Fascinating stories hidden in Butler’s historic mansions
Sue Davis grew up in the 1960s and ‘70s on Penn Street, then Fulton Street, in the neighborhood Saturday evening, June 17, showcased by the “Historic Mansions of Butler: A Walking Tour.”
“I knew the houses were there, but they were just big houses,” Davis said after the tour with local historian Bill May. “I had no idea there was so much history.”
Davis nailed the exact reason May created the tour of several mansions on and around North McKean Street in the city, which include tales of fabulous wealth, murder, and associations with famous Americans.
Davis recalled riding the school bus with Undine Phillips, whose grandfather built the magnificent Elm Court, an English Tudor Gothic mansion erected from 1929 to 1931 for $1,000,000 by gas and oil magnate Ben Phillips.
She recalled Undine’s chauffeur driving her to the bus stop every day so she could board the bus.
“She was very nice,” Davis recalled of the last Phillips to live in the huge home.
May corroborated Davis’ story at the entrance to Elm Court, which boasts a tinkling concrete water feature and bespoke wrought iron gates.
As a resident of the neighborhood as a child, May recalled the Phillips’ allowing local children to sled ride, play tennis, and toss a football around on the grounds.
“I knew many of them,” May said of the Phillips family. “You would have never guessed in a million years they were from one of the wealthiest families in the country.
Features of the home, which was sold for $1 million to the late Frederick Koch in 1988, included a scale-model replica of the Titanic made by the doomed ship’s builder, a mantle that came from the English house of the fifth wife of Henry VIII, and a pool’s depth that was increased to 20 feet to render it the shade of blue favored by Koch, who only visited the home a few times per year.
Koch also numbered all the trees on the grand property, and often called Elm Court’s caretakers from his favorite home in Austria with the tree’s number if he noticed on the security system that a branch needed trimming.
He also told his crew that while he loved them, he would fire anyone who damaged one of the $30,000 apple trees in his orchard, May said.
Koch, who died in February 2020, left the mansion and its grounds to a foundation when he died, as he said the modifications required under the Americans with Disabilities Act would spoil the architecture if it were opened to the public, May told the crowd.
Will and Patty Scott, of Fairview Township, also grew up in the 1960s and ‘70s in or near the neighborhood where May’s tour took place.
Will delivered the Butler Eagle to the houses on the tour, and recalls leaving a newspaper at Elm Court each day.
“I’m excited to learn about the houses in my old neighborhood,” he said before the tour.
His wife said the couple, who were childhood sweethearts, moved to Fulton Street after marrying.
“I always thought the houses were beautiful when I was a kid,” Patty said. “I thought (the owners) must be rich.”
May said many of the stately homes were in poor shape when he was a youngster, and one built by a Civil War hero on Fulton Street had been condemned before being rescued by local businessman Bill Adams.
The first stop on the tour was at the home built by Andrew G. “Gomer” Williams, for whom the Butler Post Office was recently renamed.
Williams, who was wounded four times in the Civil War, built the home in 1887, raised four children with his wife, and died in the large, yet cozy structure on the 58th anniversary of Robert E. Lee’s surrender.
The enthusiastic May kept the crowd enthralled with thrilling or heart-wrenching stories about each home, including those connected to Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln and other famous figures.
“It’s amazing,” Marcia McCaw, of Center Township, said of the tour. “I’ve always wondered who built the McKean Street homes and where they got the money, and for a lot of it, we see oil.”
She and her family greatly enjoyed the mansion tour.
“Unless we know where we came from, how do we know where we’re going?” McCaw said.
