The atlases of 1889, 1895 and 1899 record M. Carey Lea as the owner.  He named
the property, "Homewood."  Lea, a well-known chemist, had a private laboratory in
this house.  His best-known publication was "Photography," a study of the chemistry
of photography.  Russell and Mary Dixon Thayer purchased the residence between 1899
and 1906.  Their son, Russell Thayer, Jr., was the treasurer of the General Coal Company.
In 1929-30, Tilden, Register & Pepper designed a new, imposing, European-style house for
this property for Eleanor Widner Dixon.  Alterations in 1949-1950 and 1952 were designed
by the office of Horace Trumbrauer.  It was owned by Temple Univeristy during the 1970s
and 1980s but is now, once, again, a private home.

See Jarvis,"Chestnut Hill Revisited," p. 102.