9201 Germantown Avenue

 


click on image to see larger version
(photograph from Chestnut Hill Historical Society-John Naylor Collection: 1970.73)

MAP NUMBER: 46
DATE: c. 1854-1855
ORIGINAL OWNER: Cephas G. Childs
ARCHITECT: Unknown
CONTRACTOR: Unknown

This building stands on the northeast corner of Bell's Mill Road and
Germantown Avenue.  Publisher and lithographer, Cephas G. Childs,
owned this property from 1854 to 1855 as well as other properties
around Chestnut Hill.  Charles Knox Smith bought the house and property
from the Sheppard family in April 1898.  Smith amassed an art
collection, which was displayed in this house.  Upon his death in 1936,
his will directed that the art collection and property serve as the basis
and creation of the Woodmere Art Gallery, now  the Woodmere Art Museum. 
Alterations and additions to the house occurred in 1898, 1902, 1907, 1912
(Drucken-Miller, Stackhouse & Williams, architects), 1914, 1952 (J. Linerd
Conarroe, architect), 1965 (J. L. Conarroe) and 1971 (Edward J. Parnum,
architect). 

See Keels and Jarvis, "Chestnut Hill," p. 24.

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