Southeast corner of Stenton Avenue and Paper Mill Road

 

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(photograph from Chestnut Hill Historical Society-John Naylor Collection: 1970.92)

 

MAP NUMBER: 68
DATE: 1860-1870s
ORIGINAL OWNER: Henry J. Williams
ARCHITECT: Unknown
CONTRACTOR: Unknown
DEMOLISHED:  1942

Henry J. Williams originally owned this property.  His niece, Julia Williams
Rush Biddle (1833-1898; married in 1855) and her husband, Colonel
Alexander Biddle (1819-1899),  lived in this home, "Lanoraie."  It is
not clear who actually built the home, Williams or Biddle.  Colonel
Biddle served on General Ulysses S. Grant's staff during the Civil
War and was a banker.  Three of their children, Louis, Marianne,
and Lynford, continued to live at "Lanoraie" for some time.   The
Philadelphia Blue Book Directory of 1903 , p. 360, lists Lynford Biddle
at "Lanoraie," Stenton Avenue, Chestnut Hill.  A Schwenkfelter cemetery
from 18th century is on the back of this property, access now by a path
from Stenton Avenue.

See Jarvis, "Chestnut Hill Revisited," p. 98.
See Hotchkin, "Germantown, Mount Airy, and Chestnut Hill,"  p. 436.