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Grumblethorpe, in
Germantown, Philadelphia Germantown (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Deitscheschteddel'') is an area in Northwest Philadelphia. Founded by German, Quaker, and Mennonite families in 1683 as an independent borough, it was absorbed into Philadelphia in 1854. The area, which is about ...
,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, was the home of the Wister family, who lived there for over 160 years. It was built in 1744 as a summer residence, but it became the family's year-round residence in 1793. It is a museum, part of the
Colonial Germantown Historic District The Colonial Germantown Historic District is a designated National Historic Landmark District in the Germantown and Mount Airy neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania along both sides of Germantown Avenue. This road followed a Native Americ ...
.


Early history

Grumblethorpe was built as a summer residence in 1744 by Philadelphia merchant and wine importer John Wister, when Germantown was a semi-rural area outside the city of Philadelphia. It eventually became the family's year-round residence when they withdrew from the city during the
Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 During the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, 5,000 or more people were listed in the official register of deaths between August 1 and November 9. The vast majority of them died of yellow fever, making the epidemic in the city of 50,000 ...
. It has a stone and oak facade and was known as "John Wister's Big House". It has lower-ceilinged rooms than those at
Cliveden Cliveden (pronounced ) is an English country house and estate in the care of the National Trust in Buckinghamshire, on the border with Berkshire. The Italianate mansion, also known as Cliveden House, crowns an outlying ridge of the Chiltern H ...
,
Loudoun Loudoun ( gd, Lughdan) is a parish in East Ayrshire, Scotland and lies between five and ten miles east of Kilmarnock. The parish roughly encompasses the northern half of the Upper-Irvine Valley and borders Galston Parish (which encompasses the ...
, and
Stenton Stenton ( sco, Staneton) is a parish and village in East Lothian, Scotland. It is bounded on the north by parts of the parishes of Prestonkirk and Dunbar, on the east by Spott and on the west by Whittingehame. The name is said to be of Saxon de ...
, other historic houses in the area. The stones for the house were quarried on the property and the joists were hewn from oaks in Wister Woods, also owned by the family. The original section of the
Grumblethorpe Tenant House Grumblethorpe Tenant House, also known as the Tenant House of Wister's Big House, is a historic home located in the Wister neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was built about 1744, and expanded in the early 19th-century. It is a -sto ...
was built as a dependency. The Wister family lived in the house for over 160 years. Diarist
Sally Wister Sally may refer to: People *Sally (name), a list of notable people with the name Military *Sally (military), an attack by the defenders of a town or fortress under siege against a besieging force; see sally port *Sally, the Allied reporting nam ...
lived there from 1789 until her death in 1804. Because it was built on the fertile soil of Schuylkill Valley, Grumblethorpe's garden was among the most productive in the region. It was primarily a working farm, and it dominated Philadelphia's horticultural trends for nearly two centuries (1740-1910). The land was a prime source of marketable crops and animal husbandry from the 1740s to the 1870s, and it decreased in practical use only when the farmstead grew smaller in the late 19th century.


During the American Revolutionary War

In September 1777, the house was the scene of events in the
Battle of Germantown The Battle of Germantown was a major engagement in the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolutionary War. It was fought on October 4, 1777, at Germantown, Pennsylvania, between the British Army led by Sir William Howe, and the American Con ...
. While the Wisters were staying in another home, British General James Agnew occupied the house as his headquarters during the battle. He was wounded and died in the front parlor, where his blood stains can still be seen on the floor.


Later history

In the 1960s, the house was restored and refurnished to match the original period (removing an early 19th-century Georgian-style facade) and now serves as a museum. The gardens are also being restored. Grumblethorpe was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1972. It is a
contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...
of the
Colonial Germantown Historic District The Colonial Germantown Historic District is a designated National Historic Landmark District in the Germantown and Mount Airy neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania along both sides of Germantown Avenue. This road followed a Native Americ ...
, which has been designated a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
.


See also

National Register of Historic Places listings in Northwest Philadelphia __NOTOC__ This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Northwest Philadelphia. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Northwest Philadelphia ...


References


Further reading

*Minardi, Joseph M. ''Historic Architecture in Northwest Philadelphia: 1690-1930s''. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2011. *H.D. Eberlein and H.M. Lippincott, ''The Colonial Homes of Philadelphia and Its Neighbourhood'', J.B. Lippincott Co., Phila. and London, 1912. *Roger W. Moss, ''Historic Houses of Philadelphia: A Tour of the Region's Museum Homes'', University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. *John L. Cotter, Daniel G. Roberts, and Michael Parrington, ''The Buried Past: An Archaeological History of Philadelphia'', University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.


External links


Official Grumblethorpe page
at
Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks The Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks (aka Landmarks) founded in 1931, maintains and preserves four historic house museums in the region around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These are: * Grumblethorpe * Hill-Physick-Keith Hous ...
website * *
Listing
at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings
Painting of Grumblethorpe
{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania American Revolutionary War museums in Pennsylvania Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia Historic district contributing properties in Pennsylvania Historic house museums in Philadelphia Houses completed in 1744 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia Georgian architecture in Pennsylvania Germantown, Philadelphia Wister, Philadelphia 1744 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies Wister family Historic House Museums of the Pennsylvania Germans