"I dream't I dwelt in marble halls"
Devoted to the histories and current state of the great mansions of America's Gilded Age.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Bloomfield Mansion at Villanova Burns

Bloomfield before Wednesdays Fire.
The once beautiful Philadelphia Main Line estate's mansion known as Bloomfield, located at Villanova, in Radnor Township, Pennsylvania suffered a devastating fire on Wednesday. Click HERE for fire coverage. This stately French Chateau style home with landscaping designed by the Olmsted Brothers, was redesigned by famed Philadelphia architect, Horace Trumbauer in 1923. It is featured in the book, American Splendor by Michael C. Kathrens. To see the house with floor plans it can be seen in a preview at Acanthus Press. The house has been for sale recently and views of it with interiors can be seen HERE. Hopefully the fire did not destroy the house entirely, but more will be known tomorrow.

Click HERE to see the Bloomfield estate mansion on Bing Maps.

Click HERE for video of the mansion engulfed.

7 comments:

ChipSF said...

This is terrible news. The loss of any Trumbauer house is a tragedy, but the McFadden house is unique in Trumbauer's work. The interior paneling and iron stair rail are spectacular.

Awaiting further news...

Anonymous said...

This is an absolute travesty! I truly think the National Trust should be called in to assist with the salvage efforts! Hopefully, the damage is repairable

NYarch said...

Appeared to be a well preserved house until the fire. Looks like significant damage but it appears to be toward the service wing portion of the house. However, with smoke, fire and water damage throughout it will be hard to restore the interiors because the craftsman are simply no longer available to recreate some of the interior spaces. Very unfortunate. It might be declared a total loss if the cost to rebuild is determined to be too high.

Anonymous said...

Very heartbreaking. A magnificent home and it does appear to be close to a total loss. But what happened to the Olmstead grounds? On Bing the once spectacular grounds look to have been butchered by an insensitive and careless subdivision that lacks any skillful planning or sensitivity to the original gardens.

Anonymous said...

The good news is that the 3rd story of the mansion was destroyed by fire in 1978 and was later rebuilt. So, restoration still might be possible. Furthermore, while the interior might have been gutted, the facade is made of granite, which is pretty durable.

However, the bad news is that the current owner has been trying to sell the property for quite some time, yet to no success. So, he may choose to demolish what remains of the mansion and subsequently subdivide the property.

Ornate Ceilings and Walls said...

Sad to see this house burn. It looked like it was well maintained. Hopefully all is not lost and it can be restored.

Infant blogger getting on my feet. My thanks to Gary Lawrance for posting my information April 2nd.

Anonymous said...

Who were the tenants living in the house? When the news first broke, there was mention of a couple from Montreal and their maid. Who are they and why have we heard nothing since about them? Doesn't that seem strange?

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