Lemon Hill is a

Federal-style Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...

mansion in

Fairmount Park Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, with ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, built from 1799 to 1800 by Philadelphia merchant Henry Pratt. The house is named after the

citrus fruits ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. The genus ''Citrus'' is nativ ...

that Pratt cultivated on the property in the early 19th century.

History and architecture

The mansion is situated on a parcel of land formerly part of Robert Morris's estate, "The Hills." In 1799 Pratt purchased of "The Hills" and accompanying structures at a sheriff's sale for $14,654 after occupant Morris suffered financial misfortunes and was taken to

debtors' prison A debtors' prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. Until the mid-19th century, debtors' prisons (usually similar in form to locked workhouses) were a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe.Cory, Lucinda"A Historic ...

. Pratt designed the house and supervised its construction,"Henry Pratt's Account for Lemon Hill"
by Martha Halpern. ''antiquesandfineart.com''. Antiques and Fine Art Magazine. June 2005. Retrieved November 7, 2017. though he did not live year-round at Lemon Hill: his primary residence was in a

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...

on Front Street. Lemon Hill is located on a bluff overlooking the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It fl ...

and

Boathouse Row Boathouse Row is a historic site located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the east bank of the Schuylkill River just north of the Fairmount Water Works and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It consists of a row of 15 boathouses housing social and ro ...

. Exceptional architectural features include its three oval parlors, stacked one on top of the other, with curved fireplace mantles and doors. Pratt also landscaped the property in the

English landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

style, extended a greenhouse structure Morris had built, and opened the grounds to the public for an entry fee. To protect its water supply, the City of Philadelphia began purchasing properties along the

, beginning with Lemon Hill in 1844. The Lemon Hill estate was the first to be incorporated into the new

in 1855. During the second half of the 19th century, the mansion was used as a restaurant and received substantial modifications to its exterior, including a Victorian cast-iron porch. From 1926 to 1955, the house was used as a residence by the first director of the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

Fiske Kimball Sidney Fiske Kimball (1888 – 1955) was an American architect, architectural historian and museum director. A pioneer in the field of historic preservation, architectural preservation in the United States, he played a leading part in the re ...

, and his wife

Marie Goebel Kimball Marie Goebel Kimball (June 7, 1889 – March 2, 1955) was an author, historian, and Jefferson scholar who served as the first curator of Monticello from 1944 until her death in 1955. During her career, she published more than 30 books, articles ...

. Both architectural historians, the couple restored Lemon Hill to its 1800 appearance. Kimball conjectured that Robert Morris had built the mansion; however, in 2005, Pratt's letterbooks were found at the William L. Clements Library of the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), ...

by an assistant

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the Art Museum. Tax records indicated that the mansion did not exist at the time Pratt had purchased the land. The records also revealed that Pratt was both the designer and

general contractor A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...

for his mansion. The house was added to 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 ...

on February 7, 1972, as an inventoried contributing structure within Fairmount Park. Since 1957, Lemon Hill Mansion has been operated as a

house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a v ...

by the Colonial Dames of America and the Friends of Lemon Hill. Long hidden by dense trees on the sides of the hill, a restoration of the historic views was undertaken in 2007, recreating the original vistas of, and from, the mansion. The

Fairmount Park Conservancy Fairmount may refer to: Places Canada * Fairmount, Frontenac County, Ontario * Fairmount, Grey County, Ontario * Fairmount, Nova Scotia United States of America * Fairmount, Delaware * Fairmount, Georgia * Fairmount, Illinois * Fairmount, ...

has managed the house since 2016.

References

* *

External links

Lemon Hill Mansion history (archive)
*
Images of Lemon Hill in the David J. Kennedy Collection
at the

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a long-established research facility, based in Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chronicles, maps, press reports and v ...

Search historic photographs
at ''Philly''History.org {{Philadelphia, state=collapsed Historic house museums in Philadelphia Philadelphia Register of Historic Places Houses completed in 1801 Federal architecture in Pennsylvania North Philadelphia Houses in Fairmount Park Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia East Fairmount Park

History and architecture

See also

References

External links