Tyler Gardens
by Barbara Long
To stroll through the former Tyler mansion and its formal gardens is to step back in time to early twentieth-century estate living and to the Golden Age of American gardening. The stunning property, situated on a hilltop overlooking Neshaminy Creek, was once owned by George F. and Stella Elkins Tyler, and is now home to Bucks County Community College’s Newtown campus, currently celebrating its 50th Anniversary. The estate was the only true twentieth-century manor in Bucks County and is believed to have been the last of its kind built in the United States.
Tyler Hall, as the 300-foot long mansion is currently known, is tucked in the far southwest corner of the college campus; and the four-tiered Tyler Formal Gardens, adjacent to and behind the house, cascade down more than 30 feet in elevation toward the woods of Tyler State Park. Their concealed locale, rather than any intent, prompts these significant historic landmarks to be a well-kept secret.
Yet much of the mansion and all of the gardens are accessible whenever the campus is open, and both public and private guided tours are scheduled throughout the year. Indeed, visitors are encouraged to experience this splendid slice of history, which had no equal to its sheer wealth in the county.
The estate began to take form in 1919 when George and Stella purchased the first of 15 connecting farms in the Newtown-Richboro area. By the time the French-Norman mansion’s construction began in 1930, the estate totaled nearly 2,000 acres. Its buildings and landscaping were destined to be exceptional given the socioeconomic status of its owners, and the history of the Tylers is fundamental to appreciating the history of the estate. Both George and Stella were born to well-known and well-heeled families with impressive lineages, and both grew up in a privileged world toward the start of the twentieth century.
George, whose descendants sailed on the Mayflower, was born in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1883. He graduated from Harvard, and was a partner in the family brokerage and underwriting firm Montgomery, Clothier & Tyler. He was also a sportsman and philanthropist who, among other positions, served as a director of the Philadelphia National Bank and the Newtown Title and Trust Company, President of the Board of Trustees at Abington Memorial Hospital, and member of the Board of Trustees at Westminster Choir College. In 1935, he and Stella donated their nine-acre, $1 million estate, Georgian Terrace in Elkins Park, to Temple University for its School of Fine Arts.
To finish reading this story about Tyler Gardens, turn to page... in the Spring 2015 issue of Bucks County Magazine.