Once each in the fall and spring the Society hosts outings to historic places.
This April, members and friends are invited to join us on our SPRING OUTING to Stoneleigh.
Sunday, April 28, 2019 * 1PM
Stoneleigh is a 42-acre estate in Villanova that was the Haas family residence from 1932 to 2016. The property was donated to Natural Lands, which opened the estate to the public last year. Stoneleigh’s history dates back to the turn of the 20th century when Samuel Bodine, head of United Gas Improvement Company, acquired the property and built a Tudor Revival style resi- dence that still stands. In 1908, he retained the Olmsted Brothers of Massachusetts, the most prestigious landscape architecture firm in the country, to “guide him in the gradual transformation of the place.” Over the next 50 years, the Olmsted Brothers firm returned periodically to plan vistas and pathways, establish gardens and terraces, reroute points of entry, select plant species, and transplant trees. In 1932 Otto Haas, entrepreneur and co-founder of Rohm and Haas Company, purchased the southwestern por- tion of the estate including the main residence, launching a more than 80-year tenure of careful steward- ship by the Haas family.
On our tour, we will see the main features of the landscape and gardens as well as the main house. The tour of the Tudor Revival mansion will feature the first floor, including a peek at the residence organ, as well as the upper floors. There will be time following the tour for participants to explore the grounds on their own. We will have a guided tour through the mansion and then we will tour a portion of the grounds, discussing its history and design.
Please download the form and mail it to the historical society by Monday April 22, 2019.
