Lynnewood Hall

The Widener art collection from Lynnewood Hall was gifted to the National Gallery in Washington DC. Rembrants from the Rembrant Room, Van Dycks from the Van Dyck gallery. Gainsborough and El Greco to add to the mix. When the Gallery opened its doors the Widener collection was one of its major attraction!

The grounds and building are closed to visitors. The current owner is a minister from NY who acquired it after the seminary defaulted on a loan. Sadly, the owner is committing "demolition by neglect". The roof has collapsed in many parts of the main building. About the only thing being maintained is the fence to keep people out.

That's criminal. I don't get it. I passed this place a number of times and wondered what it was and why it was essentially left to rot. Why doesn't the owner sell if he's not doing anything with it?

I made a video of Lynnewood Hall and placed it on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZkP4Fsmatg

If you are concerned about the fate of this beautiful and historic building, and live in the area, you should question the motivation of the local town officials who would rather watch this building deteriorate to a point that it is torn down, than to reduce the ridiculously high taxes (over $100,000 per year - 2009). My suspicion is that there is an "end game" going on here, probably a developer in the shadows ensuring the ultimate fate of this property so they can "Whitemarsh" the place and put in townhomes. . .follow the money, its always about the money!

The local officials have prevented the present owner and every previous potential owner from using the carriage house (incorrectly called the servant's quarters here) as a commercial building. The current owner has publically stated that he would restore the original manor IF the local officials would allow him to use the carriage house as the business office for the church. They refused. They're hoping that a charter school or something non-profit and low impact moves in. But, because of how the place is deteriorating, the prospects of that are about zero. They also refuse to sub-divide the property now, since they got it historically certified to prevent MacIntyre from continuing to sell parts of the mansion to finance his theological college there.

Sadly, we'll probably see this building come down, despite the national historic designation. The current tax bill is news to me, since, for decades, the entire property was tax exempt. Even so, if it's $100K/yr, that's relatively low, and probably is just the value of the acreage.

They're doing the same thing that Springfield Township, Montgomery County did with Whitemarsh Hall (the 100 room Stotesbury mansion). The mansion, considered to be the finest house in the United States when built, was allowed to fall down because owner after owner were effectively prevented from doing ANYTHING with the grounds or the building. Eventually the township got it in a tax foreclosure, let it deteriorate some more, tore it down, and sold the land to a developer. Now, the site is covered in town homes.

This House is Beautiful!!! I live in Toledo Ohio. We have a large Estate named Wildwood. It was the former home of the Stranahan's (Champion Spark Plug).
The people in Lucas County Ohio voted on turned it into a metro park!! The Manor House is used by everyone. Maybe this could be done with this Beauty!

I spoke to someone at the Old York Road Historical Society about Lynnewood Hall. Two bits of info - 1. Supposedly owner has rejected many offers, each time when interested parties where willing to pay his asking price, he would raise the figure! - 2. Person from OYRHS spoke to someone that had been inside 10 years ago, Van Dyck Gallery was in shambles with plasterwork falling down. Who knows what it looks like now?????????????