The Houses in Fairmount Park
The city of Philadelphia created Fairmount Park in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the acquisition--by purchase or donation--of large estates along the Schuylkill River. These tracts of property came with built structures: houses, barns, and outbuildings. While some of the buildings such as the Sedgeley Manor, designed by Latrobe, were demolished upon acquisition, most of them became assets of the city and over the century and a half since their acquisitions, they have been put to a variety of uses or lain empty. The choices made about these houses have led to vastly different outcomes. This exhibit looks at three houses which illustrate the effects of those decisions.