Greylock
(photo: Bradley Maule)
The Conservancy holds 52 easements and works closely with property owners to explore proposals and potential amendments while strictly upholding the conservation and preservation easement goals. We strive to foster open dialogue and cooperation to protect the property’s open space and maintain the historic integrity of the estate.
Background
Since the donation of a conservation easement to the Conservancy in 2000, Greylock has seen various owners struggle to maintain and utilize the property. Over the past two decades, its owners, multiple developers, and potential buyers have informally discussed numerous development concepts with the Conservancy.
The property at Greylock has faced challenges for some time due to numerous restrictions within its easements, which do not align with current national standards. Critics, many of whom collaborated on drafting the original easements, have expressed concerns over the impact on their properties and community values. Certain easement elements have hindered the property’s development, such as vehicle access limitations.
The Conservancy has been actively monitoring the Greylock property over the years, ensuring compliance with the terms of the easement. Since 2004, the Conservancy has collaborated with Greylock’s owner, conducting annual monitoring visits as part of its land trust responsibilities. This includes notifying owners of necessary repairs to maintain compliance with the easement terms. These monitoring activities for all easements held by the Conservancy require significant time and financial resources. In balancing the interests of property owners, developers, and neighbors, the Conservancy remains steadfast in ensuring that any proposed amendments align with the original purpose and legal requirements of the easement agreements. This includes considerations such as perpetual duration, tax compliance, public interest, and avoidance of impermissible private benefits.
The Conservancy aims to balance conservation interests with those of the owner, developer, and neighbors, and the Greylock property is no different. The Conservancy is committed to responsibly managing the Greylock property, ensuring that decisions made do not set unfavorable precedents for other conservation easements. Adhering to national practices and Land Trust Alliance guidelines, any amendments, including those for Greylock, must receive board approval to maintain the easement’s integrity and original conservation goals.
The amendment adds provisions if there is a commercial use of the property.
To read the Conservancy’s Easement Amendment Policy, click HERE.
For more information on easements, please click HERE.
History
Greylock was built in 1909 for Henry Laughlin, a pioneer in the steel industry who helped make Pittsburgh a national center of steel production. When Laughlin retired to Philadelphia, he hired Pittsburgh architect William Carpenter to design the Greylock mansion. The 18,000 sq.ft., 22-room residence and four-car garage were built of steel with stone quarried from the estate. The original main entrance was a drive from Crefeld Street that passed a gate lodge at 8838 Crefeld, now a part of the Crefeld School. The façade seen from Chestnut Hill Avenue is actually the mansion’s original rear façade.
Learn more about the history of the Greylock mansion by clicking HERE to read an article written by George McNeely and published in the Chestnut Hill Local on November 1, 2023.
Timeline
1909: Built by Henry A. Laughlin (1838-1922)
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1948: The Sisters of St. Mary Immaculate purchased the Greylock estate from the Laughlin family and used it as a facility for the elderly.
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1999: The Sisters of St. Mary Immaculate sold the property at auction to a principal of Vbank (later named NOVA Bank) in November of 1999. The original gatehouse and entrance off of Crefeld Street were subdivided and sold separately at an earlier date.
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2001: The owner donates a conservation easement on the property.
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2004: NOVA Savings Bank sells the property to Greylock Holdings LLC, with the original loan re-executed as an open-end mortgage and security agreement with NOVA, encumbering the mortgaged premises.
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2004: The owner donated a preservation easement, and later that year, an amendment was made to put additional restrictions on use.
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2022: Greylock Holdings LLC sells the property to Greylock Development Partners LP.
The Conservation and Preservation Easement Program of the Chestnut Hill Conservancy in partnership with Friends of the Wissahickon provides property owners with a way to protect the Wissahickon Valleys’ unique landscape for themselves, their neighbors, surrounding communities, and the Philadelphia section of the Wissahickon watershed for future generations. Learn more.
Open Letters to the Community
The Conservancy is dedicated to finding a positive and sustainable result for Greylock.
Click HERE to read an open letter to the community by Conservancy President Eileen Javers published in the Chestnut Hill Local on Wednesday, February 15, 2024. Please click HERE to download the article as a PDF.
Click HERE to read an open letter by Executive Director Lori Salganicoff published by Chestnut Hill Local on Wednesday, December 6, 2023. Please click HERE to download the article as a PDF.
Updates
Please visit the Chestnut Hill Community Association (CHCA) page HERE to view the owner’s most recently submitted proposal to the community.
The Chestnut Hill Conservancy holds conservation and preservation easements and an amendment on the property at 209 West Chestnut Hill Avenue (Greylock). The joint Conservation and Easements Committee (CEC) of the Chestnut Hill Conservancy and Friends of the Wissahickon (FOW) reviewed an early conceptual version of a proposal that is now seeking community feedback through the Registered Community Organization (RCO) variance process. The CEC determined that the initial concepts proposed could be viable IF acceptable and sufficiently balancing conservation measures can be worked out and finalized in an amendment that would then need to pass review by Orphan’s Court and the Chestnut Hill Conservancy’s Board before it could be adopted.
Balancing conservation measures still need to be proposed to the CEC, and the work of that joint easement committee is currently paused to allow this public RCO variance discussion to proceed.
The Chestnut Hill Conservancy has not participated in RCO reviews of the proposal currently under consideration to redevelop at 209 W. Chestnut Hill Avenue, and related variance requests. The organization chose this path on advice of counsel to avoid confusion between the Conservancy’s dual roles as an RCO and as the land trust that holds the conservation easements on the above property.
The organization’s decision not to participate in the RCO process should not be interpreted as an opinion either in support of or in opposition to the project.
→ Download and print these Greylock FAQs.
→ In this Op-ed in the Chestnut Hill Local, September 8, 2016, Board member Randy Williams explains in simple language the facts about Greylock and easements.
→ In this open letter to the Editor of the Local, Board member Richard Snowden clarifies the causes of the current Greylock situation.
→ Read Philadelphia magazine‘s coverage, August 25, 2016.
→ In this article in the Chestnut Hill Local, on December 14, 2022, Local Editor Carla Robinson discusses a new hope for Greylock.
→ In this article in the Chestnut Hill Local, on October 20, 2023, Local Editor Carla Robinson discusses current development plans.
→ For a history of the Greylock mansion click HERE to read an article by George McNeely (published on November 1, 2023).
→ Click HERE to read our letter to the community published in the Chestnut Hill Local on Wednesday, December 6, 2023
→ Click HERE to read an open letter to the community by Conservancy President Eileen Javers published in the Chestnut Hill Local on Wednesday, February 15, 2024. Please click HERE to download the article as a PDF.
→ In this article in the Chestnut Hill Local, on Thursday, March 21, CHCA President Laura Lucas, and CHCA VP of Physical Division Matt Rutt discuss their vote in support of Greylock.