The Phoenixville Gravestone House

Here's a house I'd like to see:

Phoenixville Man Erects Home from Tombstones1

Phoenixville, Oct. 15. There is little doubt but that one of the strangest houses in the world is being erected in Phoenixville by George A. Detwiler, a local marble and granite dealer.

There are thosands of persons who would never stay in the house even one night and many others wouldn't even pass near it at ngiht.

The reason is that the house is being constructed of marble and granite blocks that have been cut from posts, coping stones, foot stones and step stones from the graves in Morris' cemetery, local burying grounds.

The stones, in many instances, are being cut from ones that Detweiler sold to the various lot owners who, by reason of an order of the board of directors of teh cemetery association, ordered all such stones removed.

The stone in this house would cost about $60,000 in the market.

The builder says he has no fear of ghosts or apparitions coming around to interview him.

 

I will have to see if I can find more about this house and Mr. Detwiler. Ancestry turns up a George A. Detwiler, lives on Nutts Avenue in Phoenixville, was born about 1874 with a wife named Luly and three sons, andhe is a marble and granite dealer. Unfortunately, that's all I can find at this point. I would like to know what the house looked like.

UPDATE: I found an obituary for George who apparently died in 1937. According to the obit, he had lived on Griffin Street.

  • 1. Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/15/1921