Lewis T. + Emma W. Brooke

Biddulph Road , Radnor, PA

1889-91 | Residence | Demolished 1961

“Minerva Parker, 14 South Broad Street, is now working on drawings for a stone dwelling at Radnor, PA, for Louis [sic] T. Brooke. The house will be finished in hard-woods on the first floor.” (May 8, 1889)

“Miss Minerva Parker, architect, 14 South Broad Street, Philadelphia,…for Lewis T. Brooke, Esq., at Radnor, a country seat.” (February 22, 1890)

“Among the plans recently furnished by Miss Parker are…a three-story stone residence for Lewis T. Brooke, of Philadelphia, erected at Radnor, Pa., containing among other features a large reception hall, with oak rafters and paneled with the same wood, a stone fireplace of unique designs adds beauty to this hall, from which open an office, parlor, dining room, and library.” (March 26, 1890)

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Lewis T. Brooke was associated as a real estate agent with the Overbrook Land and Development Company and Wendell + Smith, two other clients in Minerva’s portfolio. His second wife Emma (nee Williams) was an 1883 graduate of Women’s Medical College of Philadelphia; their daughter Harriet also became a doctor. Dr. Emma Brooke worked as a physician in Philadelphia while the family lived in Radnor.

Lewis T. Brooke died in 1892, shortly after this commission was completed. It is unclear how long Dr. Emma Brooke remained in the house; she remarried in 1897.