"WOODCREST LODGE" HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.

    Built in 1914, "Woodcrest Lodge" was the home Paul Denckla Mills and his wife Ellen Drexel Paul. The work of the Architect Charles Barton Keen, "Woodcrest Lodge" was built in the Georgian Colonial style with an exterior of rough buff-colored stucco.

ENTRANCE GATES
HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

"WOODCREST LODGE"
HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

DETAIL OF ENTRANCE FRONT
 HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
 MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

DETAIL OF ENTRANCE FRONT
HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
 MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

DETAIL OF PRINCIPAL ENTRANCE
HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

     "Woodcrest Lodge" sat atop a steep hillside. A raised terrace ran the length of the house, accessed by paired French doors from the hall, drawing, and dining rooms.

TERRACE FRONT
HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
 MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

    

TERRACE FRONT
HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
 MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

DETAIL OF ENTRANCE, TERRACE FRONT
HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
 MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

FIRST FLOOR PLAN
 HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
 MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

THE HALL
HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
 MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

THE SKYLIT MAIN HALL AND ROOM-LENGTH STAIRCASE
HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
 MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

MANTEL IN HALL
HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
 MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

     Delicate detailing in the Adam style could be found throughout the house in the form of decorative cornices and doorways and carved white marble fireplace mantels.

DRAWING ROOM
HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
 MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

    The dining room had dark mahogany paneling, Hepplewhite furnishings, and a Waterford crystal chandelier. 

 DINING ROOM
HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT 

DINING ROOM MANTEL
HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
 MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

LIBRARY
 HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
 MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

SECOND FLOOR PLAN
 HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.
 MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

   
    A native of Philadelphia, Paul Denckla Mills and his wife spent much of their later life in New York, where Mills was a partner in the banking and brokerage firm of Dewing, Ruggles & Mills. In 1928 Mills sold "Woodcrest Lodge" and its surrounding 30 acres to a developer who owned the property until the 1950's. Later it was purchased by the Valley Forge Military Academy. The former "Woodcrest Lodge"  was destroyed by arson in 1973.

    The couple also owned "Windsor Plantation" on the Black River in the Georgetown, South Carolina area.

    Follow THIS LINK to see an aerial from 1948 showing "Woodcrest Lodge" and the surrounding area. wikimapia site where estate stood. Outbuildings still survive. BING.


   Built on a section of the estate of James W. Paul's "Woodcrest", father of  Ellen Drexel Mills.

1907 Portrait of Paul Denckla Mills(1877-1954)
Adolphe Borie

Charles Barton Keen, Architect

"ALDER MANOR" RESIDENCE OF WM. B. THOMPSON, ESQ., GREYSTONE, N. Y.

DETAIL OF MAIN ENTRANCE
RESIDENCE OF WM. B. THOMPSON. ESQ., GREYSTONE, N. Y.
MESSRS. CARRERE & HASTINGS, ARCHITECT

http://www.thelocationcompanyny.com/mansions/9008-am.htm

WROUGHT IRON ENTRANCE DOORS ALL HAND FORGED
RESIDENCE of COLONEL WILLIAM BOYCE THOMPSON GREYSTONE, NEW YORK
 CARRERE AND HASTINGS, ARCHITECTS
 EXECUTED BY JOHN POLACHEK BRONZE & IRON © Distinctive Metal Work
476-494 Hancock St. & 575-591 Boulevard Long Island City, N. Y. 

   

http://www.thelocationcompanyny.com/mansions/9008-am.htm

   William Boyce Thompson was born May 13, 1869, in Alder Gulch, Virginia City, Montana. He would later use the name of his birthplace for his new, grand home in Yonkers.

   His early years were typical of mining towns of that generation. In 1887, at 18, he was sent east to the Phillips Exeter Academy, and upon completion of his studies there enrolled in the Columbia University School of Mines. He later returned to Montana, and was employed by his father in the family's copper and silver mines in Montana and Arizona.

   On February 6, 1895, he married Gertrude Hickman in Butte. Encouraged by success, the couple relocated to New York where he joined the Curb Exchange. Exeter classmates and club members soon introduced him to influential New Yorkers. As he was one of the few people on Wall Street with a comprehensive knowledge of the mining business, he became a successful mining promoter and developed mining properties in Canada and the west and southwest of the U.S. Later he acquired diamond mines in Africa. The Guggenheim Brothers, J.P. Morgan and Bernard Baruch were his sometime business partners. He made an astounding fortune.

   Through a series of land purchases from 1906—1910, he began to acquire properties in Northwest Yonkers. Around 1910 he commissioned the architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings to draw up the plans for his magnificent estate, which he called "Alder Manor".

   The Colonel title was bestowed upon Thompson when he led a Red Cross Commission to Russia after WWI to determine the need for medical supplies and other relief.

   wikimapia location. BING. Follow THIS LINK for an insiders tour from John Foreman's Big Old Houses.

   John Polachek was a Hungarian immigrant making ornamental bronze and iron in Long Island City, L. I. His work was so revered that orders came from banks, theatres and public buildings. Architects as far away as Montreal, Tokyo and Buenos Aires commissioned him to reproduce their designs. Polachek played a part in the consolidation of eleven American foundries, including Tiffany Studios Bronze & Iron Plant, into the General Bronze Corporation.