Philadelphia Country Club to Swap Copper Downspouts for Aluminum

The will be allowed to install brown-painted aluminum downspouts in place of the currently required copper downspouts, the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners approved Wednesday.

The 1601 Spring Mill Road country club in Gladwyne is a Class 2 historic resource.

The historical commission on April 26 recommended approval of the half-round gutters and corresponding downspouts. Though it was not the commission's first choice, the cost and exposure to theft of the current copper downspouts led the commission to accept the brown-painted aluminum as a solution.

In the past 12 months, township police have reported copper-downspouts thefts from several other locations in the Bryn Mawr-Gladwyne area:

• 1000 block of Great Springs Road, Villanova (July 11, 2011)
• 300 block of Millbank Road, Bryn Mawr (July 14, 2011)

"It’s a sad move, that we have to move in this direction, but there's been thefts of copper downspouts in Lower Merion," said Commissioner Brian Gordon at the May 9 building and planning committee meeting. "It's really unfortunate that we have to do this because the copper is very beautiful and it's a good part of the historic fabric, but those days are gone."

Patch editor Amanda Mahnke contributed to this report.