A longtime home of the family of a prominent Gilded Age railroad executive just outside Philadelphia underwent a thorough restoration before hitting the market, a move that added modern elements but kept unique features — including a speakeasy.
The house at 8501 Flourtown Ave. in Wyndmoor belonged to the family of Franklin Gowen, who was president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Co. in the late 1800s. The 10,725-square-foot home was built in 1890, a year after Gowen’s death, and stayed in his family until roughly the 1980s, according to Kim Whetzel, who has listed the home for $5.25 million with Kurfiss Sotheby’s International Realty.
The Wyndmoor location near the Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy neighborhoods was likely popular with people who lived closer to central Philadelphia and came out to the city’s edge in the warmer months, Whetzel said. It’s unclear if the Gowens used the 4-acre property primarily as a retreat, but early visitors would have parked their horse-drawn vehicles in the adjacent 4,000-square-foot carriage house before entering the home.
The Gowens called their property “Deep Dene,” a reference to a 104-carat diamond of the same name.
Main Line Homes, a Philadelphia real estate business, spent $2.5 million to restore the main and carriage buildings after buying the property in 2021, Whetzel said. The house now has a modern kitchen, 8.5 bathrooms and six bedrooms, plus a gym, sauna and a 2,000-square-foot outdoor terrace.
“A lot of these older houses in the Philadelphia area have deferred maintenance and need to be restored,” said Whetzel. Main Line Homes has already "done all that, so you have a brand-new house with the original skin. It’s wonderful for everyday family and if you like entertaining, you can’t beat it.”
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Elements that were in the original house and those added as part of a 1930 redesign were restored as part of Main Line’s work. They included a large safe room and mahogany wine racks in the basement and a speakeasy near a fireplace in the house’s library. The Prohibition era, when alcohol sales were banned across the U.S., spanned from 1920 to 1933.
“They definitely liked to entertain, we’ll put it that way,” Whetzel said of the Gowens.
The carriage house was designed by Cope and Stewardson, a Philadelphia-based architectural practice that was known for its Gothic-style buildings on campuses such as Byrn Mawr College and the University of Pennsylvania. The Wyndmoor house's recent renovation included restoring the former horse stalls and making the carriage house’s spacious upstairs an inviting gathering spot.
Though the property feels set apart from the nearby city, it’s also close to lots of activity, Whetzel said.
“If you’re looking for privacy, you can’t find anything more private than this property,” she said. “However, if you walk to the end of your driveway, farther down the road is a neighborhood filled with people and children. So you have the best of both worlds.”