![Wyck facingNE](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Wyck_facingNE.jpg)
The Wyck house, also known as the Haines house or Hans Millan house, is a historic mansion, museum, garden, and urban farm in the
Germantown Germantown or German Town may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Germantown, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region
United States
* Germantown, California, the former name of Artois, a census-designated place in Glenn County
* Ge ...
neighborhood of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
,
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, ...
. It was recognized as 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 ...
in 1971 for its well-preserved condition and its documentary records, which span nine generations of a single family.
[American Philosophical Society Library (Mss.Ms.Coll.52). Wyck Association Collection. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
https://search.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.Ms.Coll.52-ead.xml;query=Wyck;brand=default]
During the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
, the Wyck house was occupied by British forces and used as a field hospital during the
Battle of Germantown, in October 1777.
Wyck was the site of an early American
brewery
A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of bee ...
from 1794 to 1801, and later became a meeting place of influential American scientists and artists including
Thomas Say
Thomas Say (June 27, 1787 – October 10, 1834) was an American entomologist, conchologist, and herpetologist. His studies of insects and shells, numerous contributions to scientific journals, and scientific expeditions to Florida, Georgia, the R ...
,
Charles Lucien Bonaparte,
John James Audubon,
Thomas Nuttall
Thomas Nuttall (5 January 1786 – 10 September 1859) was an English botanist and zoologist who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841.
Nuttall was born in the village of Long Preston, near Settle in the West Riding of Yorkshire and ...
,
William Cooper William Cooper may refer to:
Business
*William Cooper (accountant) (1826–1871), founder of Cooper Brothers
* William Cooper (businessman) (1761–1840), Canadian businessman
*William Cooper (co-operator) (1822–1868), English co-operator
* Will ...
,
William Maclure
William Maclure (27 October 176323 March 1840) was an Americanized Scottish geologist, cartographer and philanthropist. He is known as the 'father of American geology'. As a social experimenter on new types of community life, he collaborated ...
,
Charles Alexandre Lesueur
Charles Alexandre Lesueur (1 January 1778 in Le Havre – 12 December 1846 in Le Havre) was a French naturalist, artist, and explorer. He was a prolific natural-history collector, gathering many type specimens in Australia, Southeast Asia, ...
, and
George Ord
George Ord, Jr. (March 4, 1781 – January 24, 1866) was an American zoologist who specialized in North American ornithology and mammalogy. Based in part on specimens collected by Lewis and Clark in the North American interior, Ord's article "Zool ...
. Wyck is the
type locality of the
Queen snake
The queen snake (''Regina septemvittata'') is a species of nonvenomous semiaquatic snake, a member of the subfamily Natricinae of the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to North America.
Common names
''R. septemvittata'' is known by man ...
(''Regina septemvittata''), discovered on the second floor of the house by
Reuben Haines III
Reuben Haines III (February 8, 1786 – October 19, 1831) was a Quaker farmer, brewer, abolitionist, scientist, ornithologist, meteorologist, firefighter, philanthropist, and educational reformer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Haines was a found ...
and described in 1825 by
Thomas Say
Thomas Say (June 27, 1787 – October 10, 1834) was an American entomologist, conchologist, and herpetologist. His studies of insects and shells, numerous contributions to scientific journals, and scientific expeditions to Florida, Georgia, the R ...
. It is also the type locality of the terrestrial gastropod ''Ventridens suppressus'' (Say 1829).
The house was renovated in 1824 by
William Strickland, the famous Greek revivalist architect.
The following year,
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette returned to visit the sites of the
Battle of Germantown, and was hosted in a reception at Wyck.
History
Wyck's earliest owner was Hans Millan (also spelled Milan), a Quaker who came from
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
by 1689, and was a descendant of a Swiss Mennonite family.
His daughter, Margaret, married a Dutch
Quaker named Dirck Jansen, who prospered as a linen weaver in the first half of the 18th century. By the time of his death, he was listed as a gentleman and had Anglicized his name to Dirk Johnson. Their daughter, Catherine, married
Caspar Wistar, a German who became a Quaker and amassed a sizable fortune as a button maker, glassmaker and investor in land.
[HABS-Hare Documentation](_blank)
/ref>
In the next generation, Margaret Wistar (daughter of Catherine and Caspar) married Reuben Haines, a brewer and merchant of English descent from Burlington County, NJ. In 1771, Reuben funded the construction of a road (now Pennsylvania Route 45
Pennsylvania Route 45 (PA 45) is an state highway located in central Pennsylvania, United States. PA 45 is called the Purple Heart Highway. The western terminus of the route is at PA 453 in Morris Township near the community of Water Street. ...
) from Sunbury through the "Woodward Narrows", to the modern site of Spring Mill — the first road in what is now Centre County. The modern boundaries of Penn Township (formed 1844) and a portion of Gregg Township (formed 1826) were annexed from a larger Haines Township (now only 148.6 km2) that was established before Centre County was officially declared in 1800.
Their son Caspar Wistar Haines continued the family businesses and married Hannah Marshall, a member of another Quaker family. Wyck then passed to Reuben Haines III
Reuben Haines III (February 8, 1786 – October 19, 1831) was a Quaker farmer, brewer, abolitionist, scientist, ornithologist, meteorologist, firefighter, philanthropist, and educational reformer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Haines was a found ...
(1786–1831) and his wife Jane (Bowne) Haines (1792–1843). After their deaths, Wyck was passed to their youngest daughter, Jane Reuben Haines, who lived here until 1911, carefully preserving the house, furnishings and gardens.
Wyck served as a summer home until Reuben Haines III moved his family into it as their permanent residence. Shortly after this move, he hired his friend, William Strickland, to remodel the entire building. Reuben is also responsible for Wyck's name, as nobody with the last name Wyck ever married into the family. On one of his many travels, Reuben came across a landscape sketch of Wyck the Seat of Richard Haines esq. Believing that Richard Haines was a relative, Reuben brought the sketch back to his house, and started calling his own home Wyck. It was later revealed that Reuben's family had no connection to Richard Haines, but the name stuck.
In the eighth generation, Jane B. Haines founded the first school of horticulture for women, the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women
The Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women was one of the first horticultural schools to be established by and for women in the United States, opening on February 10, 1911. As the second institution to provide women with a practical educat ...
, which is now Temple Ambler, and one brother, Caspar, helped design the Mexican railway system; while another, Robert, invented a gauge for measuring steel in rolling mills.
The last owners, Robert B. Haines and his wife Mary (Troth) Haines, were fruit growers. Robert patented a device to press apples for a more natural tasting juice. In 1973, after Robert's death, Mary Haines initiated the transfer of Wyck and its private collections, and since 1978 the site has been run by the Wyck Association. Today, Wyck is maintained as a house museum.
Architecture
Wyck is an architecturally innovative house with an old-fashioned skin. From the outside it appears colonial in plan and design with some fashionable accents such as the late 18th-century whitewashed stucco.
The house is actually an accumulation of 18th-century parts: the hall (c. 1700–1720), the front parlor (1736) and the library and dining room from (1771–1773, which replaced a c. 1690 log structure.)
The house has been little altered since 1824, when Philadelphia architect William Strickland dramatically rearranged its interior spaces to create an open plan, allowing light to flood each room and bringing the pleasures of the garden inside. Strickland also added a set of "folding doors", which swing on a 90 degree angle, allowing the owners to close off two rooms with only one door.
See also
*List of the oldest buildings in Pennsylvania
This article lists the oldest buildings in the state of Pennsylvania in the United States, including the oldest houses in the state and certain other extant structures. Some dates are approximate, based upon dendrochronology, architectural stu ...
*List of National Historic Landmarks in Philadelphia
There are 67 National Historic Landmarks within Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
See also the List of National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania, which covers the 102 landmarks in the rest of the state.
Current listings
...
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Northwest Philadelphia
References
External links
*
*
Listing
at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings
{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia
Historic district contributing properties in Pennsylvania
Historic house museums in Philadelphia
Houses completed in the 18th century
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia
National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania
Germantown, Philadelphia
Historic House Museums of the Pennsylvania Germans