THE GILDED AGE

Now, seeing this post, one might think were in Newport, where I have visited several times, and would agree with you. But this is actually in an area of Philadelphia called Elkin's Park. Someone I just befriended a couple weeks ago, remembered me saying in conversation, my background is in interior design and love architecture, so she asked it I wanted to go have lunch then head over to the Elkins Estate, as she is an events coordinator, and wanted to survey the place for a proposal she's involved in. I must admit...one of the perks to not working lately as been the time to jump at things like this....so of course I went!!!!!!

The Gilded Age interiors of the Elkins Estate in Cheltenham is anything short of incredible, would be a crime against neoclassical architecture. The rolling, 42-acre property and its pairing of Italian High Renaissance-and Elizabethan-revival mansions, designed by architect Horace Trumbauer, come into frame at the front gate with the distinguished nobility of an English country manor.

The estate on Ashbourne Road speaks to a time when Philadelphia’s utility magnates treated themselves like royalty and had no problem showing their accomplishments in the grandeur of their manors. Today, like Trumbauer’s other residential masterpiece nearby, the dilapidating Lynnewood Hall, the mansions of the Elkins Estate are vacant and without a capable owner willing to reactivate the properties with a financially sustainable reuse plan, while attending to upkeep and preservation. For now, the future of this resplendent white elephant remains shrouded in uncertainty.

Elstowe Manor, the crown jewel of the  Elkin's estate, and was built in 1898 by William L. Elkins, the prominent Philadelphia businessman who, along with Peter A.B. Widener, built the Philadelphia Railroad Company and the streetcar monopoly, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. Elkins was largely responsible also for the production of the first gasoline ever refined from petroleum at Philadelphia’s Monument Oil Works, which was established and operated by Elkins until his partnership with John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil Company in 1875. The interior of the mansion, designed by esteemed French interior designer, Allard et Fils, is an architectural treasure chest filled with heavenly frescoed ceilings, carved mahogany panels, stately marble columns, and an eye popping of watering display of crystal chandeliers, gold leafing, and regal, gilded molding.

Beautiful gardens too.

The estate’s other mansion, Chelten House, was commissioned in 1896 for Elkin’s son, George. We saw only the outside of this one. Imagine having two mansions on the same grounds! The façade of the house is fortified in Wissihickon schist and dark timber. 

After Elkins died in 1903 the estate was passed down to his offspring. By the 1950s, the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine de’ Ricci had acquired most of the property–they purchased Elstowe Manor from William L. Elkins’ grandson, and Chelten House from Stephen X. Stephano of Stephano Bros', Philadelphia manufacturers of Rameses cigarettes, in 1948. The Dominican Sisters used the two mansions as a religious retreat for women for over 75 years, while taking care of the properties and their original interior features through dedicated conservation. 

Due to the financial pressures of building maintenance expenses and dwindling retreat attendance, the Dominican Sisters closed the Dominican Retreat House in 2006 and sold the entire estate to the New Age nonprofit Land Conservancy of Elkins Park in 2009, which planned to use the property for a large-scale spiritual wellness center and special events venue. By 2010, the conversancy had so far executed a scattershot business plan pitted with small yoga retreats, wedding receptions, performance space for White Pines Productions, and a three-week photo shoot for Victoria’s Secret and was in mortgage default after missing nearly a year’s worth of payments. Possession of the estate was relinquished to the Dominican Sisters in January 2013 following a heated, three-year legal battle over $6.9 million in defaulted mortgage payments.

In 2014 the Cheltenham Township Board of Commissioners approved three zoning amendments to clear the way for luxury hotelier Apeiron to purchase the estate and convert Elstowe Manor into a boutique hotel with full-service luxury apartments. The project included using a portion of the 42-acre property for a public arts and cultural destination. To date, Apeiron’s plan has not moved beyond the proposal stage. I only hope one day someone buys it. I'd hate to see such craftsmanship disappear.