Wiring cause of Sugarloaf fire

by KATIE WORRALL

Wyncliffe House, the Victorian Gothic building at Sugarloaf Conference Center, was destroyed by fire in the early morning hours of December 12. The building was unoccupied and there were no injuries, according to Harriet Goodheart, director of public relations at Temple University, which owns the facility.

The fire, which started at about 12:30 a.m., heavily damaged the building and caused the roof to collapse. At noontime on Friday, firefighters were still at the scene pouring water on hot spots and the smell of smoke was still in the air. The Philadelphia fire marshal’s office said that an electrical fire started in the first floor ceiling and extended to the second and third floors.

Mark McGrath, who is in charge of the buildings and grounds at the center at Germantown Avenue and Bell’s Mill Road, said that a call to 911 was made by a fire department medical rescue worker who was at Chestnut Hill Hospital, where he smelled smoke.

McGrath, who lives on the Sugarloaf property, got a call from Jennifer and Brien Tilley, who live on a Bell’s Mill Road, offering him and his wife a place to stay. Jennifer saw 20- to 30-foot high flames. Brien said that sparks flew across Bell’s Mill Road toward their yard. Brien and Jennifer said that it was lucky that it had rained earlier and that the wind was blowing toward Chestnut Hill, or the fire would have spread through the Wissahickon Valley.

Another near neighbor saw billows of flames and after water began pouring down, clouds of smoke wafting from the building.

On Friday, McGrath was directing traffic to the Greenfield House, another building at Sugarloaf. With the firefighters at work outside the building, McGrath guided caterers’ trucks as they backed up the driveway to the Greenfield House, where guests were arriving for the Children’s Aid Society holiday party. McGrath said that one event scheduled for Friday evening, hosted by Temple’s cardiology department, was relocated from Wyncliffe House to the Greenfield House.

Glenn Ehly, a Temple University police officer who was keeping onlookers at a distance from the building, said that university officials were at the scene to look at whether the building can be rebuilt or if it will need to razed. Ehly, who recalls attending a seminar at Wyncliffe House, said that the building is irreplaceable.

The three-story stone structure was built in 1875 by Joseph F. Page. A 1983 Chestnut Hill Local article states that modern conveniences such as plumbing, an elevator and central heating were added in 1925, and that it was renovated again that year. The building was part of the 40-acre Sugarloaf estate given to Temple University by the Albert M. Greenfield Foundation in 1969.