History
The Devon Preparatory School site was originally owned by Philadelphia publisher,[4] art collector,[5] and socialite[6] Charles Matthew Lea, who built his mansion in 1913, which was later to become Calasanctius Hall. Lea, son of historian Henry Charles Lea, inherited his fortune from the Lea & Febiger publishing firm, the oldest publishing company in the United States (1785–1990).[4] The firm's best-known title was the American edition of Gray's Anatomy, which they began publishing in 1859. In 1920, the Lea Family expanded the original 20 acres (8.1 ha) tract on the east side of Valley Forge Road by purchasing an additional 83 acres (34 ha). This consolidated property was known as Westthorpe Farm.
The main entrance to Westthorpe Farm was at the intersection of Conestoga Road, Valley Forge Road, and Hunters Lane, where large stone pillars still stand. Several stone pillars that initially formed a southern fence line remain partially in place along West Conestoga and Upper Gulph Roads. The current entrance to Devon Preparatory School, on Valley Forge Road, was the service entrance to the mansion. An outbuilding from Westthorpe Farm still stands northeast of the intersection of Upper Gulph and Hunters Lane.
The 25-room Westthorpe mansion,[7] designed by Brockie & Hastings,[8] was the home of Charles M. Lea until he died in 1927. His widow, Charlotte Augusta Lea, remained at the mansion until she died in 1945.
The property was then sold to Alexander Shand, a developer who built one of the first post-World War II home developments, known as the Shand Tract, on Steeplechase Road and Hunters Lane. Shand sold the mansion to Joseph Lerner, who had hoped to make it a psychiatric hospital. Because of neighborhood opposition to his project, Lerner sold the property to the Piarist Fathers in 1955.
In 1994, Father James J. Shea became the school's headmaster. He retired on July 31, 2015.[9] In August 2023, the school announced that Father Francisco Aisa would be stepping down as headmaster to return to his home country of Spain. The current headmaster is Father Nelson Henao.
