Garrett-Dunn House, a landmark in Mt. Airy, destroyed in fire

Harris Steinberg and his son ran to the corner of Germantown Avenue at Mount Pleasant yesterday just as a giant smoke plume and ball of fire burst from the historic Garrett-Dunn House in West Mount Airy.

"Just like that, it went up in smoke," said Steinberg, executive director of Penn-Praxis, an arm of the School of Design of the University of Pennsylvania, who had fought to save the landmark with several other organizations.

"Ashes were raining down with big chunks of charcoal," he added. "It was completely destroyed."

Steinberg reached the summer cottage and barn designed by the famous 19th-century architect Thomas Usick Walter right as firefighters arrived to battle the two-alarm fire, first reported at 11:45 a.m. and declared under control at 12:24 p.m.

"Some people said lightning struck it," said Steinberg, who lives a half-block away.

The cause of the fire was under investigation by the Fire Marshal's Office last night.

Jonathan E. Farnham, an architectural historian who staffs the city Historic Commission first discovered the significance of the Garrett-Dunn House, calling it "only example of a Greek Revival summer cottage in the city."

Walter, a native son who was considered the nation's most important architect of the mid-1800s, had also designed the dome of the U.S. Capitol, reconstructed parts of the Library of Congress, built Founders Hall at Girard College and the historic Biddle estate in Andalusia.

Steinberg said Laura Morris Siena, executive director of the Mount Airy Neighbors, and members of the architectural community successfully got it listed on both the National and Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, when it was zoned for a shopping district.

Last April, John Capoferri, the owner-developer of HedgeBank LLC, lost funding to turn the property into condominiums. Despite requests, Capoferri failed to seal it, according to Penn-Praxis.

City records show HedgeBank LLC owes $13,405 in delinquent real estate taxes for the past three years. The city filed a complaint last October, describing the "front and side walls [as] deteriorated, [and the] rear wall of the main building and north wall of the barn had collapsed." A judge ordered that the property be secured and stabilized.

"I wonder if it have been renovated and a lightning rod [put] on it," whether it could have been saved, Steinberg said.

Capoferri could not be reached for comment.