Lynnewood Hall

Lynnewood Hall was commissioned by Peter A.B. Widener, who made his fortune in Philadelphia streetcar consolidation, United States Steel, and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Architect Horace Trumbauer, who had already designed Widener's Philadelphia townhouse, began construction in 1897. The mansion opened with a gala on December 19, 1899, although interior work continued into 1900.

The T-shaped Indiana-limestone building measures 268 feet long by 215 feet deep and contains 110 rooms across approximately 70,000 square feet. Programmatic features included 55 bedrooms, 20 bathrooms, a ballroom sized for 1,000 guests, a Van Dyck Hall art gallery, a swimming pool, wine cellars, a working farm on the surrounding 36-acre estate, and an in-house electrical power plant.

The Widener family assembled one of the most significant private art collections in the United States. Peter Widener's son Joseph Early Widener inherited the house in 1915 and expanded the collection further. Following Joseph's death in 1943, the collection — including works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Manet — was donated to the National Gallery of Art under terms set by an act of Congress.

The Widener family is also linked to the loss of the Titanic in 1912. Peter A.B. Widener's son George Dunton Widener and grandson Harry Elkins Widener both died in the sinking. Harry's mother survived. Peter died at Lynnewood Hall in 1915, three years after the disaster.

Following Joseph Widener's death, the house was sold in 1944 and changed hands several times. It sat largely vacant for decades. In June 2023 the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation purchased the property for $9 million and began a multi-phase stabilization and restoration program. Asbestos remediation alone is budgeted at $1.25 million. The foundation has offered limited pre-restoration tours and plans to open the grounds and eventually the interior to the public as a cultural center.