January 26, 1890 – The Philadelphia Times reported the planned reconstruction of the Bryn Mawr Hotel. Architects for the project are Furness, Evans and Co.
Artist’s rendering of the “future Bryn Mawr Hotel – 1890”
The Original Keystone/Bryn Mawr Hotel – Opened in 1872, destroyed by fire in 1887
Photo source – Lower Merion Historical Society
From the Lower Merion Historial Society – The “Original Bryn Mawr Hotel”
Equipped with every convenience and luxury for its guests’ comfort and delight, the Keystone’s amenities included gas light, bathtubs, the first elevator on the Main Line, a “ten pin alley,” first-quality mattresses, and the location of one bathroom on every floor! No expense was spared with the interiors either…the furniture was valued at $75,000 in 1887.
Social life of all Bryn Mawr centered around activities at the Keystone. Both locals and hotel guests eagerly awaited the event of the season, the Bryn Mawr Assemblies, which would draw more than 500 people. Equestrian activities were popular as well as carriage riding and horseback riding. Baseball, tennis, and cricket were also favorites.
Baldwin School Takes Over – 1897
n 1888, Miss Florence Baldwin and her two sisters opened the Baldwin School with a vision: to provide an educational experience that would prepare young girls to be successful in the realms of higher education. The first class consisting of 13 girls, was conducted in Miss Baldwin’s mother’s home, which was located on the northwest corner of Montgomery Ave and Morris Avenues. Their mission was to prepare young women to enter Bryn Mawr College. The school quickly prospered and they outgrew the available space in the house.
In 1897, Miss Baldwin contracted with the owners of the Bryn Mawr Hotel, to lease classroom space in the hotel. The agreement stipulated that the school could take over the hotel during the off-season during the fall, winter and spring. The school would be allowed to use the buildings and grounds, including the ice house and electric power facility. In return, Miss Baldwin agreed to vacate the premises by the first of May and promised not to bolt the desks to the floor of the dining room. The arrangement worked nicely for 16 years with the curriculum adjusted to the accommodate the abbreviated school year.
As the New Jersey shore became the popular summer location for the Bryn Mawr Hotel clientele and reservations declined, the hotel closed. In 1913 a new agreement was made between Miss Baldwin and the hotel for a year-to-year lease. Miss Baldwin made the permanent conversion of the hotel into a school in 1922, at which time the owners gave notice of their intention to terminate the lease agreement in 1924. Miss Baldwin located a 30 acre parcel of land, one mile away in Gladwyne, and planned a new campus and building design. The Alumnae Association optimistically hoped to sell bonds to their members to finance the development.
1913 Advertisement – Click here to see more historic images of Baldwin School
The Society of Architectural Historians has this to say about The Baldwin School (Bryn Mawr Hotel)
After an earlier hotel by Wilson Brothers burned, Frank Furness built a successor on the original site. The conical red shingle roof above the projecting semicylindrical entrance bay of the Bryn Mawr Hotel is capped by an immense weathervane that was intended to be visible to arriving guests from the nearby station of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the hotel’s builder. The weathervane and front tower still dominate the facade, but the building is now approached through a splendid twentieth-century classical iron and stone gate that passes across a deep green which frames the view of Furness’s immense pile and provides access to the original driveway. The long facade of local stone with brick arches above the windows recalls regional industrial practice, but it is given domestic character by a screen of porches along the lower levels. These are interrupted by the projecting bay that contains an entrance hall at the first floor with lounges on the upper levels that offer views of the parklike setting. The first-floor lobby and main dining rooms are clad with Furness’s simplified oak paneling, giving an expected note of luxury, but the main staircase is a tribute to the region’s industrial culture with unadorned steel stringers riveted together. Late-nineteenth-century Philadelphia industrialists reveled in contemporary life.
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