The Tyler Estate

Bucks County Community College is unique among institutions of its kind in starting in what can easily be described as a baronial estate. The original classroom building of the College was formerly the sixty-room mansion of the Tyler family.

George F. Tyler, banker, sportsman, gentleman, farmer and Stella Elkins Tyler, granddaughter of William L. Elkins for whom Elkins Park is named, authorized the designing of the house as early as 1928. Actual construction began in 1930. Before and during construction of the house, Mr. Tyler continued to purchase farms surrounding the site on which the mansion is situated. By combining the smaller farms and by astute management, the property he acquired became a self-sustaining and even a profit-making investment during the period known as the "Great Depression." Prize cattle were added to the herds roaming the farms; stables were stocked with fine horses from here and abroad; agents were sent all over the world to find and purchase rare birds, exotic plants, flowers and trees which had never been grown in this area before; and many species of wild fowl were bred here. At one time, it was possible to find trees and flowers growing on the grounds of the campus that were found nowhere else in North America.

The site for the house was chosen for many reasons. The area has historical significance if the stories of the Indians using the large rock outcropping on which the house is situated as a council rock have validity. The area is heavily wooded and this lent to seclusion. Also because of the unique contour of the land surrounding the house, the structure, which is on top of a hill, is nevertheless hidden from the public highway by an intervening height. It is possible to pass the Estate on the road and never see it.

The architectural style of the house is French-Norman, featuring several towers and a castellated balcony. The main building measures some three hundred feet from wing to wing, and when it was a private home, it had forty-five main rooms. Included on the lower level of the north wing was an early American room with exposed beams, pine-paneled walls, and walk in fireplace, a bar and a small kitchen. This room was at one time furnished in authentic early American style, with wing-backed chairs, deacon's benches, trestle tables, a clerk's desk, and several well stocked gun cabinets. Interior decorating of the entire mansion was done by Henry D. Slepper of Boston.

The Music Room (Room 142) at one time boasted an unusual turquoise rug enhancing the gold gilt cabinets in the four corners of the room which was dominated by a pair of magnificent cut-glass chandeliers.

Other decorative features on the main floor included a Dutch Room, with numerous shelves to accommodate the Tylers' collection of pewter (the small room outside the main dining room), wallpaper consisting of a black-and-white Goya print in the formal living room (Room 128), and the juxtaposition of both wood and tile for flooring throughout the building. The magnificent front entrance, flanked by cloak and rest rooms for guests (now administrative offices) leads to the formal reception hall, still used for that purpose. Here one can see several wooden panels in which were mounted tapestries woven by Mrs. Tyler.

A beautiful round, stone staircase leads to the second level which contained bedrooms and suites. Not only did each bedroom have its own fireplace but there was a fireplace in every bathroom. There were more than 20 fireplaces in the house, some constructed of imported Italian marble and no two exactly alike. This section of the building is now used for administrative offices, classrooms and the President's Suite.

Servants were quartered in the east wing of the building which is currently occupied by the business offices. The servants dining room on the first floor was equipped with some of the first Monel metal sinks and cupboards used in this country.

The third floor was used to store equipment Mr. Tyler employed in various sports (sails for his yacht, tents, rifles, shotguns, and safari equipage) in huge walk-in cedar closets. Presently it is being used for classrooms.

Facing the main entrance, the wing of the house to the left was used for a garage, a kitchen pantry, a dining area and these rooms, except the garage, were used for exactly the same purpose during the first three years of College operation. The Chef Apprentice Program uses this area for instructional purposes.

No less impressive is the exterior of the building. A huge circular courtyard, laid with cobblestones removed from Callow Hill Street in Philadelphia when that thoroughfare was paved, is ringed by flagstone walks which lead to the front door. A balcony extends across the front of the building and can be reached from the second floor hallway.

In the rear of the house there is a flagstone terrace and walkway extending most of the length of the building. At the northern end of the walk there is the stone that has long been known as Indian Rock. Beyond this there is a sheer drop to the Neshaminy Creek, more than one-hundred feet below. At the opposite end there is a walk leading to an arboretum in which orange trees were once grown and which is now used for the community service programs. Extending from the house and the arboretum to the west, toward the creek, are the formal gardens.

The gardens end at what was once a swimming pool, flanked by two steep-roofed structures containing the bath houses and filtering systems. Below were the tennis courts, one of which was grass. Other buildings on the Estate immediately adjacent to the main house included a potting shed and extensive greenhouse, and a homestead stone building which Mrs. Tyler, an accomplished sculptress and painter used as a studio and which served the College as a temporary library.

Mrs. Tyler's interest in art stemmed from her father who was a collector and had significant works in the home by Corot, Romney, and Gainsborough among many others. She was a pupil of Boris Blai who later became Dean of the Tyler Art School of Temple University (endowed by Mrs. Tyler) and had a one-person show in New York in 1935 at the Grand Central Galleries where she showed about sixty works cast in bronze. Tapestries and sculpture seen about the buildings are works executed by Mrs. Tyler.

The mansion, built to last for generations, has outside walls which are two feet thick, constructed of stone and masonry and insulated with cork. The stone was quarried on the Estate. Interior walls are equally strong, also lined with cork, and in some cases they are reinforced with steel rods. The floors are all reinforced with concrete, with cork liners, and are sometimes topped with rich wooden flooring. The roof consists of three overlapping layers of specially made tiles and all rain gutters and down spouts are made of copper. All the window casements are of steel and concrete, and all the numerous doors and windows on the first floor have individual locks and keys.

About a quarter-mile farther east is another group of buildings: a ten-car garage with living quarters on top, which has and provides a setting for the Hicks Art Center (a turntable was included in the garage so that cars could be turned around inside). There are four stone cottages which presently quarter the Center for Business and Industry Training, Music Department, Continuing Education and Security offices. All of these buildings were serviced by a private water supply and sewage system, and were heated from a central plant. The Estate even had its own fire system and constabulary. A farmhouse, located on Swamp Road, serves as offices for the Purchasing Department and Senior Employment Center.

Tenant farms and game preserves occupied the remainder of the two thousand acres which the Tylers had acquired. On two hundred of their acres is Bucks County Community College while the remainder is Tyler State Park.

After moving to Bucks County in 1933, the Tylers gave their home in Elkins Park, an estate then valued at more than a million dollars, to Temple University. The Elkins Park Estate is today the core of the Tyler School of Art of Temple University. After her death in 1963, Mrs.Tyler bequeathed Indian Council Rock (the name of the estate) to Temple University for educational purposes. At the time, the Trustees of Temple decided that immediate use of the Estate did not conform to the University's long range plan and the Trustees of the recently created Bucks County Community College were searching for a site.

In 1964 in response to a need for a public two-year collegiate institution to serve graduates of the County's high schools and other citizens of Bucks County who would benefit from an experience in higher education, The Board of Commissioners unanimously agreed to sponsor the college in a legal resolution adopted June 22, 1964. The Pennsylvania State Board of Education approved the proposal in September and a 15-member Bucks County Community College Board of Trustees was appointed October 5,1964, by the County Commissioners.

The initial proposal for a Community College was developed and presented to the public in 1963 by the then Office of Bucks County Superintendent of Schools. Subsequently, the Bucks County School Directors Association urged the Bucks County Board of Commissioners in 1964 to become the sponsor for the proposed school under the provisions of Act 848 (The Community College Act).

On January 29,1965 settlement was made for the purchase of 200 acres and all buildings thereon for the sum of $700,000. The Site and Building committee of the Board of Trustees of the College, after much searching and study, selected the Tyler Estate as that site which best met the criteria set by the trustees.

On April 4, 1965 Dr. Charles E. Rollins became the first president of Bucks County Community College. By June, the President had appointed an Academic Dean, Business Manager, and Director of Admissions. By the end of August of that year, a Librarian and a Faculty of 22 had been appointed. Remodeling work on the mansion, begun in June 1965, was completed in time for classes to begin on September 29,1965.

From the head-start, the College has continued to grow and presently consists of 16 buildings housing 73 general purpose classrooms, seven auditorium-type lecture halls, 13 seminar rooms and 33 laboratory-type classrooms, an art center, a music center, a gymnasium with swimming pool, a library and a student union. By 1991, the College was accommodating more than 11,500 students and approximately 100,000 non-credit community service students.