Bryn Athyn Historic District

Bryn Athyn is a hilltop community north of Philadelphia, and its historic district holds four principal buildings built by the Pitcairn family between 1892 and 1938. John Pitcairn, founder of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, began the estate Cairnwood, designed by Carrère and Hastings in 1892 and completed in 1895 in Roman brick and limestone. The Bryn Athyn Cathedral, begun in 1914 on a design by Ralph Adams Cram and completed by 1929 under Raymond Pitcairn, was built in granite and limestone by craft workshops using medieval guild methods, with on-site stained glass. Cairncrest, designed in 1926 for Harold Pitcairn, and Glencairn, built by Raymond between 1929 and 1938, followed. The district is regarded as a rare Arts and Crafts venture because its craft shops worked for the family and a sacred purpose rather than for sale, and its buildings retain high physical integrity.