Historic Strawberry Mansion

Historic Strawberry Mansion is the summer home built for Judge William Lewis in 1789. It is located in East Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

The house was restored in 1926 by The Committee of 1926 for use as a museum house and place of hospitality.

William Lewis

William Lewis was born in 1764 in Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania where his childhood home still stands. He was born into a Quaker family, which would mark his entire life and career. As a lawyer during revolutionary times, he consistently defended other Quakers against charges of treason after they refused to fight in battle or pay taxes. In doing so he participated in creating the foundations of Conscientious Objection. Lewis drafted the First Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in 1770, and advised Alexander Hamilton on the first national bank.

Joseph Hemphill

Joseph Hemphill was born in 1770 in Thornburg Township, not far from Lewis's place of birth. He bought Strawberry Mansion after Lewis's death. His family was responsible for adding the neoclassical wings to the principal structure between 1820 and 1830. He served as a member of the House of Representatives, as well as a prominent lawyer and judge.

Property of Fairmount Park

In 1864 Strawberry Mansion was bought by the city along with a great deal of the surrounding land in an effort to protect the peoples' drinking source: the Schuylkill River. The area came to be known as East Fairmount Park, under the supervision of the Fairmount Park Commission.

Renovation Era

In 1926 several women's clubs combined efforts with Mayor W. Freeland Kendrick to create a Sesquicentennial Exhibition in South Philadelphia in honor of the 150th anniversary since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Several women from the event did not want to disband, and instead sought an area to move many of the antique furniture collections to another location. Under the supervision of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Fairmount Park Commission, the new Committee of 1926 radically renovated the house to be used as a museum space and "place of hospitality". Funds were donated for the renovation from Joseph Horn, of Horn and Hardart's Automats. Horn grew up in the Philadelphia area and was fond of playing in the park as a child. Decor and furnishings were the charge of various women's societies throughout the city who filled the rooms with exceptional period furnishings. The house officially reopened in 1931 with Mrs. J. Willis Martin (Elizabeth Price) as the first president of the Committee of 1926. Today the Committee of 1926 continues to preserve the historic house museum and the principles of hospitality on which it was founded.

Tours

Historic Strawberry Mansion is open from July through December, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Wednesday through Sunday. There are several other other historic park houses nearby that share nearly the same visiting hours, among them are Lemon Hill, Woodford, and Laurel Hill.

ee also

[http://www.fairmountpark.org/HistoricSites.asp] , [http://www.philamuseum.org/visit/12-20-35.html] , [www.philamuseum.org/doc_downloads/pressroom/presskits/parkhouses/ph-about.pdf] , [http://www.historicstrawberrymansion.org/ Historic Strawberry Mansion Homepage]