=RELS_EXT_isMemberOfCollection_uri_ms%3A%22info%5C%3Afedora%5C/islandora%5C%3A2007463%22 Historical aerial photos of the estate in the 1920s and 1930s]
{{YouTube|qqgNzXRX_jM|"Lynnewood Hall"}} (aerial video)
{{HABS |survey=PA-6146 |id=pa3158 |title=Lynnewood Hall, 920 Spring Avenue, Elkins Park, Montgomery County, PA |photos=9 |data=9 |cap=1}}

Category:1900 establishments in Pennsylvania

Category:1900s architecture in the United States

Category:Elkins Park, Pennsylvania

Category:Gilded Age mansions

Category:Historic American Buildings Survey in Pennsylvania

Category:Horace Trumbauer buildings

Category:Houses completed in 1900

Category:Houses in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

Category:Neoclassical architecture in Pennsylvania

Category:Widener family