Lynnewood Hall is one of the most magnificent residences I have photographed. This 110-room Neoclassical Revival mansion, located in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, has stood vacant for several years but is now undergoing stabilization and renovations.
Lynnewood Hall is one of the most magnificent residences I have photographed. This 110-room Neoclassical Revival mansion, located in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, has stood vacant for several years but is now undergoing stabilization and renovations thanks to the efforts of Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation. Many thanks must be given to Matthew Christopher’s Abandoned America for working with the Foundation for access.
The mansion was designed by Horace Trumbauer for Peter A. B. Widener, a wealthy entrepreneur with significant transportation and real estate holdings, and was completed in 1899. Constructed from Indiana limestone, Lynnewood Hall originally included 55 bedrooms, a large art gallery, a library housing Widener’s grandsons’ book collection, a swimming pool, wine cellars, a farm, carpentry and upholstery studios, a bakery, and a small electrical power plant. The estate spanned 800 acres and featured a horse track, stables, a gatehouse, and a smaller residence known as Lynnewood Lodge (Conklin Hall). Its 33-acre ornamental gardens, designed by head gardener William Kleinheinz, included a large fountain by Henri-Léon Gréber. The Wideners employed 100 workers to maintain the estate.
Lynnewood Hall was also home to one of the largest private art collections of the Gilded Age.
Peter A. B. Widener died on November 6, 1915, having been predeceased by his elder son, George Dunton Widener, and his grandson, Harry Elkins Widener, both of whom died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912. Ownership of Lynnewood Hall then passed to his son, Joseph, who converted the library into a ballroom that could accommodate 1,000 guests.
In 1942, Joseph donated over 2,000 sculptures, paintings, decorative artworks, and porcelains to the National Gallery of Art. Following Joseph’s death in 1943, the southern part of the estate was sold for development. In 1952, Lynnewood Hall was acquired by radio evangelist Rev. Carl McIntire’s Faith Theological Seminary, which trained hundreds of ministers and Christian leaders. Although initially successful, McIntire’s authoritarian and controversial beliefs led to faculty and student departures.
As financial difficulties mounted, the Seminary began dismantling portions of the mansion’s interior, leaving the building in poor condition by the 1980s. Lynnewood Hall was eventually sold at a sheriff’s sale in 1996 to the Seminary’s chancellor, Rev. Richard Sei-Oung Yoon, who attempted to operate the First Korean Church of New York from the property. However, due to the inability to qualify for a tax exemption and ongoing legal disputes with the township, Yoon sold Lynnewood Hall to the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation in 2023. The Foundation plans to fully restore the mansion and open the gardens to the public as a park.
