Welcome! In this series I will periodically post about a Philadelphia area landmark that I visit, offering both historical and Architectural information.
Powel House
224 South 3rd
Street
By William
Ross
Architecture:
Client: Charles Stedman (1753 -1812)
Designer: Robert Smith (1722 -1777)
Built: 1765-1766, Georgian Style
Background:
The house
was commissioned by Charles Stedman (1753 -1812) who went to debtor’s prison
before he could live in it. Stedman was a loyalist who fought on the British
side of the American Revolution and eventually retired and died in England.
Samuel Powell Sr. (1673 – 1756) was a Quaker who immigrated to Philadelphia in the 1680s. He was a skilled craftsman who accumulated a fortune and 90 rental properties which he left to Samuel Powel Jr, who went on to traveled in Europe for seven years, meeting the Duke of York, the Pope, and Voltaire. While in Europe, he became Anglican. When he returned, he married Elizabeth Willing, purchased the house, and together they had the interiors lavishly decorated.
Samuel Powel was Philadelphia Mayor during and after the Revolutionary War. During that time, he and his wife Elizabeth entertained Ben Franklin, George and Martha Washington, Marquis de Lafayette, and Benjamin Rush. Samuel Powel then died from yellow fever in 1793.
The house passed through different hands during the 19th and early 20th century. The merchant Wolf Klebansky used it as a warehouse and sold the interior spaces to museums (second floor to the Met in 1918 and the ballroom to the PMA in 1925).
In 1930, the
house was going to be demolished for the construction of a parking lot. As a
response, Philadelphian Francis Wister created the Philadelphia Society for Preservation of Landmarks, purchased the
house in 1931, and converted it into a museum.
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