8860 Norwood Avenue

click on image to see larger version

 (photograph from Chestnut Hill Historical Society-John Naylor Collection: 1970.75)

 

MAP NUMBER: 57
DATE: 1857
ORIGINAL OWNER:  Arthur Howell
ARCHITECT: Attributed to Samuel Sloan
CONTRACTOR: Charles Taylor

Arthur Howell was the owner of 8860 Norwood  until 1876 when
Charles B. Dunn purchased it.  Mr. Dunn named the home, "Edgcumbe,"
(which means side of hill), after Mount Edgcumbe in England.  Mr. Dunn was a
native of St. Austell, Cornwall, England and selected an English name from a
place where his father owned a clay mine which furnished material for chinaware. 
Theophilus Parsons Chandler, architect, added the south wing in 1881 and the
lawn was extended by taking in the adjoining fields to the south and west.  The
house was remodeled by Chandler, in 1916 with a new three-story addition
and removal of the Italianate tower.  The Chestnut Hill Historical Society prevented
the demolition of this house in 1980, which was owned by the Hospital.  It is now in
private ownership and the exterior which has been restored, is protected by a facade
easement. 

See Hotchkin, "Germantown, Mount Airy, and Chestnut Hill,"  p. 491.
See Keels and Jarvis, "Chestnut Hill,"  pps. 28 and 29.