Born and raised in Drexel Hill and Upper Darby, McElroy began his career in the mid-1950s repairing Philadelphia row houses. By the late 1950s he was building custom contemporary homes, and over the next two decades he built more than 200 of them along the Main Line and on Valley Forge Mountain.
Building into the hill
Where other builders avoided steep, wooded lots, McElroy sought them out. He blended California contemporary ideas with the character of the Northeast: low-slung rooflines, floor-to-ceiling glass, vaulted ceilings with exposed beams, and open plans that let light and the outdoors run through the house.
The Felton years
In the early 1970s McElroy partnered with Bill Felton Sr. of Western Contemporary Homes on projects in Penn Valley and Gladwyne, and Felton often built McElroy's designs until his death in 1994. Each house was shaped around its owners, with extended garages, sculptural lofts, spiral staircases, larger dining rooms and, on some, reclaimed brick.
A family of makers
McElroy and his wife, Annamaria, a painter, sculptor and potter, raised three daughters. In 1970 the Philadelphia Sunday Bulletin Magazine featured the spec house on Valley Forge Mountain where the family lived for a time. In 1975 he built their permanent home in Malvern, the most personal house he made.
