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“The Colonial Elite” (Fairmount Park Mansions)
The recently closed exhibition at Philadelphia’s City Hall, “Fairmount Park’s Colonial Elite” featured over 40 current and past students from Moore College of Art & Design participating in a juried competition where they were asked to re-interpret in any medium, the colonial mansions of Fairmount Park. Christine Mifsud, a member of the Park House Guides of the Historic Fairmount Park Houses and ’80 graphic design graduate of Moore, sought the exhibition as an way to bring awareness to the mansions due to a recent decrease in public visitations. Participants were given the opportunity to tour the houses throughout the spring and summer to challenge themselves as artists presented with a viable resource of historic arts and crafts unique to Philadelphia.
Winners included Angeline Nesbit, who portrayed Mount Pleasant in her creative digital photographic collage of ships inspired by the life of John Macpherson, a sea captain and former owner of the mansion, Kathryn Finn, who created a garment interpreting the decadence of materials found in Lemon Hill and Dana Osburn, who made a painting of watercolor and pencil depicting the many layers of history embedded into its architecture.
Despite Philly Trolley work’s discontinuation of a direct service to the mansions, you can still make an appointment to tour the mansions by making advance arrangements for individual or group tours, by calling Park House Guides Office at 215-684-7926.
The seven Fairmount Park Houses, mansions from the 18th and early 19th centuries, were mostly summer residences for some of Philadelphia’s elite merchants and business leaders. The houses were all acquired in the mid-19th century by the City of Philadelphia as it was developing Fairmount Park. All are located in the park near the Schuylkill.
The houses are owned by the City of Philadelphia and governed by the Fairmount Park Commission. They are administered by a consortium of civic organizations, a trust, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. For hours and more information, call 215-229-6115.
Woodford Mansion (courtesy of gary.appenzeller.net)
“Built in 1756 by William Coleman, an area merchant and confidant of Benjamin Franklin’s, originally was a one-story structure. In 1769, it was sold to Alexander Barclay, a Quaker merchant. Two years later, it was sold to Barclay’s brother-in-law, David Franks, who added a second story and back wing. The brick mansion, built in the Georgian style, is maintained by trustees of the estate of Naomi Wood, a collector of Colonial furniture and housewares, who died in 1926.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)
