Glencairn, built between 1928 and 1939 and completed in 1939, was the home of Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn and their children, devoted members of the New Church congregation in Bryn Athyn, and now serves as a museum of religious art and history. It is a contributing building in the Bryn Athyn Historic District, a National Historic Landmark recognized in 2008, and is part of a historic district of nationally significant buildings in Beaux Arts and Arts and Crafts styles set in a rural landscape. Glencairn's distinctive designs, symbolism, and building materials represent achievement of the highest national order, and its design evolved gradually through the use of scale and full-sized plaster models rather than predetermined architectural plans, with craftsmen contributing creatively alongside designers in on-site workshops and studios. Its museum collection presents religious life through the ages in galleries of ancient Egyptian, ancient Greek and Roman, medieval Christian, Islamic, Asian, and American Indian art and history. The Bryn Athyn Historic District also includes Bryn Athyn Cathedral, dedicated in 1919, Cairnwood, a 19th century Beaux-Arts country house built by John and Gertrude Pitcairn, and other Pitcairn family residences, within a religious community founded in the late 19th century by members of the New Church.
