Rosemont College circa 1920s

In the summer of 1921, the Society of the Holy Child acquired Rathalla, the country estate of Joseph Sinnott, to serve as the campus for Rosemont College. In 1854, at the age of seventeen, Joseph Sinnott left Ireland for the United States. Sinnott found work as a bookkeeper first for an import export house and then in the whiskey distilling business of John Gibson. From 1856 to 1888, Sinnott steadily rose through the ranks until he became the sole owner of the firm upon Gibson’s death.

1852 advertisement from Philadelphia As It is (1852)

In 1863, Sinnott married Annie Eliza Rogers. Mrs. Sinnott’s parents, Clayton Brown Rogers and Eliza Coffin Rogers, were Quakers from Mount Holly, New Jersey. Mr. Rogers trained as a pharmacist and owned a drug store in New Jersey, but in 1850s he began selling agricultural and horticultural merchandise in Philadelphia where the family relocated.

From Annals of the Sinnott, Rogers, Coffin, Corlies, Reeves, Bodine and allied families

In 1889, Sinnott commissioned the architectural firm of Hazlehurst and Huckel to build a chateauesque mansion on Philadelphia’s Main Line. Rathalla was completed in 1891. The Sinnotts established a greenhouse and hired Gordon Smirl, a prize winning gardener previously employed by William. M. Singerly, publisher of the Philadelphia Record. Over the next twenty three years, the Sinnott greenhouses enjoyed an enviable winning streak at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s annual chrysanthemum competitions.

From McLean Library Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

In the latter quarter of the nineteenth century, the chrysanthemum became something of a “a modern craze” due to its prominence in European gardening and the popularity of chinoiserie and japonisme. Chrysanthemums dominated the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s autumn exhibitions, which were both quite the scene and the place to be seen.

From Elliot’s 1894 Catalogue

In 1894, Sinnott and Smirl took the $100 prize for the best ten plants of ten different varieties. Publications aimed at the garden trade often advertised such exhibition collections as chrysanthemum shows became popular across the nation. An 1894 catalog contains three of the Sinnott and Smirl winning varieties, ‘Good Gracious,’ ‘Ostrich Plume’ and ‘Gettysburg.’ Smirl and Sinnott’s flowers also reflect the role of Philadelphia in the cultivation of chrysanthemums. ‘Mrs. Robert Craig’ was bred by her husband, a prominent horticulturalist. Philadelphia became such a hub of chrysanthemum development that Hosea Waterer, scion of a very successful English gardening family, established a branch of the business in Philadelphia following a visit to the city for the Centennial. Waterer created the ‘Minnie Wanamaker.’ Smirl and the Sinnotts also played a role in the establishment of new varieties. Mrs. Sinnott endowed a prize for the best “display of three plants, three new varieties.” Smirl won this prize in 1902. Smirl also developed the ‘Mrs. Joseph Sinnott’ described as “A fine exhibition flower with perfect stem and foliage. Color, rosy purple with light pink reverse.” 

From The American Florist, July 24, 1909, p. 1320

Mrs. Sinnott scaled back her greenhouse after the death of Joseph Sinnott in 1906. Unwilling to work on a smaller scale, Smirl resigned before the fall show in 1908. A second gardener, David Ingram, began working for Mrs. Sinnott. A report in Horticulture magazine noted, “David Ingram of Sinnott’s was the great surprise of the show in the big specimen plants. He came in unexpectedly at the eleventh hour and carried off firsts.”

The Weekly Florists’ Review, December 5, 1907

In addition to continuing the Sinnott winning streak, Ingram also branched out into the cultivation of cut flowers for exhibition. In 1911, Sinnott and Ingram took a second in “best vase of five blooms of Colonel D. Appleton” and a first in “best six blooms of variety” The technique for cultivating large blossoms differed from the methods Smirl used to grow specimen plants. All buds except the last one on each branch are cut off to allow a single blossom to reach the largest possible size. One catalogue boasted that the ‘Appleton’ could produce flowers twenty-two inches in circumference.

Philadelphia Inquirer, February 5, 1923, p. 4

The legacy of the gardens of Rathalla continue at Rosemont College today as we are reviving the greenhouse to propagate native perennial plants. To contribute to our horticultural heritage please visit https://rosemont.edu/college/office/advancement/giving/