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A Birthday Gift Built in Stone: The Story of Roslyn Mansion

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    Roslyn Mansion, a Chateauesque-style residence designed by C. Emlen Urban in 1896, photographed along Marietta Avenue by Larry Woods in 2023.

    When my wife turned 38, I bought flowers and took her out for a fancy dinner. When Peter T. Watt celebrated his wife Laura’s thirty-eighth birthday, he commissioned the construction of a massive 9,000 square foot plus mansion by the city’s most famous architect.

    Show off.

    This 1896 gift, standing at the corner of Marietta Avenue and North President Avenue, was an ambitious gesture—both personal and public—meant to mark success, affection, and permanence in stone. Watt had risen from modest beginnings to become one of Lancaster’s most successful merchants as co-owner of Watt & Shand, and Roslyn was meant to say something simple and unmistakable. We. Have. Arrived.

    The name itself carried meaning. “Roslyn” is widely understood to reference Roslin, a village and historic castle site near Edinburgh, Scotland, echoing Watt’s Scottish heritage. Family accounts suggest deeper roots as well, possibly tied to the rural area where Watt was raised in the Orkney Islands. The intent was clear. The name was meant to connect the house to memory, origin, and identity. This was not simply a residence; it was a place meant to anchor a family story.

    Watt entrusted the design to C. Emlen Urban, beginning a professional relationship that would last for decades. Urban was just 31 when he designed Roslyn, but he was already well established as a trusted collaborator. He had shaped Watt’s commercial presence downtown and was now asked to translate success into domestic form.

    Architect C. Emlen Urban

    Urban chose a baronial, Chateauesque style, drawing from Scottish and French precedents rather than English domestic traditions. Roslyn rises two and a half stories above grade and encompasses 9,320 square feet of interior space. Its scale is substantial without being sprawling, relying on vertical mass and careful composition rather than sheer footprint. Six chimneys punctuate the roofline. Turrets anchor the corners. Stepped gables and dormers break the slate roof into a rhythm that feels deliberate and controlled.

    The mansion was constructed of Avondale limestone quarried in Chester County, selected for both durability and appearance. Vermont slate caps the roof, accented by copper finials that once gleamed above the neighborhood. A porte-cochère projects along North President Avenue, allowing carriages—and later automobiles—to pass directly beneath the stone structure. The main pedestrian entrance faces Marietta Avenue, offering a more formal, symmetrical elevation to the street.

    2013 real estate photograph of the Roslyn Mansion interior.

    From the outside, Roslyn appears settled. Even when newly completed, it carried the presence of a house that expected to endure.

    Inside, the craftsmanship confirms that expectation. A central hall rises more than twenty feet, capped by a coffered ceiling and illuminated by a large stained-glass window designed by Rudy Brothers of Pittsburgh.

    In the foyer, opposite the main staircase, one of the home’s seven fireplaces bears the inscription “East-West-Hame’s Best.” The Scottish phrase, a quiet nod to Watt’s heritage, carries a plain sentiment: no matter how far one roams, home is the best place of all.

    This 2013 real estate photograph of the Roslyn Mansion foyer. The carved fireplace mantel bears the Scottish phrase “East-West-Hame’s Best.”

    The fireplaces anchor all the public rooms. The woodwork alone reads like a catalog of American hardwoods: oak, walnut, mahogany, cherry, tiger maple, bird’s-eye maple, birch, and ash—each selected and placed with intention. Pocket doors slide between rooms, their visible veneers carefully matched to the spaces they close, a subtle detail that reveals how deliberately the interiors were conceived.

    The house contains multiple parlors, a formal dining room, a library, a breakfast room, service spaces, and bedrooms arranged across the upper floors. Original bathrooms remain, including clawfoot tubs and marble fixtures. An early service lift connects floors, designed to move supplies and luggage without disturbing the public flow of the house.

    Roslyn was built to impress, but it was also built to function. Servants occupied much of the third floor. Fires were laid daily. Coal was hauled. Meals were prepared in kitchens that, over time, lagged behind the elegance of the public rooms. Like many houses of its scale, Roslyn demanded constant labor to maintain its appearance of ease.

    2013 real estate photograph of the Roslyn Mansion interior.

    As decades passed, the burden of upkeep grew heavier. Family members remained even as tastes shifted and finances tightened. Heating a stone mansion through Pennsylvania winters was no small task. Repairs accumulated. Systems aged. Roslyn endured, but not without strain.

    It was during these later years that one of the house’s unsolved mysteries surfaced. William Heidelbaugh, Peter’s son-in-law, now living in the mansion, was making minor interior adjustments in a bathroom. Suddenly, a hidden panel slid open, revealing a secret compartment. Inside were bottles, dust-covered and long forgotten. No records explained their purpose. No inventory listed them. Heidelbaugh closed the panel, choosing not to investigate. He never told anyone about it at the time.

    The detail lingers not because it demands explanation, but because it reinforces a truth about Roslyn: even a house designed to be seen contained spaces meant to remain private, known only to those who lived within its walls. What other secrets might the house hold?

    Evening photograph from the 2023 Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County fundraiser at Roslyn Mansion.

    Over time, Roslyn passed out of the Watt family and into periods of uncertainty. Like many large historic houses, it faced deferred maintenance, rising costs, and the slow erosion that comes when fashions and fortunes change. Its survival was never guaranteed. That it stands today is the result of sustained effort, investment, and an understanding that preservation is responsibility as much as romance.

    Today, the mansion remains privately owned, its interior glimpsed only on rare occasions. From the sidewalk, it continues to do what it has always done. It holds its ground. Diagonally across the intersection, President James Buchanan’s Wheatland offers a public counterpart to Roslyn’s private reserve. Together, they frame a corner where influence once expressed itself through architecture rather than proclamation.

    Roslyn does not explain itself to passersby. It does not offer tours or plaques. Its scale, materials, and placement do the work quietly. It remains what it was intended to be from the beginning: a birthday gift built to last, one that continues to absorb traffic noise, changing neighborhoods, and passing generations without surrendering its essential character.

    Accessibility Warning

    Roslyn Mansion, located at 1035 Marietta Ave, Lancaster, PA 17603, is a private residence. Viewing should be limited to the street and public sidewalk.

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    Uncharted Lancaster Podcast

    Take an even deeper dive with the Uncharted Lancaster Podcast, which chronicles the history of Roslyn Mansion, the magnificent Châteauesque estate on the edge of Lancaster City.

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    Learn More

    Learn more in Nancy Groff’s 2022 book Watt & Shand: East, West, Hame’s Best. Groff would know because Peter T. Watt was her great-grandfather. Her grandmother was Annie Slater Watt Davis, Peter’s daughter. Copies of Groff’s book can be purchased at https://hptrust.org/product/watt-shand-east-west-hames-best/

    Resources

    Learn More

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