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Woodmont (Gladwyne, Pennsylvania)

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Woodmont
Woodmont in 1902.
Woodmont (Gladwyne, Pennsylvania) is located in Pennsylvania
Woodmont (Gladwyne, Pennsylvania)
Location1622 Spring Mill Rd.,
Gladwyne, Pennsylvania
Area72 acres (290,000 m2)
Built1891-94
ArchitectWill Price
Architectural styleChâteauesque
NRHP reference No.98001192
Significant dates
Added to NRHPAugust 5, 1998[1]
Designated NHLAugust 6, 1998[2]

Woodmont is a mansion and hilltop estate of 72 acres (290,000 m2) in Gladwyne, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1998.[2][3]

Alan Wood, Jr.

Woodmont was designed in 1891 by Quaker architect William Lightfoot Price in the French Gothic style for Alan Wood, Jr., a steel magnate and former U.S. Congressman. Overlooking the Schuylkill River, the industrial town of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and the Alan Wood Iron & Steel Company Plant, the chateauesque mansion was completed in 1894 at a cost of one-million dollars.

The site is the highest elevation in Montgomery County, and features views of 15 to 20 miles. The mansion stands on the estate's highest ground, with the Schuylkill Expressway passing by it, hundreds of feet below.

The model for Woodmont was the George W. Vanderbilt mansion, Biltmore, in Ashville, North Carolina. Price had designed a nearby hotel for Vanderbilt, the Kenilworth Inn (1890-91), and was intimately familiar with the then-under-construction chateau.

Woodmont includes tennis courts, a swimming pool, stables, several outbuildings, greenhouses, a stream, and walking paths. The original property spanned more than 400 acres (1,600,000 m2), including a working farm with two dairy barns (one survives).

Alan Wood, Jr. occupied the estate for less than a decade. A year before his 1902 death, he sold it to his nephew, Richard G. Wood, who lived there for 28 years. Richard began subdividing the land in 1929, including the sale of 200 acres (810,000 m2) to the Philadelphia Country Club.

Father Divine

The estate is today the center of the International Peace Mission movement. Father Divine, a self-proclaimed God and leader of the movement, was given the estate by a follower, John Devoute, in 1953. His followers renovated the mansion and placed an American flag prominently in front reflecting Father Divine's patriotism. They also added a garden like those on previous Peace Mission properties. An open house was held on September 10, 11, and 12, 1953.

Followers visited Father Divine here until his death in 1965. All furnishings in Divine's rooms, including an antiquated television set, have been left as they were at his death. The estate is now a shrine to his life and a meeting place for his few remaining followers.

Visiting

Woodmont is open to the public on Sunday afternoons, from April to October. The guided tours are free of charge. Information[1]

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23.
  2. ^ a b "Woodmont". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  3. ^ Susan Glassman and Carolyn Pitts (1998-03-02), National Historic Landmark Nomination: Woodmont / The Mount of the House of the Lord (PDF), National Park Service, retrieved 2009-06-22 and Template:PDFlink
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