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St. Elizabeth's Convent

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1890–1891, Charles M. Burns. 1663 Bristol Pike, Bensalem

The surprising sight of a Spanish mission with red tile roofs overlooking I-95 reflects Katharine Drexel's (now St. Katharine Drexel) work with the native peoples of the Southwest. To acknowledge her interests, as well as her elite social standing as the daughter of late-nineteenth-century plutocrat Anthony J. Drexel, Burns designed a monastic community in the style of the Spanish conquistadors with a square bell tower and a great apsed collegiate chapel. The hammer-beamed hall paralleled the Church of the Saviour that Burns designed for the Episcopalian portion of the Drexel family near their West Philadelphia compound.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas

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