“Heaven on Earth – Closer Than You Think”

        The historic Chester County estate known as Wyndemere has been in Ed Weisbrod’s family for generations.  It was given to Ed’s parents as a gift from his English grandfather; they actually chose it over the Einstein house.  When the family first took over residence in 1935 the grand old estate had sat vacant for forty years and was covered with vines.  Funny thing is Ed’s mom used to ride her bicycle past the fieldstone farmhouse when she was a child, never entertaining the thought that it would be her home for seventy-two years.  Ed tells the story of how not long after his parents moved in; his mother planted a Kentucky Coffee tree, at the time a mere six feet tall.  He remembers his father poking fun at it; “you call that a tree?”  Today that same tree must be at least sixty feet tall.
         The estate itself is 300+ acres and backs literally to the gates of the much acclaimed New Bolton Center, which in itself makes a great case for having horses just as Ed’s family did.  The grand old farmhouse, circa 1770 has five bedrooms, three and a half baths and a total of six fireplaces.  The original wood floors and hardware still exist throughout, and the walls themselves are made of eighteen inch thick stone.  It seems as though Ed’s mother had big plans for Wyndemere right from the beginning, and she knew how to bring them to life.  One of the first things she did was to have built a freshwater-fed pond a tad less than three acres in size, complete with its own boat dock and gazebo.  Today it teems with bass, catfish, bluegills and the ever graceful herons.  She also had the in-ground pool with pool house built. Other outbuildings include a detached stone garage with an apartment above, and the cc. 1884 schoolhouse which was an actual schoolhouse back in the days when the now private lane was a public road.  Today it’s been converted into a one bedroom, one bath guest house that I myself wouldn’t mind living in.  Wyndemere was restored over a period of years by the Hannum family, Paul largely worked on the main house and his son Harold turned the schoolhouse into the gem it is today. 
         I was lucky enough to get the grand tour, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a real piece of Chester County History up close, and get some of the fabulous stories behind it.  The eat-in Kitchen was upgraded about forty years ago and still has the wooden countertops along with the fireplace tiles commemorating family betrothals, weddings and births.  “It’s all part of the ambience” Ed remarked.  Continuing on we stepped down into the sage green Garden Room, which was Mom’s favorite room.  No wonder – with its brick flooring, walls of windows and natural stone wall you can’t help but to be intrigued.  Interestingly enough a few years back when the ceiling was painted in the winter, as the paint dried “coils” appeared; turns out the ceiling has radiant heat, very much ahead of its time.  Also from the Garden Room you can view the actual gardens – eternal in their beauty and dotted with statuary.
         Adjacent to the Garden Room is the Dining Room with the original sconces still on the walls.  Throughout this magnificent home you’ll revel in the deep windowsills and lovely rounded corners, another detail you don’t see too often.  From there we went into the Den, which is now a powder room / half bath.  Next we went into the Library with lovely dark wood paneling and built-ins, the quality woodwork from seventy years ago more than stands the test of time.  I can honestly say that as we traveled through the many rooms I marveled at how each view seemed better than the one before.  At one point in Wyndemere’s history three families lived in the estate and there were stairwells in nearly every room, the possibilities are endless. 
         Venturing up the grand curved staircase with open upper balcony we went through the Bedrooms.  The Master has enough space to create a dressing room or office, and the guest Bedrooms are full of the curved closets and fascinating nooks that you really only see in historic homes.  Down the hall is the screened in Sleeping Porch, as Ed says “this to me is the best room in the house – I live out here in the summer.”  Full of wind chimes to catch the breeze, it put me in mind of a lodge and also overlooks the pool.  Another great detail is the built-in cubby hole that was put there so that the dogs would be protected from wind and rain, seems like they thought of everything.
         Lastly we up to the attic level which is floored and houses various rooms and a bedroom which looks like a Swiss chalet because of the peaked ceiling and exposed beams.  In one of the rooms you can still see the original bark on the wooden beams.  If you look closely you’ll see the wooden pegs and even the notches that the builders used to designate where each beam was to be placed.  It was on this level that I noticed even the doors must be four inches thick.  As I marveled over all of this Ed laughed and said “it’s nice to see it through someone else’s eyes because sometimes you take it for granted when you live here all your life.”
          Ed was kind enough to give me a tour of the fields and woods, it really put into perspective the size of this massive estate as we drove past the old Limekiln with its brick ovens still mostly intact.  The Limekiln was built at the turn of the last century to cook limestone so it could be used as fertilizer in the fields and also as concrete.  Back in the many acres of woods that border the estate on the Kennett side, you can still see the old quarries, two wells and even the ruins of five or six stone houses that were built for the quarry workers.  Also in the woods you can see the largest Sycamore tree in Chester County which is easily twenty-seven feet around its immense base.  I don’t know how he does it but there are rather well-maintained trails through the woods and also cut through the fields, what a lovely way to spend an afternoon.  “It’s a really nice diversification of fields and woods, not to mention a fantastic privacy barrier.” 
         A solid two thirds of Wyndemere has been under a Brandywine Conservancy easement since 1976, Ed commented that “hopefully someone will buy it that doesn’t need to do anything to it but love it.”  How could you not?  Wyndemere is located in the award-winning Unionville-Chadds Ford School District and is currently listed by Chester County’s own Holly Gross of Prudential Fox and Roach for $11,399,000.  Photos are available on www.hollygross.com.  Just a final note to that one special buyer:  you know who you are – why not give your family a legacy like no other?  Heaven on earth is indeed closer than you’d think.