A Gilded Age mansion on the Delaware River is getting a $3.5 million makeover

Glen Foerd, the 18-acre public park and city-owned historic estate in Far Northeast Philadelphia, is launching what its caretakers call its most ambitious preservation project — a $3.5 million effort to restore the exterior of its Gilded Age mansion.

The 30,000-square-foot building was built along the Delaware River in the early 1850s and completely remodeled and expanded in the early 1900s to become the Italianate-Classical Revival style mansion it is today.

The latest restoration project will focus on structural work, such as fixing deteriorating porch columns; repairing windows and doors; reinforcing stucco, masonry, and roofing; and rebuilding its cupola, which once defined the mansion’s silhouette but was lost to disrepair decades ago.

Glen Foerd, located in the Torresdale section of the city, is the only Philadelphia estate along the Delaware River that is open to the public. It was among a number of estates built on the river by Philadelphia industrialists and bankers in the 19th century. Many of the estates have been lost to development.

A group of neighbors fought off a proposal in the 1980s to redevelop the property as a condominium complex and formed the nonprofit Glen Foerd Conservation Corp., which operates the property. Glen Foerd is listed on the national and Philadelphia registers of historic places.

Since the early 1900s, cosmetic work has been done to the mansion, but there have been no significant structural repairs, said Ross Mitchell, executive director of Glen Foerd. The mansion’s interior needs to be updated as well, including upgrading gas, plumbing, and heating infrastructure.

The exterior renovation “is a really huge first step,” Mitchell said. “Having the building looking in first-class shape will [spur] others to help us fund the interior restorations we’ll need.”

Glen Foerd hosts roughly 35,000 visitors each year and is a popular site for bird-watching, weddings, kayaking, cycling, walking, and arts programming. The exterior restoration project also includes adding pathways that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

» READ MORE: How a Gilded Age estate on the Delaware River became a destination for urban foragers and artists

Just over half the cost to restore the mansion’s exterior is being covered by private sources and funds from Glen Foerd’s endowment. For the remaining $1.5 million, the Glen Foerd Conservation Corp. has applied for state funding and is calling on individuals and organizations to bridge the gap.

The mansion’s more than 120-year-old pipe organ was restored in 2023 and played for the first time in decades thanks to a $425,000 grant from the Wyncote Foundation.

Two years ago, Glen Foerd got a $850,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation to improve access to the site and expand its educational, environmental, cultural, and recreational programming.

The mansion includes an art gallery and works by past and current artists-in-residence.

Only two families have ever lived in the mansion, which the Lutheran Church later used as a retreat for a decade, Mitchell said.

When the property became too expensive to maintain, the church wanted to sell it to a developer, a sale that neighbors disputed, he said. The city then took ownership of the property in the 1980s.

“This is a real preservation success story,” Mitchell said.

The Glen Foerd mansion is open to the public for free on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.