The Arboretum
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Lachford Hall
The earliest portion of Lachford Hall was built in 1738 by Thomas Minshall’s grandson, also named Thomas. He followed a double cell configuration, known as a “Penn Plan,” with one room built in front of the other in keeping with William Penn’s recommendations regarding size, shape, room arrangement, and orientation. The original house was initially occupied as separate living units, the 1738 portion by Thomas Minshall and his wife Agnes (nee Salkeld), and a 1777 addition by their son Jacob and his wife Ann.
In 1821, Enos Painter, Jacob and Ann’s son-in-law, combined the two eighteenth century sections into a single dwelling. By the time Enos Painter merged the two sections, he had already converted the kitchen of the 1738 [west] section into a parlor and his 1821 remodeling removed the wood partition walls so that there was interior access between previously separated halves.
Lachford Hall underwent a transformation from a Pennsylvania farmhouse, to its present appearance after John J. Tyler, Enos Painter’s grandson, and his wife Laura Hoopes Tyler were married 1881. With his mother’s approval, John Tyler renovated Lachford Hall into a summer residence. The Tylers’ changes included removing a greenhouse on the western facade, adding a large cross gable to the front of the dwelling, rounding the tops of the upper floor windows, and stuccoing the exterior stone walls. The stucco was meant to “finish” the building so that the changes in windows and rooflines would be covered. The new building reflected the “Country Villa” style as promoted by the then-popular designer A.J. Downing, whose pattern books promoted “romantic” styles that called for a move away from the symmetry and formality of earlier tastes.
Evidence of each generation’s renovations is easily spotted. Note the large stone threshold and how it is oversized in proportion to the entrance. The interior has been reconfigured numerous times, illustrated by details such as the current center hall plan with its 19th-century straight stairway, interior plaster work, and marble (coal burning) fireplace mantels that replaced the earlier 18th-century fireboxes. The cuts in the floorboards may be from the removal of earlier partitions and/or stairs. Earlier interior doors may also have been recycled during the Victorian “upgrades” with new hardware and sizing. With the introduction of interior plumbing and heating in the 20th century, Lachford Hall shows over 250 years of continuous use.
