The appropriation of the First public spaces
When mercantile lobbying interests in preventing the city from preserving the Schuylkill River waterways backed down with the growth of the P&R railroad, the city immediately quickly took steps to begin preserving areas further north of the Fairmount Water Works. As has been aforementioned elsewhere in the website, the first location which was acquired and was closest to the dam and water works was Lemon Hill in 1844. Wealthy benefactors supplied a large amount of the money which would ultimately be used to purchase Lemon Hill. It was Thomas P. Cope (a Quaker of whom Haverford College has a substantial number of family papers) who first mentioned the possibility of purchasing Lemon Hill in an 1843 city council meeting[1]; the year later it was purchased for $75,000 and a number of wealthy benefactors sat on its council including Cope[2]. Unfortunately, it has been noted that the horticultural gardens were not preserved afterwards (although the horticultural society did appeal for its preservation when the city first acquired it) nor did a plan to immediately incorporate the estate into the water works move ahead[3]; instead, from 1847, the city agreed to lease Lemon Hill to private tenants for an annual rate of $600. According to a report, the city acquired not a single cent in rent[4]; furthermore, the gardens at the estate (which were already in falter condition) burned down to the ground and the lessees installed ice houses on the site (which also crumbled to the ground).
In 1851, Frederick Graff, the architect and chief superintendent of Fairmount Water Works, attempted to integrate Lemon Hill into the water works, an initiative which as failed for the time being. However, his attempt was the first real initiative to constitute a permanent public park along the Schuylkill which extended beyond the water works. In a letter to the city council member J.P. Wetherill, Graff presented a sketch for a plan to incorporate “Lemon Hill Estate and part of Fairmount, laid down with the object of making it available as a Public Park”[5]. His sketch included the 45 acres of Lemon Hill, 8.5 acres of the water works, and 24 acres of Fairmount Park, while also recommending that the city buy the 33 acres of Sedgley Estate north of Lemon Hill, and combining these four into a consolidated public park[6]. His plan was presented by J.P. Wetherill to the city council, but was ultimately shelved for three years by a council which did not take action on the plan. The plan itself included a proposal for a bridge across Girard Avenue to stem river traffic and a block on further residential street and housing development within the confines of the park he proposed.
However, the Philadelphia consolidation act of 1854 proved to be a major change for proponents of park consolidation. The state act consolidated all of the smaller counties and locales of Philadelphia into one large urban county, and had the effect according to one local report of eliminating competition for resources between neighboring counties and providing a basis for city-wide coordination of services, of which the consolidation of Fairmount Park was but one aim[7]. The state act also “required the Councils to provide for the people within the city limits suitable squares or areas of grand ‘for the health and enjoyment of the people forever’“[8]. Although such a provision in the state act and the abrupt creation of a consolidated park system first centered around Lemon Hill in the ensuing year has been interpreted by historians of Fairmount Park to be a direct response to the creation of Central Park earlier in the decade by the NY legislature[9]; it is unclear how much this may be the case. But the design of Central Park clearly played a role in later shaping the development of Lemon Hill, Sedgley Estate, and Fairmount Park as a whole.
However, there was certainly public pressure to create a consolidated park centered on Lemon Hill and Fairmount. By mid-century, the measly nine acres of the water works were becoming overcrowded as it had become the city’s favorite recreation spot in the previous two decades. Yet citizens seemed more concerned with concerns of providing fresh drinking water than idealistic measures to improve recreational space and access to a park’s range of motion. A petition was signed by hundreds of citizens in 1854 to appropriate Lemon Hill as a public park and take it away from the commercial interests of the private lessees[10]. The petition strongly referenced utilitarian measures which needed to be taken for less polluted drinking measures throughout, and only towards the conclusion did the petition reflect on the possibility that a consolidated park could “not only be the means of protecting our drinking water from impurities, but furnish the citizens with a large, elegant, and central Public Park, abounding in natural beauties, with extended lawns, groves, and water scenery”[11]. The photograph of the full report can be found in the “Documents” section of the website.
On March 8, 1955, the Committee on City Property brought a bill which dedicated Lemon Hill as a public park and took away the rights of private lessees to rent out the land from the city for the remaining two years[12]. While the private tenants were initially adamant not to leave and posted “no trespassing signs” on Lemon Hill, the transition to public ownership and the prohibition of private ownership was eventually completed by the end of 1855. The same committee that had appropriated Lemon Hill as a public park also recommended the acquisition of Sedgley Estate; this was completed in 1857 by large contributions from Thomas Cope’s sons Henry and Alfred Cope[13]. $65,000 was raised by private donors for the Sedgley property and granted to the city, with this sum being paid back by the city to the donors in a mortgage extending for five years.
[1] Pg. 4 Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park Published 1872
[2] Pg. 4 Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park
[3] Pg. 4 Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park
[4] Pg 3 A Sketch of Fairmount Hill, Lemon Hill, and the Adjoining Grounds as a Public Park 1855
[5] Pg 4-5 A Sketch of Fairmount Hill, Lemon Hill, and the Adjoining Grounds as a Public Park 1855
[6] Pg 4-5 A Sketch of Fairmount Hill, Lemon Hill, and the Adjoining Grounds as a Public Park 1855
[7] Pg. 7 Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park
[8] Pg. 8 Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park
[9] Michael Lewis makes such a claim in “The First Design of Fairmount Park” in Vol. 130, No. 3 The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
[10] Pg 7 Sketch of Fairmount Hill, Lemon Hill, and the Adjoining Grounds as a Public Park 1855
[11] Sketch of Fairmount Hill, Lemon Hill, and the Adjoining Grounds as a Public Park 1855
[12] Pg 9 Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park Published 1872
[13] A copy of the agreement by the council is merely entitled “Fairmount Park” and available in the Haverford College collections. It is reproduced in the “Documents” section of the website
In 1851, Frederick Graff, the architect and chief superintendent of Fairmount Water Works, attempted to integrate Lemon Hill into the water works, an initiative which as failed for the time being. However, his attempt was the first real initiative to constitute a permanent public park along the Schuylkill which extended beyond the water works. In a letter to the city council member J.P. Wetherill, Graff presented a sketch for a plan to incorporate “Lemon Hill Estate and part of Fairmount, laid down with the object of making it available as a Public Park”[5]. His sketch included the 45 acres of Lemon Hill, 8.5 acres of the water works, and 24 acres of Fairmount Park, while also recommending that the city buy the 33 acres of Sedgley Estate north of Lemon Hill, and combining these four into a consolidated public park[6]. His plan was presented by J.P. Wetherill to the city council, but was ultimately shelved for three years by a council which did not take action on the plan. The plan itself included a proposal for a bridge across Girard Avenue to stem river traffic and a block on further residential street and housing development within the confines of the park he proposed.
However, the Philadelphia consolidation act of 1854 proved to be a major change for proponents of park consolidation. The state act consolidated all of the smaller counties and locales of Philadelphia into one large urban county, and had the effect according to one local report of eliminating competition for resources between neighboring counties and providing a basis for city-wide coordination of services, of which the consolidation of Fairmount Park was but one aim[7]. The state act also “required the Councils to provide for the people within the city limits suitable squares or areas of grand ‘for the health and enjoyment of the people forever’“[8]. Although such a provision in the state act and the abrupt creation of a consolidated park system first centered around Lemon Hill in the ensuing year has been interpreted by historians of Fairmount Park to be a direct response to the creation of Central Park earlier in the decade by the NY legislature[9]; it is unclear how much this may be the case. But the design of Central Park clearly played a role in later shaping the development of Lemon Hill, Sedgley Estate, and Fairmount Park as a whole.
However, there was certainly public pressure to create a consolidated park centered on Lemon Hill and Fairmount. By mid-century, the measly nine acres of the water works were becoming overcrowded as it had become the city’s favorite recreation spot in the previous two decades. Yet citizens seemed more concerned with concerns of providing fresh drinking water than idealistic measures to improve recreational space and access to a park’s range of motion. A petition was signed by hundreds of citizens in 1854 to appropriate Lemon Hill as a public park and take it away from the commercial interests of the private lessees[10]. The petition strongly referenced utilitarian measures which needed to be taken for less polluted drinking measures throughout, and only towards the conclusion did the petition reflect on the possibility that a consolidated park could “not only be the means of protecting our drinking water from impurities, but furnish the citizens with a large, elegant, and central Public Park, abounding in natural beauties, with extended lawns, groves, and water scenery”[11]. The photograph of the full report can be found in the “Documents” section of the website.
On March 8, 1955, the Committee on City Property brought a bill which dedicated Lemon Hill as a public park and took away the rights of private lessees to rent out the land from the city for the remaining two years[12]. While the private tenants were initially adamant not to leave and posted “no trespassing signs” on Lemon Hill, the transition to public ownership and the prohibition of private ownership was eventually completed by the end of 1855. The same committee that had appropriated Lemon Hill as a public park also recommended the acquisition of Sedgley Estate; this was completed in 1857 by large contributions from Thomas Cope’s sons Henry and Alfred Cope[13]. $65,000 was raised by private donors for the Sedgley property and granted to the city, with this sum being paid back by the city to the donors in a mortgage extending for five years.
[1] Pg. 4 Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park Published 1872
[2] Pg. 4 Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park
[3] Pg. 4 Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park
[4] Pg 3 A Sketch of Fairmount Hill, Lemon Hill, and the Adjoining Grounds as a Public Park 1855
[5] Pg 4-5 A Sketch of Fairmount Hill, Lemon Hill, and the Adjoining Grounds as a Public Park 1855
[6] Pg 4-5 A Sketch of Fairmount Hill, Lemon Hill, and the Adjoining Grounds as a Public Park 1855
[7] Pg. 7 Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park
[8] Pg. 8 Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park
[9] Michael Lewis makes such a claim in “The First Design of Fairmount Park” in Vol. 130, No. 3 The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
[10] Pg 7 Sketch of Fairmount Hill, Lemon Hill, and the Adjoining Grounds as a Public Park 1855
[11] Sketch of Fairmount Hill, Lemon Hill, and the Adjoining Grounds as a Public Park 1855
[12] Pg 9 Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park Published 1872
[13] A copy of the agreement by the council is merely entitled “Fairmount Park” and available in the Haverford College collections. It is reproduced in the “Documents” section of the website