Woodmont — Attraction in Lower Merion Township

Peace.

Woodmont is open to the public on Sunday afternoons 1PM to 5PM, from April to October. The guided tours are free of charge.

Woodmont was designed in 1891 by Quaker architect William Lightfoot Price in the French Gothic style for Alan Wood, Jr., a steel magnate and former U.S. Congressman. Overlooking the Schuylkill River, the industrial town of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and the Alan Wood Iron & Steel Company plant, the chateauesque mansion was completed in 1894 at a cost of one million dollars ($37.8 million in 2023). The site features views of 15 to 20 miles.

The model for Woodmont was the George W. Vanderbilt mansion, Biltmore, in Asheville, North Carolina. Price had designed a nearby hotel for Vanderbilt, the Kenilworth Inn (1890–91), and was intimately familiar with the then-under-construction chateau.

Woodmont includes tennis courts, a swimming pool, stables, several outbuildings, greenhouses, a stream, and walking paths. The original property spanned more than 400 acres (1,600,000 m2), including a working farm with two dairy barns (one survives).[citation n

Alan Wood, Jr. occupied the estate for less than a decade. A year before his 1902 death, he sold it to his nephew, Richard G. Wood, who lived there for 28 years. Richard began subdividing the land in 1929, including the sale of 200 acres (810,000 m2) to the Philadelphia Country Club.

The estate is today the center of the International Peace Mission movement. Father Divine, leader of the movement, was given the estate by a follower, John Devoute, in 1953. His followers renovated the mansion and placed an American flag prominently in front reflecting Father Divine's patriotism. They also added a garden like those on previous Peace Mission properties. An open house was held on September 10–12, 1953.

Followers visited Father Divine here until his death in 1965. All furnishings in Divine's rooms, including an antiquated television set, have been left as they were at his death. The estate is now a shrine to his life and a meeting place for his...

Woodmont use to known as Father Devine's Castle located in Gladwynn. When I was younger, I remember Father Devine's wife riding through Conshocken in a gray Rolls Royce.He was a very kind man, and in many ways reminds me of Martin Luther King. The property is amazing,very well kept and the most beautiful flowers you can see. I remember the dogs he had on the property for security. Many people never got to see the place and it's beauty. I had a special place where I would go and get the best view of this huge Castle, so peaceful there and my friends would spend the day just looking and watching the place. It's historical and now run by the Peace Mission sisters. You can still your this beautiful place during certain hours. And they do have a dress code. If you get a chance read up about Father Devine and the start of this historical area,very interesting reading. If your in the area I highly recommend a visit to this place, you won't be disappointed, it's a memory...

Now this is a place to tell people about!! Come check it out on Sunday afternoon. Dress nice ladies, a longer dress will do and gentlemen, a button up and slacks. The grounds are beautiful and the house (it's really a castle) is extraordinary! Roger Klaus is the director/grounds keeper and has to be one of the most pleasant people I've ever met. He would happily conduct a tour for anyone willing to learn about the place on a Sunday afternoon. Have...