The Gilded Age mansion that sank with Titanic

Hello you! Today we're chatting about Lynnewood Hall, the 110 room gilded age mansion with double the footprint of the White House! Built for the Widener family, it was meant to be a haven for art and culture, but its hopes sank to the depths with the RMS Titanic when both the Widener heirs died on board. Sold to the church for a seminary, the homes contents full of french art, italian mantles, chinese urns and persian rugs, were auctioned until nothing remained. Year by year, it fell further into disrepair until it was totally abandoned. Now saved by the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation https://lynnewoodhallpreservation.org/ this great dame gets a second chance, and I can't wait to tell you all about it! You can follow LHPF on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lynnewood_hall/, and watch some of the walk throughs here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMO5_OT_Lw4&t=6146s and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aii8y_e4gFc. If you also want more Hot History you can follow along on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/hothistoryclub/?hl=en, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@hot.history?lang=en and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@hot.history and of course, right here! Til next week, Ainslie x

• 0:00Speaker 00

  He was to the Gilded Age millionaires what the road under eye patches are to Gen Z and millennial women online. Fifty-five bedrooms, twenty bathrooms, five art galleries. This wasn't just going to be a home, it was going to be a statement. Looking passage on none other than the RMS Titanic, leading to further rumours of misuse and even cult-like behaviours. And as such, it was abandoned entirely. This is the story of Lynnewood Hall, so let's get into it.

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• 1:39Speaker 00

  Hi guys and welcome back to Hot History, where we cover all the things in history that you probably should know, but don't. I'm Ainslie Harvey, your hot historian here, ready to chat about the Gilded Age mansion and family that went to rack and ruin at the very peak of their wealth, influence and power, thanks to the loss of not one, but two of its heirs aboard the Titanic. This is the story of Lynnewood Hall, so let's get into it by rewinding it all the way back to November 13th, 1834, where Peter Arnold Brown Widener was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

• 2:18Speaker 00

  Now, this is an ordinary baby born into a very ordinary family. They were working-class immigrants of German descent, who put the time in, paid their taxes and enjoyed a hearty dinner for a good treat. So by no means, privilege or wealth here. But Peter's father Johannes worked hard as a bricklayer, and his elder brother as a butcher, which meant that Peter grew up, one, surrounded by meaty carcasses, and two, knowing that earning a living meant discipline, hard work, and often, getting your hands dirty. And this instilled the very foundation of his being. Now, as was custom at the time, he received a basic education,

• 3:02Speaker 00

  attending Central High School in Philadelphia where he excelled in mathematics, before entering the workforce, helping in his brother's shop as a butcher's apprentice, and learning the fundamentals of trade and business first. And, now, around this time, changes are coming in thick and fast. Firstly, he met a young woman by the name of Hannah Dunton, and married her in eighteen fifty-eight at age twenty-four. And it was just as well, because three years later, the future of the United States of America, and indeed, the world, would change forever, because there was a decent chunk of time where those states were not united.

• 3:46Speaker 00

  I am of course talking about the American Civil War. Now, as I said, the Civil War changed history for many reasons, chief amongst them being that it directly led to the total abolition of slavery in the United States, but it also changed the economic dynamics of the nation. You see, pre-Civil War, the US was divided economically almost straight down the middle, or across the middle, to actually be exact. You had the northern half of the country, who were becoming increasingly industrialized, feeding off the Industrial Revolution happening in Europe, with the push of steam engines and discovery of gold out west, leading to railways which needed steel and oil and so on and so forth.

• 4:32Speaker 00

  But while this is happening in the northern states, the South remained largely agrarian, relying almost entirely on slave labor and cotton production.

• 4:45Speaker 00

  Now, while the causes of the Civil War are complex, to say the least, and would require a full episode to deep dive on, let me know if you do want that. The key division, and therefore source, of the conflict was over the institution of slavery within largely this economic context. Now, many in the North either opposed its expansion or wanted its total abolition on the grounds of, this is absolutely fucked, right? Like, obvious. But as I said, the Southern economy relied on slave labour, and attempts for federal limitations or abolition of slavery was met with widespread discontent by Southern states who believed that they had the right to govern themselves and therefore

• 5:29Speaker 00

  protect the institution of slavery. So basically, the South very much felt like the government were overstepping within regards to slavery, and the government felt like it had to get rid of this terrible thing. Right? Super oversimplified, I know, but this is in a nutshell, you get the point here. So, Peter, at this point in time, smack bang in the centre of this conflict, and he wins a very significant bit of business as a result of it. The supply of mutton to all Union Army troops within 10 miles of Philadelphia, which, at the time, became a major transportation hub for troop deployment and Union military hospitals, so, North.

• 6:13Speaker 00

  This turned into a pretty lucrative business for the young Widener, who was paid around $50,000 US dollars at the time for his trade. Now, for context here, $50,000 US dollars in 1865, when the Civil War ended, equates to just over $1 million US dollars today. So Peter has a nice little nest egg here, right? And while most men may have taken that, gotten a bigger house, kept working in the trade, his family did, and lived a pretty decent life, well, actually, a very decent life at the time. Peter would do no such thing. After all, as we are beginning to gather here, Peter is no ordinary man.

• 6:55Speaker 00

  And all that this first taste of money did was plant an insatiable desire for more. So he decides to use that fifty thousand dollars and partnered with William Lucans Elkins, a fellow Philadelphia native whose career as a grocer in the war also made him a nice chunk of cash. And together, they decided to invest in horse-drawn city streetcar lines, which is pretty self-explanatory. But for us visual learners here, imagine a big carriage which runs on fixed tracks laid in the street, just like a tram would, but instead of being powered by electricity or engines, they were pulled by horses.

• 7:35Speaker 00

  After witnessing firsthand just how important it was to be able to move troops and goods and civilians throughout the key transport hubs during the war, Widener and Elkins realised the potential for these everyday streetcars in city life. And by eighteen eighty-three, the horse-drawn lines were so successful that they, along with another partner, William H. Campbell, founded the Philadelphia Traction Company to build electric trolley lines. From here, they did what any good robber baron of the time did, establish a monopoly by buying up all the trolley lines to Philadelphia. And through a series of leases, the company eventually became a part of the Philadelphia Transportation Company,

• 8:19Speaker 00

  which extended to New York, the north side of Chicago, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. So by eighteen eighty-seven, the Widener, Elkins, Campbell, Traction Group had successfully built more miles of electric trolley lines than any other syndicate at the time. Like I said, a monopoly. Now, with this success... Came many things, including prominence in Philadelphia politics with Widener serving in several positions, including on the Philadelphia Board of Education and as the Philadelphia City Treasurer. So this is a man of industry, a man of influence,

• 8:58Speaker 00

  a man of power, but of course, also a man of great wealth. And that only expanded further when he became a founding member of several other massive Gilded Age organisations, right? We're about to roll them. We had American Tobacco Company, the International Mercantile Marine Company with JP Morgan, most significantly Andrew Carnegie's US Steel, one of the biggest American companies ever, guys. Widener also had significant investments in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Reading Company, United Gas Improvement Company, and John D Rockefeller's

• 9:39Speaker 00

  Standard Oil. So this is a man with many fingers in many pies and many, many banknotes in his pockets. In fact, at its peak, Widener's fortune is estimated to have sat around 80 to 100 million US dollars at the time, the equivalent of which is approximately 2.3 billion US dollars today. So not quite a Vanderbilt or a Rockefeller, but a big wig with a big bank account.

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• 11:05Speaker 00

  So what do you do with that much money? You know, after you've gone and bought up other companies, you've made your investments, what do you do with the rest? That is a lot of cash. Well, at this point in time, Widener decided to spend his cash on real estate. And he had grand ambitions of exactly how he and his family should live, given his new stature. Speaking of which, let's do a little bit of a detour, a bit of a head count of the Widener family now, because the last we heard, Peter married Hannah Dunton while he was still a butcher, and a lot has changed since then. So Hannah and Peter had three sons. Their first son, Harry, unfortunately died from typhoid fever in 1871 at 11 years of age.

• 11:51Speaker 00

  Their second son, George Dunton Widener, was born in 1861, and their third son, Joseph Early Widener, followed in 1871. George became the heir to his father's massive fortune, joining the family business, and eventually taking over the running of the Philadelphia Attraction Company. As one of Philadelphia's most eligible bachelors, he married Eleanor Elkins, the daughter of Peter's original business partner, William Elkins, like the grocer who made all the money in the war. Together, they had two sons, Harry Elkins and George Dunton, and a daughter also named Eleanor. Now, I just want to pre-warn you, there are three Elenors here, so apologies if there is any confusion, I will do my very best. Now, Peter's other living son, Joseph,

• 12:36Speaker 00

  didn't really play an active role in the businesses from what we know, and instead used his fortune and influence to pursue his own interests, namely thoroughbred horse racing and art. Now, he married society beauty Eleanor, another Eleanor, although she was known as Ella Pankost, with the pair having two children, a son, Peter Widener II, and a daughter, Josephine Fifi Widener. So quite the growing brood here. And to house them all and reflect their new station, like I said, Peter decided to commission the construction of a beautiful ornate mansion right in the middle of Philadelphia in 1887. Designed by Willis G. Hale,

• 13:19Speaker 00

  the gorgeous mansion was one of Philadelphia's best, and Peter took great pride in its presentation. So much so, he decided to fill it with some of the greatest pieces of art the Gilded Age money could buy. Now, I'm not talking about a couple of frames and oil paintings here. Peter turned into quite an art fanatic, travelling extensively to Europe to visit museums and homes, looking at sculpture and paintings and music. And it was in this mansion that he began to amass his art collection, featuring all of the old European masters, from Rembrandt to Vermeer and Van Dyck, as well as 18th century British painters like Gainsborough and Reynolds.

• 14:04Speaker 00

  And this was a huge trend amongst the American Gilded Age millionaires whose liquid wealth allowed them to hit up the pedigree-rich but cash-poor members of the British and European aristocracies, and nab up huge chunks of their collections as a result. Indeed, we actually see this in far more human terms with the Gilded Age dollar princesses, where American money would marry their daughters off to titled men who used their huge dowries to save their homes and mansions, and the Americans got clout. In Widener's case, though, it was just cash for art, but you get the point here.

• 14:39Speaker 00

  For Peter, his collection though, wasn't just to show his wealth and prominence. He bought these pieces of art because he loved them, amassing what was largely considered one of the finest private art collections in the United States at the time. So fine, that he literally ran out of walls to hang it all on. And after the death of his wife, his desire to display his art and keep his family close, led Widener to his most daring project yet. Inspired by the stately homes of Europe in particular, Longleat in Bath and Versailles in France, Widener commissioned the construction of a huge stately home of his own, on a 300 acre plot of land in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

• 15:24Speaker 00

  So at this point, the year is 1897, and the hottest architect around, the only guy for the job in Widener's opinion, is a man called Horace Trumbauer. Now, he was to the Gilded Age millionaires what the road under eye patches are to Gen Z and millennial women online. A true and total sensation, right? And at only 29 years old, Trumbauer was renowned for his use of symmetry, grand scale, formal layouts and classical details like columns, pediments and ornate stonework, which was exactly what Widener wanted to channel here. Plus, he liked the young up and comers and wanted someone who understood his ambition and vision.

• 16:08Speaker 00

  Because this wasn't just gonna be a home, it was going to be a statement, a legacy, a centre for greatness. So he engaged Mr. Trumbauer to begin designs for what would be dubbed Lynnewood Hall. Now, the demands from the get-go here were steep. Peter told Trumbauer there needed to be enough space for his family and his art, rooms grand enough for entertaining and a whole other ecosystem for the staff who would roam this giant estate. The result of which was fifty five bedrooms, twenty bathrooms, five art galleries, a reception and smoking room, dining and breakfast room, grand ballroom,

• 16:51Speaker 00

  and a footprint that is almost twice the size of the White House. So, a huge, one hundred and ten room, neoclassical revival style behemoth. With construction beginning in eighteen ninety seven and finishing rather amazingly by nineteen hundred, so a three years-ish kind of time period to complete this massive estate. Which was officially opened with a gala held on December eighteenth, eighteen ninety nine. So what's in this massive mansion then? Well, for those of you watching on Spotify or on YouTube, hi. It will be easier for you guys to see the map for this part.

• 17:30Speaker 00

  But for my audio kings and queens, I am going to do my very best to explain for you all. But don't worry, I will post pictures on the socials if you get lost, but follow with me. So, if you are looking top down at the house, it is in the shape of a T. So you have two sets of wings coming off the entry. The length of the whole house from across these double, um, wings here was eighty one metres. At the centre of the house, you then have a separate hall that runs down the back. So, like again, keep that T shape in mind, two wings, one back section. Now, if you are coming up to the property as a guest, you're coming through the front door. And when you enter, you are arriving in the central hall.

• 18:14Speaker 00

  This was the very heart of the house. It had huge ceilings, fitted out with a stained glass skylight. There was a giant chandelier, marble floors and a grand staircase, which was modeled off the Vanderbilt mansion at the Breakers in Rhode Island. This was fit out with a huge carpet, massive Chinese urns on either sided staircase, potted palms, tapestries, flowers, polar bear skins, you name it. It was on display in this central hall. And if you're having trouble imagining, again, I will post pictures for you. Now, if you are standing at the bottom of the staircase, so you've gone through the

• 18:55Speaker 00

  front door, you're in the central hall, looking at this big grand staircase, the house from this point branches out in a very symmetrical, organised layout, left and right, known as the east and west wings. So if we're going to turn to the right first, down this hallway, you had the formal rooms, including a drawing room for receiving guests, a music room for performances, and the grand ballroom for large social events. These rooms were designed to all flow into each other, so during parties, people could move easily from space to space, and were fitted out with everything, from tapestries to mirrors, to fireplaces from European villas and gilded panels.

• 19:39Speaker 00

  Honestly, the details, even still today, insane. Like, you had cherubs, whose feet were like designed to hang off in the corners, and clamshells chiseled into marble mantelpieces. Insanity. Even the hinges, guys, on the doors, well, like, had roses and vines and shit in them. It was insane. So, the final room in this right side of the house, we've gone through these three rooms, the final room in here is the Italian gallery, designed specifically for Widener's Italian collection, featuring a ceiling that was literally pulled out of an Italian villa. So again, lots of like, going through Europe, ripping out whole ceilings and fireplaces and panels, and then shipping them over to the US to go into these gilded age homes.

• 20:24Speaker 00

  Now, this was the first of five art galleries in Lynnewood Hall, and is often called the Raphael Room as it housed one of the pride pieces of Widener's collection, the small caliper Madonna, painted by Raphael, which hung centre place amongst Widener's other Italian works in this room. And again, this was in the right wing of the house, so it could all be admired by guests who attended these balls and receptions. Everything about this home, strategic and centre-round layout. Now, coming back to the central hall, so back up this right hallway, we are back in front of this main staircase and we're going to follow through to the left wing, where we see the exact same style of hallway on the right.

• 21:05Speaker 00

  Again, a little symmetry, there's solid stone, all the doors are mirrored, it's giving very much of a sigh. And on this side, we have two functions, one for the family and its guests, two for the servants. So, there was a servants' hidden entry, a door that opened to a food prep area and, you know, back of house that had a whole bunch of different functions from storage to preparation. And then you came out of there and on the other side of this hallway, you had a smoking room, a breakfast room and dining room, which we are going to talk about later because a crime occurred in there, let me tell you. So that's really this, the whole of this left side, big, big rooms. You then come back into the central hall and you are standing in front of the staircase again.

• 21:50Speaker 00

  If you go either side and behind, you find the entry to the basement, which was where the main servants' quarters were. There was a vault, the main kitchen and bakery, a walk-in refrigerator, a cold storage room, an ice cream room, literally a whole room just for ice cream. There was the servants' dining rooms, the chef's pantry, a carpentry and upholstery shop, servants' games room and extra ladies and men's bathroom. So a full-on, like, subterranean city underneath the main structure of the house here, just insane. Speaking of servants, there were around forty staff who lived at Lynnewood Hall during Peter's time, covering everything from chefs to housemaids and plumbers to valets.

• 22:32Speaker 00

  So a proper employer here and a proper functioning establishment, like, literally a city underneath this house. Also, in case I forgot to mention, there was this whole, like underneath the basement again, tunnel system, which looks like something where Hitler and his furry freaky friends would have hidden out in their final days, the footage of which is so creepy. I'm going ahead of myself. I need to like rein it back in. We will talk about it at the end, I promise. But it is wild. This place was literally a city, insane. Let's come back out of the basement, go around either side, back to the main staircase because we're going upstairs. So this main staircase went up

• 23:14Speaker 00

  one level, which then went straight ahead. So like through to this back bit of the T and we'll come back to that soon. But right now, we are going to follow the staircase which verges left and right to bring you up to the second story, which looks straight down onto the central hall. So if you were in the central hall and look up, it's all open. You can see the second story. Now, this part of the home would have been fitted out with paintings and artworks and glowed with chandeliers so the family could look down on their guests arriving. Now off to the right side again, so above the ballroom and the Raphael room, we have a series of bedrooms

• 23:53Speaker 00

  for both the family and the guests. So this is like the living quarters. The one key thing we know about Peter, aside from his love of art, is he's a big family man. So he made sure there was enough space for both of his sons and their wives and children, taking into account rooms for governesses and staff and friends and children's activities and more. Now, this right side or the west wing was where Peter's eldest son and his wife held rooms along with their daughter and son. But to be honest here, like the whole family were constantly moving around this house from wing to wing to whatever really suited their needs. On the left wing or

• 24:33Speaker 00

  east wing though, we do know that Peter's bedroom was in here, as was his second son Joseph's and his wife Ella. Now, the hallways in this upstairs, the family part of the home, were not stone like they were downstairs. They were like plastered panels, very ornate. There was lots of wainscoting and skylights which let natural light in. It was very like light, breezy, beautiful. These rooms had giant windows and mirrors and fireplaces.

• 25:04Speaker 00

  Just the absolute definition of Gilded Age opulence. It is incredible. So that's the top floor, right? The family bedrooms. Now we are going to come back to the stairs. We are going to go down the left and the right and come back to that centre, which I said goes through to the tea, where we are going to find art galleries and a tea room. So the tea room was the space in the house where the men and women came together in the latter half of the day. And the key piece in here is definitely the stained glass dome designed by Louis Comfort at Tiffany & Co, which is still intact today and just gorgeous. Like, I can't even imagine

• 25:45Speaker 00

  how it would have been in its heyday, all, you know, glowing and gorgeous, like incredible. So again, you're at the stairs, you're coming through, you're hitting this tea room first. And it was really a meeting point and an entry point, if you will, before going through to the star of the show, the reason the house was built, the art galleries. So like I said, there was five in total, one of which was the Raphael Room downstairs, we already went through there. But the other four were all in the back part of this tea shape. Now first, we have the largest of the galleries, which doesn't really have a name as such, but

• 26:26Speaker 00

  it had these massive, massive skylights overhead. I always just call it the skylight room. And it was filled with an array of different art and artists from Gainsborough to Reynolds to Vermeer. Like, it was jam-packed wall to wall with very little free space left. This room looks the most like a museum, like if you imagine if you're at the Louvre and there's paintings everywhere. That gallery then goes on to the Rembrandt Gallery, which was, as the name suggests, filled with works by Rembrandt and a few other artists, but mainly Rembrandts, with Widener actually having the largest Rembrandt collection outside of Buckingham Palace, fun fact.

• 27:06Speaker 00

  Next was the Bellini Chalini Gallery, which had these amazing, um, like glass cases in stone, if you can kind of imagine that, um, in the four different corners of the room. So all four of these corners have these cases in them, which were filled with precious jewels crafted by the Italian goldsmith Benevito Chalini. The last gallery in the space, so these all flow on, is the Van Dyck Gallery, my personal favourite. Holding, you guessed it, primarily works by Van Dyck. But there were also portraits of Peter Widener by John Singer Sargent, literally my favourite artist ever, and more in here. But like, honestly, for me, main attraction, the roof.

• 27:49Speaker 00

  It was this, uh, plastered, detailed ceiling which comes up to an incredible step, um, skylight in like a step function. I'll try and find some photos and post them for you. Chef's kiss. So that's the main part of the house for the residents and guests. But the servants, another thing, like as I said, right? They've got their, their basement, but where are you, where are they staying? These guys are 24/7 live-in servants, so like where are you gonna put them? Well, they actually stayed above the gallery and tea room, so in this back half of the house. And the rooms in here are much smaller and very simple, but still quite gorgeous. Bathrooms were fitted out with lesser marble and the windows in here were quite large.

• 28:32Speaker 00

  So to work in this house was a decent life with a decent living space for you. So that's a bit of a rundown of the property, but what does something like this cost? Well, estimates today say that Lynnewood Hall cost Peter Widener approximately eight million US dollars at the time, which works out to around two hundred and sixty million US dollars today. But... That was just for the construction. Once the house was built, it had to be filled, you know? And we've already said, he's got, he's got his art, but it needs furniture and curtains and silks and velvets and all sorts of incredible furnishings, almost all of which were imported

• 29:15Speaker 00

  from Europe, which the Philadelphia Inquirer tells us made the house seem as if it was dripping with silk, velvet and gilded moldings. The rooms furnished with chairs from Louis XV's palace, Versailles, Persian rugs and Chinese pottery. So again, just want to reiterate here, this is a proper Gilded Age mansion for the ages. Or at least it should have been for the ages, but that would not be the case.

• 29:45Speaker 01

  Hey Spotify listeners, when you travel with American Airlines, you'll enjoy comfort and convenience at every altitude. Before takeoff, unwind in the Admirals Club Lounge with curated self-serve offerings of hearty bites and refreshments. In flight, stay connected with high-speed Wi-Fi, sponsored by AT&T. Your journey is designed to feel easy from the moment you check in to the moment you arrive. No matter where you're going, American gets you there. Book now at aa.com.

• 30:12Speaker 02

  Born from the intensity of a night in the Eternal City, introducing Born in Roma Fragrances by Valentino. Feminine perfume Donna Born in Roma features juicy black currant, central jasmine, soft cashmerin and warm vanilla. Masculine leaning but unisex Womo has notes of fresh violet leaf, aromatic sage, green vetiver and mineral salt. Shop holiday gifts at Macy's.com.

• 30:42Speaker 00

  Now, as we said, Peter had two sons, George and Joseph. George is the eldest, he's the one taking over the company as, you know, heir and proprietor. And he married Eleanor, having two sons, Harry and George, and the daughter Eleanor, AKA Ella. Now, as George's role in the Widener companies expanded, so too did his desire to establish some things of his own. And as such, he wanted to set up a brand new hotel in Philadelphia through its Carlton. Now, to pull off this grand feat, George decided what he really needed was a great chef. And as such, he headed to Paris with his wife and eldest son Harry in nineteen twelve in search of one.

• 31:28Speaker 00

  Here, they dined in the finest restaurants, laid their heads in the original Ritz in Place de Vendôme, and spent their days walking the Champs-Elysees and marveling at the sights. But business called, and as such, they returned to America, booking passage on none other than the RMS Titanic. Now, this made sense for a few reasons. One, Titanic was marketed as the grandest ship to ever take the seas. It was fit out with grand dining rooms and first-class cabins with excellent cargo holds and decks divided by class with musicians and sommeliers, right? Like, it is literally the Ritz floating on the sea.

• 32:10Speaker 00

  It was also said to be unsinkable, and while many ocean liners took on the Atlantic from the UK to the US, it was still a dangerous journey. And with the current and future air of the Widener fortune on board, it seemed a safe bet.

• 32:28Speaker 00

  But the other reason, and in this case at least, the most important reason, the Titanic was the perfect choice for the Widener family, was their investment in the international mercantile marine company, IMMC for short. Remember I said at the top, Peter Widener was an initial founder of many of the Gilded Age companies at the time, including IMMC with J. P. Morgan, which made him a large shareholder in the company. Why is this relevant? IMMC was a parent company of the White Star Line, who owned and operated the RMS Titanic. So they're basically setting out on the maiden voyage of their own ship, right?

• 33:11Speaker 00

  Given their role as shareholders, George and Eleanor made a particular fuss of celebrating the ship and its crew, and is said to have hosted a luxurious dinner party, attended by Titanic's captain EJ Smith, on the night of April 14th, 1912. This, of course, is the same evening the infamous ship struck the iceberg that would send it to its doom. Awoken by this collision, the family who occupied cabins C80 to 82, headed for the upper decks, waiting in line for over an hour while the ship sunk. Finally, they reached lifeboat four, where George placed Eleanor and her maid, Amelie Geiger, into the boat, saying goodbye to his wife,

• 33:54Speaker 00

  and stepping back with his son Harry and valet Edward, keeping, accepting their fate. While Eleanor and Amelie were rescued by the RMS Carpathia, George, Harry and Edwin died. Their bodies, if recovered at all, were never identified.

• 34:14Speaker 00

  Back in Philadelphia, Widener was notified of his son and grandson's death and was grief-stricken beyond all measure, of course. Eleanor and Amelie were traumatised as well by the events of April 14th and 15th, and after their arrival in New York, they were both met by a private train at Peter's instruction, which brought them back home to Philadelphia. From that moment onwards, the Widener family and Lynnewood Hall was swallowed by grief. Eleanor's daughter, also called Eleanor, or Ella for short here, was weeks off marrying Fitz Eugene Dixon Senior in a huge society soiree. But given the deaths of her father and brother,

• 34:57Speaker 00

  the family opted to still keep the same date, but changed the wedding to a small ceremony held at Lynnewood Hall two months later. Her wedding dress for which was sourced at the very last minute because the original one picked up by her parents in Paris, sunk to the depths aboard Titanic. After this, Peter was never the same.

• 35:22Speaker 00

  The great hopes of his family, his dynasty, his legacy were lost. For while his other son Joseph certainly inherited his love of culture and art, he wasn't a worker. Aside from that anyway, guys, Peter loved his family and the deaths aboard Titanic rocked him to his core. In memory of his grandson in particular, Peter and Eleanor decided to dedicate his entire and very extensive library to Harvard University. Harry was an avid reader, so the library was made up of thousands of books, so much so that the campus actually had nowhere to put them. So the Widener family also donated the funds for a brand new library to be built in memorial to him.

• 36:08Speaker 00

  The only stipulation from Mrs. Widener reportedly being that no stone be touched as long as the library stands. Although, this has turned into urban legend in the years that passed, with many beginning to believe that Harvard's age-old swimming test that students had to pass to graduate was a stipulation of Mrs. Widener, who felt her son might have been saved had he been able to swim better. But this has been ruled as mere legend and the swimming test designed to build strong minds and strong bodies was also abandoned in the 1980s.

• 36:46Speaker 00

  Thankfully, Eleanor went on to marry again in 1915 to geographer and explorer Dr. Alexander Hamilton Rice, and in the coming years overcame her fears of travel, following him on several expeditions in South America, Europe and India, becoming the first white woman to travel further into the depths of the Amazon at the time. Ella, as we said, married Fitz Eugene Dixon Sr. and they also lived on a huge 114-acre estate before divorcing, after which Ella became a proud philanthropist, donating her $350,000 yacht to the United States Navy for service during World War II, alongside gifts to Abington Memorial Hospital and Temple University.

• 37:30Speaker 00

  Her surviving brother, George D. Widener, went on to manage the family finances and was heavily involved with his uncle Joseph. So let's now head on over to him. Now, as I've already said, Joseph wasn't much in for the family businesses, but he loved thoroughbred horse racing. And after joining forces with future US Racing Hall of Fame horse trainer Jay Howard Lewis, they raced fourteen champions together. And following his brother and nephew's deaths aboard Titanic, Joseph also began breeding horses, leading to a total of seventy-nine stakes race winners from nineteen twelve to nineteen forty-three.

• 38:15Speaker 00

  But what about poor old Peter? Well, after nineteen twelve, Peter largely shut himself off from the world, rarely leaving Lynnewood Hall except for private trips to Newport and holding fewer and fewer social events outside his family. He was, in many ways, lost. Right? His purpose for his grand mansion, his family, had been reduced significantly. And so he stayed, growing older and older, surrounded by his art and his ballroom and his books and his grand furnishings, gradually becoming sicker and sicker from both his diabetes and what doctors at the time prescribed as his grief.

• 38:59Speaker 00

  He passed on on November sixth, nineteen fifteen, in his bedroom at Lynnewood Hall after a three-year-long struggle, reunited with his late wife, son and grandson, leaving Joseph, his entire estate, valued at a conservative approximately thirty-one point five million US dollars at the time, the equivalent of which is somewhere between eight hundred and seventy million to one billion US dollars today. And as I said, those are conservative estimates.

• 39:30Speaker 00

  So Joseph is a new head of the Widener family. And as I already mentioned, he did eventually team up with his nephew, who took care of the family finances. But he really wanted to set out making his own mark on Lynnewood Hall.

• 39:45Speaker 00

  Now, several additions had been made since the initial build by Peter, including the indoor pool, which is located in a separate building that was initially completed in 1909. But Joe wanted to make some real, serious changes. And as such, set out transforming Lynnewood Hall into a French masterpiece. Where his father, Peter, was heavily inspired by the Italian, Joseph was a proper Francophile. And began remodeling existing sections of the house to reflect his taste. The central hall and east and west wing hallways, which were previously a white marble, were ripped up in exchange for the checkerboard black and white style seen in the Palace

• 40:30Speaker 00

  of the Si and what is currently still in place there today. Carved wood panelling from a French chateau was shipped in to be placed directly on top of the prior walls' designs in the reception room and Joseph's bedroom. There was furniture that came straight from the Palace of the Si and statues from the Palace at Fontainebleau. In fact, in 1916, the entire gardens and grounds were redesigned in a French style by Jacques Robert, boasting stables, greenhouses, a polo field and a reservoir, all in the French style. Around this time, the estate's grandeur was further excelled by the addition as well

• 41:11Speaker 00

  of Linwood Lodge, his 16,000 square foot residence designed, yet again by Horace Trombauer, in the 1920s for Joseph Widener's son, Peter Junior, who also resided at Lynnewood Hall. Even though he had 55 bedrooms to sleep in, he couldn't stay in the same house as his parents, apparently. Funnily enough as well, the lodge here was heavily inspired by the Petrianon at Versailles, Marie Antoinette's former playhouse, which we spoke about a couple of episodes ago. But more than that, under Joseph, the Widener Estate extended far beyond Lynnewood Hall. It encompassed a 117-acre farm, complete with chicken coops, stock barns, a half-mile racetrack,

• 41:53Speaker 00

  and stables for Joseph's pride thoroughbreds, plus kennels for Peter Junior's various dogs. It even featured its own power plant and water pumps, which I think really reflects Joseph's desire to modernise and make his own mark to keep this legacy alive. So serious about preserving what he had inherited, Joseph even installed a state-of-the-art solid bronze fire suppression system, which still remains intact today. Joseph also took complete control of the Widener Art Collection, bringing in new pieces, selling those that didn't quite fit, and extending it into a true masterpiece of taste and culture.

• 42:33Speaker 00

  So much so, that it attracted countless other international visitors into their home, including Henri Matisse, the Prince and Princess of Sweden, one of the Romanoff sisters, and it is even rumored that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor visited, though Joseph reportedly refused to be present for this controversial visit on account of his loyalty and support of King George VI. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor aside, Joseph and Ella really loved to entertain their friends, their family, the people that they were benefactors to, and they threw big balls at Lynnewood Hall throughout their time here, particularly in the 1920s. From formal balls to masquerades and costume parties,

• 43:18Speaker 00

  the Wideners filled their home with incredible people and amazing music, hiring orchestras and costume makers who were readily available to bring to life their opulent visions. Even the staff, who during the summer season totaled around 100 under Joseph, wore period costumes to transport the house back in time. Hundreds of people packed in the ballroom for these occasions. In fact, there's even an article written in early 1910 from one of Peter's previous events that said the ballroom held a thousand people. And while historians today say this is an exaggeration and the house itself could probably hold a thousand people if they all spread out across all the rooms,

• 44:00Speaker 00

  it does really give us an idea of the scale at which these events took place at Lynnewood Hall. Now, this all sounds very hoity-toity, right? And for a man worth millions upon millions of dollars, you are not wrong for thinking this. But Joseph and his wife Ella were actually esteemed public figures for their devotion to the arts and their philanthropy. From 1915 to 1940, for several months of the year, they opened Lynnewood Hall's private galleries to the public, allowing everyday people to stroll through and soak it all in, giving Lynnewood Hall the reputation as "the house that art built". They're not wrong there. They also donated extensively to a variety of foundations,

• 44:45Speaker 00

  helped institute ethical practices for horse racing in the US, and became patrons of the arts, providing for operas and symphonies around the world. In fact, the pair were actually great friends with Anna Pavlova, the admired Russian ballerina who was a great favorite of the Romanovs. And she actually came to visit Lynnewood Hall at one point in time, as did Sir Winston Churchill, who Joseph hosted at Linwood on one of his tours of America. So some like real heavy hitters who have graced that dining room at Lynnewood Hall.

• 45:20Speaker 00

  But nothing can go on forever. And Joseph realized this. We have to remember, this is the time pre-Second World War. And as this conflict struck, Linwood's future as a private stately home just didn't seem possible anymore. Something that Joseph's own son acknowledged in nineteen forty in his book Without Drums, stating, "The days of America's privately owned treasure homes are over. They are gone with the wind. Lynnewood Hall can, I suppose, be called the last of the Americans for size." And he's not wrong. The world was changing, and with it, the whitens. So to ensure his real legacy, the art collection, were safe,

• 46:03Speaker 00

  Joseph Widener became a founding benefactor of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, donating over two thousand pieces of art to the museum in nineteen forty-two, with the belief that, quote, "Art belongs to those who appreciate it. Others merely own it." Joseph's health declined for the next year, and he, like his father, died at Lynnewood Hall on October twenty-sixth, nineteen forty-three. After Joseph's death, Lynnewood Hall went to his son, Peter Junior, who, to be honest, had no real desire to keep the house running. And as such, the family visited less often, sending the house into a state of decline. You see, that is the thing with all of these great homes.

• 46:48Speaker 00

  The first generation builds them, the second generation enhances them and, you know, changes things, often rips out entire rooms and replaces them, and the third generation is then paying for the upkeep, which, in the case of the Wideners, by nineteen forty-four was just not worth it. No one was living in these kinds of homes anymore. Modernity had arrived, war had changed everyone, and so Peter Junior decided to auction the mansion's contents off. From French furnishings to Chinese urns, polar bear skins to grand pianos, and dining sets to silverware, Lynnewood Hall was stripped. Having essentially liquidated the home, Peter Junior then sold it and the gardens, along with its outlying buildings

• 47:32Speaker 00

  and farmland, to a private buyer for the astonishingly low sum of a hundred and thirty thousand US dollars, or one point seven million US dollars today. He had hoped to turn the property into a Protestant seminary. However, when he defaulted on his $99,000 mortgage, the property was temporarily repossessed by the Wideners, who then sold it again in 1952 to the Faith Theological Seminary, a branch of evangelical Christians headed by Carl McIntyre, who purchased the house for $192,000, the equivalent of 2.3 million US dollars today.

• 48:13Speaker 00

  So no more Wideners, no more private use, no more Gilded Age money. We're talking church dollars now, which, as it turns out, doesn't actually stretch as far as you'd think. Despite remaining active and successful for 40 years, training hundreds of ministers and Christian leaders who were bathed, fed and housed in the former Widener family rooms and, you know, went to worship in the grand ballroom, which was converted into a chapel. The seminary began to experience financial difficulties. And as such, Lynnewood Hall was truly gutted. From chandeliers to the dining room wood paneling that was lazily plastered over to a clinical white space.

• 48:58Speaker 00

  Again, I said a crime? This is it, I'll post the pics, it's absurd. Even marble tiles and fireplace mantles were ripped off and sold for parts, including 350 acres of land, which accompanied the estate. Soon, Lynnewood Hall and Linwood Lodge were in various states of dilapidation. And by 1996, the government came knocking and the seminary was forced into foreclosure with a sheriff's sale, basically an auctioneer running the sale on behalf of the government, taking place. Lynnewood Hall thus changed hands yet again, this time to the First Korean Church of New York, a Presbyterian affiliated church with ties to the Faith Theological Seminary, headed up by Dr. Richard S. Yu.

• 49:44Speaker 00

  Now he had hoped to restore the property. But he too failed to do so when a string of applications and lawsuits over taxes and zoning as a place of worship prohibited the church from continuing their worship at Lynnewood Hall, sending it into further neglect. Caught up in legal battles for years, the matter finally came to court in 2006. In the case First Korean Church of New York Incorporated versus Montgomery County Body of Assessments Appeals. Here, the court found that the property had not been used for religious or educational purposes since 1998, leading to further rumours of misuse and even cult-like behaviours.

• 50:25Speaker 00

  But again, this seems to be legend designed to enhance the mysticism of the home rather than any fact. What we do know for certain is that a 2012 ruling found that the First Korean Church did not qualify for a tax exemption at Lynnewood Hall, and as such, it was abandoned entirely, with almost every single room going to rack and ruin with each year that passed. And so Lynnewood Hall stood, a sentinel guard of the old times rotting piece by piece from the inside out, until it was finally listed for sale in 2014 for $20 million. Given its state of disrepair and the price tag attached to it, it didn't sell, but the

• 51:08Speaker 00

  publicity from the listing and its abandoned nature led to something else: urban explorers. Now, these guys are a heavily debated topic within the historic community at large. Urban explorers, for those of you who do not know, essentially break and enter into old buildings and institutions which are all but abandoned, and film what they find. They don't necessarily take anything or move anything they can't put back, and in the age of YouTube, they make quite the killing. From bros of decay, who boast 686,000 followers, to the proper people and their 1.58 million followers, people love to look inside abandoned places, and Lynnewood Hall is no exception.

• 51:54Speaker 00

  So many videos inside the abandoned home are online. And while the property was guarded by two dogs for a time, there was no real attempt to keep people out. The result of which meant that Lynnewood Hall reached millions and millions of people around the world. With tours of the central hall and ballroom, which are still in pretty good condition, to the almost entirely destroyed Van Dyke Gallery and bedroom of Peter Weidner. The public has rallied behind Lynnewood Hall's history. There's also new discoveries that have been made, including by this man named Leland Kent, who was one of the first to uncover those mysterious tunnels that I spoke about before. I told you we'd come back to them. Now, little is actually known about these tunnels.

• 52:40Speaker 00

  It could have offered a route for the staff to navigate between the various properties and wings, with, you know, these tunnels all branching out in multiple directions, perhaps through to the estate's carriages and gatehouses, for example. We know today that they did serve as plumbing and utility routes, but their other purposes are unknown. Now, I watch these videos, I will confess, I do find it fascinating. But they are so creepy. Like, down in these tunnels that go up in all these different directions, like, it is like, it's giving paranormal activity, honestly, I could never. Now, whatever you think of these guys, like I said, they're very controversial. It is undeniable that all of this coverage led to very loud calls for restoration and preservation

• 53:25Speaker 00

  from the public, who wanted to see the former Gilded Age estate return to its former glory. And as such, the property was relisted again in 2017, this time for seventeen and a half million. Still with no luck, it was reduced to sixteen and a half million before hitting the market again in 2019, for eleven million US dollars. Now, this 2019 listing was truly the straw that broke the camel's back, leading to the formation of the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation, or LHPF, which was established with the express goal of purchasing and restoring Lynnewood Hall.

• 54:03Speaker 00

  Headed up by Scott and Susan Bentley, founding partners of Bentley Software Company, the Preservation Foundation finally raised the capital, thanks to a donation from the couple of 9.5 million US dollars, to purchase the property in 2023 from Dr. Yoon, who, the LHPF told the Philadelphia Inquirer, was set to not let this go into the hands of developers. And in that way, he saved Lynnewood Hall. Today, with the foundation as its current owners, Lynnewood Hall takes a step towards its former glory, as the team are truly committed to revitalising this iconic piece of history by transforming it into an epicentre for culture and knowledge. According to their website,

• 54:46Speaker 00

  "They are using only the highest standards of conservation craftsmanship, sustainability principles and research to bring this grand dame back, a truly, truly noble endeavour in today's day and age." To aid in their effort, and on behalf of all of us hot historians, who I know want to see this team and other teams like it succeed in bringing this piece of history back to life, I've made a donation on our behalf to the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation, and I can't wait to track their progress in the years that come, and maybe even visit one day. I've left all of their details in the description below, if you would like to go and follow this journey yourself as well. And that brings us to the end of another episode of Hot History.

• 55:30Speaker 00

  But, before you go, I would love to take this chance to get you guys to give me your thoughts. So, we are covering another Hot Take episode, where we try to answer a big historical question in a few weeks' time, and I want to hear from you. We are going to unpack whether we have the right to destroy certain pieces of history. From Epstein Island to the palaces of Saddam Hussein, alongside Hitler's Berghof, copies of Mian Camp, Queen Victoria's Diaries and the Romanoff palaces. Do we have a right to destroy things because of what they represent? Or is it all history which needs to be preserved? I want to hear your thoughts, guys, so please DM me on the socials or send me

• 56:15Speaker 00

  an email at [email protected] with your hot take on this one. I thought it was fitting. This episode was all about saving history and restoring it. I want to hear the other side of the coin. Regardless though, guys, thank you so much for following along with me on this episode and make sure to tune in next week because we are talking about one of the most unknown but highly scandalous figures of the 20th century. Born into another Gilded Age family, Kiki Preston went on to take Parisian high society by storm, travelled to Africa, host orgies and become the very naughty mistress of British Prince George, who she got addicted to drugs, earning her the infamous nickname of the girl with the

• 56:59Speaker 00

  silver syringe. As always, guys, if you are looking for some more hot history before then, you can follow us on Instagram at Hot History Club and on TikTok at hot dot history. It has been a pleasure getting down and dirty in time with you and I will speak to you all next Friday. Thanks, guys. Love you. Bye.

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