Lower Merion Conservancy

Preservation News

This is the sixth year the Conservancy has alerted the community to endangered architecture through the list of Top Ten Threatened Historic Structures. While there have been notable and distressing preservation defeats in year’s past, like the reckless demolition of architect Walter K. Durham’s own home in 2000, there are significant wins for the Lower Merion community.

In 1998, the year this list premiered, Shipley’s School’s Beechwood topped the list as the most threatened historic building in the area. Ultimately, Shipley decided to retain and restore Beechwood on its reconfigured campus, and the building is a stunning tribute to Victorian elegance.

The General Wayne Inn and its Revolutionary-era ghosts have been perennials on this list for many years, leading off in the Number One spot in 2001. This spring, a partnership associated with Lubavitch of the Main Line, an Orthodox Jewish group, has purchased the building, planning to run it as a kosher restaurant/community center. Happily, they plan to restore the façade of this critically important building, and it returns to active life in Lower Merion.

The Gerhard Building of Bryn Mawr Hospital, was voted number one in our second year, 1999, as the hospital then planned to demolish the 1893 Frank Furness/Allan Evans building. As noted in these pages, the hospital’s ambitious development plan for central Bryn Mawr includes the retention of Gerhard, the original Bryn Mawr Hospital. The Rees Price House, better known as Lankenau Hospital’s Hamper Shop on Montgomery Avenue has long been a worry for preservationists; Main Line Health seems committed to retaining this building as well, so important in Narberth history.

Please join the Conservancy and our Historic Preservation Advisory Committee in thanking these owners for retaining these important buildings in our communal landscape.

Updated: 1/22/2004 © 2010Lower Merion Conservancy. All rights reserved.

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