A unique and fascinating chronicle brought to life by David Wren about the construction and furnishing of Ardrossan, an early 20th-century country house, vividly brought to life by letters from the family archive.

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A brilliant profile of a family on Philadelphia's Main Line and their splendid historic estate that to this day defines a bygone era. Highly readable with glorious photographs. Thoroughly enjoyable!

Liz Smith, author of DISHING: Great Dish --and Dishes--from America's Most Beloved Gossip Columnist

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Featured Photography from Ardrossan

Works inspired by Ardossan & the family

The Play

The Philadelphia Story is a 1939 American comic play by Philip Barry. It tells the story of a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband and an attractive journalist.

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The Movie

The Philadelphia Story is a 1940 American romantic comedy film starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Ruth Hussey. Directed by George Cukor, the film is based on the 1939 Broadway play of the same name by Philip Barry about a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband and a tabloid magazine journalist. The socialite, played by Hepburn in both productions, was inspired by Helen Hope Montgomery Scott (1904–1995), a Philadelphia heiress who had married Barry's friend.

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Book Reviews

"An unparalleled look at an American country estate in the first half of the twentieth century. In a most engaging way, Wren brings to life the story of Ardrossan and the family that inspired the play and then movie The Philadelphia Story. He weaves the details of architectural design, furnishings, collections, and the history of a gentleman's farm with wonderful accounts of the people who lived and worked there. This is a must-have for anyone interested in American architectural and social history or who enjoys a very readable glimpse into another time and way of life."

Jeff Groff ― Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library
Ardrossan is one of the great houses of America, English in inspiration but American in its way of life. Epitome of the Philadelphia Main Line, the house stands almost unchanged from the moment it was finished in 1913. David Nelson Wren has quarried the riches of the family archive to produce an irresistible, erudite portrait of the Montgomery family at home―the doors of Ardrossan have been thrown open to reveal how these and other preoccupations helped shape a true Philadelphia story.

Clive Aslet ― author of The American Country House
A masterwork of patrician American ambition, Ardrossan was built in the very grandest anglophile style, but with all the up-to-the-minute comforts and innovations of modern living and none of the privations of the drafty, poorly plumbed manses across the Atlantic that inspired it. To this day, the distinguished rooms that the architect Horace Trumbauer conceived and the blue-chip decorators White, Allom & Company filled with elegant eighteenth-century recreations are an evocative testament to a long vanished age. Wren's fastidiously researched book provides a rich document of fascinating lives led in a fabled setting on Philadelphia's Main Line.

Hamish Bowles ― International Editor-at-Large, American Vogue
A brilliant profile of a family on Philadelphia's Main Line and their splendid historic estate that to this day defines a bygone era. Highly readable with glorious photographs. Thoroughly enjoyable!

Liz Smith ― author and columnist

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