Preserved by College, Historic Home is a Castle on Philadelphia's Main Line

A lecture last week given by the Lower Merion Conservancy gave me the opportunity to visit a great historic home on Philadelphia's Main Line. It is so close to the old Pennsylvania RR tracks (which were the "Main Line" from Philadelphia to the suburbs) that a train whizzed by the parking lot as I arrived.

Rathalla (meaning in Gaelic the home of the chieftain upon the highest hill) was designed by Hazlehurst and Huckel and built in 1891 on 40 acres in Rosemont, Pennsylvania. The owner was Joseph Sinott, an Irish immigrant in the distillery business.

Take a look at the 16th C. French chateau of Chambord http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Chambord and you will see the style the architects were longing for when they designed Rathalla. There are indeed 4 towers, one in each corner, and lively figures carved in stone which serve as brackets under a balcony. In 1923, Rathalla was purchased by the Sisters of the Holy Child and became the campus of Rosemont College; in 1980, the property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Now used as an administration building by Rosemont College, this historic building now holds offices and meeting rooms as well as 4 suites for visitors. When queried about the suites, the woman in charge looked at me and said, "The nuns lived in these small rooms, not really worth showing." What a difference from when Sinott lived there with his wife and six boys and three girls ranging in age from 27 to 13. In addition, there were seven servants in residence: cook, assistant cook, two chambermaids, seamstress, laundress, and groom. Mr. Sinnott died in 1906, his wife in 1918. The house stood empty until its purchase by the Sisters of the Holy Child in 1921. So the house went from living on a grand scale to living modestly, but in a grand place!