Famed Architect’s Barn To Get Review From Historical Panel

By Walter Sorrels, Suburban Staff Writer

Plans by the Fox Companies to remodel the historic Lee/Bradford Quarters in its Chesterbrook development include the destruction of a barn designed by the eminent Philadelphia architect, Frank Furness.

The Lee/Bradford Quarters are named after Major General Charles Lee and Colonel (later Attorney General) William Bradford, who quartered there 1777-1778. The Fox Companies intend to remodel the quarters, which are listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings, into a swim club.

Adjacent to the Quarters is a barn which the Fox Companies plan to raze in order to build a parking lot for the swim club. Documents located by Anne Cook, chairman of the T-E Board of Architectural and Historic Review, show that the barn was designed by Furness, Evans and Company (Frank Furness’s architectural company at the time) in 1898.

Frank Furness, who is generally known as the most important Philadelphia architect of the late 19th century, designed 327 buildings of which 126 have been demolished. He is known for designing buildings such as the University of Pennsylvania Library, the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, and numerous railway stations.

The barn is one of a pair designed for Henry Cassatt, then the second vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, for a horse farm Cassatt owned on the property. The second barn, according to Cook, was destroyed about two years ago by the Fox Companies, which also put a new roof on the remaining barn.

Because it is a historic property, the company must present its plans for the Lee/Bradford Quarters to the T-E Board of Architectural and Historic Review. The board will then make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors which will make the final decision whether the Lee/Bradford project should continue.

Members of the Board of Review examined the property over the weekend, bringing with them an “expert consultant,” Hyman Myers, who is an architect, and author of a book A Checklist of Furness. According to Cook the building is in “good condition.”

The Fox Companies have contacted the T-E Board of Architectural and Historic Review for an appointment to present their plans. According to Cook, the Board will probably meet within the next two weeks, at which time it will probably make a decision on what recommendation it will make to the Board of Supervisors about the Lee/Bradford project.

Suburban and Wayne Times, 6/14/1984.

Dave Hickey photographs.

Found by Greg Prichard.

Furness Barn, 1987