line being his son, Henry J. Williams, an eminent lawyer. It was for some years a place of resort chiefly by Germans, and called Washington Retreat. In 1868 it was bought by the Park Commission. Among the tenants of this mansion might have been Maj.Gen. Baron Frederick William Augustus Von Steuben, who was given lease of the premises Oct. 25, 1780, by the Supreme Executive Council, but in regard to whom it is doubtful whether he had ever occupied it. The Marquis Casa d'Yrujo, minister plenipotentiary of Spain, who married a daughter of Governor Thomas McKean, lived here in 1802.

West of Mount Pleasant was Rockland. The estate belonged from 1756 to 1765 to John Lawrence, and afterward to Capt. John McPherson. The mansion was built by George Thomson, merchant, about 1810. He sold it in 1816 to Isaac C. Jones, who, with his family, occupied it, until the estate was taken for park purposes.

Belleville, north of Rockland, a small house, was occupied by Daniel W. Coxe, who was a brother-inlaw of Edward Shippen Burd.

Next to Belleville is Ormiston. The property belonged to Joseph Galloway before the Revolution. It was forfeited to the State in consequence of his treason, bought by the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, and sold to Gen. Joseph Reed, once president of the Supreme Executive Council. He sold it to Edward Burd, son-in-law of Chief Justice Shippen, who named it Ormiston, after the estate of his father in Scotland. Edward Shippen Burd, his son, occupied this property for many years.

Next to Ormiston was Laurel Hill, which was occupied for many years by Samuel Shoemaker, and afterward, from 1828 to 1836, by Dr. Philip Syng Physick. After the name of the Laurels, the seat formerly of Joseph Sims, farther up and near the Falls of Schuylkill, was changed to Laurel Hill, the old Laurel Hill (Shoemaker's place) was known as Edgeley.

Woodside, lately occupied by the Park Commissioners, is an old house which, according to tradition, was built by William Coleman, the friend of Franklin, who was associate justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and died in 1769. It was afterward the residence of David Franks, who, unfortunately, during the Revolution was not on the right side.

William Lewis, lawyer, lived for some years at Summerville, which was the property immediately south of the present Laurel Hill. It was afterward occupied by Judge Hemphill, and after it was abandoned as a place of summer residence it was called Strawberry Mansion. It was from 1835 for some years a favorite place for picnics, and when the park was opened it was established as a restaurant.

The Park River road, which runs below Laurel Hill Cemetery, passes over the property once occupied by three famous country-seats. They were Harleigh, William Rawle's place, now South Laurel Hill; Fairy Hill, George Pepper's place, Central Laurel Hill; and

The Laurels, Joseph Sims' seat, the name of which was afterward changed to Laurel Hill, which now constitutes North Laurel Hill.

In the West Park the following old country-houses are still existing: Solitude, in the West Park, south of Girard Avenue, was the villa of John Penn, the son of Thomas Penn and of Lady Julianna Farmer, daughter of the Earl of Pomfret. Penn came to Pennsylvania to look after his family interests in 1784, and bought ground opposite The Hills, fifteen acres, for six hundred pounds sterling. Here he built the little two-story box, still standing, and occupied by the offices of the Zoological Society. The house was finished in 1785.

Sweet Briar, northwest of the Lansdowne entrance, near the Girard Avenue bridge, was built by Samuel Breck about 1798. He occupied this mansion for many years.

Belmont, the property north of Lansdowne, was purchased by William Peters, brother of the Rev. Richard Peters, from the widow of Daniel Jones, by deed of July 4, 1742. The tract contained two hundred and twenty acres. Mr. Peters erected a small

stone house, with a bay at the southern end, in a fine situation, with a grand view of the Schuylkill. It was probably finished in 1743. Mr. Peters called the place Belmont, and resided there until about the Revolution, when the use of the property was assigned to his son Richard, afterward judge of the United States District Court. It is not known when the large mansion on the north of the original Peters house was built. It might have been by William Peters before the Revolution, or by his son afterward. As long as Judge Peters resided there the house was the resort of the most eminent men, famous in American history and politics, and of distinguished foreigners. The attractiveness of the place was somewhat injured in 1832 and afterward by the laying out of the State railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia. The tracks were brought across the Schuylkill on the Columbia Railroad bridge, and up the hill by an inclined plane, the bed of which comes out about two hundred feet distant from the Belmont mansion, and is now used as a bridle-road. There was machinery to operate the cable on the plane, work-shops, and depots almost next door to Belmont mansion, so that, with the travel connected with the railroad, it could not have been for some years a favorite place of residence. When the Pennsylvania Railroad was chartered, and the route was laid out to the Market Street bridge, the inclined plane was abandoned, and Belmont returned to a quietude greater even than was usual to the mansion and grounds before railroads had invaded them. Judge Peters was dead, and the house, so long the genial rendezvous of bright and fashionable people, was scarcely disturbed by a wandering visitor. The Park Commissioners bought this property in 1867, and established it as a restaurant. The popularity of the place was such that it was soon found that there

was not room enough for the accommodation of company, especially for banquets and occasions of ceremony; a pavilion was erected west of the mansion-. house. In 1876 there was another alteration, during which the old Peters building of 1743-44 was demolished, and a two-story addition, fronting south, was erected for the purposes of a restaurant, being furnished with dining- and supper-rooms.

Mount Prospect was the seat of the Johnsons as early as 1806. It was subsequently sold to Jacob S. Waln, who changed the name to Ridgeland, and lived there many years.1

1802, was afterward occupied by Benjamin Johnson. It was north of Prospect Lodge, immediately opposite the Laurels, Sims' place, afterwards called Laurel Hill. The Park Commissioners gave to the place the name Chamounix. In the area of the East Park, besides these buildings yet standing, there have been others of historic importance.

The Hills was the name of Robert Morris' estate, which included the whole of Lemon Hill and Sedgeley. The Hills House was built by Mr. Morris after 1770, when he made the first purchase of the ground there. It was probably finished in 1771-72. The

house was torn down by Henry Pratt after he bought the estate.

North of Lemon Hill, before Sedgeley was reached, was Mount Sidney, which was occupied by Thomas Passmore, and some time after the year 1800 by Peter De Barbier Du Plessis and by Maj.-Gen. John Barker.

The early country-seats in West Park not now existing were as follows: On the west side of the river Schuylkill, immediately north of Haverford Street, was Spring Hill, the property of Ellis Yar. nall. It was in a due line west of Turtle Rock and Lemon Hill. The West Philadelphia Water-Works were built on a portion of this property.

Eaglesfield or Egglesfield, on the west side of the Schuylkill, a little above the entrance to Girard Avenue bridge and south of Sweet Briar, was built about 1798 for James Greenleaf, after designs by George I. Parkins. It was in after-years the property of Robert E. Griffith.

Farther up, south of the Fort road, was Prospect Lodge. Montpelier, built by George Plumsted about

1 There is on the west side of the Schuylkill, above the Reading Columbia Railroad bridge, in front of Ridgeland, a small one-story house, which has been called "Tom Moore's Cottage." The story is that it was occupied by Thomas Moore, the poet, at the time when he was in Philadelphia, in 1804. There is no good foundation for the legend. The journal of Mr. Moore shows that the whole time which he spent in Philadelphia during his visit to America was ten or eleven days. He was received in the best society, flattered, dined, and his company much sought by literary people. He had no time to become a tenant of this insignificant house if he had desired to. There is no plausible foundation, in fact, for the Tom Moore's story as connected with this little house. Edward Waln, who was a boy at Ridgeland in 1815 and for many years afterward, wrote to Russell Thayer, superintendent of Fairmount Park in 1883, that he had never heard of the place being called Tom Moore's Cottage while he resided there. The house in his early days was known in the neighborhood as "Aunt Cornelia's," and this was the name of an old colored woman who lived there and made her livelihood as a washerwoman, to which she added occasionally a few pennies by the sale of ginger-cakes and spruce-beer.

Lansdowne Mansion stood about where the Horticultural Hall is now erected. The first purchase of ground there was made by Governor and Proprietary John Penn in 1773, and comprised, when all outlying parcels were added, about two hundred acres. Lansdowne House was built of stone in the Italian style, and probably finished when the Revolution broke out. It is marked distinctly on Faden's map of 1777. He lived there until about the time of his death, Feb. 9, 1795. The estate was devised absolutely to his wife, Ann, daughter of Chief Justice Allen. She sold it in 1795 to James Greenleaf. The sheriff of Philadelphia seized it in 1797 as property of Greenleaf, who was in pecuniary difficulties, and sold it to William Bingham. He kept the mansion in grand style until

after the death of his wife, in 1801. At the death of Mr. Bingham, three years afterward, the property was vested in his family, two of his sons-in-law being Barings. The Barings held the property until the ground was bought by gentlemen through whose interests it was secured for Fairmount Park. Joseph Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain, Count De Survilliers, lived in the

1867

Lansdowne Mansion 1816-17. The house was entirely burned out on the 4th of July, 1854, but the walls were standing in good condition. The mansion might have been rebuilt if the Park Commissioners had so elected. But they did not appear to know the historic character of the ruins, and the easiest way to get rid of them was to prostrate them entirely. The Hut was a small house on the River road near Lans

of the Spring Garden (Schuylkill) Water-Works, on the hill extending over to the Reading Railroad, and eastward to the river drive. The opening of the Connecting Railroad on the south side of the lot placed the river on the other side, and with no easy means the grounds in a wedge between two railroads, with time. For this reason it may be supposed the memof access except by crossing the railroads at that

bers of the society were deterred from attempting to establish the gardens and procure a collection of beasts and birds, etc. In June, 1873, the commissioners of Fairmount Park assigned to the use of the society the Solitude portion of its grounds south of Girard Avenue and between the River road and the Pennsylvania and Connecting Railroads. The society entered upon the property, constructed large and attractive buildings for the exhibition of various kinds of animals, and the grounds were opened July 1, 1874. The inclosure embraces Solitude and a portion of Spring Hill, the Yarnall estate.

The house in which David Rittenhouse, the astronomer, was born, stands near the junction of PaperMill Run with the Wissahickon Creek, and is about half a mile above the site of the Log Cabin.

The Monastery is situate on the east side of the Wissahickon. This building succeeded one which was erected by Alexander Mack, John Reissman, and Henry Hoecker, Dunkers, who had belonged to the church at Bebberstown, commonly called Beggarstown, established in the northern part of Germantown in 1732. The establishment was modeled upon the monastery of the Dunkers, or Seventh-Day Baptists, at Ephrata, which had been founded in 1732–33 by Conrad Beissel. The Wissahickon house was inhabited for about a year by Alexander Mack, Henry Hoecker, John Reissman, and another brother, who, in the "Chronicon Ephratense," published in 1786, records these facts, but does not give his own name. It ceased to be used by the brethren almost entirely in March, 1739. Thirteen years afterward Joseph Gorgas bought ground on the Wissahickon, where he erected a three-story stone house, which is now called the Monastery. He lived there until 1761. It is a matter of tradition, but by no means of proof, that Gorgas and others of the Seventh-Day Baptists resided at this house for purposes of seclusion and religious meditation. Legend says that the attire of the monks was like that of the Catholic Capuchins, or White Friars,—a short trousers and vest, with a long white gown and cowl of woolen webbing in winter and of linen in summer. The same traditions say that there was a place near the Monastery, below the county bridge, where the monks administered the rite of baptism. Gorgas sold the house and lot to Edward Milner in 1761, and although since called the Monastery, it has not been used for monkish purposes.

Works of Art and Decorations in Fairmount Park. The Nymph and the Swan, called also Leda and the Swan, wooden statue, with fountain cut by William Rush, sculptor, and originally erected in the Centre Square in front of the reservoir; removed to Fairmount and placed on the rocks of the forebay after the Centre Square reservoir-house was abandoned by the Water Department, about 1828.

The same figures in bronze were moulded from the wooden statue, and placed in the centre of the large

fountain near Callowhill Street. The casting was made and placed in position while Frederick Graff, the second, was chief engineer of the water-works.

Figure of a boy riding a dolphin, an ornamental jet d'eau at fountain north side of park entrance, at Green and Twenty-fifth Streets. These figures were originally placed in the fountain near the Callowhill Street entrance, but were removed when the bronze statue fountain of Leda and the Swan was placed there.

Diana, a marble statue, placed over the drinking fountain near the eastern part of the forebay by the watering committee about 1830-31.

Reclining figures, "The Schuylkill in an improved state," male; and "the Schuylkill in chains," female, in wood, over the entrances to the wheel-houses, by William Rush, sculptor.

Justice and Wisdom, mask, full-length statues in wood, by Rush; carved for the decoration of triumphal arch in front of the State-House on the occasion of the reception of Gen. Lafayette, in 1824; transferred to the Assembly room, which replaced the old engine room of the water-works some years afterward.

Memorial bust of Frederick Graff, first engineer of the works, and canopy; erected in the garden south of the forebay by City Councils about 1847-48.

The first fountain, so called, stands upon the side of the road on the west side of the Wissahickon, half a mile below the Indian Rock Hotel. It is claimed that this is the first drinking fountain erected in the county of Philadelphia outside of the Fairmount Water-Works. A clear, cold, mountain spring is carried by a spout, covered with a lion's head, from a niche in a granite front, with pilasters and pediment into a marble basin. The construction bears the date 1854, and it was the gift of John Cook, a gentleman residing near the Wissahickon. Upon a slab above the niche are cut the words "Pro bono publico;" beneath the basin these, "Esto perpetua."

Tedyuscung is fancifully said to be represented by the wooden figure of an Indian, which is placed on the top of a lofty precipice called Indian Rock, situate on the east bank of the Wissahickon, a short distance beyond the Indian Rock Hotel.

William Penn, statue of Indiana marble, made by Ezekiel, sculptor of the group "Religious Liberty;" placed on "Mom Rinkle's Rock," Wissahickon; presented by Hon. John Welsh, park commissioner.

Monument statue in bronze to the memory of Alexander von Humboldt, presented by the German Society of Philadelphia and citizens; situate on the knoll overlooking the bridge at the southeast corner of Girard Avenue and the upper drive from Lemon Hill; corner-stone laid Sept. 13, 1869; dedicated in 1871.

Fountain, marble, copy of the fountain in the Villa Borghesi; presented by Robert H. Gratz in 1871; placed in the Park Art Gallery, and now at Memorial Hall.

Pegasus led by Calliope, and Pegasus and Clio, two

groups in bronze, heroic size; purchased by Robert H. Gratz and others, and presented to the park in 1872; originally set up near the park offices north of the Reading Railroad bridge, near Belmont; in 1876 removed and set upon pedestals at the approaches to Memorial Hall. These statues were formerly part of the decorations of the Grand Academy of Vienna.

Iron fountain and canopy at mineral spring, Lemon Hill; placed in position in 1871.

Marble drinking fountain on the walk leading northward from the Lincoln Monument, at the southeast corner of Lemon Hill.

Fountain jets d'eau and fish-pond, formerly belonging to Lemon Hill, in front of the ascent to the terraces nearly opposite Brown Street, and on the east side of Lemon Hill Mansion.

Iron drinking-fountain, main pedestrian walk, north of fountain and fish-pond, East Park.

Iron drinking-fountain at Sedgeley, placed in 1871.

Iron drinking-fountain, Elm Tree, near the Humbolt Monument; placed in 1871; cast in Philadelphia.

"Night," bronze statue, presented to Fairmount Park Art Association by Edwin N. Benson; set up at George's Hill, 1872.

Group in bronze, two Hudson Bay gray wolves quarreling over the carcass of a deer; by Edwin Kemeys; cast in Philadelphia; presented by Fairmount Park Art Association; set up in 1872 at Ferndale Pool, West