{"id":46903,"date":"2019-03-07T21:27:34","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T02:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philachaptersah.org\/?p=46903"},"modified":"2019-03-07T21:27:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T02:27:41","slug":"a-private-tour-of-the-patio-at-archmere-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philachaptersah.org\/index.php\/2019\/03\/07\/a-private-tour-of-the-patio-at-archmere-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"A Private Tour of The Patio at Archmere Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sunday,\nMarch 31 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3600\nPhiladelphia Pike, Claymont, DE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Note:<\/strong> you will have to climb stairs on\nthis tour if you wish to see below or above the ground floor.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open to Phila Chapter SAH members only.\u00a0 $20 per person.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Space is limited and advance registration is required at info@philachaptersah.org<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Join\nthe Chapter on a private tour of “The Patio” at Archmere (Arch to the\nSea), the former estate of John J. & Helena Springer Green Raskob in\nClaymont, DE.  Listed on the National\nRegister in 1992, The Patio is an Italian Renaissance Revival mansion designed\nby the Wilmington architects Alexander James Harper and Clay McClure. Built\nfrom 1916-18, this 15th-C Florentine palazzo on the Delaware River was home to\nthe Raskobs and their 13 children until 1931. \nThe ground floors are furnished with period furniture, some of which\nbelonged to the Raskobs.  A significant\nfeature of the home was the retractable stained glass skylight over the central\ncourt which features a fountain carved with likenesses of the Raskob children\nby Sculptor Charles Keck, a student of Augustus Saint Gaudens.  (In 1977, a protective, though transparent,\ncovering was placed over the skylight which prevents it from being retracted.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born\nin 1879 and raised in Lockport, NY, J.J. Raskob became Pierre S. du Pont’s\npersonal secretary in 1901.  In 1911, he\nbecame assistant treasurer of DuPont, in 1914 treasurer, and in 1918\nvice-president for finance of both DuPont and General Motors.  Raskob had been an early investor in General\nMotors and had engineered DuPont’s ownership of 43% of GM. Raskob remained with\nDuPont until his retirement from the company in 1946. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nwas also a devout Catholic and staunch Democrat, serving as chairman of the\nDemocratic party from 1928-1932.  Many\nimportant players on the National stage were guests at The Patio for strategy\nmeetings in 1928 when four-time New York Governor and fellow Catholic Alfred E.\n“Al” Smith ran for President. \nLargely due to anti-Catholic sentiment Smith lost to Republican Herbert\nHoover, so Raskob turned his attention to another project that he started in\n1929, construction of the Empire State Building. The Empire State Corporation,\nformed to build the structure, was a consortium of four men: Pierre S. DuPont,\nLouis G. Kauffman, Ellis P. Earle, and Raskob. \nAfter his loss for President, they named Al Smith as the corporation’s\npresident.  Smith was a real booster for\nthe ESB and did a great deal to sign tenants during the Depression.  The Empire State Building was officially opened\non May 1, 1931, later that year Raskob left Archmere for his home on the\nEastern Shore of Maryland as the Claymont area had become increasingly\nindustrial in the first decades of the 20th-C. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n1932 the Norbertine religious order purchased the estate and founded Archmere\nAcademy, originally an all-boys school, today Archmere continues as co-ed\nprivate Roman Catholic college prep school with an annual enrollment of about\n500 students.  Current Headmaster Michael\nA. Marinelli, Ed.D., will be our guide on this tour that will take you from the\nbasement to the attic.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driving Directions: <\/strong>From Philadelphia Pike drive past the main gates to the mansion and make a left turn at the traffic light onto Manor Avenue.\u00a0 Enter at the THIRD gate on the left.\u00a0 Park in that lot and walk around to the front entrance of The Patio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public Transit Directions:<\/strong> Archmere is a 10 minute walk from the SEPTA Claymont Station on the Wilmington\/Newark Line. For walking directions follow this link https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/dir\/Claymont,+200+Myrtle+Ave,+Claymont,+DE+19703\/3600+Philadelphia+Pike,+Claymont,+Delaware\/@39.7998058,-75.4578404,16z\/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c6e40bd4f2cf73:0x5b800c0087541c27!2m2!1d-75.4523299!2d39.7977258!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c6e40d0f53016b:0xbb09e8121e7d9563!2m2!1d-75.4539289!2d39.8023699?hl=en&authuser=0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday, March 31 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. 3600 Philadelphia Pike, Claymont, DE (Note: you will have to climb stairs on this tour if you wish to see below or above the ground floor.) Open to Phila Chapter SAH members only.\u00a0 $20 per person. Space is limited and advance registration is required at info@philachaptersah.org Join […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[14,48,47],"class_list":["post-46903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chapter-programs","tag-country-houses","tag-gilded-age-architecture","tag-mansion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8UMFt-ccv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philachaptersah.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philachaptersah.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philachaptersah.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philachaptersah.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philachaptersah.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46903"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/philachaptersah.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46910,"href":"https:\/\/philachaptersah.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46903\/revisions\/46910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philachaptersah.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philachaptersah.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philachaptersah.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}