356 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



September, 1908 



The Superb Roads Are Hedged and Grass Bordered Throughout 



A Residential Park near Philadelphia 



" Stoke Pogis," at Villanova, Pennsylvania 



By Ralph de Martin 



KW areas of rural scenery have been 

 brought to the high grade of park-like effect 

 that has been so successfully realized in the 

 fertile territory bordering the "Main Line" 

 of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the region 

 adjacent to Philadelphia. The line passes 

 through what is, in an almost literal sense, 



a great park, richly endowed with trees and spacious fields 



of grass, and thronged with handsome houses and fine private 



estates, each one of which seems to vie with the other in the 



copiousness of its 



n a t u r a 1 develop- ^^^, 



ment, in the splen- 

 dor of its planting, 



in the richness of its 



natural growth. Yet 



beautiful as this 



country is the park 



effect of the whole 



has been obtained 



only through spo- 

 radic development; 



that is to say, what 



beauty cultivation 



has added to it has 



been done without 



regard to general 



effect, but simply 



with the idea of 



improving separate 



parts or sections. 



That the result, for 



many miles, is one 



of a very high 



grade of develop- 



m e n t is eloquent 



testimony to the 



popularity of the 



region, for without 



Entrance Porch of j" Mount Vernon^" 



very general improvement by many individual owners there 

 must have been many blank spaces, so to speak, which could 

 not but contrast unfavorably with the more marked char- 

 acteristics of the cultivated spaces. 



No finer general setting for the deliberate development and 

 improvement of a great tract of land could be found than in 

 this extraordinarily beautiful region. The whole country is, 

 as it were, a gigantic stage on which a special development is 

 displayed to the best advantage. The very beauty of the 

 surrounding territory was itself an incentive to the utmost in 



estate planning and 

 development, since 

 the general outside 

 standard being so 

 great, only a devel- 

 opment of the very 

 highest class could 

 properly compete 

 with what private 

 interests had accom- 

 plished on a smaller 

 scale and in a 

 smaller way. 



The great tract 

 of land, amounting 

 to about seven hun- 

 dred acres, known 

 as "Stoke Pogis," is 

 completely qualified 

 in the entirety to 

 stand competition 

 with the very finest 

 of the smallest es- 

 tates in its vicinity. 

 And not only does it 

 do this, but it is ad- 

 mirably qualified to 

 serve as an example 

 of high grade estate 



