Glencairn Museum

Growing up in PA, we heard a lot of spooky stories regarding the Pitcairn family... my sister's friends would sometimes mention the Pitcairn [haunted] mansion.  They spoke of deformed descendants still living there.  They mentioned the horridly abstract notion of inbreeding to a small child (me).  

Turns out this terrifying fictional place I built up in my head as a kid has always been a beautiful sprawling estate which houses an amazing cathedral, a museum, and a mansion.  No ghosts nor deformations were spotted.  It was a wonderful tour and a great way to spend a windy Saturday afternoon. 

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 nine-story, granite-and-ruddy-colored-stone mansion features more than 90 rooms on 10 floors.

A Day At Fonthill Castle

Built between 1908-1912, Fonthill Castle was the home of Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930). Archaeologist, anthropologist, ceramicist, scholar and antiquarian, Mercer built Fonthill Castle both as his home and as a showplace for his collection of tiles and prints. The first of three Mercer buildings in Doylestown, Fonthill Castle served as a showplace for Mercer’s famed Moravian tiles that were produced during the American Arts & Crafts Movement. Designed by Mercer, the building is an eclectic mix of Medieval, Gothic, and Byzantine architectural styles, and is significant as an early example of poured reinforced concrete (I previously blogged about the Mercer Museum here [a separate structure housing Mercer's massive collection of pre-Industrial tools]).

Had the neat pleasure of visiting this amazing castle museum.  The guided tour through the ornate passages and strange stairways was pure bliss.  Henry Mercer was definitely a man who loved the darker side of architecture.  And there even was a real human skull, resting in Mercer's old study.  We pressed the excellent tour guide on the origins of the skull and she informed everyone that Mercer's sister (perhaps fifteen years old at the time) gifted it to him as a reminder of his mortality.  The original owner of the skull is unknown (owner = whose head it was).  

Snapped a ton of photos of this incredible afternoon spent in a mysterious concrete home.  

More information here.

Spooky Cozy Homes

Magic houses.

Click here for the IG account.

When All The Witches May Be Seen

Image by DPL Western History.

Accordion House

More images here.

1313 Mockingbird Lane

Then and now.




The History of the Munster Home.

Nethercraft

Scenic architecture and sculpture.


Nethercraft.com