Mark Your Calendar

LOWER MERION CONSERVANCY
SPRING 2010 HISTORIC PRESERVATION LECTURE SERIES

Beginning with Mike Weilbacher’s two final events as the Executive Director of the Conservancy, the Spring historic preservation lecture series explores Gladwyne Colony in April, highlights architect Walter Durham and the historic homes and gardens of Merion Station in May, and celebrates the Golden Mile in June.  Series is sponsored by F.L. Bissinger, Architects, and co-sponsored by E.B. Mahoney, Builders.

Events are $20 for members and $25 for non-members, except the Gardens tour, which costs $35 for members and $40 for non-members.  Register online and find out about Conservancy membership at www.LMConservancy.org or by calling 610-645-9030.

LOST IN LOWER MERION: THE GLADWYNE COLONY
Tuesday, April 13, 6:00 p.m.
St. Christopher’s Church, 226 Righters Mill Road, Gladwyne
$20 members, $25 non-members

The intersection of Rose Glen and Mill Creek roads, deep in the heart of Gladwyne, lies at the heart of Lower Merion’s single largest oasis of open space.  But in the 1920s it was a beehive of activity as home to the Gladwyne Colony, a psychiatric adventure founded by Dr. Seymour DeWitt Ludlum using buildings once part of the now-lost mill town of Rose Glen. It’s hard to believe that scores of residents lived here in long-gone buildings pursuing cures founded in hard work and fresh air.

In his last lecture as executive director of the Conservancy, Mike Weilbacher presents the full story of the colony, its founder, and the Rose Glen ghost town.  He’s mined photographic archives and discovered images of 30-odd buildings — the mill, homes, labs, even mansions.  Come marvel at this bit of  long-forgotten Lower Merion history.  Intrigued?  Don’t miss the walking tour below to see what remains.

GLADWYNE COLONY: THE WALKING TOUR
Sunday, April 18, 2:00 p.m.
Begins at the Barker Mill, 1400 Mill Creek Road, Gladwyne
$20 members, $25 non-members

Riding his horse in 1912 from his home in Merion Station, Dr. Seymour DeWitt Ludlum stumbled on the forgotten and abandoned village of Rose Glen, complete with mill building, worker homes, a general store, and more. As the steam-powered Industrial Revolution made waterwheel mills obsolete, Mill Creek lost its cache as a powerhouse of industry, and Rose Glen lay in ruins. Envisioning the possibilities, he founded his groundbreaking Gladwyne Colony here only a few years later, a small town given over to his psychiatric ward.

As a complement to his lecture and on his very last day as the Conservancy’s director, Mike Weilbacher leads a hike through the landscape that once that formed the colony. You’ll see where the Rose Glen general store stood, where the Chadwick mill made woolens, where Dr. Ludlum lived (one of the few buildings still standing), where his nursing staff was headquartered, and more.  A surprising number of stone ruins provide invaluable hints as to the numbers and kinds of buildings that once occupied the site.  Mike will also share the stories of three nearby mills—Chadwick, Egbert and Barker (two of which were part of the colony)–  and share old photos of what once stood on the site.  This is a tour to fire your imagination.

WALTER K. DURHAM: LOWER MERION’S MOST IMPORTANT ARCHITECT
Tuesday, May 4, 6:00 p.m.
Hazy Hill, 975 Rock Creek Road. Bryn Mawr
$20 members, $25 non-members
Illustrated panel discussion includes a wine-and-cheese reception

Though architectural giants like Frank Furness, Louis Kahn and even Frank Lloyd Wright have all built in Lower Merion, the area’s most important architect is arguably the lesser known Walter K. Durham. With partner James Irvine, he formed a development company that ultimately built more than 300 homes in the area, residences that remain some of the most popular on the Main Line.  Durham designed in a surprising range of styles over a very long career, even dabbling in modernism.

Learn about Lower Merion’s most prolific architect in one of his most glorious homes, Hazy Hill. This farmhouse was converted by Durham in 1932 to be the home of first the Wasserman and then the Firestone families.  The current owners are only the third family to enjoy this beautiful home and its serene, sweeping landscape.

Moderated by preservation architect James Garrison, the panel will include Frederick L. Bissinger, who worked in Durham’s studio as a starting architect, Durham scholar Jean K. Wolf, and Bea Durham Blackman, Durham’s former daughter-in-law and possibly Lower Merion’s strongest champion of his architecture.

THE HISTORIC HOMES AND GARDENS OF MERION STATION
A Self-Guided Walking Tour
Co-sponsored by the Merion Civic Association
Sunday, May 23, 1:00-4:00 p.m.
Park and Register for Walking Tour at Congregation Adath Israel, 250 N. Highland Avenue, Merion Station
$35 members, $40 non-members

Ticket holders for the fourth annual garden tour will have the opportunity to visit  at least six magnificent gardens and landscapes, and, weather permitting, some of the homes of several beautiful Merion Station estates.

With your tour map in hand, visit private sites that are graciously open for this one afternoon only.  They range from historic grounds designed decades ago by noted landscape architects to new designs  lovingly created by current owners.

Visit a seven-acre estate with a superb and fanciful sculpture garden surrounding a 1908 home by noted architect Charles Barton Keen.  Trace the original outlines of the Maroebe estate defined by its remaining wrought-iron fence leading to a beautiful Thomas Sears garden. One beautiful Latches Lane home owned from 1911-13 by Albert C. Barnes features several woody ornamentals planted with the help of his wife Laura, an avid gardener.  From the garden, enhanced by its current owners over the last 30 years, visitors are invited indoors to view the collection of garden-inspired impressionist art.

The Merion Civic Association, which constructed and began planting the flower boxes surrounding the historic Merion Station in 1923, proudly invites you to the station for refreshments at the end of your tour.

THE GOLDEN MILE: THE SHINING LEGACY OF CITY AVENUE

Thursday, June 10, 6:00 p.m.

$20 members, $25 non-members

Illustrated lecture in the unfinished top floor of the GSB Building, 1 Belmont Avenue, Bala Cynwyd, spectacular 360° views!   Includes wine-and-cheese reception.

One of the most remarkable suburban landscapes of the postwar era in the Philadelphia region is undoubtedly the section of City Avenue once celebrated as “The Golden Mile.” Part high-style, part kitsch, the development of the Golden Mile found architectural expression in America’s increasing dependence and love of the automobile, in contrast to the more tightly controlled, pedestrian-centered, transit-oriented development in Center City.  Although City Avenue was overshadowed by developments in Cherry Hill and King of Prussia, much of this visionary expression remains. Very recent demolitions of important buildings like WPVI’s modernist circular building and the Cayuga Bank elevate the importance of the architecture that still exists.

William Whitaker, curator at the University of Pennsylvania Architectural Archives, presents an illustrated lecture describing the wide variety of structures along City Avenue.  This mid-century development signaled the shift of population towards the Main Line suburbs and beyond and included the first Marriott Hotel built outside of Washington, DC.  It included the beloved Polynesian “Kona Kai” restaurant and Lord & Taylor’s, designed by the famed industrial designer Raymond Lowey and one of his first buildings outside of Manhattan. There were also a gull-wing roofed bank, gas stations, office buildings, motels, showrooms, private houses, and works by prominent Philadelphia architects Vincent Kling and Louis I. Kahn.

This event will take place in the space formerly occupied by Williamson’s Restaurant on the top floor of the GSB Building. The unfinished window-enclosed space, now available for lease, has been cleared of all but structural elements—literally a diamond in the rough. After the tour, enjoy the views during the reception.  This is a don’t-miss lecture!