Historic Location in Artistic Rendering Revealed

Last week, instead of a photograph, we provided an of a historical site. 

As many commenters correctly guessed, it is none other than Loch Aerie, aka Lockwood Mansion, which sits next to and across Route 30 from .

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.  gets credit for chiming in with the correct answer first.  was the first with the official name.

Here's a sampling of the comments from last week:

 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)

 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.

 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.