Uncharted Lancaster
Uncharted Lancaster reveals the county’s most fascinating stories—local history with odd twists, forgotten places, and the occasional brush with the supernatural. Each episode explores the hidden histories and long-buried secrets of Lancaster County, where legend, landscape, and local lore collide.
Uncharted Lancaster
Roslyn Mansion: A Husband's Gilded Age Birthday Gift
This episode explores Roslyn Mansion, one of Lancaster’s most striking Gilded Age homes and a masterpiece of late Victorian design. Built in 1896 and designed by renowned architect C. Emlen Urban, Roslyn was commissioned by Peter T. Watt, co-founder of the Watt & Shand department store, as a birthday gift for his wife, Laura Watt. With its limestone turrets, Scottish baronial styling, and richly detailed interiors, the mansion was meant to signal wealth, taste, and permanence at the height of Lancaster’s industrial prosperity.
The episode traces the estate's architectural significance alongside the personal history of the Watt family, including memoirs that reveal the financial and emotional strain of maintaining such a grand estate in the early 20th century. It also examines how recent owners rescued Roslyn from decline and restored its historic fabric, ensuring that this historic landmark remains a living part of Lancaster’s architectural story rather than a forgotten relic.
To learn more, visit UnchartedLancaster.com.
Learn about other unique people and places like this when you step off the beaten path with Uncharted Lancaster: Field Guide to the Strange, Storied, and Hidden Places of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by Adam Zurn. This one-of-a-kind 239-page guidebook uncovers 56 fascinating sites, from the county’s very own fountain of youth to the oldest continuously operating short-line railroad in the western hemisphere. Order your copy here.