13-acre Villanova estate to be preserved in $13M deal
Lower Merion School District once planned to turn the land, known as Oakwell, into ballfields. Now, much of it will become part of Stoneleigh garden.
The 13-acre Oakwell estate, which Lower Merion School District once hoped to turn into school athletic fields, has been preserved after being purchased by two nonprofits.
The $13 million deal was authorized by the district in 2024 to sell the lush estate in Villanova that contains 700 trees, many of them old growth. The sale closed Friday.
Under the arrangement, the conservation nonprofit Natural Lands purchased 10 acres of land for roughly $10 million, and the nonprofit Wyncote Foundation purchased three-acres that contain the Oakwell mansion for about $3 million.
John Bennett, a retired medical doctor who owned the estate before the district, said he was relieved.
“Beneath those magnificent oak trees, some of which have stood for more than 200 years, rest my son’s ashes,” Bennett said. “Those trees were already old when America was young. They have survived wars, economic depressions, hurricanes, and generations of families who walked beneath their branches.“
Bennett, who has moved from the area, said he feels, “an overwhelming sense of gratitude.”
The district’s agreement to sell Oakwell to the nonprofits came after furious pushback by Bennett, neighbors and even some students who banded together in protest.
Besides trees, Oakwell contains a 20,000-square-foot brick Tudor Revival mansion replete with heavy wooden doors, a wainscoted library, and Mercer floor tile. The Wyncote Foundation plans to restore and preserve the mansion.
The property also contains a pool house, a teahouse once watched over by a terra-cotta warrior, stone fencing, and a brick-walled garden complex all dating back at least 120 years. That will all be owned by Natural Lands.
Frank Ranelli, superintendent of the Lower Merion School District, said in a statement on the sale, that it “will enhance the quality of life for members of the Lower Merion community.”
“It feels really like a dream come true,” said Oliver Bass, president and CEO of Natural Lands.
Becoming part of Stoneleigh
Bass noted it has taken years of planning to acquire the tract after the Lower Merion School District purchased Oakwell in 2018 from Bennett.
The district purchased Oakwell under condemnation with the goal of transforming it into a large athletic complex for the then-new Black Rock Middle School. However, Bennett had originally wanted to sell it to Villanova University.
The 10 acres that Natural Lands just purchased will become part of the organization’s neighboring 42-acre Stoneleigh public garden. Oakwell was once part of Stoneleigh but was subdivided in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Now, the properties will be reunited, Bass said.
Bass said that Natural Lands never envisioned that they entire tract would be saved when discussions first started with the school district years ago. The deal was helped by money from the Wyncote Foundation, Bass noted, and the William Penn Foundation provided leadership support.
Natural Lands has a master plan for the new parcel, but Bass said it could take years to complete work and integrate it fully with Stoneleigh. He said Natural Lands is working with an architect and landscape architect and will likely have to raise additional money. When finished, the Oakwell tract will be open to the public.
“It will become one wholistic experience with Stoneleigh,” Bass said, “just larger and grander.”
“The fact that we’ll be able to unite two properties separated by nearly a century is pretty remarkable,” Bass said.
