Before it was St. Mary's Villa, the castle and grounds was the home of Dr. Mattison, a big time indusrialist who set up factorys in Ambler. In the beginning of the movie when the bus is entering the grounds, you'll see a huge lake which is man-made and named Loch Linden by Dr. Mattison. Look closely and you'll see a big beautiful statue of an angel in the center of the lake. The exotic statues of sphinxes and asian lions were put there by Mattison and are still there, and so is the little stone gazebo facing the lake, but the last time I saw it the statue of Jesus was missing from it. Also on the property is a huge rectangular garden recesed into the ground shaped like a pool. Story has it that Dr. Mattison's daughter drowned there so he had it drained and made into a rose garden which, from what I remember, has a big statue of the Virgin Mary in it. There is also a big black metal staute of a raven in front of the castle, which I always thought as a kid to be kind of creepy and wondered why it was in front of a Catholic institution, but of course, it was put there by Mattison, with his taste for the exotic. If you look closely in the movie you can see it in some scenes. From what I was told, Mattison grew up in England and as a child always dreamed of having a big castle to live in, like the ones he saw around his town. On Highland avenue, adjacent to the estate, there used to be a huge quarry hole in the ground, which is where i was told the stone for the castle and some of the houses in town came from. Since then, it has been filled in and a park put on it's site. Around St. Mary's Villa today you'll see a lot of big old victorian homes. They where built for Mattison's family members and chief executives in his company. The really big home across the street next to the church belonged to Mattison's son.
Across the street there used to be a huge and beautiful cathedral which was the Trinity Episcopal Church which Dr. Mattison had financed the construction of. When the congregation asked how much in payment they owed him, Mattison said only one red rose per year, in honor of his daughter who drowned. Unfortunitly the church burned down in 1986 due to an electrical problem. A new modern version of the church sits on the sight today.
I hope I have most of the facts straight, most of it was told to me by my dad.
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CherylLandis
17 years ago
Thanks Vince and everyone for the wonderful details/memories of St. Mary's Villa. I enjoyed reading about them and the person who originally owned the home.
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vincebruno11
17 years ago
You're very welcome Cheryl! If you go to www.amblermainstreet.org theres more info on the town and a history section with some interesting stories and pictures.
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lnoft97
17 years ago
So beautiful, and so sad that something like that can't be preserved. (I suppose some day it'll be razed to make room for strip malls and McMansions, a real shame.)....That's one of the reasons this movie has stayed in my mind for, oh, decades. Even when I saw it at age 15, I was so impressed by the beauty of the setting. Oh, how I wished I could have gone to that school and avoided my whole miserable ordinary high school years.....
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