Look Up!: Great architects brought variety of styles to Wyncote

The quiet village of Wyncote is renowned in diverse circles for a few of its former residents, including the poet Ezra Pound, the baseball legend Reggie Jackson, and the Netanyahu brothers – Yonaton, a hero and sole casualty of the Israeli raid on Entebbe; and Benjamin, the current prime minister of Israel.

 

Among architectural historians, Wyncote is known for other names.

 

The firm of Furness & Evans designed the English Country Gothic church at Bent Road and Greenwood Avenue. The building was designed in 1896 as a mission of the Church of Our Savior. The land for the church was donated by William West Frazier, a frequent client of Frank Furness who served with him in the Civil War. The beautifully preserved stone structure, which features a compact nave and transept, protruding wood entry porch, and windows by Tiffany Studios, is now All Hallows Church.

 

Another giant of Philadelphia architecture, Horace Trumbauer, designed five houses in the 1890s that still stand in Wyncote. The Henry Walt House, a Shingle Style home built on a six-acre site, has a dramatic oval porch that overlooks the community park and lake across the street from All Hallows Church. The house was one of two that Trumbauer designed for the Walt family on the site known as Bend Terrace. Trumbauer also brought his grand style to the design of the Jenkintown-Wyncote Train Station.

 

The village attracted the work of many other great 19th century architects, including Frank Miles Day, Will Price and Angus Wade, giving Wyncote a rich and exciting built landscape.

“Look Up!” is a PlanPhilly feature that encourages appreciation of our architectural and historical environment. The photo essays focus on different Philadelphia areas and their distinctive building styles and details, all of which make up the physical fabric of the city and region.