Thunderbird Lodge is a building of historical and architectural significance in the utopian community of Rose Valley,

Delaware County, Pennsylvania Delaware County, colloquially referred to as Delco, is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. With a population of 576,830 as of the 2020 census, it is the fifth-most populous county in Pennsylvania and the third=smallest in area. Del ...

Architect

In 1904, architect

Will Price William Lightfoot Price (November 9, 1861 – October 14, 1916) was an American architect, a pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete, and a founder of the utopian communities of Arden, Delaware and Rose Valley, Pennsylvania. Early life Price w ...

converted an existing circa-1790 stone barn into studios for the artists Charles H. and

Alice Barber Stephens Alice Barber Stephens (July 1, 1858 – July 13, 1932) was an American painter and engraver, best remembered for her illustrations. Her work regularly appeared in magazines such as ''Scribner's Monthly'', ''Harper's Weekly'', and ''The Ladies Ho ...

. Appended to this, he designed a rambling fieldstone-and-stucco house, including a 3-story octagonal stair tower that joined the wings and served all five levels. Price, a founder of Rose Valley, attempted to create a community of artists and artisans working side by side under the principles of the Arts and Crafts Movement. These included truth in the use of materials, traditional craftsmanship using simple forms, and often medieval, romantic or folk styles of decoration. Price described the house: "The old barn standing near the road was converted into first and second floor studios, the old timber roof being rebuilt for the upper studio, and large windows and fireplaces being built into the old walls. The house rambles off from the fireplace and off the studios and is connected to them by an octagonal stair hall. It is built in part of fieldstone so like that in the old barn that it is almost impossible to tell old work from new. The upper part is of warm gray plaster, and the roof of red tile. All of the detail is as simple and direct as possible, and the interior is finished in cypress stained to soft browns and grays and guilty of no finish other than wax or oil." File:RV Road House 3.JPG, Thunderbird Lodge (kitchen entrance), from the west. The octagonal stair tower is at far left. File:Tbird Rose Valley.JPG, Thunderbird Lodge (studios), from Rose Valley Road. File:Thunderbird Rose Valley PA 1.jpg, Window looking out toward Rose Valley Road File:Thunderbird Rose Valley PA 2.jpg, South elevation of west wing File:Thunderbird Rose Valley PA 3.jpg, Fireplace in lower studio

Artists and activists

Charles H. Stephens (1864–1940) was an instructor at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, and a painter of Native American subjects. He had lived among the

Blackfeet The Blackfeet Nation ( bla, Aamsskáápipikani, script=Latn, ), officially named the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, is a federally recognized tribe of Siksikaitsitapi people with an Indian reservation in Mon ...

, and amassed an extensive collection of artifacts. The fireplace that Price designed for his studio is in the

silhouette A silhouette ( , ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhou ...

of a

Thunderbird Thunderbird, thunder bird or thunderbirds may refer to: * Thunderbird (mythology), a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture * Ford Thunderbird, a car Birds * Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds ...

, a symbol that also appears on the building's exterior in

Henry Mercer Henry Chapman Mercer (June 24, 1856 – March 9, 1930) was an American archeologist, artifact collector, tile-maker, and designer of three distinctive poured concrete structures: Fonthill, his home; the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works; and t ...

’s Moravian tiles.

(1858–1932) was a highly successful illustrator for magazines and children's books. They raised their son, D. Owen Stephens (1894–1937) in Rose Valley, and painted there until their deaths. Thunderbird Lodge then became the home of a leading social activist couple, Allen Seymour Olmsted and Mildred Scott Olmsted. He was a lawyer, a member of the Men's Commission for Women's Suffrage, and helped in the founding of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

. She worked with the

American Birth Control League The American Birth Control League (ABCL) was founded by Margaret Sanger in 1921 at the First American Birth Control Conference in New York City. The organization promoted the founding of birth control clinics and encouraged women to control thei ...

and was the longtime director of the U.S. section of the

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...

. Together they worked with the American Friends Service Committee, the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...

, and many other liberal organizations. The house was used as a safe meeting place for other activists, including

Jane Addams Laura Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 May 21, 1935) was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, and author. She was an important leader in the history of social work and women's suffrage ...

James Farmer James Leonard Farmer Jr. (January 12, 1920 – July 9, 1999) was an American civil rights activist and leader in the Civil Rights Movement "who pushed for nonviolent protest to dismantle segregation, and served alongside Martin Luther King Jr." ...

, George Washington Carver, and

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

In September 2015 a

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania responsible for the collection, conservation and interpretation of Pennsylvania's historic heritage. The commission cares fo ...

marker was dedicated to Mildred Scott Olmsted just north of the house. Thunderbird Lodge was donated to th
Rose Valley Centennial Foundation
by the Olmsted family in 2015.

Great Minquas Path

Historical Marker Minquas Path Beaver Sculpture

At the edge of the property, along Rose Valley Road, is a 1926 Pennsylvania State historic marker, commemorating an important Native American trading route, the Great Minquas Path, that ran nearby. Charles Stephens designed the bas-relief on the marker, and

Albert Laessle Albert Laessle (March 28, 1877 – September 4, 1954) was an American sculptor and educator. He taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for more than twenty years and is best remembered as an animalier. He won the 1918 Widener Gold ...

created the beaver sculpture below the plaque. ''Note:'' This includes Thunderbird Lodge 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 ...

in 1989, and is a contributing property in the Rose Valley Historic District, which was listed on the NRHP in 2010. ''Note:'' This includes

Architect

Artists and activists

Great Minquas Path

References

Further reading