They even had individual members of the Philadelphia Orchestra perform at the home, according to a 1999 Main Line Times history page.In 1952 the Harpers sold the mansion to the Pew family for $100,000, even though the original cost of the home was closer to $500,000.“Glenmede is an architectural treasure, perfectly preserved down to the most extraordinary details. The firm pioneered in the manufacture of Vici Kid for shoes. He and his wife, the former Annie Eliza Rogers, raised nine children.Joseph Sinnott’s life was associated with many activities of the Catholic Church and the city of Philadelphia. So based on his close bond with them, it’s understandable why his kids question a will that only leaves a wife of 2 years as the sole beneficiary of his estate and all future earnings. He enlarged the house, added another 30 acres to the estate and renamed it Ballyheather.After Pew’s death all three of the mansions — Knollbrook, Lynhurst and Ballyheather — were sold by Pew relatives in 1973 to Richelieu Custom Builders, who in turn subdivided the estates into 50 single-family homes. The carriage house was still in use in 1982.Soon successful merchants such as the Clothier family of the Strawbridge and Clothier Company established handsome estates with fine houses.Isaac Hallowell Clothier was representing a wholesale cloth dealer while Justus Strawbridge was running a small store in the 1860s. The dark multi-colored bricks were offset by bright white shutters and white stonework. The Registers’ daughter Louise married Matthew Baird III, the son of one of the first organizers of the Baldwin Locomotive Works. White shutters and white stone offset the different roof elevations, the many windows, the three northern extensions, and the large balustraded terrace overlooking the streams and opposite hills. “The building served as an inspiration for the Price design and other American estate homes of the period,” reads “The First 300.”The next owner, merchant banker John Crosby Brown, was friends with Joseph Newton Pew.“The lavish life of this Golden Age family changed radically after the stock-market crash of October 1929. Beginning with a very simple brick house on a four-acre tract, he purchased two nearby mansions, Lynhurst in 1937 and Ballyheather in 1951, and sixty-five acres of the most desirable land on the Main Line. MacVeagh, mentioned above as a lawyer with the Pennsylvania Railroad, was well known for his humorous writings. For family reasons, however, they have decided they cannot focus on its restoration as they had intended, and they have decided to sell,” explained Irwin in a recent interview with Main Line Times reporter Cheryl Allison.The mansion was built for George S. Graham, an attorney, the president of Provident Mutual Insurance Company and a Pennsylvania congressman from 1912 until his death in 1931.Born in Philadelphia in 1850, Graham graduated from the law department at the University of Pennsylvania in 1870 and practiced law in Philadelphia.He was member of the select council of Philadelphia from 1877 to 1880 and an unsuccessful candidate for district attorney of Philadelphia County in 1877. This, the home of Joseph Francis Sinnott, was completed in 1891 on gently sloping land on Montgomery Avenue in Rosemont. Chance of rain 90%.Rocky Crest, the home of Joseph Newton Pew Jr. — Photo courtesy of the Main Line Historical Society.Rocky Crest, the home of Joseph Newton Pew Jr. — Photo courtesy of the Main Line Historical Society.Rocky Crest, the home of Joseph Newton Pew Jr. — Photo courtesy of the Main Line Historical Society.Rocky Crest, the home of Joseph Newton Pew Jr. — Photo courtesy of the Main Line Historical Society.You can discover more about three of the Pew family mansions along the Main Line by flipping through the pages of history books and architectural digests. Brown apparently lost half or more of his investments. They purchased the 153 acres for a reported $3.5 million from Sandra Newman and obtained PRD zoning (planned residential development, which authorizes clustering houses in groups so that a percentage of the land can be retained as open space). Four years later, in 1904, working with assistants, he developed petroleum asphalt. The home is being marketed through the company’s international luxury real-estate program.“The present owners are neighbors and friends. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight.
In 1845 Samuel Croft, who also operated mills, bought 35 acres to be used for farming. During World War I when German U-boats were sinking United States tankers, the Sun Shipbuilding Company was established under his leadership, and during World War II forty-one million barrels of 100-octane aviation gasoline were delivered for Allied planes. It was designed by the architects Hazlehurst and Huckle, in an ornate French baronial style that greatly impressed those passing by on the Main Line trains of the Pennsylvania Railroad.Featuring circular and hexagonal towers at the corners, it was built of gray stone. He discontinued the company in 1937, devoting himself to his other interests as a trustee of the Land Title Bank and Trust Company, U.S. Leather Company, Pennsylvania Forge Company, Philadelphia Bourse, and Pennsylvania Mutual Life Insurance Company, of which he was made chairman of the board.