The tossing of Frisbees, baseballs, and footballs on Gest Lawn has long been a staple of springtime on Hawk Hill. The large field at the corners of City and Cardinal Avenues has played host to graduations, concerts, barbeques, and countless student functions for over four decades.

But activities like ball playing were once so condemned on this land that its owner added several feet of serrated concrete block to the existing high stone walls that reached 40 feet, just to keep errant balls from the campus from entering her garden.

Margaret Gest, an accomplished painter, bibliophile and gardener, owned the 10-acre estate that spanned much of what is now an important part of the central campus. The Chapel of Saint Joseph, Science Center, Wolfington Hall, and part of the Campion Student Center are all located on the Gest Estate that the college attempted to acquire in the 1920s and finally obtained in 1965.

This year’s graduation will mark the last on Gest Lawn, as construction is set to begin in April of 2011 for a new first-year residence building. The Gest Lawn name will likely be wiped from the campus map, but vestiges of Margaret Gest will remain—especially in Wolfington Hall, which was once the affluent Gest family’s summer home, “Handsworth.”

John Marshall Gest, a prominent Philadelphia attorney and eventual Orphans Court judge, purchased the Gothic Revival house designed in 1897 by architect William Price, who built many large houses throughout Overbrook and Merion. It was here at Handsworth that Gest’s daughter Margaret was born in 1900 and died in 1965.

Since Saint Joseph’s moved from North Philadelphia to the current City Avenue campus, relations were often contentious between Gest and the college, which made no secret of its intentions to acquire her property, as well as the nine-acre Gerhard Estate at the intersection of Overbrook and Wynnefield Avenues.

Margaret Gest refused to sell the property as long as she lived there, but at the age of 48 agreed to give Saint Joseph’s first option on the property if she ever did decide to sell, or in the event of her death. The agreement stipulated that Gest would be paid $140,000 with $21,000 to be paid upon the signing of the agreement.

Around the same time, the Philadelphia Board of Education seized the adjacent Gerhard Estate through eminent domain to build Samuel Gompers Elementary School on Overbrook Avenue. Saint Joseph’s did manage to obtain five acres of the Gerhard property, which it used to open a series of residence halls.

The increasingly congested campus finally acquired the Gest Estate when, at the age of 65, Margaret Gest succumbed to a heart attack while planting daffodils in her garden.

Gest’s trust fund was eventually left to Haverford College and many of her rare books and art work were left to Beaver College (now Arcadia University). Saint Joseph’s soon tore down the large walls and erected the Science Center, where many of Gest’s early portraits were exhibited in the building’s ground floor.

Saint Joseph’s owns a small collection of Gest’s paintings, and in 1996 hosted an exhibition with a variety of loaned portraits and landscapes that showcased her ability to work with rich texture and color.

Margaret Gest’s works are still accessible for students and art admirers, and her home, now Wolfington Hall, operates as the center for campus ministry.