The Mercer Museum is a museum located in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States. The Bucks County Historical Society operates the Mercer Museum, as well as the Research Library, and Fonthill Castle, former home of the museum's founder, archeologist Henry Chapman Mercer. The museum was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was later included in a National Historic Landmark District along with the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works and Fonthill. These three structures are the only poured-in-place concrete structures built by Mercer.
History
Henry Mercer was a gentleman anthropologist. On a cruise up the Ruhr in early adulthood, Mercer was impressed by the eclipse of artisanal culture by industrial production, and resolved himself to preserving artifacts of preindustrial life. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mercer collected pre-industrial hand tools and other implements of the past. He believed that the story of human progress and accomplishments was told by the tools and objects that people used and saw these time-honored crafts slowly disappearing from memory.
Mercer personally designed plans for a museum to house his collection, six stories tall and cast of poured-in-place concrete. Mercer's museum was completed in 1916. In addition to tools, it displays furnishings of early America, carriages, stove plates, a gallows, antique fire engines, a whaleboat, and the Lenape Stone. The Spruance Library, which houses the Bucks County Historical Society's archive of historical research materials, is located on its third floor. In June 2011, construction was completed on a new, extensive visitors center at the front of the museum.
Why concrete?
The museum is one of three poured-in-place concrete structures built by Mercer. The others include his home Fonthill and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, both of which are located one mile from the museum.
Mercer decided to build with concrete after the Great Boston Fire of 1872 destroyed his aunt's prized collection of medieval armor, which had been stored in wooden structures. He did not want his own collections to suffer the same fate. Locals mocked his choice of building materials, but on completion of the museum, he lit a bonfire on its roof to prove that it was fireproof. Mercer's museum was an early demonstration of rebar-reinforced concrete as a structural material.

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Fonthill, also known as Fonthill Castle, was the home of the American archeologist and tile maker Henry Chapman Mercer, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Despite sometimes being referred to as Fonthill Castle, it is a large house and not a castle.
History
Fonthill Castle was the home of the archaeologist and tile maker Henry Chapman Mercer. Built between 1908 and 1912, it is an early example of poured-in-place concrete and features 44 rooms, over 200 windows, 18 fireplaces, 10 bathrooms and one powder room. The interior was originally painted in pastel colors, but age and sunlight have all but eradicated any hint of the former hues. One room in the Terrace Pavilion (built on the site of the former home's barn), has a restored paint job so visitors can view the home's former glory. The castle contains built-in furniture and is embellished with decorative tiles, made by Mercer at the height of the Arts and Crafts movement. The castle is filled with an extensive collection of ceramics embedded in the concrete of the house, as well as other artifacts from his world travels, including cuneiform tablets discovered in Mesopotamia dating back to over 2300 BCE. The home also contains around 1,000 prints from Mercer's extensive collection, as well as over six thousand books, almost all of which were annotated by Mercer himself.
The Castle was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was later included in a National Historic Landmark District along with the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works and the Mercer Museum. These three structures are the only poured-in-place concrete structures built by Mercer. The Moravian Pottery and Tile Works is located on the same property as Fonthill Castle, and the Mercer Museum is located about a mile away.
Fonthill Castle and the Mercer Museum are operated by the Bucks County Historical Society, whereas the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works is operated by the County of Bucks.
Visiting
Fonthill Castle is open Tuesday- Sunday for guided one-hour tours. Due to its historic nature, Fonthill Castle has limited accessibility with steep stairs and narrow, uneven passages throughout the site. Personal photography is permitted during tours; commercial, wedding, or event photography permits are available.
Community Programs
Throughout the year, community programs are held at Fonthill Castle as enrichment activities and/or fundraisers for the Bucks County Historical Society. These events have included Winter Wonderland Tours, Shakespeare in the Park, Candlelight Holiday Tours, Tower Tours for Families, Mercer's Night Tales, Behind the Scenes Tours, Escape Rooms, etc.
Popular culture
The house is featured (by name and description) in Lewis Shiner's 1990 novel Slam, although in the book it has been relocated to Galveston, Texas.
On the Viva La Bam Seasons 2 & 3 DVD, it is revealed that Bam Margera shot the video for "And Love Said No" by HIM at Fonthill Castle. In 2007, Margera filmed parts of Minghags at the Fonthill Castle.

Fonthill

Glencairn is a castle-like mansion in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, that was home to the Pitcairn family for more than 40 years. Now the Glencairn Museum, it contains a collection of about 8,000 artworks, mostly religious in nature, from cultures such as ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, the Roman Empire and medieval Europe, as well as Islamic, Asian, and Native American works. The museum is affiliated with The New Church, and the building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Mansion
Multi-millionaire businessman Raymond Pitcairn (1885–1966) and his wife, Mildred Glenn (died 1979) built "Glencairn" between 1928 and 1939. Its name was a combination of their surnames. Pitcairn, a member of the New Church himself, had no formal training in architecture and designed the Romanesque-style building using a series of models. The nine-story, granite-and-ruddy-colored-stone mansion features more than 90 rooms on 10 floors. It has three main sections – a central rectangle, and two large rectangular wings – that together measure approximately 175 feet by 135 feet. The exterior features a nine-story tower, carved doorways, pillars, and wall insets. The building also contains elaborate interior mosaics, monel metalwork, Early Medieval stained glass windows, and a replica of the Biblical tabernacle.
The Pitcairn fortune derived from control of Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, of which his father John Pitcairn, Jr. (1841-1916), was director, 1896-1906. Adjacent to "Glencairn" is Raymond Pitcairn's first architectural success, the Gothic Revival Bryn Athyn Cathedral (1913–19), and his father's house "Cairnwood." The Pitcairns were funders of the American Liberty League. Following Mildred's death in 1979 (Raymond died in 1966), the mansion, with its collections and Pitcairn archives, was given to the Academy of the New Church.
"Glencairn" was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and is a contributing property of the Bryn Athyn Historic District.
Glencairn Museum
Guided tours of the building and collection are available year-round. Tours are offered Tuesday through Friday at 2:30pm or by appointment, and weekends at 1:00, 1:45, 2:30 and 3pm. The Museum's first floor, including the Great Hall, Upper Hall, Bird Room, and current temporary exhibition, is open free of charge for self-guided viewing on weekends from 1:00 to 4:30 pm.
Glencairn Museum also offers a variety of events and exhibitions throughout the year.

Glencairn Museum

Bryn Athyn Cathedral is the episcopal seat of The General Church of the New Jerusalem, a denomination of Swedenborgianism. The main building is of the Early Gothic style, while the adjoining structures are of a transitional period reflective of a combination of both Gothic and Norman styles. The exterior appearance of the Cathedral itself is reminiscent of Gloucester Cathedral in England.
The Cathedral is located in Bryn Athyn, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania just outside the city of Philadelphia. Bryn Athyn is also the site of the General Church affiliated Academy of the New Church, which publishes Swedenborgian literature, and is the parent organization of a high school, a four-year college (Bryn Athyn College of the New Church), a theological school, and the Emanuel Swedenborg Library.
History
The Cathedral was constructed from 1913-1919. The Cathedral's initial design was by the Boston architecture firm of Ralph Adams Cram. The planning of the Cathedral began under the direction of William Fredrick Pendleton, the Bishop of the Church, and John Pitcairn Jr., president of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (now PPG Industries), who was the major benefactor donating the property and much of the funds to construct the cathedral.
Raymond Pitcairn, John Pitcairn's son, became involved with the project and worked with the firm of Ralph Adams Cram. As time passed, the architecture firm became less involved with the work leaving Raymond Pitcairn in charge. Mr. Pitcairn realized that the workers and artisans working on the cathedral should be directly employed by the church and that creative changes by artists and builders working together which happen during the design process should be nurtured rather than thwarted. This led to some very unorthodox construction practices. For example, rather than relying on blueprints and plans, almost every aspect of the design was made into scale models where Mr. Pitcairn and the workers could study, review and embellish their ideas before actually constructing them.
Another aspect of the cathedral which is unusual is that asymmetries and irregularities were planned into the building as it was built. This is largely the result of Raymond Pitcairn's attendance at a 1915 lecture by William Goodyear who stated that irregularities and asymmetries in medieval buildings were not errors but were carefully planned in the structures.
The stained glass windows of Bryn Athyn Cathedral are worthy of note. The medieval method of creating stained glass, namely of melting various pigment and metallic oxides into the glass itself and then having a glass blower create a disk of glass with varying degrees of thickness and brightness, was revived. The first glass was blown in 1922 and the last was created in the 1940s, however all the windows themselves were not completed till the 1960s. The windows are essentially of three designs:
Biblical figures represented in monumental scale;
Medallions depicting events either in the life of Christ or the old testament prophets; and
grisaille windows of geometric design and pearl-like translucency which fill the cathedral with light.
Most of the metal in the cathedral is Monel Metal.
The Ezekiel Tower, located south of the main 150 ft tower, was built between the years 1920-1926. The Choir Hall and Michael Tower lie to the north of the main cathedral. This addition was completed in 1929 and even though this is the last completed portion of the complex, its architecture is from the earliest period.
Right next to the college, the library and the cathedral is the Academy-affiliated Glencairn Museum. Originally the private residence of Raymond Pitcairn, this castle-like building now houses a collection of mostly religious artwork from around the world and is open to the public.
The cathedral is part of the Bryn Athyn Historic District, which was listed as a National Historic Landmark on October 7, 2008.

Bryn Athyn Cathedral

Grey Towers Castle is a building on the campus of Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania which is in Cheltenham Township, a suburb of Philadelphia, USA. The castle was designed by Horace Trumbauer and built starting in 1893 as the estate of William Welsh Harrison. The university (then known as Beaver College and located in nearby Jenkintown) purchased the estate in 1929 for $712,500, equal to $10,738,590 today. Classes were split between the two locations until 1962, when the school moved all of its operations to the Glenside area. The castle was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985 for its architecture.
History
In 1881, William Welsh Harrison, co-owner of the Franklin Sugar Refinery, purchased Rosedale Hall from J. Thomas Audenreid. By 1891, Harrison had expanded his estate to 138 acres (0.56 km2) and decided to expand the house and add a gate house and more adequate stables. He employed the skills of 23-year-old architect Horace Trumbauer, who completed the stables and gate house in 1892.
In 1893, the main house of Rosedale Hall burned to the ground in a raging fire, during which the Harrison family fled to the stables for safety. Afterward, the family moved into the gatehouse, while Trumbauer was again employed to build a new home on the site. By March 1893, Trumbauer presented Harrison with plans for a grandiose mansion, inspired by Alnwick Castle, the medieval seat of the Dukes of Northumberland. The new house would include all the most modern conveniences of the time, and the cost was estimated at $250,000, equal to $7,200,926 today. Work was underway by the end of 1893. The construction took five years.
Design
Grey Towers Castle is designed in a highly eclectic yet elegant fashion, taking inspiration from a variety of styles, periods, and buildings. The house is built of grey stone quarried at nearby Chestnut Hill, and Indiana limestone is used for exterior door and window trim, and other elements, such as the various gargoyles.
The interiors of the castle reflect various French styles ranging from Renaissance through Louis XV. The massive twin mantles in the Great Hall are interpretations of a Renaissance mantle in the Salle des Gardes, in the Francis I wing of Château de Blois. The Library, now the President's office, and the Dining room, both on the south side of the Great Hall, contain many elements reminiscent of French Renaissance decoration. The walnut cabinetry and plaster friezes in the Library and the columns and caryatids and strapwork ceiling in the Dining room are inspired by interiors of the Château de Fontainebleau.
On the north side of the Great Hall lay the Mirror Room and the Drawing Room, now known as the Rose Room. It is thought that the entirety of the Mirror Room was ordered at the New York office of a French firm, then crafted in France and shipped to Glenside, along with workers, to be installed. The ceiling was painted by François Lafon, and depicts the four seasons as women, accompanied by cupids, with the path of the Zodiac behind them.
In the Great Hall, which rises three stories to a grand barrel vaulted and gilded ceiling, the Grand Staircase leads to a large landing, which contains the Music Room. The ceiling was originally painted in a Renaissance style, but all that remains is the painting in the spaces of the archway, through which the room is accessed. Above the wainscoting of the Music Room, large tapestries depict Euterpe, the Muse of Music. All the tapestries in Grey Towers were provided by William Baumgarten & Co, Inc. of New York City. On each floor there is a balcony which rings the Great Hall, and tapestries line all of these spaces.
Upon completion, Grey Towers was one of the largest homes in the country, with forty rooms. The eclectic and grandiose style attracted attention to the young Horace Trumbauer, who began a successful career, which included the construction of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and many other houses and buildings in the Philadelphia area.
Current use
William Welsh Harrison died in 1927, and in 1929 Beaver College (now Arcadia University), then located in Jenkintown, purchased the estate from his widow for $712,500. Classes were split between the two locations until 1962, when the college moved permanently to the Grey Towers property. The castle currently houses the Offices of Admissions, Enrollment Management, and Financial Aid, and the office of the president. The vast bedrooms on the second and third floors are used as housing for students.
The castle, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985, is much-loved by the students and staff of the University. The student group "Society for Castle Restoration" is dedicated to preserving the landmark and its history.
There are many stories and myths surrounding the building and the Harrison family. According to legend, Mr. Harrison and his wife did not get along well and eventually each lived in separate areas of the house. Mr. Harrison was thought to have had relations with many different male servants. In one of the third-floor bedrooms, a mirror above the fireplace mantle had to be replaced because of a large crack. Yet, when it is replaced it cracks soon afterward.
The castle is also rumored to have been built entirely without the use of nails. There is a series of tunnels connecting the main home to the former powerhouse of the estate, now Spruance Hall. These Castle-Spruance Hall tunnels became obstructed in 2010 during construction of a new commons. There remains one tunnel between the stables (Murphy) and the powerhouse (Spruance Hall).
Historic Buildings on the Estate
From the time that the castle was built, there have been other buildings on the estate. These historic buildings (the ones that existed before Beaver College purchased the estate) that are still standing include Murphy Hall (previously the stables on the Harrison Estate), Blankley Hall (previously Blake Hall, so named by Beaver College, and the gatehouse on the Harrison Estate) and Spruance Hall (previously the engineer's building on the Harrison Estate).
Murphy Hall was once the stables, where the Harrison family kept their horses. After the initial purchase of the land by Beaver College, science labs were put in this building as well as a chapel in which the chorus sang. Murphy Memorial Hall was presented by Jane M. Murphy in memory of her husband William M. Murphy in 1929. At the time an organ was also donated and installed in chapel. The organ is now gone as it was damaged during renovations to the building in the 1980s. The building also included a gymnasium with a shooting range for the school's rifle team. Over the years, metalworking and ceramics studios were added, the gymnasium was removed and the science labs were moved elsewhere on campus. Currently, music and art classes are taught in Murphy Hall.
Blankley Hall was originally known as the gatehouse, where guests were greeted before taking the path (now the Alumni Walk of Pride) up to the Harrison's castle. After Beaver College purchased the estate, it was briefly used as student housing, and then as office space for university employees. It was named Blake Hall for a time, before being renamed Blankley Hall in 2005 in honor of one of Arcadia's alumni. It is currently the location of Arcadia's Alumni Relations office.
Spruance Hall was used as a maintenance building for the Harrison estate. It was known as the engineer's building, and there were many tunnels leading from this building to other places on the estate. Its most notable feature is a large smokestack. After Beaver College purchased the estate, the building was used for fashion and art classes. The building currently houses Arcadia University's theater, as well as an art studio and painting classroom.