18th Century Scions
The story of Fairmount Park begins on top of the bluff overlooking the Schuylkill River where the museum of art now stands[1], the same place where William Penn once remarked of the same location “what a ‘Faire Mount’” it seemed to him. From then on, the phrase apparently stuck and the locale was first mentioned topographically in a 1682 map created by Captain Thomas Holme, the first surveyor general of Philadelphia[2]. While Penn had originally envisioned “Faire Mounte” to be a site for an estate which would overlook the city of Philadelphia and water traffic along the Schuylkill, the site was not eventually chosen as Penn’s estate; however, much of the woodland surrounding the Schuylkill river basin around the mount (which Penn had deemed even “fairer” than parks in London) would be preserved to create one of the few remaining places on the eastern seaboard where native arboreal specimens from pre-colonial times still exist[3]. The abundance of natural growth in the area then attracted a number of aristocrats to build residencies in “Faire Mounte” in the 18th century[4], who were probably attracted by the local topography’s suitability as a dwelling place to replicate the hunting and fishing grounds of manor houses in the Old World.
The domestication of the park as an aristocratic dwelling place in the 18th century created a cultural and socioeconomic hub which drew a variety of “silversmiths, cabinet makers, and iron workers”[5] who were all involved in the everyday world of the neighborhood as working craftsman. However, the natural setting also attracted plenty of visitors to the location, who were drawn by the scenery and the Edenic plentitude of swimming, fishing and hunting grounds. As the city of Philadelphia grew to become the largest city in North America and the second largest in the English speaking world, the residences of Fairmount and the Schuylkill banks came to be known to visitors who frequent the place as “hillers”[6]- occupants of a natural hinterland which was shielded from the city but nevertheless remained inextricably tied to the growing bustle of urban colonial life.
One of the interesting details about the settlement of estates along the Schuylkill was that their residents were often Anglican as opposed to Quaker[7] and proceeded to Anglicize the name of the river Skokill to “Schuylkill” upon inhabiting large lengths of the river up to Manayunk. The architectural style of many riverside estates later incorporated into Fairmount were either Georgian if built before 1775, like Mount Pleasant[8], or Federalist, like Lemon Hill and Lansdowne[9]. Because Philadelphia was architecturally and culturally the most sophisticated city in the colonies and was known as a city of “estates”, the Carpenters’ Company (the first major colonial builders’ organization) was established to handle estate construction demand in 1724 and many craftsmen were among the first commoners to regularly visit the banks of the Schuylkill[10]. The explosion of botanical gardens on estates along the Schuylkill (detailed in the previous section of the website) also led to a unique regional aesthetic culture that focused on drawing and illustrating local plant life; William Russell Birch, an early landscape designer and painter, commonly frequently other estates and produced numerous circulations of prints of estate gardens[11]. Paintings and drawings of natural flora quickly became an accepted aesthetic form among Quakers in Philadelphia.
Of the Fairmount estates, Lemon Hill has previously been mentioned as the most visible in the public eye during the early 19th century primary for the large “Pratt Gardens” which became known as the “Versailles of America”[12]. However, there were other estates which were also frequented by visitors, including Sedgley, just north of Lemon Hill and the site of one of Birch’s most popular engravings[13]. Further north of Sedgley lies Mount Pleasant sitting on a series of cliffs overlooking a bend in the Schuylkill, and Strawberry Mansion and Woodford are situated furthest to the north. On the west banks of the Schuylkill, John James Audubon would often visit at Sweetbrier estate, just north of where Girard Avenue is now situated, and engage in horticultural and bird studies there[14]. Just north of Sweetbrier, Cedar Grove is one of the oldest farmhouses along the Schuylkill and was given by William Penn to his friend Thomas Coates in 1721. The surrounding area was a well known public resort for its supposedly “health giving mineral springs” in the 18th century[15], but the estate itself became the center for Philadelphia area botanists studying herbs[16]. A small herb garden continues to exist today.
The domestication of the park as an aristocratic dwelling place in the 18th century created a cultural and socioeconomic hub which drew a variety of “silversmiths, cabinet makers, and iron workers”[5] who were all involved in the everyday world of the neighborhood as working craftsman. However, the natural setting also attracted plenty of visitors to the location, who were drawn by the scenery and the Edenic plentitude of swimming, fishing and hunting grounds. As the city of Philadelphia grew to become the largest city in North America and the second largest in the English speaking world, the residences of Fairmount and the Schuylkill banks came to be known to visitors who frequent the place as “hillers”[6]- occupants of a natural hinterland which was shielded from the city but nevertheless remained inextricably tied to the growing bustle of urban colonial life.
One of the interesting details about the settlement of estates along the Schuylkill was that their residents were often Anglican as opposed to Quaker[7] and proceeded to Anglicize the name of the river Skokill to “Schuylkill” upon inhabiting large lengths of the river up to Manayunk. The architectural style of many riverside estates later incorporated into Fairmount were either Georgian if built before 1775, like Mount Pleasant[8], or Federalist, like Lemon Hill and Lansdowne[9]. Because Philadelphia was architecturally and culturally the most sophisticated city in the colonies and was known as a city of “estates”, the Carpenters’ Company (the first major colonial builders’ organization) was established to handle estate construction demand in 1724 and many craftsmen were among the first commoners to regularly visit the banks of the Schuylkill[10]. The explosion of botanical gardens on estates along the Schuylkill (detailed in the previous section of the website) also led to a unique regional aesthetic culture that focused on drawing and illustrating local plant life; William Russell Birch, an early landscape designer and painter, commonly frequently other estates and produced numerous circulations of prints of estate gardens[11]. Paintings and drawings of natural flora quickly became an accepted aesthetic form among Quakers in Philadelphia.
Of the Fairmount estates, Lemon Hill has previously been mentioned as the most visible in the public eye during the early 19th century primary for the large “Pratt Gardens” which became known as the “Versailles of America”[12]. However, there were other estates which were also frequented by visitors, including Sedgley, just north of Lemon Hill and the site of one of Birch’s most popular engravings[13]. Further north of Sedgley lies Mount Pleasant sitting on a series of cliffs overlooking a bend in the Schuylkill, and Strawberry Mansion and Woodford are situated furthest to the north. On the west banks of the Schuylkill, John James Audubon would often visit at Sweetbrier estate, just north of where Girard Avenue is now situated, and engage in horticultural and bird studies there[14]. Just north of Sweetbrier, Cedar Grove is one of the oldest farmhouses along the Schuylkill and was given by William Penn to his friend Thomas Coates in 1721. The surrounding area was a well known public resort for its supposedly “health giving mineral springs” in the 18th century[15], but the estate itself became the center for Philadelphia area botanists studying herbs[16]. A small herb garden continues to exist today.
[1] http://www.philadelphia-reflections.com/blog/1240.htm
[2] Pg 9 of Fairmount Park by Esther Klein
[3] By the FPC’s 1875 review of Fairmount Park in Report of the Commissioners of Fairmount Park, there were an estimated 100,000 trees on what was then only 2,000 acres or so of the existing park
[4] Pg 10 of Fairmount Park by Esther Klein
[5] Pg 11 of Klein’s Fairmount Park
[6] Pg 13 Klein Fairmount Park
[7] 13 Klein Fairmount Park
[8] Pg 35 Penn’s Great Town by George B. Tatum
[9] Pg 45 Penn’s Great Town by George B. Tatum
[10] Pg 36 Penn’s Great Town
[11] Pg 44 O’Malley, Therese “Cultivated Lives, Cultivated Spaces” in Knowing Nature: Art and Science in Philadelphia 1740-1840
[12] Pg 20 Esther Klein’s Fairmount Park
[13] Pg 78 Charles Keyser’s Fairmount Park 1875
[14] Pg 83 Charles Keyser’s Fairmount Park 1875
[15] Pg 83 Charles Keyser’s Fairmount Park 1875
[16] Pg 84 Charles Keyser’s Fairmount Park 1875
[2] Pg 9 of Fairmount Park by Esther Klein
[3] By the FPC’s 1875 review of Fairmount Park in Report of the Commissioners of Fairmount Park, there were an estimated 100,000 trees on what was then only 2,000 acres or so of the existing park
[4] Pg 10 of Fairmount Park by Esther Klein
[5] Pg 11 of Klein’s Fairmount Park
[6] Pg 13 Klein Fairmount Park
[7] 13 Klein Fairmount Park
[8] Pg 35 Penn’s Great Town by George B. Tatum
[9] Pg 45 Penn’s Great Town by George B. Tatum
[10] Pg 36 Penn’s Great Town
[11] Pg 44 O’Malley, Therese “Cultivated Lives, Cultivated Spaces” in Knowing Nature: Art and Science in Philadelphia 1740-1840
[12] Pg 20 Esther Klein’s Fairmount Park
[13] Pg 78 Charles Keyser’s Fairmount Park 1875
[14] Pg 83 Charles Keyser’s Fairmount Park 1875
[15] Pg 83 Charles Keyser’s Fairmount Park 1875
[16] Pg 84 Charles Keyser’s Fairmount Park 1875