Moylan, south of Media, art colony, residence of Charles H. Stephens and Mrs. Charles H. Stephens (Alice Barber), contains valuable North American Indian collection, the old stone building, remodeled for art studios and dwellings, is among the most interesting in the county. Southwest of Media is the Williamson free school of mechanical trades; generously endowed; built in 1888; includes twenty-four buildings on 230 acres; pupils between sixteen and eighteen years of age are received; they live as families, twenty-four in a cottage with a matron; preference to those born in Pennsylvania; benefits of school are entirely free, including boarding, instruction, and clothing during the entire course of three years.
Media, county seat from 1851, population 4109; charter, with famous provision against sale of intoxicants, still intact, was granted, 1850: Courthouse with ample square, formed nucleus of the town; present building, modified colonial, Avondale marble, architects, Brazer & Robb. Old Providence Friends Meeting House, built, 1699; original Taylor log cabin is on State Street, and the old Rowland mansion. Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, stone, Gothic, has altar painting, “Murillo’s Holy Family,” copied by P. McIlhenny. Presbyterian Church, modified classic. Leiper Presbyterian Church, Gothic, Avondale marble, midway between Leiperville and Swarthmore, built in 1800, Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, and Elisha Kent Kane, while guests of Judge George G. Leiper, worshiped here, slates on the roof were brought from Scotland; near is colonial residence of Perry Lukens on Fairview Road, hardware and other materials were brought from England, has original latch string lock. Avondale, old colonial residence of Thomas Leiper, near Crum Creek, built on plan of his Scotch home.
Wallingford, residence of late Dr. Horace Howard Furness, America’s greatest Shakespearean scholar. He left a working library of several thousand Shakespeare books, including “The Variorum” edited with his son. Swarthmore, college, founded, 1864, by members of the Hicksite Society of Friends, is located on a hill with a fine view of the Delaware River, campus over 200 acres, includes large tract of woodland and rocky valley of Crum Creek; buildings, mostly stone, French Renaissance, include the Sproul Astronomical Observatory, built in 1911, gift of William C. Sproul, contains one of the best telescopes in America; Library, English collegiate Gothic, built, 1907, local stone, with terra-cotta and Indiana limestone trimmings, architect, Edward L. Tilton, New York; the reading room is open through two stories, height twenty feet with gallery on three sides; Gothic beamed ceiling and leaded ceiling lights, interior finished with dark oak. In fireproof tower room is the Anson Lapham Friends’ Historical Library, one of the largest collections of Quakeriana in America, contains original manuscripts of John Woolman’s Journal.
Near the Library stands a house with gambrel roof, built in 1724, marked, with tablet, by Delaware County Historical Society, “Birthplace of Benjamin West, born in 1738, first great American painter, founder and second President of the Royal Academy, London”; exterior unchanged, now residence of college professors; the college owns, and is still collecting original paintings and drawings by West. Meeting house built, 1881, follows the traditions of early colonial style. Parrish Hall, the main building, erected 1864-69, rebuilt after the fire in 1881, contains a portrait of George Fox by Sir Peter Lely, and other interesting portraits of early Friends and later benefactors of the college. Wharton Hall, men’s dormitories, built in form of Oxford quadrangle, architects, Buntley & Sprigley. Stone gateway, north entrance, designed by Frederick B. Pyle.
Lycoming County
XXII
LYCOMING COUNTY
FORMED April 13, 1795; named for creek called by Delaware Indians Legani-hanna (Sandy Stream) or Lycaumic; mountainous with rolling hills; North Mountain, highest land, 2550 feet above sea level. Formerly a lumber region, now chief industries are agriculture and manufacturing. Williamsport, county seat, founded, 1796, population 36,198, has a system of well kept roads; the Grampian and Vallamont drives wind over the hills north of the city, giving a view, over the West Branch Valley, that is remarkable for extent and beauty. Courthouse built in 1860, city hall, and post office are mid-Victorian. Masonic buildings include the Masonic Temple, Scottish Rites Building, Acacia Club, and Howard Club. Franklin School, Mulberry Street, North of East Fourth Street, has mural decorations of local scenery, “A Sweep of the Susquehanna Near Jersey Shore,” artist, J. Wesley Little.
Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, East Fourth and Mulberry Streets, has windows from England, also by Tiffany and Lamb. “The James V. Brown Public Library,” East Fourth Street, French Renaissance, Pennsylvania white marble, built in 1907, architect, Edgar V. Seeler, Philadelphia; contains a small permanent collection of paintings and an original portrait of Washington, by Rembrandt Peale, painted in 1795; art exhibitions are held here. Central Presbyterian Church, opposite Park Hotel, has windows by J. & R. Lamb. Covenant Presbyterian, West Fourth and Center Streets, has large windows by Tiffany and Lamb. Trinity Protestant Episcopal, West Fourth Street and Trinity Place, modern parish house, used as a community center. Opposite is Way’s Garden, two and one-half acres, with fine old elm trees. Annunciation, Roman Catholic Church, West Fourth and Walnut Streets, Tiffany window, “The Ascension.” St. John’s Protestant Episcopal, architects, Duhring, Okie & Ziegler, windows by Nicola d’Ascenzo.