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Historic Houses
When most people think of Philadelphia, they think of the Revolutionary War era. To be sure, the homes of many patriots still survive. The Powel House, where Washington was a frequent guest; the Bishop White House; Dolly Todd Madison’s family home; and the Deshler-Morris House, Washington’s summer White House, let us peek into the hearts, minds and lives of the people who shaped our nation. Cliveden, site of the Battle of Germantown; Wyck House, which served as a hospital during that battle; and Historic Waynesborough, the Paoli home of General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, all miraculously outlasted British assaults. Even the Betsy Ross House and Elfreth’s Alley, the nation’s oldest continuously inhabited street, have been preserved, recalling the lives of the “middling” and “lower sorts,” whose daily labors provided the goods and services that forged America’s future.
But to focus only on that era would overlook a vast portion of Philadelphia’s biography. When William Penn founded Pennsylvania, he envisioned Philadelphia as a “greene country towne.” His own Pennsbury Manor was a sprawling 17th century riverfront estate and today is still a working farm, set amidst lovely grounds and gardens. Pioneering botanist John Bartram’s home and gardens reflects his life as well as his research.
Hope Lodge and the nearby Highlands have preserved the formal gardens that were so important to the upscale lifestyles of their (somewhat eccentric!) owners. And when the young mistress of the mansion in Graeme Park was jilted, we can only hope that she found some consolation in the peaceful parkland surrounding her home.
The tranquility of Fairmount Park attracted some of the city’s wealthiest families who built summer retreats along the banks of the Schuylkill River. Ultimately these mansions in the park -- Mt. Pleasant, Woodford, Cedar Grove, Lemon Hill, Laurel Hill, Sweetbriar and Strawberry Mansion -- would serve as more than escapes from the summer heat. Their just-far-enough-from-the city location protected their owners from various plagues and epidemics that wiped out vast numbers of the city’s residents.
Instead of muskets, the Industrial Revolution was marked by mechanization. And like the nation’s first revolution, it changed the way we lived. Mass-production enabled even lower- and middle-class Philadelphians to indulge in the over-the-top architecture and décor of the Victorian era. The Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion and the Grange Estate preserve the curlicues and furbelows that defined 19th century design and highlight the disparity between upstairs gentry and downstairs servants.
Creativity bubbles up from the environment that surrounds it. Science. Literature. Theatre. Music. Philadelphia has long been an incubator for innovative thought. Genius ran through generations of the Wister family -- Daniel Wister, astronomer, botanist and chemist; Owen Wister, author of “The Virginian;” and Sally Wister, diarist -- and accounts of the family’s many accomplishments are retold at Grumblethorpe, the John Wister’s pre-colonial home.
Edgar Allen
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