Lynnewood Hall

(Elkins Park, PA, U.S.A.) This is Lynnewood Hall, the former home of the Widener family, which I was privileged to tour and photograph for an entire morning in July of 2025. The building is a 110 room Neoclassical Revival mansion designed by internationally-known Philadelphia architect, Horace Trumbauer (1868-1938) and built between 1897 & 1899 for industrialist, philanthropist, and lover of fine art, Peter A. B. Widener. After Widener's death, the property changed hands several times and was ultimately abandoned in the 1990s. As of 2023 it is owned and being renovated by the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation. Despite its disrepair, you can sense its original grandeur. Over the next 85 pages, you will see fascinating, beautiful examples of Trumbauer’s work.

“Art belongs to those who appreciate it. Others merely own it.”

— Joseph Early Widener

We learn from history that the deaths of

Peter Widener’s elder son George Dunton Widener and grandson Harry Elkins Widener onboard the RMS Titanic hit him hard and that he was never the same man again. Lynnewood Hall changed hands a few times over the subsequent decades, with large portions of the estate grounds sold off in the 1940s. It hosted a Bible Presbyterian Church seminary from 1952 until the late 1990s, when the property was ultimately abandoned.

The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2025.

https://lynnewoodhallpreservation.org/history/

The Foundation writes, “You Can Make A Difference!” and asks the public,

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