Inside historic Gilded Age mansion Lynnewood Hall's long-awaited restoration
ELKINS PARK, Pa. (CBS) -- After sitting vacant for decades, an Elkins Park mansion from the Gilded Age is undergoing a long-awaited restoration.
Tucked away on Spring Avenue is one of the largest private residential homes in the entire country. But for the better part of the last 30 years, not many people have seen behind these walls.
"Lynnewood Hall is a house that has long been forgotten about, unfortunately," Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation executive director Edward Thome said, "and that is what we're here to change."
Step inside the front doors, and its grandeur is immediately clear.
"This is the great hall," Thome said. "It's the largest room in the building. Lynnewood is, quite truly, the last American Versailles."
Certainly, fit for a king.
"This is one of the largest residential ballrooms in the eastern seaboard," Thome said. "And that's 18th-century Italian, which came out of a palace in Italy."
The nonprofit Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation bought the 110,000-square-foot property in June, largely through the help of an angel donor, with the intent of restoring the home and opening it to the public.
"This is arguably the most important preservation project in America right now," facility site manager Tyler Schumacher said. "The opulence, the incredible history, the architecture of this building. Losing a building like this is something you can never get back."
Losing it was a real concern.
After changing hands several times, the home sat empty for decades. The foundation feared the property and its 35 acres would land in the hands of a developer, or fall victim to neglect.
"Thirty years of abandonment, usually in most buildings, leads to collapsing floors and caving-in roofs, and as you walk through this building, you're not going to see a lot of that," Schumacher said.
Lynnewood Hall was built to last. It's an entirely brick building, with a steel I-beam cage and a foot of concrete between each floor.
Dating back to 1897, the Gilded Age mansion was originally built as the private home of Peter A.B. Widener. His purpose was family and art.
"The Widener family had 14 Rembrandt's in their collection," Thome said.
Today, it's the massive art galleries that are in some of the worst shape.
"Our first steps must be asbestos remediation and also stabilization," chief operating officer Angie Van Scyoc said. "You cannot begin restoration until you no longer have water coming in the building."
The foundation is now raising money to fund the work. The goal is a slow, phased opening over time.
"Because we want to have the ability to have master craftsmen come in with universities and students from all around the country," Thome said.
And craftsmen from around the world.
First up, opening the grounds next year and eventually hosting public tours, turning Lynnewood Hall into a cultural center for education, architecture and art.
The foundation raised $9.5 million that went toward the purchase of Lynnwood Hall. It's estimated they now need $100 million more for the restoration project.