THE OLD MAIN LINE by Evans, Allen ; (1849-1925)

Very Good. Paperback. 39 pages; A sharp carbon of original typescript housed in a green card pamphlet folder. Contents complete, clean and secure. A memoir of the area of Lower Merion by a man who first came to know the area as a boy in the late 1860s. His recollections are both informative and charming. Allen Evans (December 8, 1849 – February 28, 1925) was an American architect and partner in the Philadelphia firm of Furness & Evans. His best known work may be the Merion Cricket Club. Evans brought social connections to the firm, and initially designed houses for family and friends. He developed a small-scaled but vibrant version of the Shingle Style. Based on stylistic grounds, Furness expert George E. Thomas suggests that Evans made major contributions to the Seamen's Church (1878, burned 1974), "Dolobran" (1881), and "Windon" (1882). He was a founding member of the Merion Cricket Club, designed its Ardmore clubhouse (1880, burned 1892), and its clubhouses and other buildings in Haverford. The Girard Trust Company Building (1905–07), at Broad & Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, caused a rift between Evans and Furness. The initial concept for a bank building modeled on the Pantheon in Rome had been Furness's, but the bank's president rejected his participation. The building was completed by Evans in partnership with McKim, Mead & White. The Philadelphia Main Line, known simply as the Main Line, is an informally delineated historical and social region of suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lying along the former Pennsylvania Railroad's once prestigious Main Line, it runs northwest from Center City Philadelphia parallel to Lancaster Avenue (U.S. Route 30). The railroad first connected the Main Line towns in the 19th century. They became home to sprawling country estates belonging to Philadelphia's wealthiest families, and over the decades became a bastion of "old money". Today, the "Main Line" is another name for the western suburbs of Philadelphia along Lancaster Avenue (U.S. Route 30) and the former main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad and extending from the city limits to, traditionally, Bryn Mawr and ultimately Paoli, an area of about 200 square miles (520 km2). The upper- and upper middle-class enclave has historically been one of the bastions of "old money" in the Northeast. Neighborhoods along the Main Line include nineteenth and early twentieth-century railroad suburbs and post-war subdivisions, as well as a few surviving buildings from before the suburban development era. The area today is known primarily for several educational institutions as well as robust suburban life. .