Rich people: They’re just like you and me, except only worse, and crazier. Take, for instance, the curious case of the La Ronda mansion in Bryn Mawr. La Ronda was the last commission of architect Addison Mizner, whose Spanish-style works are largely identified with the early-20th Century grandeur of the American South, and in fact, seldom seen in these parts. Leather magnate Percival Foerderer commissioned this 51-room beast in 1929, and since then, it’s changed hands a few times — most recently, last March, when a group called 1030 Mount Pleasant Road LP purchased it for $6M. And that’s where the problems come in: As detailed in this excellent and intriguing piece by Jef Feeley for Bloomberg, 1030 Mount Pleasant Road LP is a wholly anonymous entity that now presides over the massive estate and, worse still, wants to have La Ronda destroyed. No dice, says the Lower Merion Conservancy, who are currently raising funds to try and buy back the property, if in fact it can be done. The LMC estimates that $7M will get the job done, and that’s where you come in. For a paltry seven million bones or clams or whatever it is you people call them, you can be a hero to Lower Merion and live like William Randolph Hearst and be within spitting distance of a Peace-A-Pizza. Sound like your bag? Find out more about La Ronda here and here.

Read about more Philebrity Cribs here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 12:11 pm.