Rich People To Sell Giant Property

On Sunday, the Inquirer spent a majority of its front page on a story about Ardrossan, the mansion that inspired The Philadelphia Story, a movie you will remember if you are 70. (According to IMDB, the 1940 film’s tagline is: “Uncle Leo’s bedtime story for you older tots! The things they do among the playful rich - Oh, boy!”)

The Montgomery-Scott-Wheeler family is putting the mansion’s 360-acre grounds and the 50-room mansion on the market because they are renouncing capitalism and donating all the money to the poor. Well, okay, probably not. But the sale of the Radnor mansion has not only ruffled the feathers of the very rich, but also the feathers of the regular rich, who are concerned about preserving open space in the township.

For Elaine Schaefer, executive director of the nonprofit Radnor Conservancy, Ardrossan offers “a relief from the density and sprawl” all around it.

When The Inquirer told Schaefer of Ardrossan’s prospective sale, her first reaction was stunned silence. When she found her voice, she vowed to work to protect as much of it as possible from development.

The further adventures of the soap opera about the mansion that inspired the movie you’ve probably heard of but never seen will continue to be chronicled on the front page of the Inquirer. Meanwhile, the boat that inspired The Philadelphia Experiment is still missing. Priorities, people!

End of a class act [Inquirer]