The Oakwell Estate, Villanova
On Monday, April 24, 2023 Material Culture is proud to host a truly special event: “Celebrating A Century of Life on The Main Line - Featuring The Oakwell Estate, Villanova, PA.” An estate auction in the grandest tradition, the sale will include property from the historic Oakwell Estate on Philadelphia’s Main Line and other fine estates from the greater Philadelphia region and Upper Manhattan. The Oakwell estate was originally part of another historic Villanova estate, Stoneleigh. Built in 1877 by Edmund Smith, a Pennsylvania Railroad executive, the 65-acre Stoneleigh was later acquired by Samuel Bodine, who gifted a portion of the land to son William, to build his own home, which he would name Oakwell. The contiguous properties were for some 50 years, starting in 1908, landscaped by the Olmsted Brothers, who inherited their business from their famous father Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of New York City’s Central Park and generally considered the pater familias of landscape architecture in the United States. The Oakwell Estate – house, gardens and arboretum, has been the subject of much controversy recently after its new owners, the Lower Merion School District, released their original plans to clear the grand 1922 Mansion and the Olmsted [...]