418 MILL CREEK RD

Mill Creek Road gives way to a private lane and a custom residence with French character on three-quarters of an acre in Gladwyne, where the view carries out over the treetops. European in its details, modern in its comforts.

A climbing hydrangea wraps the front door in green and, in early summer, white blooms, so the arrival feels like a discovery. Beneath it, a grand double-door entrance of leaded glass opens to a two-story foyer designed for entertaining, with stone floors, arched niches, a bar, and an iron stair rising to an open gallery.

Across the main level, tall windows, two skylights, and French doors keep the rooms full of daylight and garden views.

In winter, life gathers around three fireplaces. The living room, long enough for a grand piano at the garden end, has one in polished stone. In the skylit family room, another sits between lighted bookcases. The third anchors the great room, where a 12-foot ceiling gives generous volume to games, films, and large gatherings, and tall arched and transom windows surround a stone fireplace rising the full height of the wall.

The kitchen centers on a large island under a skylight, with a farmhouse sink, a Viking refrigerator, double wall ovens, and a breakfast area looking into the trees.

The main suite is a suite in the full sense: a bedroom overlooking the garden, an adjoining study, generous closets, and two full baths, one for each of you. One is finished in marble, with a frameless glass shower and rain head. A second bedroom is nearby. Upstairs are three more bedrooms, one with its own bath and two sharing a renovated Jack-and-Jill bath.

Nearly every main room opens to the rear flagstone terrace, and in summer, dinner moves outside. Just off the terrace, a water feature murmurs among perennials, ferns, mature trees, and stone walls.

For all its privacy, it's close to Gladwyne Village, Suburban Square, regional rail, and the Schuylkill Expressway and Blue Route to Center City and King of Prussia. Lower Merion School District.