How Philadelphia's Richest Banker Built an American Versailles and Then Lost It: Whitemarsh Hall

In 1980, a palace with 147 rooms, 45 bathrooms and a ballroom fit for a king was torn down on a hill just north of Philadelphia. It had been called the American Versailles. It was bigger than the White House. And it remains the largest American house ever demolished on purpose. This is the story of Whitemarsh Hall: how Morgan partner Edward T. Stotesbury, a clerk who became one of the richest bankers in America, built it for his wife Eva with architect Horace Trumbauer, designer Julian Abele and garden designer Jacques Gréber; what life was like inside during the Roaring Twenties; how the 1929 crash drained the fortune; why nobody wanted the house; how it secretly hid the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s paintings during World War II; how it became a chemical laboratory, then an empty ruin; and what stands on the site today. Which lost American mansion should we cover next? 0:00 The Biggest House Ever Torn Down 2:18 The Clerk Who Kept His Mouth Shut 6:02 Eva 9:00 Designing an American Versailles 12:30 Inside the 147 Rooms 16:13 Palm Beach, Bar Harbor and the Season 19:05 The Crash 21:14 The House Nobody Wanted 24:11 Laboratories, Then Silence 26:10 What Stands There Today Stock footage and photos: Pexels (pexels.com). Archive photos: Wikimedia Commons contributors — full list of authors and licenses in the pinned comment. Some images are AI-generated illustrations. Archival photographs: Library of Congress (including Frances Benjamin Johnston, c. 1922) and Wikimedia Commons. A few scenes without surviving photographs are AI-generated illustrations. #lostmansions #gildedage #whitemarshhall #philadelphiahistory #abandonedmansion