George Horace Lorimer, II

Preserve Highlight: George Lorimer Preserve At 87.8 acres, George Lorimer is the largest and most frequently visited of the Conservancy's preserves for walking, jogging and birding in a beautiful rural setting. The main entrance to the Preserve is from the parking lot on North Valley Road, just north of Swedesford Road and past the historic Great Valley Mill. Local neighbors have convenient access to over 3 miles of trails from Minden Lane, Hawkweed Way (Summerhill) and LeBoutillier Road.

Lorimer Trail Malvern, PA 19355
40.067881, -75.491275

The George Lorimer Nature Preserve

is the second largest protected area with 70 acres on North Valley Road (Paoli, PA). Graeme and Sarah Lorimer donated the land in 1980 in memory of their son, George, who died in a car crash in 1979.

Earlier this month, Toland announced that the family has subdivided several more lots on the property and will give an additional 17 acres to the conservancy before 1990.

"The Lorimer Preserve is a beautiful piece of land with a stream and two ponds in a limestone valley," Toland said. "It's a wonderful location between two ridges and was farmed until recently. It also has an interesting history because it is an original William Penn land-grant property."

The Lorimer Farm on Le Boutillier Road was built in 1789. A deed signed by Benjamin Franklin still hangs in the foyer of the white, 20-room main house that overlooks the valley.

Niccolo Lorimer, the 29-year-old son of George Lorimer, lives with his wife and several of his 11 siblings in the original house. In a recent interview he said his family was very "environmental" in its outlook.

Lorimer said that in setting up the preserve, his grandparents captured his father's spirit.

"He loved the land and life and they loved their son and wanted to do something special in his memory," Lorimer said. "The preserve is a permanent way to remember him.

"My grandmother feels that one day this will be the only farm left in the valley that was actually laid out by William Penn," he said. "She is very interested in preserving the land as it once was."

The main entrance to the Preserve is from the parking lot on North Valley Road, just north of Swedesford Road and past the historic Great Valley Mill. Local neighbors have convenient access to over 3 miles of trails from Minden Lane, Hawkweed Way (Summerhill) and LeBoutillier Road

https://tehistory.org/hqda/html/v29/v29n3p123.html

One of the nicest things that has happened to us was when Mr. and Mrs. Graeme Lorimer -- his father was the editor who developed The Saturday Evening Post and made it into the great magazine that it was -- decided that they wanted to give us some land. Their son was killed in Europe, and they were broken-hearted. To lift them out of their despondency they decided they would like to give a part of their farm, Magnet Stone Farm off LeBoutillier Road, to the Conservancy, and in 1980 they gave us 54 acres in memory of their son George. They did not want it to look like a park, with a large plaque or monument, so on a rock that was there they simply had sandblasted "To George, who loved this land, from those who loved him".

family connections

The Lorimer and the Wildman families lived quite near each other in the Great Valley, Tredyfferin township, Chester co., PA They are blood relatives through the Hunter family name. State Sen. Theodore Lane Bean married a Hunter. In April 1937 bean spoke before an assemblage of Republican women at the Hannah Penn House in Philadelphia. This organization was then headed by Mrs. Alma V. Lorimer who is related to Sen. Bean as follows:

Theodore Lane Bean is Alma Viola Lorimer (Ennis)'s son's wife's aunt's husband: Alma Viola Lorimer (Ennis)→ Graeme Lorimer, her son → Sarah Lorimer (Moss), his wife → Rebecca Anna Moss (Hunter), her mother → Sarah Albertson Bean (Hunter), her sister → Theodore Lane Bean, her husband

This is a rather tenuous connection, but for this profile's generation, let it be remarked that the Wildmans and the Lorimers are both of the <Hunter> line, that is descendants of P. Frank Hunter of the PA. Railroad and J. Morton Albertson, banker of Norristown.