"It's fabulous. This house was built to entertain. It's built to host."
Edward Thome, executive director of the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation, said that to The Philadelphia Inquirer on September 25, as the first visitors in more than eight decades walked across the mansion's checkerboard lobby floor. He was describing the house's history. He was also describing its plan. Both of Elkins Park's great Horace Trumbauer estates, Lynnewood Hall on Spring Avenue and Elkins Estate on Ashbourne Road, are paying for their survival by hosting. They rent themselves out for exhibitions, weddings, film shoots and overnight stays. For anyone who has driven past these buildings for years, that means the way in will be a ticket or an invitation. Regular opening hours are not part of either plan.
Ten Days on Spring Avenue
Fleurs de Villes "The Gilded Age" ran at Lynnewood Hall, 920 Spring Avenue, from September 25 through October 4, 2026, daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Adult admission was $30.50. It was the third stop on a national tour that takes floral mannequins inspired by the HBO series to six historic estates and gardens around the country. Proceeds went toward the mansion's restoration. The Foundation also held its first annual public gala in the house on September 26, with tickets listed at $360.
The flowers brought people in, but the building was what many of them came to see. Peter A.B. Widener, a West Philadelphia bricklayer's son who became a transit tycoon, built the neoclassical revival mansion around 1899. Trumbauer, whose firm later designed the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was the architect. The house covers 100,000 square feet and 110 rooms, and the Inquirer calls it the second-largest surviving Gilded Age mansion in the United States. After Widener died, the estate and its art collection stayed open to the public until 1940. The collection was then moved, and the family sold the property in 1944.
The Inquirer met Karen Brown and Cameo John, best friends in their mid-40s who grew up in Elkins Park when the mansion was already falling apart. On opening day they finally went inside. John said she hopes the house could become a wedding venue and a place of learning for younger people.
What the Floral Show Couldn't Cover
The flowers hid nothing. A placard explained how a failed downspout had let rainwater in. Plaster had come off walls and ceilings, leaving rusted mesh lath and holes. In the Van Dyck Gallery, ornamental molding had broken away down to the brick.
Those rooms explain the Foundation's numbers. Here they are as the Foundation's leaders gave them to the Inquirer in September 2026:
| Item | Figure | Who said it |
|---|---|---|
| First-phase stabilization: roof, downspouts, urgent water damage | About $10 million | Angie Van Scyoc, COO |
| Received from an angel investor | $9 million | Angie Van Scyoc, COO |
| Full repairs | $300 million over 25 years | Edward Thome, executive director |
| Recently secured for Lynnewood Lodge, an 18,000-square-foot building on the grounds | $1 million | Edward Thome, executive director |
The angel investment nearly covers the first phase. Against the 25-year total, it is about 3 percent. The rest of the gap explains why a house like this opens to the public through events. Van Scyoc told the Inquirer the Foundation is applying for grants and asking for donations. She also expects film agreements and other leasing deals to raise significant money, since the mansion has already served as a movie set. She pointed to two English examples: Highclere Castle, restored with revenue from Downton Abbey, and Wentworth Woodhouse, a 250,000-square-foot country house where filming was a primary source of income.
Under that model, every exhibition, gala, shoot or private rental is a day the house is booked. Public visits fit into the calendar around that work. As of today, the Foundation's events page lists the floral exhibition and the gala and nothing after October 4, for the rest of 2026 or for 2027. In the near term, Thome expects more roof work and improvements to the grounds.
The Estate on Ashbourne Road Already Runs This Way
Elkins Estate, at 1750 Ashbourne Road, has been operating on this model for a while. The 42-acre property is anchored by Elstowe Manor, which Trumbauer designed for industrialist William Elkins in 1898. Today it is an event venue with 69 guest rooms and room for receptions of up to 300 guests. In December 2025 the estate said it was offering incentives to television and film productions looking for locations. It also announced an on-site kitchen and classroom for workshops and demonstrations, plus a podcast and recording studio. The Inquirer reported that the studio and demonstration kitchen had opened earlier in 2025, and that the operator hoped local students would use them.
That December announcement promised two more openings for fall 2026. Neither has happened on schedule. Here is where each one stands as of October 4:
- Chelten House. The Tudor-style mansion was built in 1896 for George Elkins and designed by Trumbauer. It was announced as a venue for small events, retreats and overnight stays with 16 more guest rooms. The operator's venue page, updated September 30, now says "Coming January 2027," lists a 140-guest capacity, and invites people to book hard-hat tours now. Other parts of the same page still mention Winter 2026 and Fall 2026, so January 2027 is the latest target the operator has published, not a fixed date.
- Morgan Stillhouse. This distillery and tasting room in the estate's former stables was announced as open to the public. Its website lists gin, vodka and whiskey and names Carlo DeVito as distillery manager. The site invites visitors to come "during normal business hours" but does not post the hours or an opening date. In December 2025 the Inquirer reported it would open by summer, and Glenside Local said fall. Until the distillery posts a schedule, its public opening is still a plan.
Of the two, Morgan Stillhouse is the one built for the walk-in public. A tasting room is the closest thing either estate has announced to a regular open door. Its delay means that for now, getting inside Elkins Estate still depends on having an event booked there.
The Free Door This Month
One historic house in Elkins Park has a public date on the calendar this month, and admission is free. The Richard Wall House Museum is holding a Community Fair and Open House on Sunday, October 18, 2026, from 1 to 4 p.m. at 1 Wall Park Drive. The fair is part of Cheltenham Township's America 250 program and will feature history exhibits, demonstrations by local historical organizations, hands-on activities, food and live music.
The Wall House runs on a different scale and a different model from the Spring Avenue and Ashbourne Road mansions. It is a community museum hosting an open house with no ticket, no rental and no restoration pitch attached. For anyone who missed Lynnewood Hall's ten days, it is the easiest way to get inside a historic Elkins Park house before the year ends.
What to Watch Through Early 2027
Each of the larger estates has a few concrete signs of what comes next:
- Lynnewood Hall's events page. Any new public date will be listed by the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation first. Roof work and the $1 million Lynnewood Lodge stabilization are the projects Thome named for the near term.
- Chelten House's January 2027 target. Hard-hat tours are underway now. The official opening will add a second event venue on the Elkins Estate grounds.
- Morgan Stillhouse's posted hours. Once the distillery publishes a schedule, Elkins Estate will have its first walk-in public space.
All three come back to what Thome said on opening day. These houses were designed for hosting, and hosting is now how they pay for restoration. The public will get in when an exhibition, a venue opening or a tasting room makes room for them, and right now the next confirmed date is the Wall House fair on October 18.
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