Ormiston Mansion is a -story, red brick, late

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

period house located in east

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 ...

. The house was constructed in 1798 with a large wooden porch in front and a smaller porch in the rear. Many of the original interior features remain including fireplaces with marble mantles and a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

bake oven. The cedar shake roof includes a

widow's walk A widow's walk, also known as a widow's watch or roofwalk, is a railed rooftop platform often having an inner cupola/turret frequently found on 19th-century North American coastal houses. The name is said to come from the wives of mariners, who ...

and Federal-style

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

s, while six large shuttered windows are on each side of the house, and five on the front. The first floor interior includes a large

drawing room A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name is derived from the 16th-century terms withdrawing room and withdrawing chamber, which remained in use through the 17th cent ...

spanning the entire width of the house, a kitchen, and a dining room with a large door leading to the rear porch. The back of the house overlooks 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 ...

."History of Ormiston"

''ormistonrhs.org''. Royal Heritage Society of the Delaware Valley. Retrieved December 5, 2017.

Edward Burd Edward Burd (February 5, 1749July 24, 1833) was a Revolutionary War officer in Pennsylvania and later a Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Life Burd, the son of Colonel James Burd and Sarah (Shippen) Burd, was born February 5, 1749 ...

, a

Pennsylvania Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme J ...

prothonotary The word prothonotary is recorded in English since 1447, as "principal clerk of a court," from L.L. ''prothonotarius'' ( c. 400), from Greek ''protonotarios'' "first scribe," originally the chief of the college of recorders of the court of the B ...

, built the mansion on a plot of above the eastern bank of the Schuylkill River. Burd named the house after the

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

near

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

where his father,

James Burd James Burd (March 10, 1725 – October 5, 1793) was a colonial American soldier in the French and Indian War, during which he played an important role in fortifying the Pennsylvania frontier. Early life Born in Ormiston, near Edinburgh, Scotland, ...

, was born. The city of Philadelphia purchased the mansion and land from Burd's heirs in 1869 to expand Fairmount Park. The house was used as a residence for park employees, and later as the

Fairmount Park Art Association Established in 1872 in Philadelphia, the Association for Public Art (formerly Fairmount Park Art Association) is the United States' first private, nonprofit public art organization dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning. The Assoc ...

's meeting house. The Royal Heritage Society of the

Delaware Valley The Delaware Valley is a metropolitan region on the East Coast of the United States that comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the sixth most populous city in the nation and 68th largest city in the world as of 2020. The toponym Delaware Val ...

—a privately funded non-profit organization dedicated to preserving Pennsylvania's British heritage—has preserved and maintained the house for the city since 1982. The organization hosts various events at the house to which both society members and the general public are invited."Past Events"

''ormistonrhs.org''. Royal Heritage Society of the Delaware Valley. Retrieved December 5, 2017. Ormiston Mansion is registered on the

Philadelphia Register of Historic Places The Philadelphia Register of Historic Places (PRHP) is a register of historic places by the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Buildings, structures, sites, objects, interiors and districts can be added to the list. Criteria According to the Phila ...

and is an inventoried structure within the Fairmount Park Historic District entry 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 ...

References

External links

Ormiston Mansion
- Royal Heritage Society of the Delaware Valley * {{Philadelphia, state=collapsed Houses in Fairmount Park Philadelphia Register of Historic Places North Philadelphia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia Georgian architecture in Pennsylvania Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia East Fairmount Park

See also

References

External links