House tour coming to Rare Victorian

I'm totally psyched about a private house tour that I have arranged of a circa 1865 home that I've been admiring for about 17 years from afar.  The house is currently for sale/lease and I've contacted the listing agent and arranged to photograph/video the house as I tour it.  I will share anything that comes of it with RV visitors.  I'm trying to figure out if this is Gothic Revival or Stick and am leaning towards Stick at the moment.  There are components of each style in the home that I can see.  Stay tuned!

Beautiful house! I would lean toward gothic or Carpenter gothic, but many stick style homes had gothic elements as well. What a great tower to veiw approaching guests/ enemys/crusaders entering your propertys!  :o ;D

It's on the market for 2.25 mil and if I had the coin I might consider it for Rare V. headquarters ;-)

Unfortunately, the reality is that it isn't a good candidate for a single family home due to location (not to mention the > 6,000 sq ft.)  It is only suitable for business use now that it has a Home Depot literally in it's back yard and it is on a very heavy traffic road which intersects a major highway that can be seen from the front yard.

Would be an amazing B&B/restaurant with a highly accessible location.

Beautiful house. Look forward to seeing the inside. Have you talked to any house movers?

I am surprised that they would be asking so much for a house in such an undesireable spot.  Unless they're going for "bussiness desireable" and someone will tear it town just to get at the land to build a Walgreens on.  :'(

Maybe you should start a collection to buy it, RV.  How many members are there here?  Let's see, split 2.5mil by X members....  Probalby more than we'd give.  ;)

Here's a preview of the images that I have coming.  I also have video, but unbelievably, the camera died as I was attaching it to my computer to get the movie transferred.  Click the image for a big version.

Flickr slideshow here.

Fans of plasterwork will love the interior pictures, though will be sad by the condition.

Thanks for the virtual visit to a fascinating building, RV! As I looked a the photos, I couldn't help but think, "If this building were in NJ, it would have been abandoned, subject to trespasses by invaders armed with vivid imaginations and a lifetime subscription to Weird NJ magazine, vandalized, torched, demolished and the resultant raw land sold to Lowes."   >:(  Thank goodness it is in PA, where a significant historic building at least stands a chance of surviving, location problems notwithstanding.

Stylistically, the exterior is an Italianate villa with Gothic detailing, and in that context (and with a construction date of the late 1860's), the elaborate interior plasterwork is to be expected.  The house was designed by Addison Hutton, a prominent Philadelphia architect, for William Lockwood, who made his fortune in "shirt collars" and "folding boxes." (In The Victorian Home in America, John Maas for some reason attributes the design to Samuel Sloan, who was well-known for his suburban villas... perhaps the mis-attribution results from Hutton having both studied under and worked as a partner to Sloan for a time?) The too-close-for-comfort Home Depot is especially unfortunate, since according to the HABS documentation on the house (originally known as "Glen Loch" and later re-named to "Loch Aerie"), the estate was once comprised of almost 700 acres, with the house sitting in "the center of a splendid lawn of some six acres"! RV, is the man-made lake seen in the c. 1958 HABS photos no longer in existence?

Plaster aficionados, the HABS info contains a few hi-res images taken before the interior fell into disrepair. There is also a photo of the (coal burning?) fireplace with the window above it with the "keystone" intact.... what a difference 50 years makes in the life of a building.   :(

"If this building were in NJ, it would have been abandoned, subject to trespasses by invaders armed with vivid imaginations and a lifetime subscription to Weird NJ magazine, vandalized, torched, demolished and the resultant raw land sold to Lowes."   Thank goodness it is in PA, where a significant historic building at least stands a chance of surviving, location problems notwithstanding.

Actually, you don't know how close to right you are.  The building was apparently squatted in by the Philadelphia incarnation of the Warlocks biker gang some number (decades?) ago.  I have personal confirmation of this fact by an antique store owner who WAS THERE, PARTIED WITH THEM and LIVED THERE for a time.  He said back then, "it was a dump".  Amazingly I went to the house at noon, visited the nearby (5 miles) antique store on a whim, mentioned the house, and he said "oh, I know that house ....".

The man-made lake is gone.  It is now Home Depot parking lot.

My heart aches seeing these great properties (house AND land) lost forever.

Wait til you see the video tour.  I'm hoping the underground storage rooms have enough light .... amazing.

Thanks very much for finding the information!  Saved me a trip to the Historical Society!

Thats a very nice slideshow, And I had to share it with my friends on the HGTV boards. Heres the link.
HGTV General Decorating

Thanks for sharing it Rayman.

Also, I'd like to encourage the rest of you to "crash" some historic houses out there and post them here. 

I'm going to do my best to do more in the future and I already have a mental list of those that I'd like to get into...  that was fun.

Wow, amazing house! Its almost criminal that the land has all been sold off... and turning the lake into a parking lot. :'(

I must have more information on the plaster. Does the local hist soc have anything about it?
I am attaching photos of our 1862 similar/almost exact plaster for the eagles and the medallion. As you can see, I have additional pieces applied to ours, but the base work is too close to dismiss.
I have been trying to attribute our plaster to a manufacturer, and also locate architect/decorator, so any information re location, hist soc, and documentation is needed.
See photos attached of the specific instances, I need to go back and look at slides again for other comparatives.
Help me track this down finally, another house with specific examples! :D Do you know who to contact at the historical society? Is it Malvern local? or other name?

Not sure on historical society information.  I would start at Chester County Historical Society.  I have the Addison-Hutton book (the architect) by Elizabeth Biddle Yarnall.  I see no reference to the plaster within the Loch Aerie section of the book.  Reading the rest of the book may yield a go-to plaster guy that Hutton used, but it may be a long-shot.

OK, sounds good. I had Chester Co. contact on my list because of another house, but these coincidences are very promising. I have looked through so many old catalogs for plaster, and found one medallion in the Samuel French cat, but was really looking for the eagles so I could rebuild the wings.
I'll go back to the slide show, but would like a single photo of the eagle that I could reference by printing and bringing on site if you are willing, it would help.
I will try locating the book, I have so many rumored attributions, but no real firm candidates. Did they also do work in NJ? Does it give a list of dated projects?

Quote from: amadara
Did they also do work in NJ?

Hutton did design buildings in NJ, according to the browsable database of his known projects at http://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/25239

Yes, some work in NJ, but not much (in Trenton some time around your home's time period: 1864-1868 - State Hospital).  The book does document his projects by year, but it appears that it may have some omissions.  Also, he worked for Samuel Sloan from 1857-1861 and became a partner with Sloan 1864-1868.

I've included a frame grab of the bird from video and another bird from the photo, attached.

Thanks for the photos, I got them and am printing to make sure my wings are around the right length. I had a dead end with Samuel Sloan, but perhaps I will re-pursue that.
It is interesting that just as the home is nearing completion, an advertisement begins to appear in my owner's publication "the National Standard". I always wonder if it was in trade for work completed. This man "VanKirk" was first listed in Burl Co NJ census as a "carpenter" then next census as "Builder" then later as "architect". I have found no other attributable work to this man, although he worked as a carpenter on the First Presbyterian Church which was built in 1856 by John McArthur Jr, based on a plan by none other than "Samuel Sloan". We also have Thomas Ustick Walter in the area, working in the next town over, Bridgeton...and in the 1880's George Hewitt of Phila.
Maybe Sloan isnt my dead end, but just the beginning. Although it seems he published pattern books which were used as reference by other architects?
I will be searching further.

Video is now up on my newly launched site OldHouseTours.com.

I hope everyone will come by and I welcome criticisms/comments.

John

Nice job! Ill have to come back when I have time to see it all.