Officials to meet to discuss Woodburne Mansion
DARBY BOROUGH » Local historians and consultants are reaching out to former state Rep. Nicholas Micozzie for help in their continued efforts to save a century-old home in Darby borough.
Micozzie will entertain a meeting with interested parties to restore the Wooburne Mansion located on Springfield Road behind the Little Flower Manor complex. The mansion is on a portion of property owned by the county that was purchased in 2016 for open park space.
Representatives from the historical commissions of Darby, Collingdale and Yeadon, University of Pennsylvania Professor Aaron Wunsch and preservation consultant Susanna Barucco are slated to attend with various county-level officials invited.
John Haigis, chair of the Darby Historical Commission, said in a Sunday night email that he hopes Tuesday’s meeting will be a planning session for a future meeting with the larger preservation community. He also hopes to get information about having a structural engineer look at the building and to stop water infiltration from further ruining that building.
“I am hoping for a positive dialog and partly that depends whether anyone from the county shows up,” said Haigis on Monday. “It is their building and they will have to deal with it at some point; perhaps they could use help to do that. It is a multi-faceted issue and the county has a lot on their plate.”
Estimates to renovate the 55-room mansion go as high as $18 million. Haigis had said previously he would like the building to be incorporated into the park space where it will serve as a trailhead for the Darby Creek walking trail.
The meeting will commence at state Rep. Jamie Santora’s Clifton Heights office at 4 p.m.