The badly fire-damaged mansion at 500 Gravers Ln. will make way for two new homes. (Photo by Elizabeth Coady)

by Elizabeth Coady

Troy Frys and his wife, Susie Ratzavong, were relaxing inside their Wyndmoor home after supper one evening late last summer when a loud boom sent them rushing outside to investigate.

“We thought it was another car crash,’’ said Frys, 53, who lives near the intersection of Stenton Avenue and Gravers Lane. This time, though, it wasn’t steel crushing steel but portions of the porch collapsing on the dilapidated fire-damaged mansion at 500 Gravers Ln.

“Now I keep waiting for the chimney to collapse,’’ said Frys, who lives adjacent to the once-majestic three-story home destroyed by fire six years ago. “I don’t see how the township allowed it to stay like that – it’s an eyesore.’’

A fire in February 2013 permanently displaced former owners Ihor Kusznir and his sister, Oresta Kusznir Kyzyma, who had lived inside the expansive 21-room stone house since 1961. Because the cost of repairing the home to its original condition would have been “astronomical,” the family finally let go of the property in 2017 for $290,000 to former nearby resident and developer Mark B. Greenberg, who plans to raze the house and build two new homes.

Plans for the new construction emerged after last-ditch attempts by Springfield Township officials and area historic preservationists failed to persuade nearby residents that the property had historic value and should be allowed to be rebuilt as three or four condominiums, with a possible addition to the house.

Springfield Township Commissioners Jeff Harbison and Baird Standish attended the meeting and supported the idea of saving the house, but several neighbors objected to the increased density and had grown tired of the eyesore.

“I think the old homes keep character in the neighborhood,’’ said Frys, whose property abuts the burned-out mansion, which he says smells like rotting wood in the heat of summer and is home to rats and raccoons. “I think this house is beyond saving.’’

Members of the Chestnut Hill Conservancy begged to disagree and chastised Springfield Township officials for not having a historic preservation ordinance in place to identify and help preserve important local historic or notable properties.

“Springfield Township has absolutely no historic preservation ordinance,’’ said Lori Salganicoff, executive director of the Conservancy. “There is a real need for it. There are deeply historic works there, and whether or not you decide to preserve 85 percent or five percent, the question just needs to be asked: Do you want to let go of everything?

“For me, the story is 500 Gravers, and the Russell Medinger house, and what’s next?’’ she said.

500 Gravers Ln. was originally built as a home for Joseph Heatly Dulles Allen, the founder of the Enfield Tile and Pottery Works, whose decorative tiles were widely used in the Arts & Crafts movement. For several decades during the mid-20th century, the behemoth served as the St. Agnes Residence for retired Catholic nuns. Neighborhood lore claims that Alfred Hitchcock used the house as a set for an as-yet identified movie or TV show. “It’s part of the historic fabric of Wyndmoor,’’ Salganicoff said.

“It’s part of what used to be Chestnut Hill-Wyndmoor, and it’s a schist home, and a style that reflects the history of the community. And they don’t build them like they used to.”

Salganicoff lobbied for the building’s preservation before the Springfield Township Planning Commission.

“I just asked, is there a way to remove the blight without removing the building?” she said.

Tim Greenwood, a Conservancy board member, wrote a letter to the Local about the impending demolition.

“My letter was a heads up that we all need to be mindful of our historic properties that make Chestnut Hill and Wyndmoor so unique,” he told the Local.

Jeff Harbison, president of the Springfield Township Board of Commissioners, who lives just down the street from the blighted property, said that the township gets a bum rap. He also mentioned, however, that officials had made a “last-ditch effort’’ to save the property when two commissioners met with local neighbors at Chestnut Hill developer Richard Snowden’s house to brainstorm ideas.

“We get kind of bashed for not doing anything,” Harbison said. “When we save them, we don’t seem to get any credit.’’

He offered up as an example the redevelopment of the former Montessori schoolhouse on Willow Grove Avenue, which is being turned into eight luxury apartments, a project that Township commissioners actively backed before the zoning board.

He said the Township is continuing to develop a historic preservation ordinance, with the latest draft expected to be reviewed publicly at the Planning Commission Meeting scheduled this week. (Feb. 19 at 7 p.m.)

But any historic ordinance will be too late for the home Oresta Kusznie Kyzma, 74, grew up in. Kyzyma told the Local that the property had been vacant for about five years before her parents and grandparents bought it jointly.

“It was lovely,’’ said Kyzyma, who lived at the home from the time she was 17 to 70. “There were at least five fireplaces in the house. We never used them because we were always afraid of fires … Our kids were born there.’’

But even Kyzyma, who now rents a home in Dresher with her husband, recognizes that there was no way to save her lifelong home, which had hardwood floors and French doors throughout.

“This is kind of hard to say, because I lived there most of my life, and there are lots of memories, she said. “But the shape that it’s in, after the fire, it’s not like I can have it back the way it was before. Just being reasonable about the whole thing. What can you do?”’

All that’s left to do is raze the building. Once it was decided that there was no saving the house, township officials insisted that it be torn down as soon as possible because of its blight on the neighborhood. “We were hastening it once it was a fait accompli,’’ said Harbison.

The full Springfield Township Commission approved Greenberg’s plans on Oct. 10 for two houses to be developed on the lot on the southeast corner of Stenton and Gravers. The house was supposed to be razed within 120 days of that date, or by Jan. 10, but the discovery of asbestos floor tiles delayed demolition, Harbison said.

Frys, whose home faces the rear of the burned-out house, said he has faith that developer Greenberg will not build a “new monstrosity that looks out of place in the neighborhood.’’

“I see people who want to save the charm of the neighborhood,’’ Frys said. “There’s no doubt the neighborhood is going to change forever once this house comes down.’’