After three decades of sitting vacant and steadily deteriorating, Lynnewood Hall, the Gilded-Age mansion in Elkins Park, has found its new owners. Carla Robinson reported the good news in the Chestnut Hill Local.

A group of young preservationists have reached an agreement to acquire the property and will start renovating the 110-room building and its gardens soon.

Edward Thome, a 24-year-old visionary from Central Pennsylvania, is the hero behind this effort. He has been dreaming about Lynnewood Hall since he was 11 years old and first saw the mansion in pictures on the internet.

Along with his friend and partner Angie Van Scyoc, the founder of the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation, Thome has been working toward achieving that goal ever since.

The plans gelled only last summer, however, when George Coates, a Chestnut Hill business and public policy consultant, joined the foundation’s board and helped turn it into a nonprofit. Shortly after, they met Scott and Susan Bentley of Pottstown, a pair of angel investors.

Soon they had enough funding to start negotiations to buy the property.

“It all came together in the space of about five weeks,” said Thome.

Read more about the rosy future for Lynnewood Hall in the Chestnut Hill Local.

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This video’s question — What will happen to Lynnewood Hall? — has now been answered.