A historic Villanova estate once targeted for school athletic fields will instead be preserved and eventually opened to the public, writes Frank Kummer for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
A $13 million sale between the Lower Merion School District and two conservation-minded nonprofits closed last Friday.
A Deal Years in the Making
The 13-acre Oakwell property is located beside the Stoneleigh public garden. It was sold by the school district after years of conflict over its future.
Natural Lands purchased 10 acres for approximately $10 million. The Wyncote Foundation acquired the remaining three acres, including Oakwell’s 20,000-square-foot mansion, for about $3 million.
The William Penn Foundation also provided support for the acquisition.
“This is just the first step, albeit an essential one,” said Natural Lands president Oliver Bass. He called the organization “thrilled” to expand its neighboring Stoneleigh garden through the deal.
Architecture and Grounds Designed by the Olmsted Brothers
Oakwell’s grounds were laid out by the Olmsted Brothers, the landscape architecture firm behind New York City’s Central Park.
The estate is notable for both its architecture and landscape. Its brick Tudor Revival mansion includes heavy wooden doors, a wainscoted library and decorative Mercer tile floors.
The property also features a pool house, a teahouse once watched over by a terra-cotta warrior statue, stone fencing, and a brick-walled garden complex, with several elements dating back at least 120 years.
The grounds contain roughly 700 trees, including old-growth specimens believed to be more than two centuries old.
The Wyncote Foundation plans to restore and preserve the mansion. Natural Lands will incorporate its portion of the property into the neighboring 42-acre Stoneleigh garden, which draws roughly 45,000 visitors a year.
“We’ve had an opportunity to transform what was a lovely private estate into gardens that are filled with plants native to the southeastern region of Pennsylvania,” said Natural Lands spokesperson Kirsten Werner. “Those are the plants that are essential for insects and are the foundation for the food web that we all depend on.”
Reuniting a Divided Landscape
Oakwell was originally part of Stoneleigh before the two properties were divided during the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Their reunification restores a historic Main Line landscape that had been separated for nearly a century.
A Contentious Path to Preservation
The school district acquired Oakwell through condemnation in December 2018, intending to develop athletic fields for the newly opened Black Rock Middle School.
Oakwell was not the district’s first choice. Officials had previously sought to use part of Stoneleigh itself and looked at Ashbridge Memorial Park, but a longstanding deed restriction blocked that option.
Other nearby sites were considered and ruled out before the district turned to Oakwell.
The condemnation drew significant opposition from neighbors, students, and the former owner. John Bennett had been in an agreement to sell the estate to Villanova University for use as a retreat before the district intervened.
“Those trees were already old when America was young,” Bennett said. “They have survived wars, economic depressions, hurricanes, and generations of families who walked beneath their branches.”
What Comes Next
Natural Lands expects the integration process to take several years and require additional planning and fundraising.
Once completed, the expanded grounds will offer visitors a larger public garden experience while preserving one of Villanova’s most distinctive historic estates.
Read more of the history of the Oakwell estate in Villanova in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
