The mystery building in the photo posted on Monday is in fact the Royal Bank building on the northwest corner of Lancaster Avenue and Spring Mill Road. Formerly the gate house of the estate called Ashwood Manor, built for the DaCosta family, the recognizable building has been used for commercial purposes for many years. The image accompanying this post shows the west side of the building in the mid-20th century, around the time the larger Ashwood mansion was demolished. The building's entry has some inscriptions: "1892" (the date of Ashwood Manor's construction), and "DaC," an abbreviation of DaCosta. Before becoming a bank, it was used as a local Red Cross headquarters.
The building is currently available for lease, undoubtedly a unique opportunity for a business to occupy one of the greatest surviving examples of Main Line estate architecture. It is an incredibly intact example of the unparalleled time when the Main Line first flourished, and deserves the highest standards of preservation in whatever its future use may be.
-Greg Prichard, Radnor Historical Society
