Whitemarsh Hall, known as "the Versailles of America," was one of the largest and most exquisite estates in North America. Edward Townsend Stotesbury, one of the wealthiest Philadelphians in the early twentieth century, commissioned renowned architect Horace Trumbauer to build the one-hundred-forty-sevenroom mansion in 1916 on three hundred acres just outside Philadelphia. Whitemarsh Hall, which took five years to build at an estimated cost of $10 million with all the furnishings, was a wedding present for his second wife. This book explores Whitemarsh Hall's construction, its heyday in the...

Springfield Township, Montgomery County, adjoins the city of Philadelphia on its northern border. The township's six-plus square miles, originally established as "Penn's Manor of Springfield," was a gift from William Penn to his wife, Gulielma Maria Springett, c. 1681. This historic township was home to a major stagecoach line and its associated taverns and inns, considerable activity during the Revolutionary War, summertime residences of Philadelphia's wealthy, and subsequent post-World War II development as a burgeoning community just over the Philadelphia border. Springfield Township's...