Historic Location in Artistic Rendering Revealed
It is Loch Aerie, a mansion-turned-bike-hangout-turned-private residence.
Last week, instead of a photograph, we provided an artistic rendering of a historical site.
As many commenters correctly guessed, it is none other than Loch Aerie, aka Lockwood Mansion, which sits next to Home Depot and across Route 30 from Sheraton Great Valley.
The mansion was originally built in the home of paper magnate William Lockwood. A series of stepped lakes up Phoenixville Pike—some of which occupied the current Home Depot parking lot space—created water pressure for indoor plumbing.
Over the years, it nearly became a store, received one of the region's first telephones, suffered major fire damage, and was even the site of a motorcycle gang shootout.
The East Whiteland Historical Commission, which supplied the art in last week's post, was hoping to hear colorful details in the comments, and that's just what happened. Tom Logue gets credit for chiming in with the correct answer first. Geoeray was the first with the official name.
Here's a sampling of the comments from last week:
Regina DiLabbio Klugh King wrote: Wasn't it the scene of a shoot-out between local motorcycle gang members and police back in the 1970's? (Across the then-dinky old two-lane Lincoln Highway from the Glen Lincoln Tavern)Karla Yeager Loughead wrote: That is the Lockwood Mansion. It had a beautiful stained glass window at the first landing on the stairs that I heard got broken during the shoot out.
Version wrote: I so remember that biker thing at that house back in the 70's. Was young than, teenager. There were cops all over the place, we were driving up Rt 30 when that was going on, they had the road closed. That was a crazy time for bikers, very active.
A 2000 Philadelphia Inquirer article, titled From Victorian Decorum To Warlock Wildness, explored the mansion's beginnings:
When Lockwood set out to build Loch Aerie in 1861, the nation was at war and East Whiteland was an open territory of small dairy farms and busy commercial operations, such as lime kilns and stone and marble quarries.Lockwood hired Addison Hutton, an architect from a top Philadelphia firm, and spent four years and a quarter of a million dollars before completing the five-bedroom mansion.
Reporters of the day marveled at its features, including two furnaces, underground gas works, and a "window" fireplace with two flues that diverted smoke around the window opening.
Please feel free to keep the conversation going in the comments section below. Thanks everyone for reading and chiming in.
Paula K
10:27 am on Thursday, September 13, 2012
Wish the Tabas family would stop holding out for big $$, sell it and let someone USE this building--the auction result awhile back was rejected by the heirs. The longer it sits, the more work it will need, the less money it will bring...(the Tabas family has owned the Lockwood ever since they bought it from the Church that received it via the Lockwood sisters' estate.)
Geoeray
3:31 pm on Tuesday, September 18, 2012
I think the shoot out story goes that the State Police and E. W. Police planned a raid on the house going after the bikers. Coincidentally on the same night. They never communicated to each other about the raid. One police squad had hidden for their approach to do the raid. The other police squad came in behind them not knowing there were cops in front of them and were spotted by the bikers. Shooting started with cops trapped in between. Machine guns, semi auto, and single gunshots rang out. A friend and his family could hear everything from their house on Frame Avenue. Cops won. The outlaws were ran out of Frazer. Yay.