So for $275,000, in an area where land can sell for upward of $100,000 an acre, Grossman has a three-acre building site, overlooking the Open Land Conservancy of Chester County property and wooded acreage that looks as unspoiled as when George Washington trooped by.
That original ranch house - an acceptable home to most folks - became a ''tear-down" in the vernacular of the real estate industry.
Tear-downs occur when building lots become scarce and the price of land so valuable that it makes sense to buy a house on a superior lot and raze it.
Builders in the pricey Main Line suburbs, especially Lower Merion Township, are following the lead of areas such as Beverly Hills and Bel Air, Calif.; Washington, D.C., and Long Beach Island, N.J., in recycling building lots and reaping the profits.
"It has to happen because building lots are tough to get," said Jim Kolea, who with his brother John has created a construction company, Matsonford Enterprises Corp., in West Conshohocken. The company evolved from the home-improvement business they began in 1972.
The Koleas recently paid $550,000 for a stone ranch and Cape Cod-style home on Rock Creek Road in Gladwyne and have begun extensive additions and renovations.
"We started tearing it apart - new kitchen, new bathroom," Jim Kolea said. "Pretty soon the whole second floor was wiped out. In stages we brought the whole house down."
They were able to use part of the original foundation and retained the slate patio and swimming pool, which was only a few years old. But other than that, the house is new - a three-story French-style Colonial house similar to others the Koleas have conceived and built with their construction crews.
