Tag Archives: Lynnewood Hall

Titanic

Tuesday Titanic News

Titanic Pigeon Forge logo. (n.d.).
Credit: TitanicPigeonForge.com

John Joslyn had an interesting career before he became fascinated with Titanic and founding the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge. He started out in Hollywood putting out two-minute entertainment clips that television stations would buy and use in their newscasts. It became widely syndicated. Then he decided to produce opening Al Capone’s safe live on air. That was where they had Geraldo Rivera breathlessly reporting every minute of the event. Except it was empty except for the dust. Then he discovered Titanic, and it changed his life forever.

“They came up said ‘John, take a look at this.’ I got down in that port hole and all of a sudden comes the bow of the ship. I’m seeing the lower part and looking up, and you can’t see the top of the ship,” Joslyn said, describing how hard it was to see in the dim light. That was the moment that changed the trajectory of his career in a major way. Joslyn said seeing the ship itself sparked an interest he couldn’t shake. In the early 2000s, he set out on a business adventure, working with a new partner: his wife, Mary Kellogg. Their first location was in Branson, Missouri.

Morgan-Rumsey, C. (2024, June 14). ‘It was thrilling’ | Titanic Museum founder remembers trip to shipwreck that sparked idea for Pigeon. . . https://www.wvlt.tv. https://www.wvlt.tv/2024/06/14/it-was-thrilling-titanic-museum-founder-remembers-trip-shipwreck-that-sparked-idea-pigeon-forge-attraction/

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Titan (submersible)
Becky Kagan Schott, OceanGate

The Independent looked back recently at the demise of Titan and its reverberations in the world. Up until its demise, it was seen mostly in favorable light. Those who had gone down previously were impressed. What few knew was that behind the scenes there were those who thought Rush Stockton cut corners. Employees who questioned what they thought were questionable decisions were fired. Stockton himself was very confident of the submersible and likely would not have piloted it himself if he thought otherwise. In the wake of the tragedy, OceanGate has for the most part shut down.  But hope of deep diving tourism remain though many may not want to sign up for it now.

Flynn, S. (2024, June 17). One year ago OceanGate’s Titan sub imploded, taking 5 lives with it. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/titan-submersible-implosion-oceangate-titanic-b2564167.html

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Lynnewood Hall in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania was built to be like an American Versailles in 1897 by Peter AB Widener. He made a fortune in the butcher and transportation industries. The 34-acre estate was built for his two sons and their families. Alas his son George and his grandson Harry both died on Titanic though Eleanor, George’s wife, survived. It was a devastating loss for the family and Peter would die in 1915. His son Joseph inherited the estate and his family lived there until 1934. After that it went through several different owners until it was acquired by the First Korean Church of New York. They put it up for sale in 2014.

Then people started entering the property calling themselves “Urban Explorers” and filming what they found. What they found could no longer be akin to the famous Versailles but one could still how grand it once was. Pictures show mostly empty rooms that still display some of its prior majesty. Other areas, like the pool area and staircases, show neglect and ruin. Since it was used as a seminary, some areas were used for studying and eating. A former ballroom was turned into a chapel and looked well preserved when photographed in 2019.

The church itself ran into legal issues. The local board would not grant a waiver allowing him to operate a church in a residential neighborhood which resulted in a lawsuit that this violated the constitution. The church would end up losing its tax-exempt status later and the property was put up for sale. It sat empty and buyers were turned away until finally he agreed to sell it to the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation for $9 million. Now the foundation is working to remodel, restore, and then likely rent it out for charity and education uses down the road. This once grand building will likely be open for public tours as well to generate revenue. So, in the end the building built by a millionaire for his family, some lost when Titanic sank, will have a new lease on life.

Lloyd, A. (2024, June 17). See inside a $300 million Gilded Age mansion built for heirs who died on the Titanic that sat abandoned for years. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/lynnewood-hall-photos-gilded-age-mansion-with-tragic-titanic-ties-2024-6

Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation. (2023, July 1). OUR PLAN | Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation, Inc. Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation, Inc. https://lynnewoodhallpreservation.org/our-plan/

Southeast, A. (2023, September 30). Lynnewood Hall. Abandoned Southeast. https://abandonedsoutheast.com/2021/08/09/lynnewood-hall/

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Suggested Reading

Brewster, H. (2013). Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic’s First-Class Passengers and Their World. National Geographic Books.

Marshall, L. (2019). Sinking of the Titanic: The Greatest Disaster At Sea – Special Edition with Additional Photographs. Independently Published.

Rossignol, K. (2012). Titanic 1912: The Original News Reporting of the Sinking of the Titanic. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.

Wilson, A. (2012). Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived. Simon and Schuster.

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Titanic

Titanic News- Snopes Looks Into Titanic Photograph,Jinxed Train Station Gets New Life and more!

Europe’s Unluckiest Train Station Gets New Lease Of Life As Hotel
The Guardian, 19 Jul 2021

It earned the nickname “Titanic of the mountains”, but now the monumental and ill-fated train station at Canfranc is to get a new life as a five-star hotel, 51 years after the international rail link across the Pyrenees closed. The story of Canfranc, a village more than 1,000 metres (3,280ft) above sea level on the Franco-Spanish frontier, is one of vainglorious ambition and abject failure, of incompetence and corruption, of intrigue, smuggling and a century-long run of bad luck. Spain wanted to show that it was capable of building something on the scale of Europe’s great “railway cathedrals”, says Alfonso Marco, author of El Canfranc, historia de un tren de leyenda (Canfranc, the story of a legendary train). “By the time it was built it already belonged, conceptually and technically, in the 19th century,” he told the Guardian. The problem was that the station was conceived in 1853 but not completed until 1928.

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Is This the Final Photograph of the Titanic?
Snopes.com, 16 Jul 2021

Snopes looks into whether or not a photograph (Morrogh Image) is the final photograph of Titanic. After consulting with Ken Marschall and another expert, it likely was not the last one. It appears to have been taken a few minutes before the Odell Image (taken by Kate Odell on the tender heading ashore). Which makes the Odell image still the last and final photograph of Titanic as she heads out to sea, and into history.

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‘The Apparition Screamed Out ‘Waratah! Waratah!’: Dundee Ship Richard King And ‘Australia’s Titanic’
The Courier, 16 Jul 2021

The Waratah was sailing to Cape Town but she disappeared from sight into the mist with her 211 passengers and crew in July 1909. The story of the Waratah has often been compared to that of the Titanic, which sank three years later. As such, the Waratah has been referred to variously as the “Titanic of the Southern Ocean” and “Australia’s Titanic”. The Richard King was one of the ships that took part in an exhaustive but unsuccessful search for the Waratah. Numerous attempts to salvage it and a few sightings have been reported, with none proving to be true. No one has ever found a trace of the ship and this great maritime mystery is up there with the Mary Celeste and the Flying Dutchman.

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What Titanic Left Behind: This Forgotten Mansion Was Owned By A Family Taken By Maritime Tragedy
Thetravel.com, 15 Jul 2021

The nearly-forgotten home of Lynnewood Hall was once considered to be one of the finest mansions in the country from the Gilded Age. It also held the title as being the finest home in the state of Pennsylvania but with so many Neo-Classical Revival features, that was not a tough challenge to overcome. What more interesting – and tragic – is the family who once owned this mansion, and how their lives were intertwined with that of the biggest maritime disaster in history: The Titanic.

https://youtu.be/yiLgiIFcYI0


History, Titanic

Slideshow of Former Widener Home Lynnewood Hall

Lynnewood Hall, 2013
Photo: Shuvaev/Wikimedia Commons

Few estates showcase the wealth of the Gilded Age than Lynnewood Hall in Elkins Park in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Built by Peter A.B. Widener between 1897-1900, it was a masterpiece of design. The 110-room mansion sat on 300 acres that were meticulously cared for and adorned with statues. The mansion was 70,000 square feet and designed by the noted American architect Horace Trumbauer. Aside from being a place to live, it was also to be the home of one of the largest private art collections in the country. It is estimated to have cost $8 million to build. Sadly, both his son George Dunton Widener and grandson Harry, died when Titanic sank in 1912. George had two other children who were not aboard at the time. His wife Eleanor and maid did survive but it was a devastating blow to AB. He would die in 1915.

Between 1915-1940, it was a private art gallery open to the public by appointment. In 1940, over 2,000 pieces of art were donated to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.  When Joseph Widener passed away in 1943, none of his children wanted the responsibility (meaning cost because it took a lot of money to keep the house and grounds maintained). It was abandoned and left to slowly disintegrate until 1948 when a developer bought it for a very low price. After that it was purchased by the Faith Theological Seminary. They sold off most of the land and now sits on 33 acres. Most of the art that was left was sold off prior to the sale. The seminary sold off many the famed interior detailing to raise funds. You must go to the National Gallery in Washington to see the Widener art collection, which is still preserved.

The house has been left to rot having been stripped of its precious art and detailing. Some rooms and areas are still in good condition as the slideshow indicates. It has been added to the list of endangered historic properties in the region. The secret tunnels referred to in the title were possibly used by staff to navigate the large house without being seen by Widener’s guests. The home was up for sale in 2014 for $20 million but that was brought down to $17.5 million in 2017. It appears off the market but not really known if it was sold or not. Perhaps it ought to be renovated and made open to the public (for a fee, of course) like many mansions and estates in Britain and France. You can view the slideshow here.