At the height of the Gilded Age, glamour was everything.
Hi everyone, Ken here, welcome to "ThisHouse"!! Today we head out to Elkins Park, Pennsylvania
to explore one of the best maintained Gilded Age Mansions in the US.
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During the later part of the 19th century, William L Elkins became one of the wealthiest
men in the United States.
After having mild success as a grocer, he pivoted his career to join forces with Peter
Widener, co-founding the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company.
He took his share of the earnings and invested heavily in Standard Oil, eventually founding
his own petrol company, the United Gas Improvement Company.
With money coming in from investments in railroads and oil, his earned a net worth of approximately
25 million dollars, or the modern day equivalent of nearly 900 million dollars.
With that money, he began searching for the perfect place to build his dream home.
His business partner, Peter Widener had just finished building one of the largest homes
in the nation, Lynnewood Hall, designed by famed Gilded Age Architect, Horace Trumbauer
in Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County.
William was impressed by the work of Trumbauer, and hired him to design a 45 room, Italian
High Renaissance style manor nearby.
When construction was completed in 1898, the grand home dominated the site lines of the
drive’s approach.
Massive limestone blocks composed the façade, which boasted ornate relief work and statuary,
such as gargoyles, worked into the cornice.
Porticos could be found on the sides of the house, rounding out to offer panoramic views
of the gardens.
And if guests were not yet impressed, well, the interior would not leave them wanting.
Entering the home below the port cochere, you would pass through iron double doors inlaid
with glass before continuing towards the entrance hall.
The entrance hall was arranged with balustraded arcades flaring towards pointed arches connecting
to framed ceiling mural suspending four crystal chandeliers, one from each of its corners.
In place of corbels to support the arch surrounds, statuary figures protruded from the wall,
appearing to brace the ceiling with their hands.
Below each figure, an elaborate frieze interrupted the vertical emphasis of each supporting marble
column with gold leafed ionic capitols.
The grand staircase elegantly spiraled along the rounded walls, with dazzling arrays of
color reflecting from marble trim below the rounded stained glass sky light overhead.
You could then travel through the archways in the entrance hall to arrive in the Grand
Hall, where gilted wall panels were painted and trimmed with gold leaf, glistening in
the warm glow provided by crystal chandeliers.
William was an avid art collector and had a gallery incorporated into the plan with
half height wood paneling skirting the walls below a skylight composed of art glass panels.
The house continued with only the finest materials, elegantly blended together, with wall colors
selected to compliment the striations of choice stone, such as the ensemble of the fireplace,
wood paneling, and gothic stenciling found in the Smoking Room.
William enjoyed the home known as Elstowe Manor for nearly five years until his passing
in 1903.
It was handed down through his family until 1932 when it was sold to the Dominican Sisters
to be used as a religious retreat center.
Of the few modifications that were made, the art gallery was transformed into a chapel,
but the rest of the house was exquisitely preserved through routine maintenance.
Eventually the house became to expensive to operate, so the Sisters leased it to another
organization who essentially refused to pay their rent.
After years of legal disputes, they were evicted in 2013.
Then, in 2019 the Sisters sold the manor to Landmark Developers.
According to their website, Elstowe Manor will be opening its doors as a Wedding Venue
this year in the spring of 2023.
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