Grey Towers Castle
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Grey Towers
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Grey Towers
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| Location | Glenside, Pennsylvania |
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| Coordinates | 40°5′27″N 75°9′53″W / 40.09083°N 75.16472°WCoordinates: 40°5′27″N 75°9′53″W / 40.09083°N 75.16472°W |
| Built | 1893 |
| Architect | Horace Trumbauer |
| Architectural style | Gothic Revival & others |
| NRHP Reference # | 80003578 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | February 14, 1980 |
| Designated NHL | February 4, 1985 |
Grey Towers Castle is a building on the campus of Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania which is in Cheltenham Township, a suburb of Philadelphia, USA. The castle was designed by Horace Trumbauer and built starting in 1893 as the estate of William Welsh Harrison. The university (then known as Beaver College and located in nearby Jenkintown) purchased the estate in 1929 for $712,500, equal to $9,937,718 today. Classes were split between the two locations until 1962, when the school moved all of its operations to the Glenside area. The castle was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985 for its architecture.
In 1891, William Welsh Harrison, co-owner of the Franklin Sugar Refinery, purchased Rosedale Hall from J. Thomas Audenreid. By 1891, Harrison had expanded his estate to 138 acres (0.56 km2) and decided to expand the house and add a gate house and more adequate stables. He employed the skills of 23-year-old architect Horace Trumbauer, who completed the stables and gate house in 1892.
In 1893, the main house of Rosedale Hall burned to the ground in a raging fire, during which the Harrison family fled to the stables for safety. Afterward, the family moved into the gatehouse, while Trumbauer was again employed to build a new home on the site. By March 1893, Trumbauer presented Harrison with plans for a grandiose mansion, inspired by Alnwick Castle, the medieval seat of the Dukes of Northumberland. The new house would include all the most modern conveniences of the time, and the cost was estimated at $250,000, equal to $6,663,889 today. Work was underway by the end of 1893. The construction took five years.
Grey Towers Castle is designed in a highly eclectic yet elegant fashion, taking inspiration from a variety of styles, periods, and buildings. The house is built of grey stone quarried at nearby Chestnut Hill, and Indiana limestone is used for exterior door and window trim, and other elements, such as the various gargoyles.
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