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House^Garden 
VOL. I JUNE, 1901 No. i 
S TRATFORD LODGE, NEAR 
BRYN MAWR, MONTGOMERY 
COUNTY, PENN SY EVAN I A. 
Designed by Keen and Mead, Architects. 
In determining the design of a house, en¬ 
vironment and the traditions of its place 
should be prime 
factors. Stratford 
Lodge furnishes an 
interesting study of 
the influence of 
both. As to its en¬ 
vironment, it is for¬ 
tunate. The south¬ 
eastern counties of 
Pennsylvania, called 
Montgomery, Ches¬ 
ter and Delaware, 
enclose Philadelphia 
to the northward and 
westward. They 
cover a rolling coun¬ 
try, watered by great 
rivers, and by many 
creeks, that flow 
through wooded val¬ 
leys into the Schuyl¬ 
kill and the Dela¬ 
ware. In the midst 
of this country lies 
Bryn Mawr. To 
the eastward, half 
way to the Schuyl¬ 
kill, on a hill top 
from which are seen 
pleasant stretches of 
meadow land, inter¬ 
spersed with woods, 
stands Stratford 
Lodge. The place has its local history and 
a traditional manner of building. Early 
Welsh settlers coming just after William 
Penn—Quakers like himself—found such a 
land well suited to their ideas of a frugal life. 
They hoped to keep it as a place set apart for 
their own uses, where they might worship 
openly in their own way without fear of the 
law’s officers. They quickly built farm¬ 
houses and meeting-houses, many of which 
are used even to-day 
by their descendants. 
They gave the land 
of their adoption 
many good gifts; 
but, of these, the 
best remembered are 
the place names. 
Such names were not 
inventions. They 
served to remind the 
newcomers of the 
places they came 
from, just as they 
remind those who 
know their story, of 
the men who brought 
them. To choose at 
random, there come 
to mind at once 
Merion, Radnor, 
Penlynn, Uwchlan, 
Gwynedd, Tredy- 
ffrin, and many 
others, reminiscent 
of Welsh villages 
and shires. At a 
later date, when the 
tract had passed 
from their control, 
and when the growth 
of population had 
brought new places 
into being, the descendants of the early 
settlers saw to it that the new names should 
have the Welsh ring, and thus we have Bala, 
Cynwyd, Bryn Mawr, and the like. 
i 
