Today we read so much about the elaborate houses being built for the very rich. But during the Gilded Age and Jazz Age they were often even more impressive and staffed with dozens of servants. Usually, the grand living and entertaining spaces are the focus of books and lectures. This talk moves beyond to look at cellars, bathrooms, kitchens, butler pantries, nurseries, and closets. Outside, it examines garages, kennels, stables, gate lodges, sporting facilities, and even private zoos. It draws on examples of great American country, city, and resort houses.

Jeff Groff, now retired, was the Estate Historian at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. He also had served as Director of Public Programs, and then as Director of Interpretation. For sixteen years he was Executive Director of Wyck Historic House and Garden in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. He directed the Osterville Historical Society on Cape Cod, and early in his career was Registrar/Asst. Curator at the Philadelphia Maritime Museum (now Independence Seaport). A graduate of Bates College where he majored in history, he holds an MA from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture of the University of Delaware.

For over forty-five years he has studied and lectured on American country houses and gardens, particularly those of Philadelphia’s “Main Line” and surrounding areas, with an emphasis on country life and sports, and gentleman farming. He has been assisting Chanticleer Garden in Wayne PA in developing an updated house interpretive plan and researching its history.

He served as co-curator of Winterthur’s very successful exhibitions “Costumes of Downton Abbey” and “Costuming The Crown.”

News about the new Tredyffrin Heritage Center at Duportail