Elkins Park palace in precarious state

William Lukens Elkins' old summer estate in Cheltenham is a shell of its former self.

Gone are the lavish furnishings that filled the oil-and-streetcar tycoon's great hall. The works of Dutch and Flemish Old Masters that covered his walls have been replaced by prints. And an aging chandelier now hangs precariously over his elaborate double staircase.

The fact that the property remains intact at all - more than a century after Elkins' death - is something of a miracle, preservationists say. In 2009, a hastily formed nonprofit conservancy bought the Italian Renaissance palace and its surrounding 43 acres - just off Route 611 - for $8.5 million, saving it from those who would carve it up for residential development.

Two years later, that new owner has fallen on hard times.

The Land Conservancy of Elkins Park filed for bankruptcy last year. Questions have emerged over the original real estate deal. And if you ask who exactly owns the Elkins property today, the answer sounds like the setup to a bad joke: An order of Dominican nuns asserts that it rightfully took it back from a group founded by a Hare Krishna charity worker.

The result: One of Philadelphia's last Gilded Age estates could be in danger again.

"How many of these old estates are left in the Philadelphia region?" asked John Gallery, director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia. "The Elkins Estate is a unique remaining example of what used to exist here. And unfortunately, right now, it's caught in the middle."

When David Dobson - a 57-year-old nonprofit manager who had previously grown a small Hare Krishna ministry into one of Philadelphia's largest housing charities - first floated the idea to purchase the Elkins Estate and turn it into a retreat and banquet center in 2009, preservationists hailed him as a hero.

From the marble pillars of its two-story reception hall to the gold-leaf-accented walls of its music room, the estate had retained many of its rich details meticulously planned during its construction in 1896.

It had been intended as a retreat from city life for Elkins, who had clambered his way up from a job as a grocery clerk to become one of Philadelphia's top business and philanthropic moguls. He was integral to the formation of what would become SEPTA and the Philadelphia Gas Works.