L. Merion estate to be kept intact

Fast action by the conservation community has spared a Main Line estate from what locals feared was a certain future as a subdivision of suburban homes.

Glenmede, the 16-acre former estate of Sun Oil Co.'s founder, Joseph Pew, will be purchased for $9.5 million by a local family that has agreed to give up the right to develop the Lower Merion property, which is currently owned by Bryn Mawr College.

"It's not often you get to preserve history and open space in one fell swoop," said Mike Weilbacher, executive director of the Lower Merion Conservancy, which, along with the college, announced the sales agreement yesterday. "We're just really lucky."

The conservancy will be in charge of enforcing a conservation easement that will be placed on the property, which dates from 1904 and includes a mansion of Victorian Gothic design by Quaker architect William Lightfoot Price. The easement will ensure that the property, including meadows and many mature trees, will not be subdivided and developed even in the event of a future sale.

Township and conservancy officials would not identify the family, which has requested anonymity. The family plans to move to the site next summer.

Under its current residential zoning, the site could have been developed into as many as 13 houses, said Jerry Berenson, the college's chief administrative officer. That's the outcome township officials, local residents and preservation advocates had feared when the college disclosed two months ago that it planned to sell Glenmede.

Donated by the Pew family to the college in 1980, the estate, which also includes a carriage house, gardener's cottage, gate house and pool house, had become expensive to maintain and impractical for continued use, Berenson said.

Although the property is just a half-mile from the center of campus, getting between Glenmede - where 25 undergraduate students live - and campus is difficult on foot because of the absence of sidewalks.

Berenson said the site last underwent a major renovation - $2.5 million worth - in 1999 and similar outlays of money would have been necessary for future upkeep - expenditures that "we didn't feel was the best use of our money."

When the search for a buyer began, it triggered instant panic in the community.

Township Commissioner Scott Zelov, whose ward includes the college, said he couldn't just sit idly by and hope for a good outcome. So he appealed to Nancy Vickers, president of the college. He asked the college to forgo any offers from developers through the end of the year to give the township and the conservancy time to find a preservation-oriented buyer.

"I give the college great credit" for agreeing to postpone any transactions with developers, Zelov said.

Based on initial discussions with developers, Berenson said the college probably could have sold the property for "$10 million or a little bit more." The college found itself in a "difficult" position, Berenson said, "because we're balancing being good residents of Lower Merion . . . with fiduciary duties to get as much money as we can."

Zelov called it "a great outcome" and one that he hopes will inspire other property owners in Lower Merion "in the event they decide they have real estate they don't want to keep."