Hot History - The Gilded Age mansion that sank with Titanic

Episode Date: April 23, 2026

Hello you! Today we're chatting about Lynnewood Hall, the 110 room gilded age mansion with double the footprint of the White House! Built for the Widener family, it was meant to be a haven for art and culture, but its hopes sank to the depths with the RMS Titanic when both the Widener heirs died on board. Sold to the church for a seminary, the homes contents full of french art, italian mantles, chinese urns and persian rugs, were auctioned until nothing remained. Year by year, it fell further into disrepair until it was totally abandoned. Now saved by the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation this great dame gets a second chance, and I can't wait to tell you all about it!You can follow LHPF on Instagram, and watch some of the walk throughs here and here . If you also want more Hot History you can follow along on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and of course, right here!Til next week, Ainslie x

He was to the Gilded Age Millionaires, what the road under eye patches are to Gen Z and millennial women online. 55 bedrooms, 20 bathrooms, five art galleries. This wasn't just going to be a home. It was going to be a statement, booking passage on none other than the RMS Titanic, leading to further rumours of misuse and even cult-like behaviours. And as such, it was abandoned entirely. This is the story of Linwood Hall, so let's get into it.

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Terms apply. Hi guys and welcome back to hard history, where we cover all the things in history that you probably should know, but don't. I'm Ainsley Harvey, your hot historian here ready to chat about the Gilded Age mansion and family that went to rack and ruin at the very peak of their wealth, influence and power, thanks to the loss of not one but two of its heirs aboard the Titanic. This is the story of Linwood Hall, so let's get into it. it by rewinding it all the way back to November 13, 1834, where Peter Alnell Brown Widener was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Now, this is an ordinary baby born into a very ordinary family. They were working class immigrants of German descent who put the time in, paid their taxes and enjoyed a hearty dinner for a good treat. So, by no means, privilege or wealth here. But Peter's father, Johannes, worked hard as a bricklayer and his elder brother as a butcher, which meant that Peter grew up, one, surrounded by meaty carcasses, and two, knowing that earning a living meant discipline, hard work, and often getting your hands dirty. And this instilled the very foundation of his being.

Now, as was custom at the time, he received a basic education, attending Central High School in Philadelphia, where he excelled in mathematics before entering the workforce, helping in his brother's shop as a butcher's apprentice and learning the fundamentals of trade and business first hand. Now, around this time, changes are coming in thick and fast. Firstly, he met a young woman by the name of Hannah Danton and married her in 1858 at age 24, and it was just as well because three years later, the future of the United States.

United States of America and indeed the world would change forever because there was a decent chunk of time where those states were not united. I am of course talking about the American Civil War. Now, as I said, the Civil War changed history for many reasons, chief amongst them being that it directly led to the total abolition of slavery in the United States, but it also changed the economic dynamics of the nation. You see, pre-Civil War, the US was divided economically almost straight down the middle, or across the middle, to actually be exact. You had the northern half of the country who were becoming increasingly industrialized, feeding off the industrial revolution happening in Europe with the push of steam engines and discovery of gold out

west, leading to railways which needed steel and oil and so on and so forth. But while this is happening in the northern states, the South remained largely agrarian, relying almost entirely on slave labor and cotton production. Now, while the causes of the Civil War are complex to say the least and would require a full episode to deep dive on, let me know if you do want that. The key division and therefore source of the conflict was over the institution of slavery within largely this economic context. Now, many in the North either opposed its expansion

or wanted its total abolition on the grounds of, this is absolutely fucked, right? Like, obvious. But as I said, the southern economy relied on slave labor and attempts for federal limitations or abolition of slavery was met with widespread discontent by southern states who believed that they had the right to govern themselves and therefore protect the institution of slavery.

of slavery. So basically, the South very much felt like the government were overstepping within regards to slavery, and the government felt like it had to get rid of this terrible thing, right? Super oversimplified, I know, but this is in a nutshell, you get the point here. So Peter, at this point in time, smack bang in the center of this conflict. And he wins a very significant bit of business as a result of it, the supply of money. mutton to all Union Army troops within 10 miles of Philadelphia, which at the time became a major transportation hub for troop deployment and Union military hospital. So North. This turned into a pretty lucrative business for the young Widener, who was paid around 50,000 US dollars

at the time for his trade. Now for context here, 50,000 US dollars in 1865 when the Civil War ended equates to just over one million US dollars today. So Peter has a nice little nest egg here, right? And while most men may have taken that, gotten a bigger house, kept working in the trade, his family did, and lived a pretty decent life. Well, actually a very decent life at the time. Peter would do no such thing.

After all, as we are beginning to gather here, Peter is no ordinary man. And all that this first taste of money did was plant an insatiable desire for more. So he decides to use that $50,000 and partnered with William Lukens Elkins, a fellow Philadelphia native whose career as a grocer in the war also made him a nice chunk of cash, and together they decided to invest in horse-drawn city streetcar lines, which is pretty self-explanatory, but for us visual learners here, imagine a big carriage which runs on fixed tracks laid in the street just like a tram wood,

but instead of being powered by electricity or engines, they were pulled by horses. After witnessing firsthand just how important it was to be able to move troops and goods and civilians throughout the key transport hubs during the war, Widener and Elkins realized the potential for these everyday streetcars in city life. And by 1883, the horse drone lines, was so successful that they, along with another partner, William H. Campbell, founded the Philadelphia Traction Company to build electric trolley lines. From here, they did, what any good rubber baron of the time did,

establish a monopoly by buying up all the trolley lines to Philadelphia, and through a series of leases, the company eventually became a part of the Philadelphia transportation company, which extended to New York, the north side of Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore. So by 1887, the Widener, Elkins, Campbell, Traction Group had successfully built more miles of electric trolley lines than any other syndicate at the time. Like I said, a monopoly. Now, with this success came many things, including prominence in Philadelphia politics, with Widener serving in several positions, including on the Philadelphia Board of Education and as the Philadelphia city treasurer.

So this is a man of industry, a man of influence, a man of power. But of course, also a man of great wealth. And that only expanded further when he became a founding member of several other massive guilted age organisations, right? We're about to roll them. We had American Tobacco Company, the International Mercantile Marine Company with J. P. Morgan, most significantly Andrew Carnegie's U.S. Steel, one of the biggest American companies ever, guys. Widener also had significant investments in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,

reading company, United Gas Improvement Company, and John D. Rockefeller's standard. Oil. So this is a man with many fingers in many pies and many, many banknotes in his pockets. In fact, at its peak, wideness fortune is estimated to have sat around 80 to 100 million US dollars at the time, the equivalent of which is approximately 2.3 billion US dollars today. So not quite a Vanderbilt or a Rockefeller, but a big wig with a big bank account. Visit BetMDMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly, 19 plus to wager, Ontario only.

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S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. So what do you do with that much money? You know, after you've gone and bought up other companies, you've made your investments, what do you do with the rest? That is a lot of cash. Well, at this point in time, Weidner decided to spend his cash on real estate, and he had grand ambitions of exactly how he and his family should live, given his new stature. Speaking of which, let's do a little bit of a detour, a bit of a headcount of the Weidner family now, because the last we heard, Peter married Hannah Dunton while he was still a butcher, and a lot has changed since then. So Hannah and Peter had three sons. Their first son, Harry, unfortunately,

died from typhoid fever in 1871 at 11 years of age. Their second son, George Danton Weidner, was born in 1861, and their third son, Joseph Early Weidner, followed in 1871. George became the heir to his father's massive fortune, joining the family business and eventually taking over the running of the Philadelphia Attraction Company. As one of Philadelphia's most eligible bachelor's, he married Eleanor Elkins, the daughter of Peter's original business partner, William Elkins, like the grocer, who made all the money in the war. Together, they had two sons, Harry Elkins and George Danton, and a daughter, also named Eleanor.

Now, I just want to pre-warn you, there are three Eleanor's here, so apologies, if there is any confusion, I will do my very best. Now, Peter's other living son, Joseph, didn't really play an active role in the businesses from what we know, and instead used his fortune and influence to pursue his own interests, namely thoroughbred horse racing and art. Now he married Society Beauty, Eleanor, another Eleanor, although she was known as Ella, Pancoast, with the pair having two children, a son, Peter Weidner the second, and a daughter, Josephine, Feefe, Widener.

So quite the growing brood here. And to house them all and reflect their new station, like I said, Peter decided to commission the construction of a beautiful, ornate mansion right in the middle of Philadelphia in 1887. Designed by Willis G. Hale, the gorgeous mansion was one of Philadelphia's best, and Peter took great pride in its presentation. So much so, he decided to fill it with some of the greatest pieces of art the Gilded Age money could buy. Now, I'm not talking about a couple of frames and oil paintings here. Peter turned into quite an art fanatic, travelling extensively to Europe to visit museums and homes

looking at sculpture and paintings and music. And it was in this mansion that he began to amass his art collection, featuring all of the old European masters from Rembrandt to Vermeer and Van Dyke, as well as 18th century British painters like Gainsborough and Reynolds. And this was a huge trend. amongst the American Gilded Age millionaires whose liquid wealth allowed them to hit up

the pedigree rich but cash poor members of the British and European and aristocracies and nab up huge chunks of their collections as a result. Indeed, we actually see this in far more human terms with the Gilded Age dollar princesses where American money would marry their daughters often titled men who used their huge dowries to save their homes and mansions

and the Americans got clout. In wideners' case though, was just cash for art, but you get the point here. For Peter, his collection, though, wasn't just to show his wealth and prominence. He bought these pieces of art because he loved them, amassing what was largely considered one of the finest private art collections in the United States at the time, so fine that he literally ran out of walls to hang it all on, and after the death of his wife, his desire to display his art and keep his family close, led Widener to his most daring project yet.

Inspired by the stately homes of Europe in particular Longleet in Bath and Versailles in France, Wydener commissioned the construction of a huge stately home of his own on a 300-acre plot of land in Elkins Park, Pencilvania. So at this point, the year is 1897 and the hottest architect around, the only guy for the job in widened his opinion is a man called Horace Trumbauer. Now, he was to the Gilded Age millionaires what the road under eye patches are to Gen Zine millennial women online. A true and total sensation, right? And at only 29 years old, Trumbauer was renowned for his use of symmetry, grand scale, formal layouts and classical details like columns, pediments and ornate stonework, which was exactly what.

what Weidner wanted to channel here. Plus, he liked the young up-and-comers and wanted someone who understood his ambition and vision. Because this wasn't just going to be a home. It was going to be a statement. A legacy, a centre for greatness. So he engaged Mr Trumbauer to begin designs for what would be dubbed Linwood Hall. Now, the demands from the get-go here were steep.

Peter told Trumbauer that needed to be. be enough space for his family and his art, rooms grand enough for entertaining and a whole other ecosystem for the staff who would run this giant estate. The result of which was 55 bedrooms, 20 bathrooms, five art galleries, a reception and smoking room, dining and breakfast room, grand ballroom, and a footprint that is almost twice the size of the White House. So a huge 110 room neoclassical revival-style behemoth, with construction beginning in 1897 and finishing rather amazingly by 1900, so a three-year-ish kind of time period to complete this massive estate, which was officially opened with a gala held on December 18, 18, 1890.

So what's in this massive mansion then? Well, for those of you watching on Spotify or on YouTube, hi, it will be easier for you guys to see the map for this. part, but for my audio kings and queens, I am going to do my very best to explain for you all. But don't worry, I will post pictures on the socials if you get lost, but follow with me. So if you are looking top down at the house, it is in the shape of a T. So you have two sets of wings coming off the entry. The length of the whole house from across these double wings here was 81 metres. At the centre of the house, you then have a separate hall that runs down the back, so like again,

keep that T shape in mind, two wings, one back section. Now, if you are coming up to the property as a guest, you're coming through the front door, and when you enter, you are arriving in the central hall. This was the very heart of the house. It had huge ceilings fit out with a stained glass skylight. There was a giant chandelier, marble floors, and a grand stand. staircase which was modelled off the Vanderbilt mansion at the Breakers in Rhode Island. This was fit out with a huge carpet, massive Chinese urns on either side of the staircase,

potted palms, tapestries, flowers, polar bear skins, you name it, it was on display in this central hall. And if you're having trouble imagining, again, I will post pictures for you. Now, if you are standing at the bottom of the staircase, so you've gone through the front door, in the central hall looking at this big grand staircase, the house from this point branches out in a very symmetrical, organized layout left and right, known as the East and West Wings. So if we're going to turn to the right first, down this hallway, you had the formal rooms, including a drawing room for receiving guests, a music room for performances, and the grand

ballroom for large social events. These rooms were designed to all flow into each other so during parties people could move easily from space to space and were fitted out with everything, from tapestries to mirrors to fireplaces from European villas and gilded panels. Honestly, the details, even still today, insane. Like, you had cherubs whose feet were like designed to hang off in the corners and clamshells chiseled into marble mantel pieces. Insanity.

Even the hinges, guys, on the door. Well, like had roses and vines and shit in them. It was insane. So the final room in this right side of the house. We've gone through these three rooms. The final room in here is the Italian gallery, designed specifically for wideners Italian collection featuring a ceiling that was literally pulled out of an Italian villa. So again, lots of like going to Europe, ripping out whole ceilings and fireplaces and panels and then shipping them over to the US to go into these Gilded Age homes. Now, this was the first of, of five art galleries in Linwood Hall, and he's often called the Raphael Room, as it housed

one of the pride pieces of Wydenner's collection, the small Calipa Madonna, painted by Raphael, which hung centreplace amongst Widener's other Italian works in this room. And again, this was in the right wing of the house, so it could all be admired by guests who attended these balls and receptions. Everything about this home, strategic and centred layout. Now, coming back to the central hall, so back up this, right hallway. We are back in front of this main staircase and we're going to follow through to the left wing where we see the exact same style of hallway on the right. Again, a little symmetry. There's solid stone. All the doors are mirrored. It's giving very much a sigh.

And on this side, we have two functions. One for the family and it's guests, two for the servants. So there was a servant's hidden entry, a door that opened to a food prep area and, you know, back of house that had a whole bunch of different functions from storage to preparation. And then you came out of there and on the other side of this hallway, you had a smoking room, a breakfast room and dining room, which we're going to talk about later because a crime occurred in there, let me tell you. So that's really the whole of this left side, big, big rooms. You then come back into the central hall and you are standing in front of the staircase again. If you go either side and behind, you find the entry to the basement, which was where the main servant's quarters were.

There was a vault, the main kitchen and bakery, a walk-in refrigerator, a cold storage room, an ice cream room, literally a whole room just for ice cream. There was the servants dining rooms, the chef's pantry, a carpentry and upholstery shop, servants' games room and extra ladies and men's bathroom. So a full-on, like, subterranean city underneath the main structure of the house here, just insane. Speaking of servants, there were around 40 staff

who lived at Linwood Hall during Peter's time covering everything from chefs to housemaids and plumbers to valets. So a proper employer here and a proper functioning establishment, like literally a city underneath this house.

Also, in case I forgot to mention, there was this whole like underneath the basement again, tunnel system, which looks like something where Hitler and his like furry, freaky friends, would have hidden out in their final days, the footage of which is so creepy. I'm going ahead of myself. I need to like rain it back in. We will talk about it at the end, I promise, but it is wild.

This place was literally a city. Insane. Let's come back out of the basement, go around either side, back to the main staircase because we're going upstairs. So this main staircase went up one level, which then went straight ahead, so like through to this back bit of the tea, and we'll come back to that soon, but right now we are going to follow the staircase, which verges left and right, to bring you up to the second story, which looks straight down onto the central hall. So if you were in the central hall and look up, it's all open, you can see the second story. Now, this part of the home would have been fitted out with paintings and artworks and glowed with chandeliers so the family could look down on their guests arriving. Now off to the right side again,

so above the ballroom and the Raphael room, we have a series of bedrooms for both the family and the guests. So this is like the living quarters. The one key thing we know about Peter, aside from his love of art, is he's a big family man. So he made sure there was enough space for both of his sons and their wives and children,

taking into account rooms for governesses and staff and friends and children's activities and more. Now, this right side or the west wing was where Peter's elder son and his wife held rooms along with their daughter and son. But to be honest here, like the whole family were constantly moving around this house from wing to wing to whatever really suited their needs. On the left wing or east wing, though, we do know that Peter's bedroom was in here, as was his second son Joseph's and his wife Ella. Now, the hallways in this upstairs, the family part of the home, were not stone like they were downstairs. They were plastered panels, very ornate. There was lots of wainscoting and skylights which let natural light in.

It was very light, breezy, beautiful. These rooms had giant windows and mirrors and fireplaces. Just the absolute definition of Gilded Age opulence. It is incredible. So that's the top floor, right? The family bedrooms. Now we are going to come back to the stairs. We're going to go down the left and the right and come back to that centre, which I said goes

through to the tea where we are going to find art galleries and a tea room. So the tea room was the space in the house where the men and women came together in the latter half of the day and the key piece in here is definitely the stained glass dome designed by Louis Comfort at Tiffany & Coe, which is still intact today and just gorgeous. Like I can't even imagine how it would have been in a its heyday, all, you know, glowing and gorgeous, like, incredible. So, again, you're at the stairs, you're coming through, you're hitting this tea room first. And it was really a meeting point and an entry point, if you will, before going through to the star of the show.

The reason the house was built, the art galleries. So like I said, there was five in total, one of which was the Raphael room downstairs. We already went through there. but the other four were all in the back part of this T-shape. Now, first, we have the largest of the galleries, which doesn't really have a name as such, but it had these massive, massive skylights overhead. I always just call it the skylight room. And it was filled with an array of different art and artists from Gainsborough to Reynolds to Vermeer.

Like, it was jam-packed wall-to-wall with very little free space left. This room looks the most like a museum, like if you imagine if you're at the Louvre and there's paintings everywhere. That gallery then goes onto the Rembrandt Gallery, which was, as the name suggests, filled with works by Rembrandt and a few other artists, but mainly Rembrandts, with Widener actually having the largest Rembrandt collection outside of Buckingham Palace. Fun fact. Next was the Bellini-Tillini Gallery, which had these amazing, like glass cases in stone, if you can kind of imagine that. in the four different corners of the room. So all four of these corners have these cases in them, which were filled with precious jewels crafted by the Italian goldsmith, Benevato-Shellini. The last gallery in the space, so these all flow on, is the Van Dyke Gallery, my personal favourite.

Holding, you guessed it, primarily works by Van Dyck. But there were also portraits of Peter Weidner by John Singer-Sargent, literally my favourite artist ever, and more. here. But like, honestly for me, main attraction, the roof. It was this plastered, detailed ceiling which comes up to an incredible skylight in like a step function. I'll try to find some photos and post them for you. Chef's Kiss. So that's the main part of the house for the residents and guests. But the servants, another thing. Like, as I said, right, they've got their basement, but where are you, where are they staying? These guys are 24-7 living servants. So, like, where are you going to put them? Well, they actually stayed above the gallery and tea rooms,

so in this back half of the house, and the rooms in here are much smaller and very simple, but still quite gorgeous. Balthrooms were fitted out with lesser marble, and the windows in here were quite large. So to work in this house was a decent life with a decent living space for you. So that's a bit of a rundown of the property. But what does something like this cost? Well, estimates today say that Linwood Hall cost Peter Wydener approximately $8 million US dollars at the time, which works out to around $260 million US dollars today. But that was just for the construction. Once the house was built, it had to be filled, you know, and we've already said he's got his

art, but it needs furniture and curtains and silks and velvets and all sorts of incredible furnishings, Almost all of which were imported from Europe, which the Philadelphia Inquirer tells us made the house seem as if it was dripping with silk, velvet and gilded mouldings. The rooms furnished with chairs from Louis XIth Palace, Versan rugs and Chinese pottery. So again, just want to reiterate here. This is a proper Gilded Age mansion for the ages. or at least it should have been for the ages. But that would not be the case. Now, as we said, Peter had two sons, George and Joseph.

George is the eldest. He's the one taking over the company as, you know, heir and proprietor. And he married Eleanor, having two sons, Harry and George, and the daughter, Eleanor, aka Ella. Now, as George's role in the widener companies expanded, so too did his desire to establish some things of his home. And as such, he wanted to set up a brand new hotel in Philadelphia through its cult. Now, to pull off this grand feat, George decided what he really needed was a great chef.

And as such, he headed to Paris with his wife and elder son Harry in 1912 in search of one. Here, they dined in the finest restaurants, laid their heads in the original writs in Plaster Van Damme, and spent their days walking the Chomsalisei and marvelling at the sites. But business called, and as such, they returned to America, booking passage on none other than the RMS Titanic. Now this made sense, for a few reasons. One, Titanic was marketed as the grander ship to ever take the seas. It was fit out with grand dining rooms and first-class cabins

with excellent cargo holds and decks divided by class with musicians and sommeliers, right? Like it is literally the writs floating on the sea. It was also said to be unsinkable, and while many ocean liners took on the Atlantic from the UK to the US, it was still a dangerous journey. And with the current and future air of the widener fortune on board, it seemed a safe bet. But the other reason, and in this case at least, the most important reason, the Titanic was the perfect choice for the Weidener family, was their investment in the international mercantile marine company IMMC for short.

Remember I said at the top, Peter Weidner was an initial founder of many of the Gilded Age companies at the time, including IMMC with J.P. Morgan, which made him a large shareholder in the company. Why is this relevant? Well, IMMC was a parent company of the White Star Line who owned and operated the RMS Titanic. So they're basically setting out on the maiden voyage of their own ship, right? Given their role as shareholders, George and Eleanor made a particular fuss of celebrating the ship and its crew and is said to have hosted a luxurious dinner party attended by Titanic's captain E.J. Smith

on the night of April 14th, 1912. This, of course, is the same evening the infamous ship struck the iceberg that would send it to its doom. Awoken, by this collision, the family who occupied cabin's C-80-82 headed for the upper decks, waiting in line for over an hour while the ship sunk. Finally, they reached lifeboat four, where George placed Eleanor and her maid, Amalie Geiger, into the boat, saying goodbye to his wife and stepping back, with his son Harry and Valais Edwin, keeping accepting their fate. While Eleanor and Amelie were rescued by the RMS Carpathia,

George, Harry and Edwin died. Their bodies, if recovered at all, were never identified. Back in Philadelphia, Widener was notified of his son and grandson's death and was grief-stricken beyond all measure, of course. Eleanor and Amelie were traumatised as well by the events of April 14th and 15th, and after their arrival in New York, they were both met by a private train at Peter's Instruction, which brought them back home to Philadelphia. From that moment onwards, the Widener family and Lidwood Hall was swallowed by grief. Eleanor's daughter, also called Eleanor, or Ella, for short here, was weeks off marrying Fitz Eugene Dixon, Sr., in a huge, society's soiree, but given the deaths of her father and brother, the family opted to still keep

the same date, but changed the wedding to a small ceremony held at Linwood Hall two months later. Her wedding dress for which was sourced at the very last minute because the original one picked up by her parents in Paris sunk to the depths aboard Titanic. After this, Peter was never the same. The great hopes of his family, his dynasty, his legacy were lost. For while his other son Joseph certainly inherited his love of culture and art, he wasn't a worker. Aside from that anyway, guys, Peter loved his family, and the death support Titanic rocked him to his core. In memory of his grandson in particular, Peter and Eleanor decided to dedicate his entire and very extensive

library to Harvard University. Harry was an avid reader, so the library was made up of thousands of books, so much so that the campus actually had nowhere to put them. So the Weidner family also donated the funds for a brand new library to be built in Memorial to him. The only stipulation from Mrs. Weidner, reportedly being that no stone be touched as long as the library stands, although this has turned into urban law. legend in the years that passed, with many beginning to believe that Harvard's age-old swimming

test that students had to pass to graduate was a stipulation of Mrs Weidner, who felt her son might have been saved had he been able to swim better. But this has been ruled as mere legend and the swimming test designed to build strong minds and strong bodies was also abandoned in the 1980s. Thankfully, Eleanor went on to marry again in 1915 to geographer and explorer Dr. Alexander Hamilton Rice, and in the coming years overcame her fears of travel, following him on several expeditions in South America, Europe and India, becoming the first white woman to travel further into the depths of the Amazon at the time. Ella, as we said, married Fitz Eugene Dixon Sr., and they also lived on a huge

114-acre estate before divorcing, after which Ella became a proud philanthropist, donating her $350,000 yacht to the United States Navy for service during World War II, alongside gifts to Abington Memorial Hospital and Temple University. Her surviving brother, George D. Weidner, went on to manage the family finances and was heavily involved with his uncle Joseph, so let's now head on over to him. Now, as I've already said, Joseph wasn't much in for the family businesses, but he loved thoroughbred horse racing. And after joining, forces with future US Racing Hall of Fame horse trainer Jay Howard Lewis, they raced 14 champions together. And following his brother and nephew's deaths aboard Titanic, Joseph also began

breeding horses, leading to a total of 79 stakes race winners from 1912 to 1943. But what about poor old Peter? Well, after 1912, Peter largely shut himself off from the world, rarely leaving Linwood Hall except for private trips to Newport and holding fewer and fewer social events outside his family. He was, in many ways, lost, right? His purpose for his grand mansion, his family, had been reduced significantly. And so he stayed, growing older and older, surrounded by his art and his bald. room and his books and his grand furnishings, gradually becoming sicker and sicker from both his diabetes and what doctors at the time prescribed as his grief. He passed on on November 6, 1915, in his bedroom at Linwood Hall after a three-year-long struggle, reunited with his late

wife, son and grandson, leaving Joseph, his entire estate, valued at a conservative, approximately 31.5 million US dollars at the time, the equivalent of which is somewhere between 870 million to 1 billion US dollars today. And as I said, those are conservative estimates. So Joseph is a new head of the Widener family. And as I already mentioned, he did eventually team up with his nephew, who took care of the family finances. But he really wanted to set out making his own mark on Linwood Hall. Now, several additions had been made since the initial build by Peter, including the indoor pool, which is located in a separate building that was initially completed in 1909. But Joe wanted to make some real serious changes and as such set out transforming Linwood Hall into a

French masterpiece. Where his father, Peter, was heavily inspired by the Italian, Joseph was a proper francophile and began remodeling existing sections of the house to reflect his taste. The central hall and east and west wing hallways, which were previously a white marble, were ripped up in exchange for the checkerboard black and white style, seen in the palace of Versailles and what is currently still in place there today. Carved wood panelling from a French chateau was shipped in to be placed directly on top of the prior walls designs in the reception room and, Joseph's bedroom. There was furniture that came straight from the palace of the

Sai and statues from the palace at Fontaineble. In fact, in 1916, the entire gardens and grounds were redesigned in the French style by Jacques-Rabeer boasting stables, greenhouses, a polo field and a reservoir all in the French style. Around this time, the estate's grandeur was further excelled by the addition as well of Linwood Lodge. 16,000 square foot residents designed, yet again by Horace Trombauer, in the 1920s for Joseph Weidner's son, Peter Jr., who also resided at Linwood Hall. Even though he had 55 bedrooms to sleep in, he couldn't stay in the same house as his parents, apparently. Funnally enough as well, the lodge here was heavily inspired by the Petty Trianon at Missai, Marie Antoinette's former

playhouse, which we spoke about a couple of episodes ago. But more than that, under Joseph, the Widener Estate extended far beyond Lidwood Hall. It encompassed a 117-acre farm complete with chicken coops, stock barns, a half-mile racetrack and stables for Joseph's pride thoroughbreds, plus kennels for Peter Jr's various dogs. It even featured its own power plant and water pumps, which I think really reflects Joseph's desire to modernise and make his own mark to keep this legacy alive.

So serious about preserving what he had inherited, Joseph even installed a state-of-the-art solid bronze fire suppression system, which still remains intact today. Joseph also took complete control of the widened art collection, bringing in new pieces, selling those that didn't quite fit, and extending it into a true masterpiece of taste and culture. So much so that it attracted countless other international visitors into their home, including Henry Martiz, the Prince and Princess of Sweden, one of the Romanov sisters,

and it is even rumoured that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor visited, though Joseph reportedly refused to be present for this controversial visit, on account of his loyalty and support of King George the 6th. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor aside, Joseph and Ella really loved to entertain their friends, their family, the people that they were benefactors to, And they threw big balls at Linwood Hall throughout their time here, particularly in the 1920s. From formal balls to masquerades and costume parties, the wideners filled their home

with incredible people and amazing music, hiring, orchestras and costume makers who were readily available to bring to life their opulent visions. Even the staff, who during the summer season totaled around 100 under Joseph, wore period costumes to transport the house back in time. Hundreds of people packed in the ballroom for these occasions. In fact, there's even an article written in early 1910 from one of Peter's previous events that said the ballroom held a thousand people. And while historians today say this is an exaggeration and the house itself could probably

hold a thousand people if they all spread out and across all the rooms, it does really give us an idea of the scale at which these events took place at Linwood Hall. Now, this all sounds very hoity-toity, right? And for a man worth millions upon millions of dollars, you are not wrong for thinking this. But Joseph and his wife Ella were actually esteemed public figures for their devotion to the arts and their philanthropy. From 1915 to 1940 for several months of the year, they opened Linwood Hall's private galleries to the public, allowing everyday people to stroll through and soak it all in, giving Linneville. Hall, the reputation as the house that art built. They're not wrong there. They also donated

extensively to a variety of foundations, helped institute ethical practices for horse racing in the US, and became patrons of the arts, providing for operas and symphonies around the world. In fact, the pair were actually great friends with Anna Pavlova, the admired Russian ballerina, who was a great favourite of the Romanov's, and she actually came to visit Linwood Hall at one point in time, as did. So Winston Churchill, who Joseph hosted at Linwood on one of his tours of America. So some like real heavy hitters who have graced that dining room at Linwood Hall. But nothing can go on forever. And Joseph realized this. We have to remember, this is the time pre-second World War. And as this conflict struck, Linwood's future as a

private stately home, just didn't seem possible anymore. Something that Joseph's own son acknowledged in 1940 in his book without drums, stating, The Days of America's privately owned treasure homes are over. They are gone with the wind. Linwood Hall can, I suppose, be called the last of the American for size. And he's not wrong. The world was changing, and with it, the whiteness. So to ensure his real legacy, the art collection, were safe,

Joseph Weidner became a founding benefactor of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., donating over 2,000 pieces of art to the museum in 1942, with the belief that, quote, art belongs to those who appreciate it, others merely own it. Joseph's health declined for the next year, and he, like his father, died at Linwood Hall on October 26, It's 1943. After Joseph's death, Linwood Hall went to his son, Peter Jr., who, to be honest, had no real desire to keep the house running. And as such, the family visited less often, sending the house into a state of decline. You see, that is the thing with all of these great homes.

The first generation builds them. The second generation enhances them and, you know, changes things, often rips out entire rooms and replaces them. and the third generation is then paying for the upkeep, which, in the case of the wideners, by 1944, was just not worth it. No one was living in these kinds of homes anymore. Modernity had arrived, war had changed everyone, and so Peter Jr. decided to auction the mansion's contents off. From French furnishings to Chinese urns, polar bears skins to grand pianos and dining sets to silverware,

Linwood Hall was stripped. Having essentially liquidated the home, Peter Jr. then sold it and the gardens, along with its outlying buildings and farmland to a private buyer for the astonishingly low sum of $130,000 US dollars or $1.7 million US today. He had hoped to turn the property into a Protestant seminary. However, when he defaulted on his $99,000 mortgage, the property was temporarily repossessed by the wideners who then sold it again in 1952 to the Faith Theological Seminary, a branch of evangelical Christians headed by Carl McIntyre, who purchased the house for $192,000, the equivalent of $2.3 million US dollars today.

So no more wideners, no more private use, no more Gilded Age money, we're talking church dollars now, which, as it turns out, doesn't actually stretch as far as you'd think. Despite remaining active and successful for 40 years training hundreds of ministers and Christian leaders who were bathed, fed and housed in the former Widenner family rooms, and, you know, went to worship in the Grand Ballroom, which was converted into a chapel, the seminary began to experience financial difficulties. And as such, Linwood Hall was truly gutted.

from chandeliers to the dining room wood paneling that was lazily plastered over to a clinical white space. Again, I said a crime. This is it. I'll post the picks. It's absurd. Even marble tiles and fireplace mantles were ripped off and sold for parts, including 350 acres of land, which accompanied the estate. Soon, Linwood Hall and Linwood Lodge were in various states of dilapidation. and by 1996, the government came knocking and the seminary was forced into foreclosure with a sheriff's sale, basically an auctioneer running the sale on behalf of the government, taking place.

Linwood Hall thus changed hands yet again. This time to the First Korean Church of New York, a Presbyterian-affiliated church with ties to the faith theological seminary, headed up by Dr. Richard S. Yun. Now, he had hoped to restore the property, but he too, failed to do so when a string of applications and lawsuits over taxes and zoning as a place of worship, prohibited the church from continuing their worship at Linwood Hall, sending it into further neglect. Caught up in legal battles for years, the matter finally came to court in 2006. In the case, First Korean Church of New York Incorporated versus Montgomery County body of assessment's appeals.

Here, the court found that the property had not been used for religious or educational, purposes since 1998, leading to further rumours of misuse and even cult-like behaviours. But again, this seems to be legend designed to enhance the mysticism of the home rather than any fact. What we do know for certain is that a 2012 ruling found that the Furs Korean Church did not qualify for a tax exemption at Linwood Hall, and as such, it was abandoned entirely, with almost every single room going to rack and ruin, each year that passed. And so Linwood Hall stood, a sentinel guard of the old times rotting piece by piece from the inside out until it was finally listed for sale in 2014 for 20 million US dollars. Given its state of disrepair and the price tag attached to it, it didn't sell. But the publicity

from the listing and its abandoned nature led to something else. Urban explorers. Now these guys are a heavily debated topic within the historic community at large. Urban explorers, for those of you who do not know, essentially break and enter into old buildings and institutions which are all but abandoned and film what they find. They don't necessarily take anything or move anything they can't put back, and in the age of YouTube, they make quite the killing. From bros of decay, who boasts to 686,000 followers to the proper people and their 1.5-8 million followers, people love to look inside abandoned places, and Linwood Hall is no exception.

So many videos inside the abandoned home are online, and while the property was guarded by two dogs for a time, there was no real attempt to keep people out. The result of which meant that Linwood Hall reached millions and millions of people around the world, with tours of the central hall and ballroom, which are still in pretty good condition, to the almost in terms of highly destroyed Van Dyke Gallery and bedroom of Peter Weidner, the public has rallied behind Lidwood Hall's history. There's also new discoveries that have been made, including by this man named Leland Kent, who was one of the first to uncover those mysterious tunnels that I spoke about before. I told you we'd come back to them. Now, little is actually known about these tunnels.

It could have offered a route for the staff to navigate between the various properties and wings, with, you know, these tunnels all branching out in multiple directions, perhaps through to the estate's carriages and gatehouses, for example. We know today that they did serve as plumbing and utility routes, but their other purposes are unknown. Now, I watch these videos, I will confess, I do find it fascinating. But they are so creepy. Like, down in these tunnels that go off in all these different directions,

like, it is like, it's giving paranormal activity, honestly. I could never. Now, whatever, you think of these guys, like I said, they're very controversial. It is undeniable that all of this coverage led to very loud calls for restoration and preservation from the public, who wanted to see the former Gilded Age estate return to its former glory. And as such, the property was relisted again in 2017, this time for 17.5 million. Still with no luck, it was reduced to 16.5 million before hitting the property. the market again in 2019 for $11 million US dollars.

Now, this 2019 listing was truly the straw that broke the camel's back, leading to the formation of the Linwood Hall Preservation Foundation, or LHPF, which was established with the express goal of purchasing and restoring Linwood Hall. Headed up by Scott and Susan Bentley, founding partners of Bentley's software company, the Preservation Foundation finally raised the capital thanks to a donation. from the couple of $9.5 million US dollars to purchase the property in 2023 from Dr. Eun, who, the LHPF told the Philadelphia Inquirer, was set to not let this go into the hands of developers. And in that way, he saved Linwood Hall.

Today, with the foundation as its current owners, Linwood Hall takes a step towards its former glory, as the team are truly committed to revitalising this iconic piece of history by transforming it into an epic-examined. Center for Culture and Knowledge. According to their website, they are using only the highest standards of conservation craftsmanship, sustainability principles and research to bring this Grand Dame back, a truly, truly noble endeavour in today's day and age. To aid in their effort, and on behalf of all of us hot historians who I know want to see this team and other teams like it succeed in bringing this piece of history back to life,

I've made a donation on our behalf to the Linwood Hall Preservation Foundation, and I can't wait to track their progress in the years that come and maybe even visit one day. I've left all of their details in the description below if you would like to go and follow this journey yourself as well. And that brings us to the end of another episode of Hot History. But before you go, I would love to take this chance to get you guys to give me your thoughts. So, we are covering another hot take episode where we try to answer a big historical question in a few weeks' time, and I want to hear from you. We are going to unpack whether we have the right to destroy certain pieces of history.

From Epstein Island to the palaces of Saddam Hussein, alongside Hitler's Berghoff, copies of Me in Camp, Queen Victoria's Diaries, and the Romanov palaces. Do we have a right to destroy things because of what they represent? or is it all history which needs to be preserved? I want to hear your thoughts, guys, so please DM me on the socials or send me an email at hello at hodhistory.com with your hot take on this one. I thought it was fitting. This episode was all about saving history and restoring it.

I want to hear the other side of the coin. Regardless though, guys, thank you so much for following along with me on this episode and make sure to tune in next week because we are talking about one of the most unknown but highly scandalous figures of the 20th century. Born into another Gilded Age family, Kiki Preston went on to take Parisian High Society by storm, travel to Africa, host orgies, and become the very naughty mistress of British Prince George, who she got addicted to drugs, earning her the infamous nickname of The Girl with the Silver Syringe. As always, guys, if you are looking for some more hot history before then,

you can follow us on Instagram at Hot History Club and on TikTok at hot.com. It has been a pleasure getting down and dirty in time with you and I will speak to you all next Friday. Thanks guys. Love you.