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THE OLD RED ROSE INN OF “STOKE POGIS” 
AT VILLA NOVA, PENN A. 
By P. W. HUMPHREYS 
T HE Stoke Pogis of America is largely a 
dream fulfilled. When the visionary 
Frederick Phillips, with wealth and high 
ideals, planned to pattern his beautiful estate 
in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, after 
Penn’s ancestral Stoke Pogis in England and 
to transform it into a co-operative colony of 
art workers, his dream was on a more ex¬ 
tensive scale than the actuality one sees today. 
Yet the present fulfillment has been abun¬ 
dantly satisfactory to the guests of “ The 
Red Rose Inn ” when it was a place of pub¬ 
lic entertainment; and since that time it has 
been a delight to those who have occupied 
it as a home. 
People called it “ Phillips’ Whim” when 
the millionaire bought the estate. They 
supposed his purpose was to dwell in the 
rambling old farmhouse, and in the company 
of green trees and running brooks, to follow 
his dreams and to cultivate his artistic tastes. 
But his ideals extended beyond any mere 
selfish enjoyment. He planned to divide 
the eight hundred acres into a number of 
country-seats to be occupied by people of 
small means, having similar tastes to his own 
and who were desirous of developing their 
talents amid the graceful surroundings of 
country life. It was his plan to erect as 
many houses as would be consistent with the 
artistic development of the estate, and, while 
others could build and plan and design, he 
would be, in a sense, the supervising archi¬ 
tect of the ensemble. He first intended to 
call the place the “White Farm;” but after 
visiting Penn’s Stoke Pogis in England, he 
found that his tract was so similar in area 
and general character to the estates of the 
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