Does anyone know of a particular street or neighborhood in the Philadelphia suburbs where the houses are mansions and the ambience is especially posh, with gorgeous lawns and gardens and stately baronial homes?

Here's the reason why I want to know: I have a lot of friends from abroad and when they visit I want to show them the beautiful neighborhoods because they will surely see the slums and filth and poverty.

Last year among my guests was an older lady from India who was never out of her own country; also a young recently engaged couple from Sheffield, England, who were crew mates of mine when I worked several years ago for Cunard, the famous British passenger ship company. In both cases we drove out in my car to spend a few hours at Longwood Gardens out on the Baltimore Pike, on the way there I took a detour on a road just opposite the Springfield Mall into the town of Swarthmore and around the college area. In both cases my guests enjoyed seeing the handsome homes in this desirable upper-middle-class suburb. It gave them an idea of what the "American Dream" is about.

This summer I really want to impress my out-of-town visitors with some really stunning drives. I've driven around Gladwynn, but unfortunately I found most of the homes are hidden by hedges, trees and other foliage. What about the Main Line? Any residential areas that are especially opulent?

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"Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes." -- Walt Whitman, Leaves Of Grass

Parts of Gladywnne are actually very visible:

Spring Mill Road (from Gladwynne out to Villanova's campus)
Sentry Lane (5 beautiful open estates)
Cherry Lane (several mansions)
The whole area around the Philadelphia Country Club

Also the area around the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr (Gulph Road, Merion Rd, etc, North of Montgomery Ave)

For new "old" money, there's a little street just off Old Gulph Rd & Spring Mill Rd called Meadow's Edge Lane. It turns into Lanes' End. Some great houses back there.

Finally, I think Wynnewood has it all over Swarthmore. The area right behind the train station on the border of Merion has gorgeous single homes in a huge variety of sizes and styles. Very charming upper middle class neighborhood right over the city boundary to "show off" the Philly burbs.

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Not quite baronial mansions, but Chestnut Hill gives a good reflection of real Philly wealth and power.

I commute on my bike to and from the St. Charles Borromeo Sem. and the houses across the Wynnewood Ave. and down Beacom and the other streets in that area are very nice and not mansions. The same can be said of the homes on the other side of the tracks of the Wynnewood Station.

Narberth is such a cute little town, that would be good to show off.

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*unless apathy doesn't rule

Why not try this instead?

http://friendsofindependence.org/ind...d=21&Itemid=38

I've gone on a lot of these, the last one in Society Hill, and they never
cease to "Wow" me!

The open house tours allow you to go INSIDE people's homes. You won't
be able to do that just driving around.

If you are intent upon showing off a grand mansion, however, I highly recommend
Winterthur:

http://www.winterthur.org/

All of that is true but if the poster wants to really show off the
Main Line he/she needs to travel to the area, in Haverford, behind
the Merion Cricket Club or further out in Villanova.

When friends visited from the former East Germany all they wanted to see were the houses featured on the TV show "Dynasty".
I took them around some places on the main line, then to Lancaster county where they felt at home in farm land.
Then on the way back I took Rte 30 exclusively all the way into Center City. They saw it all. They thought we were all rich. They had no problem staying at our rowhome in Tacony.
The "American Dream" fairytale will certainly die a slow death.

Some roads in Huntington Valley have incredible houses.

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"I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God."
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Phillycatlady, please excuse my ignorance ... but where is Huntington Valley?

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"Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes." -- Walt Whitman, Leaves Of Grass

Montgomery County. The road you want is Rt. 63, west of Rt. 232. Spectacular houses near the road. Dense trees above. Some have tennis courts.

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