I’ve seen this home from the road and always been fascinated by it. Perhaps its the winter and the fact that there’s so much dormant at this time of year – but I can’t help but think about how sad it is that this home, which I’m certain stood proud for decades is now barely more than rubble.
It’s hard to imagine the chain of events that would lead to abandoning a home.
Did the owner pass away, or become severely ill? Who even owns this property at this point?
Here’s a map of the of the house. If you have any information that you’d like to share, please email me.
EDIT (DEC 2008):
I received an Email from Sean looking for more information – so I decided to post more of the pictures.
Enjoy,
Mike
Popularity: 23%
Posting a message I received via email from Tim…
I know the house quite well. My parents were very friendly with the former owners and other people that lived on the property (there were other houses that were rented on the property). We used to spend quite a bit of time there. There are foundations on the property that date back to the 1600’s.
It was owned by the Scammell family (hence, this is why it is referred to by some as “Scammell’s Corner”) up until the early 1990’s – I’m not sure of the exact year they sold it – I was not living in the area at the time. They sold it to someone that had development ambitions (someone from NYC) but every proposal he had was shot down by the township. From what I’ve heard he did not get along at all with the township supervisors and did himself no favors with the way he treated them (you can’t fight city hall!).
There’s much more to the story….more than I want to write (forgive me for that) but in the end he said screw it and decided to just let it sit there and rot. (again, more to the story)
The Scammells made all their money in the pottery and china business. “Scammell China”. Their factory was located in Trenton. I don’t know when the operation was started but for sure it dated well back into the 1800’s. I do know they had the supply contract for just about every railroad in the US. During the late 1800’s – early 1900’s if you were in the dining car of a train and turned over the plate or cup it would have the Scammell name on it.
I agree it’s very sad what’s become of the house. It really was a beautiful place and I have such fond memories of it. I’d like nothing more than to see it restored but it’s so far gone now that such an endeavor is cost prohibitive…..unless you had more money than you knew what to do with.
I’ve been saying for years that if I were filthy rich/in the “money-no-object” situation I absolutely would buy the place and restore it.
I hope this satisfies at least some of your curiosity.
Has anyone else responded to this question?
Take care,
Tim
I was so glad i went back to your January photos (i found ur site in feb)…my husband and i have also been so intrigued with this house! how great that tim shed some light. i have noticed that people are there at times and that trash cans are put out. But based on tim’s response, i take it that no one lives there now?!?!? Tim’s noting that there is more to it, but not revealing any more, definitely makes it much more intriguing. thanks for this photo!
I am too fascinated by this property. Is the photo still available? I would love to hear more about the history of this home.
Sean
Not much more than what Tim posted previously… What I can do is repost the photos…
Thanks for the photos!!! Did you take these?
Any idea who’s living there? Someone opens and closes the sliding gate daily.
I am completely fascinated by this historic abandoned mansion, and wonder if the Yardley Historical Association can shed any more light on it.
My wife used to babysit the Scammell grandchildren in the 1980s. She indicated that the place was ponderous, wood paneled and had a magnificent marble dining room. It must have been amazing at its height. Bob Scammell told my wife that George Washington had slept on the site. Apparently the original land grant from James II was at one point on display somewhere in the house. I believe that there was some talk about the place being transformed into a Jewish community center, but the idea met great resistance.
The Scammells, like many other great colonial families, apparently became somewhat “spread out” and no single family member was able to keep up the pace. My wife said that the Scammell’s lived in a smaller section of the mansion and rented the remainder of the house for a while. I suppose the Scammell Chine fortune fell into decline too.
My mother had been engaged to Bill Scammell (in the 30′s I think) before he died unexpectedly. I vaguely remember visiting there as a young child (late 50′s?). I have several sets of formal china that were gifts to her from that time. I was just visiting the area and spied the the house through the trees and began to remember. I would really like to know who owns it now and what the property is assessed for. Any one?
Thanks for stopping by and sharing… I too would love to know what that place is worth. It looks like someone is fixing the place up. There’s new roof panels and some of the windows appear to be boarded up. That’s a good sign that the foundation elements of the house are worth saving – perhaps someone will revive the old place.
I live in Yardley and am also fascinated by the property. In the winter time you can really see into the property and the house itself is very impressive (the size, architecture, layout, etc). There are people living in one of the guest houses, and they have posted “Do Not Tresspass” signs along the entrance driveway. Take a look if you drive by in the evening…lights are on. I can’t believe that someone is sitting on this kind of property in Yardley and doing nothing with it…would love more scoop on what happened, who owns it now, etc. As a fan of historical places, I would love a tour of the original house. On a side-note, can someone run the liscence plate of the van in the photo (above)!!! There has to be a great mystery here waiting to be solved…
I grew up Yardley my whole life. I lived on Randolph Drive, around the corner from the Scammell house. I was always intrigued by the property. A friend of mine and I drove back there once when the gate was open. We happened to stumble across the man who lives there! It was a little scary. He was very nice though. He lives in one of the smaller homes on the property. He gave us the history on the Scammell china empire. He said the china was once used in the white house. He also gave the same story, that someone was trying to build commercially on the property. The township denied them, and now the house just sits there. It is a shame there are ACRES and ACRES of land, and the house is just completely beautiful. He did tell me that he believes the place is haunted, but he is unphased by it.
Does anyone know if there is a possibility that a legitimate paranormal team would be given permission to investigate this property for both historical value and to determine whether paranormal activity occurs in this home? I currently belong to a local group and we are very interested in following up on the history of this property.
Lisa, I’d love to learn more about the property – especially from a paranormal perspective… unfortunately, I have no idea who owns the property.
Thanks for the comment Mike. I am curious, are there open records or a deed filed somewhere like at a courthouse or at the local library? that may help in finding the owner?
Mike, I just wanted to let you know the group I am currently with is working on trying to locate the owner. I will let you know what we find out.
I used to live in Sandy RunII, in the house my husband grew up in (in the 70-80s). He said the Scammel house was always ‘spooky’, and that as kids, the big dare was to run into the woods and go touch the house and run back.
As adults, we knew the houses were being rented, as I believe they still are today. There was a story going around that there was an extensive wine collection in the cellar, and that there had been a robbery in the late 1990′s- all the wine was smashed up, by vandals. It made me worry about the property and what else was still there.
When the current(?) owner was trying to develop, (Erlich, I believe his last name is) got angry that the township repeatedly turned his proposals down, and apparently started clearcutting the property of trees, causing a huge mess for the property owners along Princeton drive behind him. (major runoff issues). I remember hearing the heavy machinery equiptment tearing throught the property and hearing the rumors that ‘Ehrlich was pissed off’. It was about 2 weeks of worrying about the old place ad wondering how much damage he was going to do, then it jsut stopped, and nothing else has happened.
I did just see a preliminary sketch plan last weekend of the proposed new development there.. the main house must be rehabbbed by the developer, and then about 16 new homes surrounding it….
Hope this info is helpful or at least interesting.
Diane,
Thanks very much for that great information! The property holds so much intrigue for everyone in the area.
Mike
I live in the area and have noticed a young girl with a camera on the property a couple of times latley. I wonder what she is up to.
Hi- one more note- my husband had some more info about the house being haunted– a young son drowned in the quarry on the property. Hope this helps.
I grew up in Yardley and back in the 1960′s, I can remember the sight of Mrs. Scammel driving through town in her little Mercedes sports car, dressed in pearls and little cashmere sweater . She was something to see. The house and grounds are/were a superb example of Pennsylavania Quaker design. Just the banister on the main staircase was heart-stoppingly lovely. I used to “check in” on the property during the 80′s/90′s on my visits home to my parents, but now that I have no family left in Yardley I have not been by to check on the house on about 10 years. As another poster here said…I had always thought to myself; “If money were no object…” but the place is just out of hand by now, I’d suspect.
Best,
Rick Moffat
I went by the house with my friends and a hunter lives in the woods by it. I heard a radio on by his house then I heard a snapping noise by the mansion.
There was a shack built on to the side of the house that had writing in it that said turn off mortor when done . It was creepy
So watch out! I think there might be gohsts in the basement
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I happened upon this sight when I typed in Scammell’s Corner looking for my Dad’s new surf shop that he opened in NC and i was intrigued to hear about this “Scammell’s Corner” and see this house that must have been something spectacular at one time. I am a Scammell by birth, not by marriage, and I know very little of our family history and have been wanting to do my own research and just find out everything I can about the Scammell family and history. I am familiar with the China and have many pieces myself, including a whole dining set, a plate commemorating the 150th anniversary of the settlement of Trenton, and two small pieces that were used by the US Navy. My father is a descendent in some way and I haven’t talked to him much about the family history but I would like to know where I can get a head start in this area. Is there a town historian or an office I can go to to start searching? Any information would be greatly appreciated. I am my father’s only daughter and I often joke that I won’t give up the Scammell name when I marry and after my research I might definately never be able to give it up.
Bucks County Courthouse in Doylestown is a good place to start to check land records. Also, in Philadelphia there are state records in their archives. I do genealogy and also use Ancestry.com for census records, land records and newspaper articles. Also, the Yardley News Archives might be hellpful. I lived in yardley from the 70s – 90 and one of my son’s still lives there. We call that home for us as our children were raised there and we were active in the community. A wonderful place. I always loved that house, too. Dreamed of fixing it up to it’s colonial splendor. Good luck with your research. If you would like any further help from me I’d be glad to do some searching for you. I do get to Yardley about every 2-3 months.
Mike:
I just got done watching our Yardley council members talk about the settlement of this 17 year lawsuit. The son of Mr. Scammells was there to thank the council members for approving the construction of 16 homes and that when he sold the property he never envisionned this to happen. He was visibly saddened by the actions of the developper to let it go to ruins. He talked about his childhood briefly, the days of great entertainment and some 50 weddings that took place there. When he was done, he walked to the plans, displayed on an easel board, and gazed at the drawings. The council kept referring to the “Quaker Group Developer” (maybe they bought out the last developer?) who during the last meetings, worked with the neighbors to ensure there would be no water run-off and that a tree lined buffer would give them privacy between the new homes and the older ones. The developer is also working with the Historical Society to conserve the main house and I think they mentionned an outhouse also. They will also build a sidewalk that will wrap around Newtown-Yardley road and Yardley-Langhorne rd but it will not go past University Drive to tie into Afton rd. The public asked the township to work with the borough to find ways to connect the two sidewalks. How interesting…my husband and I drove by slowly last week-end peeking through the trees admiring the stone house. Thank you for the close up pictures!
As a historical note:
The land at Scammels corner was purchased from the original owner, Edward Nickleson sometime around the turn of the 19th century. Both the 1876 and 1891 cadastral maps of Lower Makefield both show E. Nickleson as the landholder. Nickleson was a very intriguing man and a very prominent member of the Yardley(ville) community who lived to a very old age. In addition to a large farm, Nickleson opened the Brownstone quarry on the property in 1816. This is the quarry located in the back of the Sandy Run Development. The quarry was noted throughout the land as one of the finest in producing structural grade brownstone. I don’t know about foundations on the property from the late 16oo’s, but all of the existing houses on the property were apparently erected with brownstone from the quarry, placing them from early to mid 1800′s. The building style certainly seems in line with that. In viewing all of the buildings and while there are several apparent additions, there is no evidence of a “settlers cabin” in the construction anywhere, which could back a claim of early building on the property in the main or guest houses. Battles History of Bucks Co (A must read) in its Bio of Nickleson, states his father, a tailor in town, bought some portion of the land and erected a home. The 1876 map shows out structures down near the bottom portion of the property near the present location of the shopping strip. Maybe these were the original homestead, being closer to town. Who knows. In any event, the place must have been quite grand in its day …. just another shame on our community, along with Edgewood village, to allow historic buildings to crumble to nothing, almost always because of some bureaucracy.
… I take that back about a settlers cabin … after checking out those neat photos again and looking at the property using Bings’ birdseye, there are so many additions to the house, its almost mind boggling. It would be hard to tell what sections were built first or even in what order without much research. The middle section with the “front door” seems to have different sized stone and it has a large chimney. It looks like maybe 7 different additions to the home as well as two smaller homes/out buildings and the ruins of a very large barn that’s closer to Afton and very visible in the winter. In addition to the property being a farm and quarry, if you go to Penn Pilots website, the aerial view from 1938 shows a very large evergreen plantation on the north side of the property. Many of these now overgrown trees can be seen today between the houses from Lafeyette over to University Drive. Also, speaking of ghost stories, as a teen, in the late ’80′s, I had a friend who lived on University Drive, and we would sneak onto the property with girls, entering from Yale, looking to get spooked. A couple of years later, we would shoot paintball on the eastern side and even sneak a few beers. There were people renting the property then, but nobody seemed to care if we used the fields … The house was in much better shape then. In any event, hopefully the “Developer will do the right thing” and restore the home to a fine example of the past. Fingers crossed.
Wasnt one of the long time owners a gym teacher at PHS? Didn’t she use to tell stories of it being haunted?