The Elms

Berwind's summer home certainly met the qualifications to be a palace, with a sweeping marble staircase and towering columns capped with ornate gilded moldings.

The ballroom (figure A), which held up to 800 guests, was the most important room during the summer social season and was also the place where the French style was most pronounced. The large doors of the room (figure B) led to the French salon, which was tastefully decorated with period pieces.

Berwind also filled The Elms with paintings by 18th-century European masters (figure C). The dining room, which broke with the Louis-the-XV theme, was decorated in the Italian Renaissance style (figure D) and features a gilded stucco ceiling. The room also serves as a showcase for two grand-scale paintings that the Berwinds had imported from Venice.

Outdoors, the mansion's 14 acres of manicured lawns, marble statues and weeping birch trees provide a beautiful place to spend a warm summer evening.