In the video above, Herman Rademacher talks about the LuShan estate and the family who lived at the property at Old Chester Road and US Route 206. He mentions Lila Hotz Luce Tyng because the ornate chairs shown in the postcard’s image above are from her sitting room.  Lila had married Henry Robinson Luce (founder of the Time magazine empire) in 1923, and they built the LuShan estate 10 years later. Luce never lived at the estate, and the two divorced in 1935.

Herman and his father worked on the estate installing irrigation pipes with spigots every 50 feet so that Lila could water her flowers all the way from the mansion down to the farm.

The image shows two very colorfully upholstered and ornately designed wood chairs with a matching wood table between them. They all sit on a slate tiled floor with a trompe l’oeil painting on the wall behind them. The painting uses forced perspective to give the illusion of being in a very fancy garden with manicured shrubbery, marble sculptures, and a long rectangular pool.

Video transcription available here: LuShan Farm Video Transcription.

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Exhibit Publication Date: Published in 2015. ©Copyright Chester Public Library