User:Starry98529/Bryn Mawr College Deanery

The Deanery was the residence of the first Dean and second President of Bryn Mawr College, M. Carey Thomas, who lived there from 1885 to 1933. It was situated approximately 100 meters (330 feet) to the west of the central campus building, Taylor Hall. From 1933 until 1968, the Deanery served as the Alumnae Center and Inn for Bryn Mawr College. The building was demolished in the spring of 1968 to make space for the construction of Canaday Library, which stands on the site today. At the time of its demolition, many of the Deanery's furnishings were re-located to Wyndham Hall, an 18th century manor (with a modern addition) which became the college's new Alumnae Center and Inn.

Early Years
When Joseph W. Taylor purchased 40 acres of land for the campus of Bryn Mawr College in 1878, three Victorian cottages were located on the property, later known as the Deanery, the Betweenery, and the Greenery. In 1885, M. Carey Thomas moved into the Deanery, a modest building of five rooms situated downhill and to the west of what was then the central campus building, Taylor Hall. The residence underwent a minor expansion in 1888 - the first of three renovations - when two small rooms were added to the rear of the house for the storage of books and records.

1894-1896 Renovation
In 1894, the college architect Walter Cope drew up plans for a second expansion of the Deanery at the request of M. Carey Thomas, shortly after she was appointed to the college Presidency. The firm of Cope and Stewardson (Philadelphia) was commissioned to design and construct several campus buildings in the 1880s and 90s, including the dormitories Radnor (1885) and Denbigh (1891); the Deanery expansion fit into Thomas's larger vision for the expansion of the campus, which was already underway by the time she became President.

During this renovation, completed by 1896, the house was re-oriented away from its existing veranda, and a new entrance facing campus replaced the existing entrance. On the second floor, a library and guest bedrooms were created, and a third floor was added, containing more guest rooms and the servants' quarters. A large northwest wing was also added to the existing house, located off of the original dining room and containing the kitchen, pantry, and storage areas.

1908-1909 Renovation
From 1885 to 1904, Thomas lived in the Deanery with Mamie Gwinn, a childhood friend who had accompanied her to boarding school and Germany, where Thomas did graduate work at the University of Leipzig. A few months after Mamie Gwinn left in 1904 to marry Alfred Hodder, a Professor of English at Bryn Mawr, Mary Garrett moved into the Deanery, where she resided until her death in 1915. Garrett was the daughter of John W. Garrett, the wealthy president of the B&O Railroad. She was accustomed to the way of life of Baltimore high society, and her financial backing permitted her to continue such a lifestyle after she moved into the Deanery. As early as 1894, during the second renovation of the house, Mary Garrett had been assisting M. Carey Thomas in transforming the Deanery into a home befitting Thomas's new presidential status, supplementing her annual salary by as much as $5,000.

In 1907, Mary Garrett decided to fund a major renovation project to expand the Deanery a third time. The expansion, in which Mamie Gwinn's bedroom on the second floor became Garrett's very large bedroom with an elaborate bath, began in 1908 and took nearly two years and $100,000 to complete. The renovation also included the extension of the northwest wing to accommodate additional kitchen and storage facilities, as well as the addition of more storage space on the third floor. The plans were drawn up by the architectural firm of Archer and Allen, with Lockwood de Forest as consultant (see below).

When completed, the Deanery had been transformed from its origins as a simple Victorian cottage into a sprawling, 46-room mansion. It was an elegant residence where M. Carey Thomas could entertain the college's important guests, students, and alumnae, as well as her own immediate family and friends.

Interior
During the renovation of 1894-1896, M. Carey Thomas consulted the American artist Lockwood de Forest for the design and decoration of the Deanery's interior. De Forest, known for his partnership with Louis Comfort Tiffany and the Associated Artists of New York, also ran an import business based in New York City which distributed the carved teakwood furniture, tracery panels, jewelry, and textiles produced by his workshop in Ahmedabad, India.

According to Roberta Mayer, the author of a biography of Lockwood de Forest, his role in the 1894-1896 renovation of the Deanery was limited, although it remains detectable. The molding along the outer edge of the fireplace in Mamie Gwinn’s study as well as some picture frames in the corridor between hers and M. Carey Thomas's study (the Blue Room) were made of carved teakwood, like that produced by the Ahmedabad Woodcarving Company. Thomas could easily have acquired some of her Middle Eastern and Asian furnishings from sources other than de Forest, but the most obvious trace of de Forest's design in this phase of the Deanery is his stenciling. Geometric designs were stenciled as friezes and borders on the walls or on the ceilings throughout the house, as, for example, on the ceiling of the Blue Room, the borders in the dining room and corridor between the studies, and the ceiling and border in Mamie Gwinn’s study. Even the floors of the dining room were stenciled, as M. Carey Thomas noted in a letter to de Forest: "You remember it was so with my dining room. In four years the stenciling under the wax which we put on the floors was entirely worn off."

The Blue Room
1894 (paragraph on the original Blue Room (Tiffany stencils and lamps, Japanese theme), stenciling throughout the house, furniture purchased through de Forest's and other import companies)

Furnishings from Baltimore
1904 (paragraph on Garrett furniture/furnishings brought from Baltimore)

The Dorothy Vernon Room
1908 (paragraph on the Dorothy Vernon Room and furnishings/design after the 1908 renovation)

Garden
In 1907, John C. Olmsted laid out...

Notable Guests

 * Henry James, American writer
 * Eleonora Duse, Italian actress
 * Bertrand Russell, British philosopher
 * Anna Howard Shaw, British-born women's suffrage activist
 * William Butler Yeats, Irish poet
 * Susan B. Anthony, American women's suffrage activist
 * Marie Curie, Polish chemist and physicist