October 14, 2025
Provided Image/Thomas Donkin
The former family home of builder Robert McElroy, known for his modernist residences in the Philly suburbs, is listed for sale in Willistown, Chester County, for $1.99 million.
From the late 1950s through the 1980s, Robert McElroy designed and built more than 200 custom homes for families in Philadelphia's upscale suburbs. His style adapted California's contemporary aesthetic to the terrain of the Main Line, where his woodsy dwellings were built to blend seamlessly into their natural hillside surroundings.
Now McElroy's most prized property, the Chester County home he built for his family in 1975, is on the market for $1.99 million.
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The three-bedroom McElroy House at 36 Rabbit Run Road in Willistown — just south of Malvern — is a testament to the builder's ideals as a designer. Sitting on 5 acres, the home stands out for its exposed beams, sharp rooflines and floor-to-ceiling glass walls. An enormous bookcase lines the wall next to a spiral, wooden staircase that leads to a loft bedroom and offices. The kitchen and main bathroom also showcase bespoke woodwork, while an another space bathed in natural light long served as an art studio. Every nook and cranny of the 4,348-square-foot home appears steeped in the beauty of the outdoors, making nature a gallery for day-to-day living.
"He was passionate about the fact that where you live can really impact your well-being," said Marian Dinofa, the listing agent for the McElroy House. "If you're living in a house where you feel like you're at one with nature, that can really have an effect on your mental health."
Robert McElroy's custom built family home in Willistown is nestled on a 5-acre property.
A lounge and study in the McElroy House features a spiral staircase with woodwork from Horace Hartshaw, an apprentice of renowned sculptor Wharton Esherick.
The kitchen at the McElroy House in Willistown features more woodwork from Horace Hartshaw.
Above, a living room at the McElroy House in Willistown.
McElroy, who grew up in Drexel Hill and Upper Darby, started his career in Philadelphia repairing row homes in the city. Inspired by Pennsylvania's rolling landscapes, he found his calling as a designer who could bring forward-thinking architecture to life in rugged, secluded spaces that demanded meticulous site planning. He believed homes should interfere as little as possible with their environments.
Despite his talent as a designer and builder, Dinofa said McElroy's name often flies under the radar because he never became a certified architect. He developed a reputation for buying cheap land on sloped terrain, where he would build spec homes in distinctive contemporary and midcentury modern styles.
"I think part of that was out of necessity because he was buying these lots that were sloped and this style tended to make sense," Dinofa said. "You're not just going to plop a colonial house on a big slope."
Sometimes, McElroy temporarily lived in his newly built homes to showcase them to potential buyers. Once he became known for his contemporary style, he earned commissions for dozens of custom-designed houses built in Bryn Mawr, Penn Valley, Strafford, Newtown Square, Conshohocken and in neighborhoods surrounding Valley Forge National Historical Park.
"There are other architects who designed in this style in the Philadelphia area, but I think he would be the most prolific," Dinofa said.
When McElroy designed his own home, he turned to Philadelphia woodworker Horace Hartshaw to help execute his vision. Hartshaw had been an apprentice of acclaimed sculptor and furniture maker Wharton Esherick, whose legacy is celebrated in the Malvern museum that formerly served as Esherick's studio. Hartshaw designed nearly all of the wooden elements of McElroy's family home, treating the commission as a series of sculptures with both functional and artistic purpose.
Above, the main bathroom at the McElroy House.
The main bedroom at the McElroy House is part of the open plan that extends to the second floor.
McElroy's custom homes in the Philadelphia region were often built on hills and other challenging sites.
McElroy died last year at 97, about six months after his wife's death. The couple had lived at the property since 1975 and raised their three daughters there. Anna Maria, McElroy's wife, was a painter who often helped her husband furnish and stage his homes before they were sold. The couple's daughters are now selling the property.
Dinofa, who bought one of McElroy's homes in 2017, said she got to know the builder in his later years during hikes on Valley Forge Mountain.
"It was really interesting because I wanted to talk to him about the houses and get the scoop on what inspired him," she said. "But you could tell that building was a way for him to earn money so that he could pursue his other passions — all kinds of outdoor pursuits. He was a big naturalist."
The McElroy House is one of several notable contemporary and midcentury modern properties in the area that Dinofa highlights on her Philadwellphia website. She's also the agent for a King of Prussia home designed by famed Austrian American architect Richard Neutra. That home, listed for $2.5 million, was built in 1963 as a commission for abstract painter Sarah Coveney-Evans. It's a rare example of one of Neutra's East Coast properties hitting the market.
McElroy homes are easier to find for home buyers set on living in a contemporary-style home. They're known for having main living rooms and bedrooms on the upper floors with more open plans and children's rooms lower down on hillsides.
"At any given moment, there's usually one or two for sale," Dinofa said.
The listing for the McElroy House describes the Chester County property as "a piece of living history" that stands apart from the builder's other commissions in the Philadelphia area.
One of the spaces at the McElroy House is featured as an office and art studio.
Above, a porch swing at the McElroy House in Willistown.
Dinofa notes on her website that many of McElroy's homes have been "lovingly renovated while preserving their contemporary soul."
Among the builder's most notable homes is his Upper Main Line Residence in Devon, a three-bedroom midcentury modern house built in 1968. That property, set on a hillside, contains classic markers of the style — a suspended fireplace, expansive windows and an open floor plan covering 2,100 square feet.
The Upper Main Line Residence was purchased in 2016 and renovated by architect Robert Jamieson, who heads a custom home and commercial design firm in Wayne. Jamieson and his wife, Tami, reimagined the interior of the McElroy property with contemporary touches that included installing wooden floors sourced from a basketball court at a college in Wisconsin.
Another McElroy gem is a five-bedroom home in Newtown Square that has a distinctive stream in the rear of the property, a skylit kitchen and Japanese charred wood siding. That property, built in 1972, last sold for $755,000 in 2021, according to property records on Zillow.
Many owners of McElroy homes are part of a Facebook group that was created years ago to exchange tips on maintenance.
"It started with stuff like, 'Are you guys getting woodpeckers in this wood siding?' Or, 'Are birds flying into your glass over and over?'" Dinofa said. "Now it's just a big fan club for McElroy houses."
As a builder, Dinofa views McElroy's legacy as making contemporary home designs more plentiful in the Philadelphia area and doing so in a way that didn't sacrifice substance for style.
"They hold up well," Dinofa said. "Some architects are almost comically known for cool designs that don't really last. Frank Lloyd Wright is sort of known for houses that commonly leaked. They were gorgeous and they were innovative, but he would also have furniture he designed that was totally uncomfortable for the people living there. I feel like the McElroy designs are solid houses that pass the test of time."
