8701 Germantown Avenue

 

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(photograph from Chestnut Hill Historical Society-John Naylor Collection: 1970.43)

MAP NUMBER: 35
DATE: Original building 18th century, 1876
ORIGINAL OWNER: Unknown
ARCHITECT: Unknown
CONTRACTOR: Unknown
DEMOLISHED:  1927

The Maple Lawn Inn was a summer hotel, which opened in 1876 at the
fork of Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike.  The inn earned its nickname,
the "Dust Bin," from the dust generated by the roads.   The building
originally housed the 18th-century Yeakel Store and was enlarged with
the mansard roof and cupola probably in 1876.  The Philadelphia Rapid
Transit (PRT) bought the inn and then demolished it in 1927 to make a
trolley loop.   Later, a Gulf service station operated on this site, now, 
the Borders Book Store.

See Jarvis, "Chestnut Hill Revisited," p. 21.