La Ronda Mansion may have a buyer

An 80 year-old mansion in Bryn Mawr that is about to face the wrecking ball may have found an angel in Florida.

An 80 year-old mansion in Bryn Mawr that is about to face the wrecking ball may have found an angel in Florida. The Lower Merion Conservancy has been trying for months to save La Ronda, a rambling 18,000 square-foot villa.
Credit: “La Ronda” photo by flickr user road_less_trvled

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La Ronda is built on a grandiose scale rarely seen, even in the Main Line. It was designed by Addison Mizner, an early 20th century architect of vacation homes who almost single-handedly turned Boca Raton, Florida into a resort town.

So the Lower Merion Conservancy sought a Florida benefactor to preserve the house. They found one in Benjamin Wohl, a real estate investor in Palm Beach. Wohl has offered the current owner an undisclosed 6-figure sum for the structure alone, which he would pick up and move next door.

Wohl: An Addison Mizner home in Florida is more significant here because he worked here. In that area in Bryn Mawr – that was the first home in that area in 1929. It stands regal in the community.

Wohl says he is currently in discussion with the current owner’s lawyer.