Leslynn Court
Haverford, Pennsylvania
Leslynn Court was designed in 1928 by the acclaimed Philadelphia Architect Wilson Eyre of the firm Wilson Eyre and McIlvaine. The project included a thorough renovation of the house, concentrating on transforming the modest scale and small rooms of the northern service wing of the house into more generous spaces integrated into the main sequence of the home.
An exterior porch between the garage and service wing was removed and replaced by a three-storey brick structure. The townhouse-like addition is punctuated by hand carved tudor-boards infilled with brick "nogging," taking cues from both the crenelated main entry tower and other details of the house by elaborating on Eyre's vocabulary of robust brick and stone details. The addition includes two stairs linked by an open bridge that spans from the entry to a new double height Breakfast Room and adjacent Kitchen.
A new Family Room created by combining former servant's pantry and food preparations areas is given a larger scale with enlarged windows and a higher ceiling by lowering the floor three steps into the basement.
A sequence of outdoor spaces surrounded by stone walls extends the view from the Breakfast Room past a sunken pool and culminates in a new two-storey pool pavilion. The Poolhouse, includes a Kitchen on the lower level and a changing room above, capped by a hipped roof of the same rustic clay tile as the main house.