Whitemarsh Hall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Whitemarsh Hall was an estate located in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania and owned by banking executive Edward T. Stotesbury and his wife, Eva.
Built by renowned architect Horace Trumbauer between 1916 and 1921, the mansion consisted of 6 stories (3 of which were underground), 147 rooms, 45 bathrooms, and specialty rooms including a ballroom, gymnasium, movie theatre, and even a refrigerating plant. It had been a wedding present from Stotesbury to his second wife, Eva.
The mansion was lavishly decorated with statues, paintings, and tapestry Stotesbury had collected over the years, a collection later displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The furniture was purchased from France and the floor was lined with exquisite Oriental rugs. After her husband's death, Eva Stotesbury left Whitemarsh Hall moving to Palm Beach, Florida. The mansion fell into neglect and portions of its grounds were eventually sold to make room for ranch style homes, the original ones built of concrete. Whitemarsh Hall was demolished in 1980.
Eva Stotesbury discovered, after the death of her husband, that she was nearly broke. The mansion cost over a million dollars a year to maintain. As a result of the Great Depression, the value of Whitemarsh Hall was significantly lowered. Eva closed the mansion and moved to one of her other homes, El Mirasal in Palm Beach. She donated the two mile long, eight foot tall steel fence to the War Department to be turned into metal for 18,000 guns. The property did not sell until 1943. It was sold to the Pennwalt Chemical Corporation to make into a research laboratory. 20 years later, in 1963, Pennwalt built a new research center in the King of Prussia area and moved out of Whitemarsh Hall.
After being demolished in 1980 modern homes were built around the area. Some remnants remain today. There is a fountain, several statues, pieces of low concrete fence and the concrete gazebo-like structure with stairs. It was part of the garden, facing the back of the home. The main entrance which was one mile from the back of Whitemarsh Hall still remains, without the steel gates. The gate house also remains on Douglas Road off of Willow Grove Avenue.
