When John Henry Bothwell came to Ambler in 1920 to work for Dr. Richard V. Mattison, most of the company homes had already been erected. Of Scottish descent, Bothwell was a native Philadelphian, who had been asked by Mattison to become head architect for the Keasbey & Mattison Company. 

He was not Mattison's first architect though, for Milton Bean, of Lansdale, had been engaged much earlier to design company homes in South Ambler, as well as Lindenwold Terrace, the "Half-Acre" and other locations. Plans for Trinity Memorial Church in 1898 were those of Bean, as were possibly those of the Ambler Opera House in 1890.  It is certain that he designed for Mattison the Lindenwold Castle conversion of 1912, in which the 1890's mansion was "wrapped" in local stone to resemble Windsor Castle. 

Bothwell's education had been received at the Franklin Institute School of Drawing.  He was a member of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He had been employed as an industrial designer for Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company and the American International Ship Corporation.  He was chief draftsman for an architectural firm in Delaware as well as maintaining his own practice. 

At the time of Bothwell's arrival in Ambler, with his wife and daughter Mabel, the company homes on Upper Church Street were already under construction.  Unlike the earlier twin homes on Lower Church Street, with their outhouses, these were single homes with bathrooms.  Intended for  employees a little higher up in the chain of company workers, the first erected was the corner store building and several homes next to the store.  The new architect lived in the uppermost home in this block where the monthly rent paid was $15. 

Bothwell worked on plans for the next group of company homes to be built, the two rows on Renfrew Avenue, with Mattison hinting that not many more would be erected.  He stated that "bad times are a-coming", and wished to end the building operations in preparation for a down-turn in the economy. 

But then soon after, the row on Randolph Avenue was begun.  These would complete almost four hundred employee homes constructed over a period lasting more than thirty years, and were definitely the final homes to be built. 

Perhaps John Bothwell's most challenging project during his time with Mattison was the interior renovation of K&M's Ambler Opera House building. This was brought on directly by the arrival in 1928 of competition from the new Ambler Theater,  built with the purpose of featuring the new motion pictures sweeping the Nation and the civilized World. 

Built in 1890, the Ambler Opera House had a wide, ornately-decorated stage flanked by four boxes.  It had served the Community well for years, and now the popularity of the motion picture, coupled with competition by the new theater, made it absolutely necessary for Doctor Mattison to act.  He summoned his architect to re-design the theater's interior for  the showing of movies.  In so doing, the beauty of the original Opera House was unintentionally lost forever. In addition to this great loss, there are no known surviving photographs showing the fabulous interior of the original Ambler Opera House. 

On arrival in Ambler, Bothwell worked out of an office next to the home of Superintendent William Devine on Farm Lane. Soon after, his office was removed to the third floor of the family's Church Street home, at the top of the row.  

The Bothwell family was well-known for their love of animals, in particular cats. Perhaps most remembered by neighborhood children though was their large rhesus monkey kept in the cellar.  For children on their way to or from Matthias Sheeleigh School, a stop at the cellar window was a must. 

While still residing on Upper Church Street in 1948, Bothwell died at the age of 75 years, and is buried in Mount Peace Cemetery in Philadelphia. 

Note:  Prior to World War II, the writer worked at the K&M Plant Office with Bothwell's daughter Mabel Bothwell Westwood. Later, she gave me two of her father's drawings of the  Ambler Opera House interior renovations of 1929-30.    Unfortunately, after her death, large quantities of his drawings were accidentally discarded from his third floor office.
 

Pencil sketch of architect John Henry Bothwell
by Newton M. Howard.