The George F. Tyler Mansion (1928–31), also known as "Indian Council Rock," is a French-Norman country house and former estate which is located in Newtown Township,

Bucks County, Pennsylvania Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the Englis ...

. Located west of

Pennsylvania Route 413 Pennsylvania Route 413 (PA 413) is a , north–south state highway in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The route runs from the New Jersey state line on the Burlington–Bristol Bridge over the Delaware River outside Bristol, where the road continue ...

and north of

Pennsylvania Route 332 Pennsylvania Route 332 (PA 332) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The route runs from PA 263 in Hatboro, Montgomery County, east to PA 32 in Yardley, Bucks County. PA 332 runs through suburban ar ...

, the property is now divided into Tyler State Park and the campus of

Bucks County Community College Bucks County Community College (Bucks) is a public community college in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1964, Bucks has three campuses and online courses: a main campus in Newtown, an "Upper Bucks" campus in the town of Perkasie, and a " ...

. ''Note:'' This includes

History

George Frederick Tyler (1883–1947) was a Philadelphia banker and sportsman. Following his mother's early death, his father, Sidney Frederick Tyler, in 1888 married Ida Amelia Elkins, a daughter of streetcar magnate

William Lukens Elkins William Lukens Elkins (May 2, 1832 – November 7, 1903) was an American businessman and art collector. He began his working career as a grocer in Philadelphia and became a business tycoon with financial interests in oil, natural gas and transpor ...

. Seventeen year later, George married his stepmother's niece, Stella Elkins (1884–1963), a budding sculptor who later studied under

Boris Blai Boris Blai (July 24, 1893 – June 28, 1985) was an American sculptor. His work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics. In 1935, Blai founded and became the dean of the Stella Elkins Tyler Scho ...

. The young couple raised three children in a mansion built for them on the Elkins estate in

Elkins Park, Pennsylvania Elkins Park is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is split between Cheltenham and Abington Townships in the northern suburbs outside of Philadelphia, which it borders along Cheltenham Avenue roughly from Cent ...

. They donated that mansion to

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

, and it housed the Stella Elkins Tyler School of Art from 1935 to 2008. Just after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the Tylers bought a Bucks County farm on the west bank of the

Neshaminy Creek Neshaminy Creek is a United States Geological Survey. National Hydrography DatasetThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 stream that runs entirely through Bucks County, Pennsylvania, rising south of the borough of Chalfont, where its north a ...

. They decided to build a country house on the east bank, and by a decade later had assembled a property of nearly , about 3 square miles. The resulting estate was named for one of its landmarks, "Indian Council Rock," a cliff overlooking the creek, that was reputed to have been a meeting place for the

Lenni Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...

tribe. The 60-room main house was designed by architect Charles Willing in 1928, and built, 1930–1931. Constructed of

brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Type ...

and 300 feet in length, it is the largest residence ever built in Bucks County.The Tyler Estate
from Bucks County Community College. Mrs. Tyler bequeathed the main house and of the estate to Temple University in 1963. This was sold to Bucks County in 1965 to create the campus of Bucks County Community College. Now known as "Tyler Hall," the mansion – still surrounded by formal gardens, stone walls and fountains – houses the college's administrative offices. It, along with the twin bath houses, a stone building known as "The Orangery," and two contributing sites, comprise a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

that was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1987.

Gallery

File:Tyler Mansion, Newtown PA 11.JPG, Tyler Mansion. File:Tyler Mansion, Newtown PA 04.JPG, Gate guardian. File:Tyler Mansion, Newtown PA 08.JPG, Rear view of the Mansion. File:Tyler Mansion Orangery, Newtown PA 02.JPG, The Orangery. File:Tyler Mansion Gardens, Newtown PA 01.JPG, The Formal Gardens. File:Tyler-SP-craftsmen.JPG, Dairy barn, now the Guild of Craftsmen building.

External links

* VIDEO:''
Tour of the Tyler Estate at Bucks County Community College
from YouTube.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Houses completed in 1931 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Historic districts in Bucks County, Pennsylvania Houses in Bucks County, Pennsylvania Neo-Norman architecture in the United States Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Bucks County, Pennsylvania