Researching the historical record pertaining to Mount Pleasant can sometimes cause confusion when specific rooms are being discussed. In earlier posts I have used names for spaces in the main house as they are currently interpreted by the staff of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Several years ago, after a close reading of Thomas Nevell’s … Continue reading “Go down, into the parlour that my arms hang and bring me up a pistol.” Captain John Macpherson
Mount Pleasant
“I have endeavored all along to form such designs as are capable of receiving good Decorations” Abraham Swan, London, 1757
Swan continued by comparing bad “Decorations with Superadded Ornaments” to a “clown in a laced Waistcoat.” That was written on the second page of his preface to his two volume publication, A Collection of Designs in Architecture. Swan made it clear that by hiring him, he would be able to “accommodate the Great and Noble … Continue reading “I have endeavored all along to form such designs as are capable of receiving good Decorations” Abraham Swan, London, 1757
“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
In Proportion to the Trouble 