The Ryerss Mansion, also known as the Burholme Mansion, is an historic, American mansion that is located in the Fox Chase neighborhood of

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 ...

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, ...

History and architectural features

This house was built on eighty-five acres by merchant Joseph Waln Ryerss in 1859, overlooking

Burholme Park Burholme Park is a public park in the Burholme neighborhood of Philadelphia. The park and the Robert W. Ryerss Museum and Library was a gift of the last descendant of the Ryerss family, prominent Philadelphians. Robert W. Ryerss died on Feb. 1 ...

, one of the highest vistas in Philadelphia. Ryerss was president of the Tioga Railroad and followed the family business of trading with China, Japan, and England. He also followed the family avocation of collecting art, especially oriental art. Ryerss died in 1868 leaving the house to his second wife Anne; following her death, ownership of the house passed to his son Robert, who traveled and collected art which he displayed in the house. Less than a year before he died at the age of sixty-five, Robert Ryerss married his longtime housekeeper, Mary Ann Reed, who inherited a comfortable annuity and the house when he died. She remarried three years later to the Reverend John G. Bawn and they continued the family avocations of traveling and art collecting. In 1905, she turned the house over to the city and it opened as a park, museum, and library in 1910 "Free to the people forever" under the administration of the

Fairmount Park Commission 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 ...

. Mrs. Ryerss Bawn died in 1916 in China. The Reverend Bawn then returned to Philadelphia and lobbied the city to build more galleries to house a larger collection. Those galleries were built in 1923.

References

External links

*
Official site
at Fairmount Park
Listing, drawings, and photographs
at the

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

Listing
at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings {{authority control Art museums and galleries in Pennsylvania Decorative arts museums in the United States Historic house museums in Philadelphia Houses completed in 1859 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia Libraries in Pennsylvania Museums in Philadelphia Fox Chase, Philadelphia 1859 establishments in Pennsylvania