The Hills - Revision history

V-federici at 18:21, August 17, 2021

2021-08-17T18:21:08Z

V-federici at 18:19, August 17, 2021

2021-08-17T18:19:58Z

M-westerby at 17:49, August 17, 2021

2021-08-17T17:49:53Z

V-federici at 17:09, August 17, 2021

2021-08-17T17:09:38Z

V-federici at 17:02, August 17, 2021

2021-08-17T17:02:49Z

A-whitlock at 19:42, August 12, 2021

2021-08-12T19:42:15Z

V-Federici at 12:48, April 1, 2021

2021-04-01T12:48:19Z

V-Federici at 17:22, December 19, 2020

2020-12-19T17:22:53Z

A-Whitlock at 20:13, January 13, 2020

2020-01-13T20:13:22Z

Show changes

A-Whitlock at 18:52, January 13, 2020

2020-01-13T18:52:55Z

@@ Line 138: / Line 138: @@
 See also: [[Springettsbury]], [[Lemon Hill]]
-'''The Hills''' was the [[Schuylkill River]] estate of the influential British-born merchant, financier, and government official, [[Robert Morris]] (1734&ndash;1806). It was the site of extensive formal gardens and a monumental [[greenhouse]] complex.
+'''The Hills''' was the [[Schuylkill River]] estate of the influential British-born merchant, financier, and government official, [[Robert Morris]] (1734&ndash;1806). It was the site of extensive formal gardens and a monumental [[greenhouse]] complex.<ref>All information about the gardeners hired by Morris to work at The Hills comes from Owen Tasker Robbins, “Toward a Preservation of the Grounds of Lemon Hill in Light of Their Past and Present Significance for Philadelphians” (master’s thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1987), 25&ndash;28, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref>
 ==History==
 [[File:1983.jpg|thumb|left|252px|Fig. 1, Jeremiah Paul, “Robert Morris’ Seat on Schuylkill,” July 20, 1794.]]
-Through a series of purchases begun in 1770, [[Robert Morris]] accumulated 300 acres of land on the northern border of Philadelphia, roughly corresponding with the portion of William Penn's [[Springettsbury]] estate known as Vineyard Hill.<ref>All information about the gardeners hired by Morris to work at The Hills comes from Owen Tasker Robbins, “Toward a Preservation of the Grounds of Lemon Hill in Light of Their Past and Present Significance for Philadelphians” (master’s thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1987), 25&ndash;28, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> [[Robert Morris|Morris]] renamed the property The Hills and erected a “very beautiful house, built in the Italianate style” on a knoll overlooking the [[Schuylkill River]].<ref>Johann Ewald, ''Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal'', ed. Joseph P. Tustin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 108, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BC9GFJUN view on Zotero].</ref> While maintaining his primary residence in town, Robert Morris frequently walked out to this rural retreat to dine or take tea, often in the company of friends and politically prominent guests.<ref>Ryan K. Smith, ''Robert Morris’s Folly: The Architectural and Financial Failures of an American Founder'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014), 47, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZKNMARKC view on Zotero]; Charles Rappleye, ''Robert Morris: Financier of the American Revolution'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 24, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4MAMWNRA view on Zotero]; Thompson Westcott, ''The Historic Mansions and Buildings of Philadelphia, with Some Notice of Their Owners and Occupants'' (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1877), 369, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QF7PUHNV view on Zotero]; ''Revolutionary Papers, Collections of the New-York Historical Society for 1878'' (New York: New York Historical Society, 1878), 1:407, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TCPXJMZT view on Zotero].</ref> During the Revolutionary War, British troops advancing on Philadelphia established a picket directly behind [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] house, which they tore down on November 28, 1777. They also demolished as many as twenty farm buildings and chopped down [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] “splendid fruit trees.”<ref>Ewald 1979, 96, 99, 105&ndash;8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BC9GFJUN view on Zotero].</ref> On November 29 George Washington's aide-de-camp, Tench Tilghman (1744&ndash;1786), informed [[Robert Morris|Morris]] that the only thing left of his country estate was the ground itself, “in every other respect it is in a state of Nature.”<ref>''Revolutionary Papers'', 1878, 432, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TCPXJMZT view on Zotero].</ref> Philadelphia physician Josiah Bartlett (1729&ndash;1795) later described the entire area north of the city as “one common waste. . . . Mr. Dickinson and [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] fine [[seat]]s all demolished.”<ref>Letter of July 13, 1778, quoted in Robbins 1987, 13, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref>
+Through a series of purchases begun in 1770, [[Robert Morris]] accumulated 300 acres of land on the northern border of Philadelphia, roughly corresponding with the portion of William Penn's [[Springettsbury]] estate known as Vineyard Hill. [[Robert Morris|Morris]] renamed the property The Hills and erected a “very beautiful house, built in the Italianate style” on a knoll overlooking the [[Schuylkill River]].<ref>Johann Ewald, ''Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal'', ed. Joseph P. Tustin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 108, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BC9GFJUN view on Zotero].</ref> While maintaining his primary residence in town, Robert Morris frequently walked out to this rural retreat to dine or take tea, often in the company of friends and politically prominent guests.<ref>Ryan K. Smith, ''Robert Morris’s Folly: The Architectural and Financial Failures of an American Founder'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014), 47, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZKNMARKC view on Zotero]; Charles Rappleye, ''Robert Morris: Financier of the American Revolution'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 24, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4MAMWNRA view on Zotero]; Thompson Westcott, ''The Historic Mansions and Buildings of Philadelphia, with Some Notice of Their Owners and Occupants'' (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1877), 369, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QF7PUHNV view on Zotero]; ''Revolutionary Papers, Collections of the New-York Historical Society for 1878'' (New York: New York Historical Society, 1878), 1:407, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TCPXJMZT view on Zotero].</ref> During the Revolutionary War, British troops advancing on Philadelphia established a picket directly behind [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] house, which they tore down on November 28, 1777. They also demolished as many as twenty farm buildings and chopped down [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] “splendid fruit trees.”<ref>Ewald 1979, 96, 99, 105&ndash;8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BC9GFJUN view on Zotero].</ref> On November 29 George Washington's aide-de-camp, Tench Tilghman (1744&ndash;1786), informed [[Robert Morris|Morris]] that the only thing left of his country estate was the ground itself, “in every other respect it is in a state of Nature.”<ref>''Revolutionary Papers'', 1878, 432, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TCPXJMZT view on Zotero].</ref> Philadelphia physician Josiah Bartlett (1729&ndash;1795) later described the entire area north of the city as “one common waste. . . . Mr. Dickinson and [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] fine [[seat]]s all demolished.”<ref>Letter of July 13, 1778, quoted in Robbins 1987, 13, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref>
 On his return to The Hills, [[Robert Morris|Morris]] apparently decided not to replace his ruined house with a new residence, but rather to create a spectacular [[greenhouse]]. In 1780 he had converted the [[greenhouse]] at nearby [[Springettsbury]] into a dining room while he and his family were leasing the property as a summer retreat. He was so delighted by the "beauty and convenience" of the repurposed building, that after a fire broke out at [[Springettsbury]] in March 1784, [[Robert Morris|Morris]] began developing such a [[greenhouse]] suitable for entertaining at The Hills.<ref>Kitty Livingston to Mrs. John Jay, July 10, 1780, quoted in John Jay, ''The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay'', ed. Henry P. Johnston, 4 vols. (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893), 1:376, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QUDR6RXW view on Zotero].</ref> One of his few business records from this period notes payments made at The Hills to the stone cutter William Stiles for “sundry work done by him at the [[hothouse|Hot]] and [[greenhouse|Green House]]s from October 1784 to December 1785.”<ref>Robbins 1987, 19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> Construction was still underway in July 1787 when [[Manasseh Cutler]] paid a brief visit to [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] property and reported: “His country [[seat]] is not yet completed but it will be superb. It is planned on a large scale, the gardens and [[walk]]s are extensive and the villa situated on an [[eminence]] has a commanding [[prospect]] down the [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill]] to the Delaware.”<ref>Manasseh Cutler, ''Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, L.L.D''., ed. William Parker Cutler and Julia Perkin Cutler, 2 vols. (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1888), 1:257, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ASAS6SD5 view on Zotero].</ref>

@@ Line 139: / Line 139: @@
 '''The Hills''' was the [[Schuylkill River]] estate of the influential British-born merchant, financier, and government official, [[Robert Morris]] (1734&ndash;1806). It was the site of extensive formal gardens and a monumental [[greenhouse]] complex.
 ==History==
 [[File:1983.jpg|thumb|left|252px|Fig. 1, Jeremiah Paul, “Robert Morris’ Seat on Schuylkill,” July 20, 1794.]]
-Through a series of purchases begun in 1770, [[Robert Morris]] accumulated 300 acres of land on the northern border of Philadelphia, roughly corresponding with the portion of William Penn's [[Springettsbury]] estate known as Vineyard Hill. [[Robert Morris|Morris]] renamed the property The Hills and erected a “very beautiful house, built in the Italianate style” on a knoll overlooking the [[Schuylkill River]].<ref>Johann Ewald, ''Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal'', ed. Joseph P. Tustin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 108, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BC9GFJUN view on Zotero].</ref> While maintaining his primary residence in town, Robert Morris frequently walked out to this rural retreat to dine or take tea, often in the company of friends and politically prominent guests.<ref>Ryan K. Smith, ''Robert Morris’s Folly: The Architectural and Financial Failures of an American Founder'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014), 47, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZKNMARKC view on Zotero]; Charles Rappleye, ''Robert Morris: Financier of the American Revolution'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 24, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4MAMWNRA view on Zotero]; Thompson Westcott, ''The Historic Mansions and Buildings of Philadelphia, with Some Notice of Their Owners and Occupants'' (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1877), 369, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QF7PUHNV view on Zotero]; ''Revolutionary Papers, Collections of the New-York Historical Society for 1878'' (New York: New York Historical Society, 1878), 1:407, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TCPXJMZT view on Zotero].</ref> During the Revolutionary War, British troops advancing on Philadelphia established a picket directly behind [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] house, which they tore down on November 28, 1777. They also demolished as many as twenty farm buildings and chopped down [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] “splendid fruit trees.”<ref>Ewald 1979, 96, 99, 105&ndash;8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BC9GFJUN view on Zotero].</ref> On November 29 George Washington's aide-de-camp, Tench Tilghman (1744&ndash;1786), informed [[Robert Morris|Morris]] that the only thing left of his country estate was the ground itself, “in every other respect it is in a state of Nature.”<ref>''Revolutionary Papers'', 1878, 432, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TCPXJMZT view on Zotero].</ref> Philadelphia physician Josiah Bartlett (1729&ndash;1795) later described the entire area north of the city as “one common waste. . . . Mr. Dickinson and [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] fine [[seat]]s all demolished.”<ref>Letter of July 13, 1778, quoted in Robbins 1987, 13, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref>
+Through a series of purchases begun in 1770, [[Robert Morris]] accumulated 300 acres of land on the northern border of Philadelphia, roughly corresponding with the portion of William Penn's [[Springettsbury]] estate known as Vineyard Hill.<ref>All information about the gardeners hired by Morris to work at The Hills comes from Owen Tasker Robbins, “Toward a Preservation of the Grounds of Lemon Hill in Light of Their Past and Present Significance for Philadelphians” (master’s thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1987), 25&ndash;28, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> [[Robert Morris|Morris]] renamed the property The Hills and erected a “very beautiful house, built in the Italianate style” on a knoll overlooking the [[Schuylkill River]].<ref>Johann Ewald, ''Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal'', ed. Joseph P. Tustin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 108, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BC9GFJUN view on Zotero].</ref> While maintaining his primary residence in town, Robert Morris frequently walked out to this rural retreat to dine or take tea, often in the company of friends and politically prominent guests.<ref>Ryan K. Smith, ''Robert Morris’s Folly: The Architectural and Financial Failures of an American Founder'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014), 47, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZKNMARKC view on Zotero]; Charles Rappleye, ''Robert Morris: Financier of the American Revolution'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 24, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4MAMWNRA view on Zotero]; Thompson Westcott, ''The Historic Mansions and Buildings of Philadelphia, with Some Notice of Their Owners and Occupants'' (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1877), 369, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QF7PUHNV view on Zotero]; ''Revolutionary Papers, Collections of the New-York Historical Society for 1878'' (New York: New York Historical Society, 1878), 1:407, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TCPXJMZT view on Zotero].</ref> During the Revolutionary War, British troops advancing on Philadelphia established a picket directly behind [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] house, which they tore down on November 28, 1777. They also demolished as many as twenty farm buildings and chopped down [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] “splendid fruit trees.”<ref>Ewald 1979, 96, 99, 105&ndash;8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BC9GFJUN view on Zotero].</ref> On November 29 George Washington's aide-de-camp, Tench Tilghman (1744&ndash;1786), informed [[Robert Morris|Morris]] that the only thing left of his country estate was the ground itself, “in every other respect it is in a state of Nature.”<ref>''Revolutionary Papers'', 1878, 432, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TCPXJMZT view on Zotero].</ref> Philadelphia physician Josiah Bartlett (1729&ndash;1795) later described the entire area north of the city as “one common waste. . . . Mr. Dickinson and [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] fine [[seat]]s all demolished.”<ref>Letter of July 13, 1778, quoted in Robbins 1987, 13, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref>
 On his return to The Hills, [[Robert Morris|Morris]] apparently decided not to replace his ruined house with a new residence, but rather to create a spectacular [[greenhouse]]. In 1780 he had converted the [[greenhouse]] at nearby [[Springettsbury]] into a dining room while he and his family were leasing the property as a summer retreat. He was so delighted by the "beauty and convenience" of the repurposed building, that after a fire broke out at [[Springettsbury]] in March 1784, [[Robert Morris|Morris]] began developing such a [[greenhouse]] suitable for entertaining at The Hills.<ref>Kitty Livingston to Mrs. John Jay, July 10, 1780, quoted in John Jay, ''The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay'', ed. Henry P. Johnston, 4 vols. (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893), 1:376, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QUDR6RXW view on Zotero].</ref> One of his few business records from this period notes payments made at The Hills to the stone cutter William Stiles for “sundry work done by him at the [[hothouse|Hot]] and [[greenhouse|Green House]]s from October 1784 to December 1785.”<ref>Robbins 1987, 19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> Construction was still underway in July 1787 when [[Manasseh Cutler]] paid a brief visit to [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] property and reported: “His country [[seat]] is not yet completed but it will be superb. It is planned on a large scale, the gardens and [[walk]]s are extensive and the villa situated on an [[eminence]] has a commanding [[prospect]] down the [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill]] to the Delaware.”<ref>Manasseh Cutler, ''Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, L.L.D''., ed. William Parker Cutler and Julia Perkin Cutler, 2 vols. (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1888), 1:257, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ASAS6SD5 view on Zotero].</ref>

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 |Through Questionable End=No
 |Location=Philadelphia, PA
-|Geolocation link=coordinates
+|Geolocation link=suppress
 |Condition=Altered
 |Keywords=Canal; Eminence; Greenhouse; Hothouse; Plantation; Prospect; Seat; Summerhouse; Walk; Woods

@@ Line 79: / Line 79: @@
 }}{{Associated person
 |Name=F. Gottreu
 |Role=Gardener
 |From Present=No

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 |Geolocation link=coordinates
 |Condition=Altered
 |Site owners={{Site owner
 |Name=Robert Morris
@@ Line 35: / Line 36: @@
 |Owned Concurrence End=Exact
 |Owned Questionable End=No
 }}
 }}

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 See also: [[Springettsbury]], [[Lemon Hill]]
@@ Line 64: / Line 102: @@
 Image:1983.jpg|Jeremiah Paul, “Robert Morris’ Seat on Schuylkill,” July 20, 1794.
 </gallery>

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 On his return to The Hills, [[Robert Morris|Morris]] apparently decided not to replace his ruined house with a new residence, but rather to create a spectacular [[greenhouse]]. In 1780 he had converted the [[greenhouse]] at nearby [[Springettsbury]] into a dining room while he and his family were leasing the property as a summer retreat. He was so delighted by the "beauty and convenience" of the repurposed building, that after a fire broke out at [[Springettsbury]] in March 1784, [[Robert Morris|Morris]] began developing such a [[greenhouse]] suitable for entertaining at The Hills.<ref>Kitty Livingston to Mrs. John Jay, July 10, 1780, quoted in John Jay, ''The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay'', ed. Henry P. Johnston, 4 vols. (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893), 1:376, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QUDR6RXW view on Zotero].</ref> One of his few business records from this period notes payments made at The Hills to the stone cutter William Stiles for “sundry work done by him at the [[hothouse|Hot]] and [[greenhouse|Green House]]s from October 1784 to December 1785.”<ref>Robbins 1987, 19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> Construction was still underway in July 1787 when [[Manasseh Cutler]] paid a brief visit to [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] property and reported: “His country [[seat]] is not yet completed but it will be superb. It is planned on a large scale, the gardens and [[walk]]s are extensive and the villa situated on an [[eminence]] has a commanding [[prospect]] down the [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill]] to the Delaware.”<ref>Manasseh Cutler, ''Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, L.L.D''., ed. William Parker Cutler and Julia Perkin Cutler, 2 vols. (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1888), 1:257, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ASAS6SD5 view on Zotero].</ref>
-The “villa” glimpsed by [[Manasseh Cutler|Cutler]] was actually The Hills’ increasingly elaborate [[greenhouse]]. [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] ledger books document substantial payments to stone masons, brick layers, carpenters, glaziers, ironmongers, and painters working on the [[greenhouse]] and [[hothouse]]s.<ref>Robbins 1987, 20&ndash;22, 137&ndash;42, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> By 1797 two 50-foot-wide [[hothouse]] wings flanked the two-story [[greenhouse]]. “Two large rooms” stood at the back of the [[hothouse]]s and “a House for a gardener, with one large and five small rooms,” connected to the [[greenhouse]]. Among its furnishings, the house contained four dining tables with chairs and place settings for eighteen guests.<ref>Smith 2014, 159, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZKNMARKC view on Zotero].</ref> There was also “an excellent vault under the [[greenhouse]], and a covered room for preserving roots &c. in winter.”<ref>Robbins 1987, 136, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> The many visitors [[Robert Morris|Morris]] hosted at The Hills ran the gamut from [[George Washington]] (a frequent dinner guest during the Continental Convention in 1787) to a delegation of Seneca Indians, who “dined with [[Robert Morris|Morris]] at the [[Greenhouse]] out of town” in April 1792.<ref>Smith 2014, 47, 307, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZKNMARKC view on Zotero]; Robbins 1987, 138, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero]; see also Elizabeth Drinker, ''Extracts from the Journal of Elizabeth Drinker, from 1759 to 1807 A.D.'', ed. Henry D. Biddle (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company , 1889), 267, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5S3QMIAX, view on Zotero].</ref> The Philadelphia miniature painter Jeremiah Paul Jr. (1761&ndash;1820) depicted the famous site in “Robert Morris’ Seat on Schuylkill,” a watercolor sketch dated July 20, 1794 [Fig. 1], which probably relates to “a Landscape of The Hills [[Greenhouse|Green House]] &c,” for which [[Robert Morris|Morris]] paid $15 on November 24, 1794.<ref>Robbins 1987, 146, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref>
+The “villa” glimpsed by [[Manasseh Cutler|Cutler]] was actually The Hills’ increasingly elaborate [[greenhouse]]. [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] ledger books document substantial payments to stone masons, brick layers, carpenters, glaziers, ironmongers, and painters working on the [[greenhouse]] and [[hothouse]]s.<ref>Robbins 1987, 20&ndash;22, 137&ndash;42, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> By 1797 two 50-foot-wide [[hothouse]] wings flanked the two-story [[greenhouse]]. “Two large rooms” stood at the back of the [[hothouse]]s and “a House for a gardener, with one large and five small rooms,” connected to the [[greenhouse]]. Among its furnishings, the house contained four dining tables with chairs and place settings for eighteen guests.<ref>Smith 2014, 159, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZKNMARKC view on Zotero].</ref> There was also “an excellent vault under the [[greenhouse]], and a covered room for preserving roots &c. in winter.”<ref>Robbins 1987, 136, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> The many visitors [[Robert Morris|Morris]] hosted at The Hills ran the gamut from George Washington (a frequent dinner guest during the Continental Convention in 1787) to a delegation of Seneca Indians, who “dined with [[Robert Morris|Morris]] at the [[Greenhouse]] out of town” in April 1792.<ref>Smith 2014, 47, 307, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/ZKNMARKC view on Zotero]; Robbins 1987, 138, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero]; see also Elizabeth Drinker, ''Extracts from the Journal of Elizabeth Drinker, from 1759 to 1807 A.D.'', ed. Henry D. Biddle (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company , 1889), 267, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5S3QMIAX, view on Zotero].</ref> The Philadelphia miniature painter Jeremiah Paul Jr. (1761&ndash;1820) depicted the famous site in “Robert Morris’ Seat on Schuylkill,” a watercolor sketch dated July 20, 1794 [Fig. 1], which probably relates to “a Landscape of The Hills [[Greenhouse|Green House]] &c,” for which [[Robert Morris|Morris]] paid $15 on November 24, 1794.<ref>Robbins 1987, 146, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref>
 While building the [[greenhouse]] and [[hothouse]]s, [[Robert Morris|Morris]] also assembled an array of exotic plants and created a lush garden. Later accounts of this section of the property (when under the ownership of [[Henry Pratt]]) suggest that it had a [[geometric style|geometric]] design and that the plants were “interspersed with [[statue]]s and busts,” as at neighboring Bush Hill.<ref>The quoted phrase is from Alexander Jackson Downing, ''A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America'' (New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1841), 24, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QDVESTBX view on Zotero]. For sculpture at Bush Hill, see Abigail Adams to Elizabeth Smith Shaw, March 20, 1791, in Abigail Adams, ''Letters of Mrs. Adams, the Wife of John Adams. With an Introductory Memoir by Her Grandson, Charles Francis Adams'', 4th ed. (Boston: Wilkins, Carter, & Company, 1848), 358, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/RTKNQ95Q view on Zotero].</ref> [[Charles Willson Peale]] possibly provided a glimpse of the garden in the background of his portrait of c. 1782 of [[Robert Morris]]'s wife, Mary White Morris (1749&ndash;1827). The orange branch held by Mary Morris in [[Charles Willson Peale|Peale's]] portrait alludes to the valuable collection of citrus trees and other exotic plants for which The Hills became well known. Visiting the estate on June 1, 1797, the German expatriate farmer Jacob Hiltzheimer (1729&ndash;1798) reported, “[[Robert Morris]]'s gardener . . . made us some very good lemon punch, the fruit grown in the garden, and showed us a number of pineapples growing and likewise two coffee trees in bloom.”<ref>Jacob Hiltzheimer, ''Extracts from the Diary of Jacob Hiltzheimer of Philadelphia, 1765&ndash;1798'', ed. Jacob Cox Parsons (Philadelphia: William F. Fell & Co., 1893), 243, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7NU9RN8C view on Zotero].</ref>

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] ledgers record numerous payments for flower [[pot]]s, as well as cedar tubs for the [[greenhouse]] and coal for the [[hothouse]].<ref>Robbins 1987, 138, 141, 142, 147, 148, 149, 151, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> The ledgers unfortunately identify few specific plants, other than “a box with a Tree from Charlston [''sic''], “4 large Elm Trees,” and “fruit trees &c.”<ref>Robbins 1987, 138, 140, 153, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> [[Robert Morris|Morris]] evidently cultivated grapes, and became a subscriber of the Society for Promoting the Cultivation of Vines in February 1794. A succession of gardeners tended the garden and [[greenhouse]] at The Hills and managed plant sales. [[David Landreth]] served as head gardener from 1791 to 1796 at an annual salary of £70.<ref>Robbins 1987, 139, 143, 144, 146, 147, 149, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> F. Gottreau succeeded him for a short time in 1797, followed by James Donnely from 1797 to 1799. Other gardeners who worked at The Hills included [[David Landreth|David Landreth's]] brother, Cuthbert (1793 to 1799), and also William Read (1797).<ref>Robbins 1987, 25&ndash;26, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> A few tenants over the years helped tend [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] extensive property. On July 18, 1797, Jacob Hiltzheimer was astonished by the great quantity of “grape vines loaded down with grapes” that Peter Kuhn had cultivated on a lot that was “lately part of [[Robert Morris's]] garden.”<ref>Hiltzheimer 1893, 245; see also 153, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7NU9RN8C view on Zotero].</ref> Plants from The Hills continued to circulate in Philadelphia and other parts of the country for years after [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] death. For example, in 1807 [[Thomas Jefferson]] received cuttings from red and white freestone peaches that originated with specimens that [[Robert Morris|Morris]] had imported from Italy. In 1876 the Cincinnati gardener Jacob Hoffner (1799&ndash;1894) donated to Horticulture Hall in Philadelphia a Sago palm that had grown for many years at The Hills.<ref>Timothy Matlack to Thomas Jefferson, February 25, 1807, [http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-5160 Founders Online, National Archives]; Samuel Newman Baxter, “Two Historic Century-Old Cycads,” ''Garden Magazine'' 35 (1922): 296, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SFWG5G6R view on Zotero].</ref>
-From 1793 to 1795, while serving as president of the [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill]] and Susquehanna Navigation Company, [[Robert Morris|Morris]] arranged for a navigable [[canal]] to be dug from Bush Hill to the northwest boundary of The Hills.<ref>Ronald E. Shaw, ''Canals For A Nation: The Canal Era in the United States, 1790&ndash;1860'' (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1990), 4, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BDMA3SVQ view on Zotero]; Frederick Watts and Henry J. Sergeant, ''Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania . . .1842'' (Philadelphia: James Kay Jr. & Brother, 1843), 4:393&ndash;400, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/MV8MJMJC view on Zotero]; Albert B. Weimer, ed., ''Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania'', 3rd ed. (Philadelphia: T. & J. W. Johnson, 1890), 4:455&ndash;62, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5BEHVCPW view on Zotero]; Hiltzheimer 1893, 192&ndash;94, 204, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7NU9RN8C view on Zotero]; Drinker 1889, 267, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5S3QMIAX, view on Zotero].</ref> Failed land speculations and other financial embarrassments (including a ruinously expensive townhouse designed by [[Pierre-Charles L’Enfant]]) placed [[Robert Morris|Morris]] deeply in debt. The Hills was subdivided into lots and disbursed at a sheriff’s sale held on March 15, 1799. [[Henry Pratt]], one of [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] creditors, purchased the two lots that contained the [[greenhouse]] and farm buildings, totaling a little over 42 acres. Several months later, [[Henry Pratt|Pratt]] paid [[Robert Morris|Morris]] $750 for the [[greenhouse]] plants.<ref>Robbins 1987, 30, 155, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> Almost immediately, [[Henry Pratt|Pratt]] began erecting a manor house and redeveloping the landscape and [[greenhouse]] collections on his property, which he named [[Lemon Hill]]. The merchant William Crammond purchased another section of The Hills where he built [[Sedgeley]], a Gothic Revival house designed by the architect [[Benjamin Henry Latrobe]].
+From 1793 to 1795, while serving as president of the [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill]] and Susquehanna Navigation Company, [[Robert Morris|Morris]] arranged for a navigable [[canal]] to be dug from Bush Hill to the northwest boundary of The Hills.<ref>Ronald E. Shaw, ''Canals For A Nation: The Canal Era in the United States, 1790&ndash;1860'' (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1990), 4, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BDMA3SVQ view on Zotero]; Frederick Watts and Henry J. Sergeant, ''Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania . . .1842'' (Philadelphia: James Kay Jr. & Brother, 1843), 4:393&ndash;400, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/MV8MJMJC view on Zotero]; Albert B. Weimer, ed., ''Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania'', 3rd ed. (Philadelphia: T. & J. W. Johnson, 1890), 4:455&ndash;62, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5BEHVCPW view on Zotero]; Hiltzheimer 1893, 192&ndash;94, 204, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/7NU9RN8C view on Zotero]; Drinker 1889, 267, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5S3QMIAX, view on Zotero].</ref> Failed land speculations and other financial embarrassments (including a ruinously expensive townhouse designed by [[Pierre-Charles L’Enfant]]) placed [[Robert Morris|Morris]] deeply in debt. The Hills was subdivided into lots and disbursed at a sheriff’s sale held on March 15, 1799. [[Henry Pratt]], one of [[Robert Morris|Morris's]] creditors, purchased the two lots that contained the [[greenhouse]] and farm buildings, totaling a little over 42 acres. Several months later, [[Henry Pratt|Pratt]] paid [[Robert Morris|Morris]] $750 for the [[greenhouse]] plants.<ref>Robbins 1987, 30, 155, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> Almost immediately, [[Henry Pratt|Pratt]] began erecting a manor house and redeveloping the landscape and [[greenhouse]] collections on his property, which he named [[Lemon Hill]]. The merchant William Crammond purchased another section of The Hills where he built Sedgeley, a Gothic Revival house designed by the architect [[Benjamin Henry Latrobe]].
 —''Robyn Asleson''
@@ Line 65: / Line 65: @@
 Image:1983.jpg|Jeremiah Paul, “Robert Morris’ Seat on Schuylkill,” July 20, 1794.
 </gallery>
 <hr>