The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 353

Sunday, Jan, 31,. 1988 The Philadelphia Inquirer 5-CC REAL ESTATE Townhouses planned near Autun mansion sir" Spacial to Tin Inquirer J. MICHAEL McDYRE The West Whiteland mansion, covered in snow. The house would be divided into two units, and townhouses would be built to its north. By Wendy Walker Special to The Inquirer When ihey married in the mid-19208, Benjamin Rush and his wife didn't want to live in a traditional Chester County farmhouse.

So In 1928, they built a replica of a 19th-century French chateau and called it Autun. Now known as Mea-dowcourt, the East Boot Road mansion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the site of a proposed townhouse development. Plans were submitted to the West. Whiteland Planning Commission in early January. According to the plans, introduced by the KAT Partnership of Exton, the mansion would be divided into two units, and several townhouses would be built north of the house.

Diane Snyder of the West Whiteland Historical Commission said she wanted the townhouses to be built as far as possible from the house, and Planning Commission members said they were concerned about preserving the trees and shrubs on the grounds. The L-shaped house faces Boot Road across a terrace and broad lawn; its sloped slate roof and two high chimneys are barely visible from the road behind a row of trees. Concord grapes (delicious, according to a current tenant, Kit Stewart) grow on gnarled vines across the front of the house, just above five French double doors and below five dormer windows. A narrow, curved driveway leads from Boot Road to a cul-de-sac behind the house. The main entrance, at the end of a brick walkway at the back of the house, leads into a large hall paved with white marble blocks taken from the Hotel Colonnade on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia during its demolition.

To the left is a spiral staircase, carpeted in blue and flanked by a suit of armor. Beyond is a long formal dining room, decorated with original linen-backed wallpaper whose birds, ducks and flowers were hand-painted in China. Off the dining room, banks of glass-fronted cabinets line the pantry, which leads into the modernized kitchen and laundry. (Other than the kitchen remodeling, no structural changes have been made to the house since it was built, according to documents filed in 1982, when the house was submitted for inclusion on the National Register.) A narrow service stairway leads from the kitchen and laundry room to what were the servants' quarters on the second floor. An intercom box, designed to let the servants know which room they were needed in downstairs, remains prominently hung in the hallway of the servants' quarters.

Most of the first floor is occupied by the study, which features floor-to-ceiling bookcases and panelling, three French doors and a hardwood floor. Two sections of bookcases flanking the working fireplace have mechanisms that swing open, revealing secret passageways leading into the next room. On the second floor are four bedrooms, two fireplaces (there are seven in the entire house), three i Le. to Neighbors Kudos and clarifications To the Editor: Thanks to Chris Johnson for her interest in the Chester County judicial system as evidenced in her article in Neighbors on Jan. 17.

Two clarifications may be in order, however. To the extent that it may be implied that I represent Chester County Children and Youth Services or the Chester County Solid Waste Authority, I must indicate that CYS is ably represented by Rita Borzillo, and by the law firm of Lamb, Windle McErlane; Jim McErlane ably represents the Chester County Solid Waste Authority. My reference had been to the fact that I assisted in a project to streamline Juvenile Dependency Court and have been hearing counsel for special committees of the CCSWA. I have also served as hearing counsel for the Chester County Board of Assessment Appeals for the last six years and have been a civil litigator for approximately 11 years. Janet M.

Colliton West Chester Neighbors welcomes brief letters about local matters. Writers must sign their names for publication, and each must give an address and a telephone number through which the letter can be verified, although neither the address nor the telephone number wiH be published. The Inquirer reserves the right to condense. Send letters to Neighbors, The Inquirer. Room 303, 10 Church West Chester, Pa.

19380. ter the tenants of the mansion, built as a replica of a French chateau. christ in 1924 received a medal for "most meritorious work" from the Philadelphia chapter of the American Institute of Architects. One of Gilchrist's trademarks which he used in Autun was the mixture of rounded and peaked dormers. The two end dormers on the front of the house have rounded tops with fancy brickwork, while the central three have peaks.

The Real estate section continues on Page 23. Kit Stewart, a musician, is among bathrooms, a sitting room and several skylights. Above is an attic. The original brass plumbing remains in the basement. Bordering the property are European linden trees, imported by Mrs.

Rush; they required skilled pruning twice a year. Across Boot Road from Autun is the house of the parents of Benjamin Rush, who made his money as an insurance executive. That house was built in the Colonial revival style by George Page in 1908. The Devereux Foundation now owns both the senior Rushes' house and a gatehouse to Autun that is at the end of the driveway, Autun was owned for 20 years by the Rushes, after which it was bought by Silvio and Frances Pietrin-ferni, who now live in Uwchlan. Mar-cia Green, who lives in south Florida, purchased the house in the early 1980s, and now Stewart (a musician who used to own West Chester's Gay Street Vendor) and several other tenants occupy it.

Autun was designed by Edmund Beaman Gilchrist of Philadelphia, who had just returned from France when he received the commission from the Rushes, according to Snyder. Born in Germantown and educated in the Philadelphia area, Gil-.