Bryn Gweled Homestead was the place where my brothers and I grew up. This was too abstract for me to realize a home would be built here.
850 Locust Street Ste. 311
Philadelphia, PA
19107
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| Tuesday | 10am - 6pm |
| Wednesday | 10am - 6pm |
| Thursday | 10am - 6pm |
| Friday | 10am - 6pm |
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In 2007 there was an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Mario R. Capecchi, a Molecular Geneticist and co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology. His story begins in war torn Italy where the Gestapo separate him from his mother, at 4 years old and he ends up homeless for 5 years. Later, at 9 years old his mother finds him in a hospital. Sarah and Edward Ramburg, initiators of the Bryn Gweled commune in Pennsylvania, sent for him and his mother. Mario and his mother, Lucy Ramburg, join the aunt and uncle in Bryn Gweled. It was Mario's testament on Bryn Gweled that began my rekindling identity with it. The fact that , "It was a marvelous place for children" "People of all races and religious affiliations were welcomed into this community" during the dark years of the Freedom Riders. "There may be lessons to be learned from such experiences for the treatment of child trauma such as Darfur, the Congo and Kenya".
Some of the homes in Bryn Gweled were created by various students of the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright [4] such as Robert Forsythe Bishop and others. The homes are located in fields and forests overlooking hills and creeks of the surrounding countryside and are each on lots greater than 2 acres (8,100 m2). Several of the homes feature organic design principals: unique architectural elements such as heated floors, exposed wooden beams, wide open interior spaces, central fireplaces typical of Usonian homes.
My father, Donald Coles Senior, was a member of the Bryn Gweled community. His career began as an illustrator but morphed into industrial design and technical writing. In the beginning my parents paced off imaginary rooms in knee high weeds where our home would become a reality. Our home was a prime example of organic architecture. The experience of watching our home, from concept to construction, stayed with me for my entire life.
The Ink rendering above was part of a predesign of our future home in Bryn Gweled by Donald Coles senior. I didn’t see this rendering until I was about 14 or 15 years old. This rendering survived a fire at my father’s business in Bucks County. We think the fire was perpetrated by an arsonist.
