Kennel complex

Charles Mather was originally Master of the Radnor Hunt and one of the outstanding fox hunting enthusiasts of the country. Partly due to a disagreement with Radnor Hunt’s decision to change their hounds from English to American he purchased William Painter’s farm at auction in 1897 for $15,000 and began his own fox hunting sport on this land. He imported 65 hounds from England and brought mostly descendants from this “canine aristocracy” to his new farm. In general the complex consists of four parts: 1) the Kennelman’s House, 2) an open courtyard, 3) the Kennels, and 4) a stone wall perimeter. Elaborate kennels for the hounds were constructed in 1901 with attached quarters for the Kennelman’s house designed by Philadelphia Architect Charles Barton Keen. The open courtyards and connecting buildings of the Kennels Complex floored with massive stone slabs functioned variously as whelping pens, sleeping rooms, open-air runs, eating rooms, kitchen and infirmary, surrounded by an eight-foot stone wall. So elaborate and well equipped were the Kennels that more than 100 hounds could be accommodated with ease at any one time. The design helped make the Brandywine Meadows Farm one of the finest “English-style” hunting boxes in the east, if not the nation. During the off-season of hunting it was a pleasant sight to see and hear the Mather hounds out for their exercise. The pack was escorted by the huntsman and two “whips” who maintained perfect discipline among the hounds. Mather’s hunt did not observe “social fences.” Anyone interested in fox hunting was welcome to follow the hounds, if they could keep up with the pack. The English hounds were very fast, kept closely bunched together, but did not cry as loudly as the American hounds. When Charles Mather died, his son Gilbert inherited the estate, became Master of the Fox Hounds, and replaced the pack with American hounds that “bay” instead of bark. They did not make as showy a sight as their English cousins, but their “hound music” was more pleasing to the ear. After Gilbert’s death in 1959 he was succeeded by his daughter, Jane, as Master of the Fox Hounds. The Brandywine Hunt moved to new kennels in 1964 along the Brandywine’s west branch to Pocopson Township on the farm of Johnny White, who served the Mathers as Whip and Huntsman for many years. The Kennelman’s House is a one-and-one-half story stone bungalow-style building with an elaborate arched front doorway. The main entrance utilizes a cross-gable roofline attached to a rectangular three -bay one-and-one-half lateral extension. The roof supports three gable- roofed dormers on the front and one on the back. Charles Mather added the Huntsman’s House to the east of the Kennelman's House on Brandywine Meadows Farm about 1920. It is a one-and-one-half story fieldstone house with attached kitchen. Throughout time the house has undergone several modern upgrades both internally and externally, although much of the original fabric of the house is still evident today. The Kennelman’s House originally formed an integrated complex of buildings with the Kennels themselves but aside from a retaining wall forming two sides of a courtyard the balance of the Kennel complex is no longer in existence. Both the Kennelman's House and the Huntsman's House are under the ownership of the Radley Run Country Club and are rented to tenants. The Mather kennels no longer exist, being razed for a new cart barn in 2005 in order to make way for a new, more serviceable structure to house the Club’s golf cart fleet. Carefully follow Country Club Road east to the Springhouse/ Lyehouse ruins at the intersection of General Layfayette Boulevard.