'A Hill of Unity' opens April 15 at Glencairn Museum

One hundred years ago, the community founded by a Philadelphia congregation of the New Church, a Christian denomination based on the Bible and the writings of 18th-century theologian, philosopher and scientist Emanuel Swedenborg, was incorporated as Bryn Athyn Borough.

To mark the centennial, Glencairn Museum—the former Bryn Athyn home of Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn, one of the founding families—is launching an exhibition, A Hill of Unity: The Founding of Bryn Athyn Borough, that runs Friday, April 15, through Sunday, October 16, in the Museum’s Upper Hall.

Visitors are invited to view the exhibition during a guided Highlights Tour (2:30pm Tuesday through Friday), by appointment or on weekends from 1:00 to 4:30pm when the first floor—including the Great Hall and this exhibition—is open for self-guided touring at no charge. Donations are welcome. To learn more or to schedule a guided tour: 267.502.2990 or tours@glencairnmuseum.org.

The exhibition features artifacts, photographs and documents illustrating the early development of this New Church community from the 1890s, when the congregation and its associated school relocated to the countryside in Huntingdon Valley, to the official incorporation of the Borough in 1916.

Highlights include the Welsh-English dictionary used to create the name “Bryn Athyn”—meaning “hill of unity”—in 1899, as well as original minutes from the community’s Village Association meetings and an early architectural model of Bryn Athyn Cathedral.

Even before the Bryn Athyn site was formally selected in 1891, several families belonging to the Philadelphia congregation had been summering in the area. Industrialist John Pitcairn, who purchased the Knight farm in early 1889, eventually bought enough land to accommodate both the Academy of the New Church schools and homes for New Church families. He built Cairnwood, a home for his own family, in 1895.

As the community grew, members of the congregation established a church building fund to which John Pitcairn contributed a substantial sum in 1908; five years later, ground was broken for Bryn Athyn Cathedral. John’s son, Raymond, was deeply involved in the design and construction of the medieval-style building through its completion in 1928. Bryn Athyn Cathedral, Cairnwood and Glencairn are now part of the Bryn Athyn Historic District, a National Historic Landmark.

IMAGES, courtesy Glencairn Museum:

A section of a 1916 atlas of Montgomery County shows the location of several Bryn Athyn homes and the schools of the Academy of the New Church.

Bryn Athyn children ride in a sleigh in 1914. Glenhurst, one of the earliest homes in the community, is in the background.

Children carry a large flag during the Fourth of July parade in 1916, the year Bryn Athyn was officially incorporated as a borough.