5 Llandillo Road – Llanerch Public School

Built in 1913 in Georgian Revivalist Style

History

Originally, another building occupied this lot and was the location of the high school for the Haverford Township School District from 1905 to 1910, being designed by Clarke Churchman. In 1913, another design by Wesley Blithe was retrofitted and replaced the old design in Georgian Revival architecture. This was the Llanerch Grammar School, and was for primary education rather than secondary education.

Shortly after the opening of the school in 1913, local Justice of the Peace William B. Cowan was killed while he was attempted to start a fire in the basement to warm up the building for the children in school. He had hit his head on an overhead pipe and then proceeded to bang his chin and fall, dead before he could make it to a hospital. His wife, Annie Cowan (née Mullen), was famously crowned "First Lady of Llanerch" by the Llanerch Presbyterian Church in 1939. Although they did not live in a section of Havertown that is covered by this website, the family was instrumental in building the original community framework for the neighborhood.

Philadelphia Inquirer, December 9th, 1913, page 3

The school operated normally before its closure in 1977, where the future of the building remained uncertain. It was leased to the Delaware County Intermediate Unit until the mid-1980s. The land went through several proposals, including potentially turning it into a bus depot, but residents never took to the idea and nothing much happened on the land. Floruit 1987, the Stratford Friends School briefly utilized the building for their purposes.

In 1986, a developer submitted a bid to turn the building into an office building, but protests from many Llanerch residents swiftly shut down any consideration on such a use of the building. Since the 1980s, the back of the property has remained a playground, "Llanerch Park" for local kids to play in, although in the late 2010s, the original equipment was removed and new apparatuses were installed.

In 2015, the building began its transformation into an apartment complex, finishing by 2021. The building was sold for development for $442,775. Each room retains a bit of its original history, holding items from the original school including chalkboards. Around that same time, the left-side parking lot of the property was sold to developers, and 318 Lansdowne Road and 322 Lansdowne Road were constructed upon it. In 2017, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Additionally, the building features a plaque with the names of those integral to its construction and maintenance in its early history. Below is a summary of all that I discovered on its listed founders.

From Llanerch School Apartments; click to enlarge

Edgar Conway Felton (on the board of directors) was born in Pennsylvania in 1858. He, like pretty much everyone else on this list, didn't live in Havertown, but he lived on College Avenue in Haverford. He was married to Alice Bent, with which he had many children. He worked for a sales company, and died in Haverford in 1937.

John Wooingor McCue (of the board of directors) was born in Chester in 1866. He was married to a woman named Sidney and worked at a flour mill. He lived in 302 Aubrey Avenue in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and died there in 1944. He had at least two children, Charles and Grovena.

Arthur Ernest Garwood (of the board of directors) was born in England in 1876, and was married to Charlotte Gourlay. He worked as a trolley superintendant, as well as a contractor. He is already covered on this website, as he lived at 4 Llandillo Road from 1912 to his death in 1963.

Dr. Jacob E. Roberts (of the board of direcotrs) was born in 1835 and lived in Philadelphia, working as a surgeon. Additionally, he was a veteran of the Civil War in the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. During his Pennsylvania residency in his middle years, he was a member of the Grand Commandry of the Templar Knights of Pennsylvania, and was the first State Grand Commander. He later lived in Aston prior to his death.

William Jones Serrill (of the board of directors) was born in 1862 in Darby, and was married to Alice Rush Douglass. He was a construction engineer and lived on Buck Lane in the Coopertown section of Haverford. As far as I can tell, he had no children and died in 1952 in Lower Merion.

Wesley Lesher Blithe (the architect) was born in 1873 and lived in Philadelphia. He was an architectural graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, class of 1894. He studied in Europe during his formative years, and was married to Laura Milk. he died in Philadelphia in 1946.

Henry Courcy Richards (the architect) was born in 1872 in Nebraska. He moved to Pennsylvania and lived in both Chester and Philadelphia. He was married to a woman named Mayme and died young in 1923 from a combination of myocarditis and asthma.

R.J. Hurley was supposedly the contractor for the project, but I was unable to conclusively identify him in any records.