Built in 1881 by distiller and financier Henry C. Gibson, Maybrook was his family's beloved home into the 1950s, when another man of fortune, developer and philanthropist John W. Merriam, moved in.
Most neighbors have never seen the 20,000-square-foot castle in their midst, although a glimpse of red-slate roof can be had from a particular spot at the Wynnewood train station on the estate's edge. It is more the notion of Maybrook than the sight of it that has counted to them - all the more as one great manor after another has been carved up for development.
"It's a property a lot of us don't know, but love," said Lower Merion Commissioner Cheryl Gelber, who has lived less than a quarter-mile away for 18 years and has been inside Maybrook's front gate twice.
While its admirers might have wanted Maybrook suspended in time, few doubted that something would change. And it did.
Upon Merriam's death in 1994, his sole heir was his second wife and longtime secretary, Elizabeth Lockyer Merriam, to whom he had been married two years. From her, Maybrook passed to Robert Lockyer, her only child.
In November 2000, just four months before she died, she transferred the property to a corporation he headed. Merloc Partners promptly proposed a vision for Maybrook: 280 apartments in five four-story buildings, 560 parking spaces, a pool, tennis courts, a fitness center. The castle would remain a private home.
Neighbors and preservation groups were aghast. But in March 2002, Lower Merion approved Maybrook's development, with modifications. It called for 250 units in two four-story buildings and a 450-space garage. Five single homes also could be built. The mansion would be turned into two apartments and a limited-use community center with 22 acres of open space.
Today, the "Reserve at Maybrook" still exists on paper only - a hostage in a courtroom war between Lower Merion and Narberth, the borough that abuts the estate's east side.
