The Emlen Physick Estate is a Victorian house museum in

Cape May Cape May consists of a peninsula and barrier island system in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is roughly coterminous with Cape May County, New Jersey, Cape May County and runs southwards from the New Jersey mainland, separating Delaware Bay fro ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. The estate is located at 1048 Washington Street.

History

The 18-room mansion, designed by American architect

Frank Furness Frank Heyling Furness (November 12, 1839 - June 27, 1912) was an American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his diverse, muscular, often unordinarily scaled b ...

, was built in 1879 for Dr. Emlen Physick Jr. (1855-1916), descendant of a well-known Philadelphia family, his widowed mother, Mrs. Ralston, and maiden Aunt Emilie.Cape May's Emlen Physick Estate, Cape May Times
/ref> The mansion is closely related to Furness's Knowlton Mansion (1880–81) in Northeast Philadelphia.

Architecture

The Physick Mansion is an example of " Stick style" architecture. Its exterior is distinguished by Furness's trademark oversized features, including gigantic upside-down

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

led chimneys, hooded "jerkin-head" dormers, and the huge stick-like brackets on the porch. Many original furnishings are on display throughout the house.

Museum

The Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC) was formed in 1970 to save the Physick Estate from demolition. The city purchased the estate and MAC leases it from the city of Cape May. MAC has restored, maintains and operates the estate as a Victorian historic house museum and offers guided tours year-round.Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC) Emlen Physick Estate
/ref> The four-acre estate also includes the Carriage House, which contains a ticket office, the Carroll Gallery and year-round exhibits, the Carriage House Museum Shop, the Carriage House Cafe & Tearoom, open for lunch from April through October, and administrative offices; as well as outbuildings such as Hill House, which contains a ticket office and administrative offices.

In the media

Film and television

The Physick Estate was used as a location in the 1981 slasher film '' The Prowler'', which was special effects wizard

Tom Savini Thomas Vincent Savini (born November 3, 1946) is an American prosthetic makeup artist, actor, stunt performer and film director. He is known for his makeup and special effects work on many films directed by George A. Romero, including ''Martin'' ...

's second movie. The mansion was also featured on the season 1, episode 6 of ''

Haunted Towns ''Haunted Towns'' is an American paranormal television series that premiered on August 15, 2017 in the United States on Destination America. The series features the Tennessee Wraith Chasers, a group of professional paranormal investigators that a ...

'' on

Destination America Destination America is an American cable television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. The network carries programming focused on the culture of the United States—including food, lifestyles, a ...

and was investigated by series paranormal team, ''Tennessee Wraith Chasers'' ''(TWC)''. The home is believed to be haunted by Dr. Emlen Physick and his family; his aunts Emilie and Isabella, as well as his mother, Frances Ralston. A Physick progeny was said to have gone to Korea to further study of parasitology and then branched out to Oriental medicine as part of study of plants.

Gallery

File:Emlem Physick Estate LOC Highsmith.jpg, Parlor File:HABS Emlen Physick Estate.jpeg, View from the southwest File:EmlenPhysickHouse.jpg, In 1961

References

Sources

Emlen Physick Estate official sitePhotographs and drawings
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 ...

* building IX. {{Frank Furness Stick style architecture in New Jersey Frank Furness buildings Historic house museums in New Jersey Museums in Cape May County, New Jersey Houses completed in 1879 Cape May, New Jersey Houses in Cape May County, New Jersey