Bensalem Country Club Mansion Planned As 'Destination'

BENSALEM TOWNSHIP, PA —Township officials hope that the mansion on the grounds of the Bensalem Township Country Club will one day be filled with memories of generations to come.

Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo said a restoration project has begun to "preserve and restore" the mansion." The scaffolding went up Monday.

In an interview with Patch Tuesday morning, DiGirolamo said the township has big plans for the mansion's future.

"This is a very big project that's long overdue," he said.

The mayor said stucco and chimneys and the roof of the mansion will be replaced in a project that will cost "hundreds of thousands."

He also said that the building's exterior will be painted along with the gazebo.

The township purchased the country club at 2000 Brown Avenue in 2006 for $12 million in a court-awarded deal in which the mayor said the owner took the township to court.

The township recently hired a manager, Michelle Miller, to run the country club's catering operation.

"We hope catering will run much better now," he said. "There are a lot of opportunities."

But the first step is the exterior work.

The mayor said that the work could take eight or nine months to complete.

The Bensalem Republicans posted on its Facebook page that "another piece of Bensalem's history is being saved."

The mansion of the Standish Forde Hansell Estate, built in the 1880s, served as the farmhouse for four generations of Standish Forde Hansell's family, who farmed the land up to 1950s, after which time Hansell established the original Cornwells Golf Club on the land, the group said.

The golf course was at risk of being sold to developers in the early 2000s.

Bensalem Republicans said that it is now a public recreation facility, and that 144 acres of permanent open space in the Cornwells Heights and Eddington areas of the township are preserved.

DiGirolamo sees the country club serving as a "beautiful setting" for weddings and other events such as cocktail parties. He said weddings could be held outside with the reception following indoors.

"We want the country club to become a destination," he said. "It's exciting to me. But it's going to take a long time and a lot of money."