Sedgeley was a mansion, designed by the architect

Benjamin Henry Latrobe Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) was an Anglo-American neoclassical architect who emigrated to the United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in the new United States, draw ...

, and built on the east banks of 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 ...

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 ...

, USA, in 1799–1802.

Design and construction

The land where the house was located was originally owned by Robert Morris, but was seized and auctioned off in 1799. William Cramond, a wealthy merchant, purchased the house. Immediately upon acquiring the land, Cramond hired Latrobe to improve the property and build the mansion, which was to serve as Cramond's country house. The mansion was situated on a hill overlooking the river, 80 feet below. The two-story house, the first built in America in a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style, had a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

and

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 with steep roofs, and was approximately 75 ft in width and depth. Other Gothic elements included scalloped

bargeboard Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...

s on the eaves, and windows with label mouldings and other Gothic characteristics. The interior plan of the house was similar to the one that Latrobe used in

John Harvie John Harvie (1742 – February 6, 1807) was an American Founding Father, lawyer and builder from Virginia. He was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, where he signed the Articles of Confederation, in 1777 and 1778. He was a successful ...

's home in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, and later, the John Markoe House in Philadelphia and the

Pope Villa The Pope Villa in Lexington, Kentucky, USA, was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe in 1811 for Senator John Pope. It is one of only three extant Latrobe residences in the United States. As one of Latrobe's most avant-garde designs, the Pope Vi ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. The front of the house featured a portico, and a two-story entrance hall. Latrobe's design called for

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

stone exterior walls, stone or brick window trim, and wooden construction for the

piazza A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

. Cramond did not retain Latrobe to provide on-site supervision of construction and did not entirely follow Latrobe's plan.

Ownership

Cramond owned the mansion for a short period, as he was forced to sell it in 1806 due to bankruptcy. Another merchant, Samuel Mifflin, bought the Sedgeley mansion, but he then sold the house in 1812 to James Cowles Fisher, a shipping merchant, who used it as a summer residence. For some period of time, Fisher left the house vacant or leased it to a tenant. Fisher sold it in 1836 to Isaac S. Loyd, a real estate speculator, who decided to subdivide the house and did not take good care of it, letting it fall into disrepair. The city of Philadelphia purchased the adjacent

Lemon Hill Lemon Hill is a Federal-style mansion in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, built from 1799 to 1800 by Philadelphia merchant Henry Pratt. The house is named after the citrus fruits that Pratt cultivated on the property in the early 19th century. ...

property in 1844, which was turned into a public park. By setting aside open space along the river, Philadelphia hoped to better protect the city's water supply. A group of wealthy residents sought to expand the park to include the Sedgeley property, and they organized a fund to help achieve that. Though, the fund was short of the $70,000 needed, so through use of

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

, the city of Philadelphia paid the $45,000 balance and acquired the Sedgeley property in 1857. The house was demolished a short time later, and the land is now part of

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 ...

Porter House

The Sedgeley property also included a servant's cottage (the Porter's House), designed by Latrobe, which still exists. Though Latrobe spent nearly a decade in Philadelphia, designing numerous buildings, the Sedgeley cottage is the only building of his that remains in Philadelphia. For more than a century, the Porter's House was used by the Park Guard and served as a jail. It was rescued from demolition and converted to office space in the 1990s by the Fairmount Park Historic Preservation Trust and is currently occupied by

Outward Bound Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organizations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt and Kurt Hahn in 1941. Today there are organizations, called schools, in over 35 countries which are att ...

Notes

References

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External links