September, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



357 



development on the 

 largest possible 

 scale, a development 

 that the whole of 

 the "Main Line" 

 territory might have 

 had if it had been 

 under single owner- 

 ship and the entire 

 region been developed as a single 

 property. This in itself is an achieve- 

 ment in estate planning and develop- 

 ment meriting the warmest praise, 

 and which makes this property one of 

 the most notable examples of this 

 kind in America. The development 

 of "Stoke Pogis" was begun by the 



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as are to be found 

 within it are, at 

 their lowest points, 

 still above the aver- 

 age height of the 

 general level of the 

 surrounding coun- 

 try, and serve 

 chiefly to emphasize 

 the points of special elevation. As a 

 matter of fact, it is beautiful rolling 

 country, with broad sweeps of open 

 land and marvelous outlooks in even 

 direction. This is especially true of 

 those parts which afford a view over 

 and above the Schuylkill River. The 

 water gleams distantly and far below 



late Frederick Phillips, Esq., its original owner. His initial one; on either side and beyond the country stretches off to a 

 conception was to develop a large tract of land as a single horizon so distant the eye yearns for no more. There is en- 

 community with a certain amount of general supervision that chantment in this view that one looks over into as from 



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Historic "Mount Vernon" Has Been Frankly Used in this Design 



would always maintain the whole property at a high grade 

 of cultivation. 



Land and houses are rented or sold as the various clients 

 prefer, and the same option is available in the care of 

 the individual places, this being done by the general 

 owners or by the individual occupant as may be ar- 

 ranged. The estate is now owned by 

 his family, and is 



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being developed by 

 his son, Mr. Frede- 

 rick Phillips, who 

 unites the skill of 

 the architect and 

 landscape gardener to the enthusiasm 

 of the owner. Mr. Clinton Gage has, 

 for some years, been general manager 

 for the company. 



The vast property included in 

 "Stoke Pogis" embraces every good 

 kind of land. Much of it is an ele- 

 vated plateau; all of it, indeed, is high 

 land, for such valleys and depressions 



Co^&CRVATOP 



T^rt^spx Floor 



another world, so far oft it seems, so peaceful and so still. 

 No conquest with nature was needed here at the outset of 

 the work. There was no reclaiming of waste land, no cut- 

 ting down of hills, none of the costly processes bv which 

 nature sometimes needs to be changed and modified 

 before its surface can be adapted for human habita- 

 tions were here needed. Even the trees 

 g r e w abundantly, 

 not, of course, al- 

 ways where they 

 were wanted, but 

 certainly where they 

 could be utilized in 

 the general scheme ; 

 while great woods of many acres tem- 

 pered the whole tract with shade and 

 shelter. In short, nature here was at 

 her best; not grand, not overpowering, 

 but serene; a nature ever smiling and 

 content; a site of sites for home build- 

 ing and estate development, a site 

 that, through centuries of varied utili- 



