William L. McDowell (1824-1897) symbolized the entrepreneurial spirit that swept into Lower Merion in the post-Civil War era with the lightning speed of a fast trotter.
Born in 1824, William L. McDowell “symbolized the entrepreneurial spirit that swept into Lower Merion in the post-Civil War era with the lightning speed of a fast trotter. This self-made man, born in Philadelphia, was hired as a youth to be a manufacturing firm’s entry clerk. He rose rapidly to become a partner and, in 1869, became its president. Leibrandt & McDowell Stove Company employed 208 people,” begins his biography in “The First 300.”
McDowell truly came into his own with the 1876 Centennial in Philadelphia and horse racing. He is credited with being the moving force behind establishing and operating the Belmont Driving Park, a harness-race course that “lured Centennial throngs and decades of visitors” to its 73-acre site near the General Wayne Inn on land that is now home to residential houses in Merion Park. McDowell also owned upscale off-track accommodations in a former Price colonial mansion named Maplewood that would later become known as Brookhurst Inn.
The McDowell family would settle in on a 51-acre estate in Wynnewood. The thee-story Classical Revival mansion known as Olinda would become home to a large extended family including McDowell, wife Mary Abbott, six of their seven children, a son-in-law, a grandson, a mother-in-law and three Irish servants. Eventually most of the children would move out on their own, but only a short distance away in houses they built on the family estate.
The McDowells were not the first family to call the mansion home. It was built in 1859 for Blair McClenachan’s daughters and soon after that was acquired by Edward Sayres, the honorary consul for Brazil in Philadelphia. It was Sayres who gave the mansion its Portuguese name of Olinda
from Rural Pennsylvania in the vicinity of Philadelphia a book by By Samuel Fitch Hotchkin
The word Olinda means the beautiful, and the term was borrowed from a place near Pernambuco, which he had visited when he was in Brazil on business in early youth. The property now belongs to the William L. McDowell estate.
The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin of February 24th, 1897, contained a notice of the death of William Little McDowell, who died that day He left a widow five sons and two daughters.
Mr. McDowell was born in Philadelphia in 1824. His parents died in his childhood leaving him in the care of two aunts. He left school at the age of eleven in 1838, and became entry clerk in the Warnock & Leibrandt Stove Company. In 1844 he became partner in the Leibrandt McDowell Stove Company, and in 1869 its President. He held this post at his death. Mr. McDowell lived long at Tioga, and was active in works of philanthropy. He worked with George A. Smith, afterward the President of Select Council, in establishing the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon to feed and care for Federal troops passing through Philadelphia at the opening of the war. He boasted often that his ward was the only one in Philadelphia where a draft was not necessary.
I found Mr. McDowell much interested in local history. He had pleasant memories of Old Trinity Church, Oxford.
A newspaper gives the following information:
“Merion Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, held a special meeting at the residence of Mrs Samuel R McDowell, Lower Merion, near Merion Meeting house. Mr and Mrs McDowell presented to the Chapter a piece of ground upon which to erect the memorial stone to mark the place where Washington’s army encamped September 14th, 1777, on the way to Paoli.
“The Chapter passed a vote of thanks to Mr. and Mrs. McDowell. It was decided to dedicate the stone with elaborate programme on September 14th next, the 119th anniversary of the day. The memorial stone will be a rough granite block, four feet high, two feet wide, and two feet thick. The front will be polished and appropriately lettered.
“ The Chapter also decided to send a letter to the Park Steamboat Company, asking that a Fairmount steamer be named ‘Lyon’ in memory of the ship Lyon which sailed up the Schuylkill August 14th, 1682, two months before the arrival of Penn. On the ship ‘Lyon’ came the first company of Welsh colonists to Pennsylvania and to Merion. The letter was drafted at Pencoyd on August 14th, 1896.”
On Samuel R. McDowell’s farm, on Monday afternoon September 14th, A.D. 1895 – a summery day – was dedicated a monumental stone, commemorating the camping place of Washington’s army in passing to Valley Forge. A pleasant yellow country house, with its sheltering piazza and bordering woods was close at hand. This is the home of S.R. McDowell The adjoining farm belongs to William L. McDowell, father of Samuel R. McDowell. An immense stone barn, pierced with many windows, is a noteworthy sight, and a stone farm house is also on the property.
The McDowell land was a part of the Price estate, which had been in the family for four generations. Rees E. Price was the last owner. He now lives in West Chester, at the age of about eighty-five.
Brookhurst Inn lies on William L. McDowell’s place. It is a summer boarding-house.
Montgomery Avenue, formerly called Old Lancaster Road, runs by the site of the monument.
Edward R. Price’s estate is opposite, with its solid old and ample gray stone house, and upping block at the roadside for horseback riders in old time. An ice-house roof rises in a picturesque manner in the yard.
The Old Merion Meeting-house adjoins the old Edward R. Price property, now belonging to William L. McDowell, and on the east is the General Wayne Hotel, dating back to 1704.
The original ancient Price mansion was enlarged and altered by Mr. L. McDowell, forming the Brookhurst Inn.
Wm. L. McDowell Jr., has a pleasant residence next to that of his brother, Samuel R. McDowell.
Take a look at the complete notes and blue prints from the Leibrant and McDowell Stove Company
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