“Beauty and historical interest are united here to a degree very rare in America” Fiske Kimball writing in The Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin, September, 1926

After accepting the directorship of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Arts Fiske Kimball moved to Philadelphia in the fall of 1925. He was tasked with overseeing the completion of the Museum’s new building that would open to the public in less than three years, moving the Museum’s collection of objects across the river … Continue reading “Beauty and historical interest are united here to a degree very rare in America” Fiske Kimball writing in The Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin, September, 1926

“It is needless to mention the many genteel, regular and convenient buildings on it, as they are so well known; they at least equal, if not surpass anything of the kind in North America…”

Slightly more than three years after its construction was completed, this is how Captain John Macpherson (1726-1792), a sea-faring immigrant from Scotland, described Mount Pleasant, in an advertisement for its sale or lease, in the Pennsylvania Gazette on January 12, 1769.  Why sell his estate after living there for less time than the nearly four … Continue reading “It is needless to mention the many genteel, regular and convenient buildings on it, as they are so well known; they at least equal, if not surpass anything of the kind in North America…”

“Well done is better than well said.” Benjamin Franklin

This blog will be a resource for information about conservation and restoration projects I have been involved with at the historic site Mount Pleasant, located in East Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It will also address issues of preservation, interpretation, and the history of the site with an emphasis on the building trades involved in its … Continue reading “Well done is better than well said.” Benjamin Franklin