Art collector Samuel Bancroft built four attached studios for illustrators studying with Howard Pyle. The architecture is simplified Tudor Revival, with half-timbering, by the leading Wilmington architect of the day. Each studio has a big brick chimney against an end wall. Among the first four tenants were Schoonover and Wyeth, paying $17.50 a month. Wyeth stayed just two years (1906–1908) before moving to Chadds Ford, but Schoonover—illustrator of more than 150 books—remained for decades and bought all four studios in 1970, two years before his death. Architect Richard Chalfant then bought the place, planning to redevelop it, but neighbors convinced him to undertake a restoration instead. He sold the refurbished studios to artists, and today, Schoonover's grandson runs a gallery here. The entire facility was restored again in the late twentieth century by Design Collaborative.
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Frank E. Schoonover Studios
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