The Castle-Like Glencairn Museum Has Family, Faith, and Nation as Its Keystones—Quite Literally

Pitcairn designed all aspects of the mansion without any prior architectural training. (Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, Pa.)

Perched atop a verdant hill and towering over the rolling countryside of Bryn Athlyn, Pennsylvania, Glencairn Museum makes for an inspiring stopover. While there are art and artifacts aplenty inside, it’s the building itself that’s the real story.

From the moment you approach the building’s façade, you know you are in for something special. Chiseled out of hefty blocks of granite, Glencairn boasts an imposing façade right out of the Middle Ages—steeped in the popular Romanesque style of the 10th to 12th centuries. It’s got it all: cloisters, courtyards, towers, and soaring chimneys. The only thing missing is a moat.

Step inside, and you’re in for a surprisingly sensory delight. Rich, amber-toned teak wood (native to Southeast Asia) forms both the museum’s stunning wide-planked floors—original to the building—as well as the intricate lattice work of ceiling beams and vaults.

A stained glass window with patriotic symbols at the Glencairn Museum in Pennsylvania. (Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, Pa.)

Aside from a few welcome touches of electrical lighting, which artfully bring the interior spaces to life, the inside feels positively medieval.

There are centuries-old rugs and tapestries, beautiful stained glass windows, soaring ceilings, masterful woodcarvings, and works of sculpture spanning nearly three millennia to enjoy.

You can’t help but feel transported in time, even without a jester or bard to welcome you.

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The museum was once the home of local businessman Raymond Pitcairn and his family. (Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, Pa.)

Visiting the Museum

Free admission—or a suggested donation of $5—allows you to view the massive open spaces of the building’s first floor, where predominantly medieval art is on display along with seasonal themes. You’ll want to allow at least a good half-hour to fully soak in the expansive artwork, which includes stunning stained glass modeled after some of France’s finest Gothic works, and beautiful mosaic tiling, original to the site.

Pony up a few quid and you’ll get to enjoy a guided tour that takes you behind the scenes and into the depths of the site. This grants you access to the terrific tower, which affords panoramic views of the landscape—including Philadelphia’s skyline.

The tour also offers access to a number of the museum’s vast collection of 90 rooms, each remodeled in museum-like fashion with regional and historic themes. The museum is devoted to the human religious experience and told tastefully through historical timelines, dioramas, and art. Collections include ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, medieval Christian, Islamic, Asian, and American Indian art. (The highlights tour, spanning only an hour or so, will likely not include it all.)

What really sets Glencairn apart, however, isn’t so much its extensive collection as its story.

The mansion houses a vast collection of medieval art among its 90 rooms. (Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, Pa.)

One Man’s Vision

Incredibly, the building began as the vision of one single man—Raymond Pitcairn—as a home for one single family. Pitcairn apparently wanted to give his wife and children (all nine of them) the very best, while also erecting a veritable fortress for the precious collection of medieval art he had amassed. What better way than an inhabitable vault, as it were?

Equally remarkable was that the entire structure was the product of Pitcairn’s own vision. He designed every aspect of the building, from its kaleidoscopic windows to its load-bearing walls—and what a load it is! All, remarkably, without any architectural training.

(One can just imagine how heart-attack-inducing such a proposition would be today, if brought before the local planning board!)

But just what inspired Pitcairn to build so boldly is equally fascinating.

Family portraits of Pitcairn, his wife, children, and extended family. (Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, Pa.)

(Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, Pa.)

The Pillars of a Home

Throughout Glencairn, one notices again and again certain symbolic motifs—a ram here, an eagle there—that hint at deeper meanings encased in its stone.

As my wonderful tour guide explained, there were four virtues that Pitcairn saw as the heart of his home: family, church, country, and schooling (or “education,” we might say).

Each is represented throughout the monumental structure in original works of art that Pitcairn commissioned for his home. One that’s particularly striking is a stained glass window that could have been cast in the 16th century, were it not for the unmistakably American eagle at its center and the equally recognizable outline of the U.S. Capitol Building. Pitcairn loved his country and the ideals that the United States represented, and he wanted to preserve and honor this legacy. Fittingly, his sons went into the service.

“The Pitcairns saw their faith as being the key to their marriage,” we are told, and so they read the Bible together every day.

The theme of “religion” is obviously celebrated throughout, but it takes on particular poignancy in one room that tour-goers get to enjoy.

There, on the fifth floor’s east wing, is a chapel where the family would gather every evening after supper for worship. A finely carved Bible cabinet (not something you can exactly find at Target nowadays) forms the room’s centerpiece, while carved into one of the stone walls is a synopsis of the Ten Commandments—in Hebrew—and the Lord’s Prayer—in Greek—on another. My guide explained that this reflected the value of “schooling,” as education enabled one to read scripture in its original language, unmediated by the ravages of translation.

The stained glass is modeled after France’s greatest Gothic cathedrals. (Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, Pa.)

Trials and Triumphs

The museum is also a tale of triumphs. One is a tale of perseverance—the building having taken 11 years to erect and been battered by the woes of the Great Depression.

Another is a triumph of collaboration, having assembled an incredible retinue, over a hundred large, of master masons, woodworkers, smiths, and glassworkers—all of whom Pitcairn managed to gainfully employ throughout the bitterest of economic downturns. Together, they recreated some of Western civilization’s highest works of craftsmanship, in workshops Pitcairn had built right on site just for the occasion. A touching tribute from 84 of them, thanking their patron for his support, testifies to his boldness of vision and largesse of spirit.

All told, a trip to Glencairn makes for an inspiring, enlightening, and uplifting outing. There’s a wholesomeness to the whole experience that’s not often encountered.

If time allows, you’ll also want to visit the the remarkable Bryn Athyn Cathedral (also made by Pitcairn) and the Cairnwood Estate (where his family temporarily resided), both neighboring the museum.

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.