Tyler, George F., Mansion

Built in brownstone near Newtown in Bucks County, the George F. Tyler Mansion was designed for George and Stella Elkins Tyler and constructed beginning in 1930 by the Philadelphia firm of Willing, Sims, and Talbutt. The French Norman house runs about three hundred feet end to end and contains some sixty rooms, with walls two feet thick, cork-lined interiors, copper gutters and specially made roof tiles. Its interiors include paneled reception rooms, Goya prints, antique frescoes and more than twenty fireplaces. The grounds include terraced formal gardens with fountains, an orangery and two bath houses. The mansion is regarded as the firm's largest and most expensive commission, and as the most ambitious private residence of its era in the county. Since 1965 it has served as part of the Bucks County Community College campus, and the exterior and most significant interior spaces remain largely intact.