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Henry Pratt, a wealthy shipping merchant and land speculator from Philadelphia, purchased the southern portion of [[Robert Morris]]’s [[Schuylkill River]] estate, [[The Hills]], at a sheriff’s sale in 1799.<ref>The sheriff’s sale took place on March 15, 1799, at the Merchants Coffee House. For $14,654.22, Pratt acquired 42 acres and 93 perches of [[Robert Morris|Morris’s]] former estate, including the land upon which [[Robert Morris|Morris’s]] house and [[greenhouse]]s had stood. Owen Tasker Robbins, “Toward a Preservation of the Grounds of Lemon Hill in Light of Their Past and Present Significance for Philadelphians” (unpublished Masters of Science Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1978), 25, 30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> Under Pratt’s ownership, the property, which he renamed [[Lemon Hill]], was renowned for its [[geometric style|geometric-style]] gardens, [[picturesque]] grounds, and extensive [[greenhouse]] and [[hothouse]] complex. In the mid-1820s, Joseph Stubbs even featured Pratt’s estate prominently in a design for his Staffordshire pottery, a choice that suggests the international reach of [[Lemon Hill]]’s reputation during the early nineteenth century [Fig. 1].
 
Henry Pratt, a wealthy shipping merchant and land speculator from Philadelphia, purchased the southern portion of [[Robert Morris]]’s [[Schuylkill River]] estate, [[The Hills]], at a sheriff’s sale in 1799.<ref>The sheriff’s sale took place on March 15, 1799, at the Merchants Coffee House. For $14,654.22, Pratt acquired 42 acres and 93 perches of [[Robert Morris|Morris’s]] former estate, including the land upon which [[Robert Morris|Morris’s]] house and [[greenhouse]]s had stood. Owen Tasker Robbins, “Toward a Preservation of the Grounds of Lemon Hill in Light of Their Past and Present Significance for Philadelphians” (unpublished Masters of Science Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1978), 25, 30, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero].</ref> Under Pratt’s ownership, the property, which he renamed [[Lemon Hill]], was renowned for its [[geometric style|geometric-style]] gardens, [[picturesque]] grounds, and extensive [[greenhouse]] and [[hothouse]] complex. In the mid-1820s, Joseph Stubbs even featured Pratt’s estate prominently in a design for his Staffordshire pottery, a choice that suggests the international reach of [[Lemon Hill]]’s reputation during the early nineteenth century [Fig. 1].
  
[[Lemon Hill]] served primarily as a warm-weather retreat for Pratt’s family as well as a site for business and social entertaining.<ref>By the time Pratt purchased [[Lemon Hill]], he was married to his third wife, Susannah Care (1776&ndash;1816), whom he had married in 1794. The couple would have four children together. Previously, he had married Frances Moore (c. 1757&ndash;1785) in 1778, with whom he had four children, and Elizabeth Dundas (1764&ndash;1793) in 1785, with whom he had six children. Of Pratt’s fourteen children, only seven survived to adulthood. For more information, see the Pratt family tree on the official Lemon Hill website: http://www.lemonhill.org/HistoryPF.html.</ref> Pratt, who was the eldest child of the Philadelphia portrait painter Matthew Pratt (1734&ndash;1805) and his wife Elizabeth (1739&ndash;1777), held prominent leadership roles within the city’s civic and business communities, reportedly serving as President of the city’s Select Council, President of the Delaware Fire Company, as a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and as a Vestryman at Christ Church, among other positions.<ref>Robbins 1978, 29. Pratt was elected to a three-year term as President of the city’s Select Council in October 1799. J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, ''History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884'', vol. 3 (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1884), 1708, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8RJIVE6G view on Zotero].</ref>
+
[[Lemon Hill]] served primarily as a warm-weather retreat for Pratt’s family as well as a site for business and social entertaining.<ref>By the time Pratt purchased [[Lemon Hill]], he was married to his third wife, Susannah Care (1776&ndash;1816), whom he had married in 1794. The couple would have four children together. Previously, he had married Frances Moore (c. 1757&ndash;1785) in 1778, with whom he had four children, and Elizabeth Dundas (1764&ndash;1793) in 1785, with whom he had six children. Of Pratt’s fourteen children, only seven survived to adulthood. For more information, see the Pratt family tree on the official Lemon Hill website: http://www.lemonhill.org/HistoryPF.html.</ref> Pratt, who was the eldest child of the Philadelphia portrait painter Matthew Pratt (1734&ndash;1805) and his wife Elizabeth (1739&ndash;1777), held prominent leadership roles within the city’s civic and business communities, reportedly serving as President of the city’s Select Council, President of the Delaware Fire Company, as a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and as a Vestryman at Christ Church, among other positions.<ref>Robbins 1978, 29, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero]. Pratt was elected to a three-year term as President of the city’s Select Council in October 1799. J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, ''History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884'', vol. 3 (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1884), 1708, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8RJIVE6G view on Zotero].</ref> After short stints at the beginning of his career trading in china and crockery and opening a grocery business, Pratt became a successful shipping merchant.<ref>Scharf and Westcott 1884, 2212, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/8RJIVE6G view on Zotero].</ref> From about 1797 until 1812, he partnered with Abraham Kintzing to form the firm Pratt & Kintzing, which owned a fleet of merchant ships that carried goods such as tobacco, cotton, sugar, indigo, cornmeal, pork, hides, wheat, and clothing to and from ports across the eastern seaboard of the United States, the West Indies, Europe, and Asia.<ref>Robbins 1978, 29, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2MIWTC48 view on Zotero]. For additional information on some of the ships that Pratt owned both before and during his partnership with Kintzing, including cargo and trade routes, see Greg H. Williams, ''The French Assault on American Shipping, 1793–1813: A History and Comprehensive Record of Merchant Marine Losses'' (Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland & Company, 2009) [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/6RJJMHBF view on Zotero].</ref>
  
 
==Texts==
 
==Texts==

Revision as of 13:45, October 19, 2016

Henry Pratt (May 14, 1761–February 6, 1838) was a wealthy Philadelphia shipping merchant and land speculator. From 1799 until 1836, he was the proprietor of Lemon Hill, a Schuylkill River estate known for its geometric-style gardens, picturesque grounds, and extensive greenhouse and hothouse complex, which was reported to be the largest in the United States.


History

Henry Pratt, a wealthy shipping merchant and land speculator from Philadelphia, purchased the southern portion of Robert Morris’s Schuylkill River estate, The Hills, at a sheriff’s sale in 1799.[1] Under Pratt’s ownership, the property, which he renamed Lemon Hill, was renowned for its geometric-style gardens, picturesque grounds, and extensive greenhouse and hothouse complex. In the mid-1820s, Joseph Stubbs even featured Pratt’s estate prominently in a design for his Staffordshire pottery, a choice that suggests the international reach of Lemon Hill’s reputation during the early nineteenth century [Fig. 1].

Lemon Hill served primarily as a warm-weather retreat for Pratt’s family as well as a site for business and social entertaining.[2] Pratt, who was the eldest child of the Philadelphia portrait painter Matthew Pratt (1734–1805) and his wife Elizabeth (1739–1777), held prominent leadership roles within the city’s civic and business communities, reportedly serving as President of the city’s Select Council, President of the Delaware Fire Company, as a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and as a Vestryman at Christ Church, among other positions.[3] After short stints at the beginning of his career trading in china and crockery and opening a grocery business, Pratt became a successful shipping merchant.[4] From about 1797 until 1812, he partnered with Abraham Kintzing to form the firm Pratt & Kintzing, which owned a fleet of merchant ships that carried goods such as tobacco, cotton, sugar, indigo, cornmeal, pork, hides, wheat, and clothing to and from ports across the eastern seaboard of the United States, the West Indies, Europe, and Asia.[5]

Texts

  • Oldschool, Oliver, August 1813, describing Lemon Hill, estate of Henry Pratt, Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Oldschool 1813: 166) [6]
"Lemon Hill...is the seat of Henry Pratt, esq. of Philadelphia; it is situated on a beautiful part of the river Schuylkill, about two and a half miles from the city. The prospect from it is elegant and extensive; the grounds are in the highest state of cultivation; the hot-house is admirably stored, and the picturesque and ornamental improvements, are highly creditable to the taste of the present liberal proprietor."


"We drove over the Upper Bridge to Mr Pratts who has a large collection of plants and extensive Greenhouses & ca. His grounds are too much after the French manner of pleasure gardens."


"But the most enchanting prospect is towards the grand pleasure grove & green house of a Mr. Prat[t], a gentleman of fortune, and to this we next proceeded by a circutous [sic] rout, passing in view of the fish ponds, bowers, rustic retreats, summer houses, fountains, grotto, &c., &c. . . . Next is a round fish pond with a small fountain playing in the pond. An Oval & several oblong fish ponds of larger size follow, & between the two last is an artificial cascade. Several summer houses in rustic style are made by nailing bark on the outside & thaching the roof. There is also a rustic seat built in the branches of a tree, & to which a flight of steps ascend. In one of the summer houses is a Spring with seats around it. The houses are all embelished [sic] with marble busts of Venus, Appollo, Diana and a Bacanti. One sits on an Island on the fish pond. All the ponds filled with handsome coloured fish.

"The grounds are planted with a great variety of shrubbery & evergreens of various kinds of the pine & fir, and the hot house is said to be the largest in the US. It is filled to overflowing with the choicest Exotics: the Chaddock Orange of different kinds & the Lemon loaded with fruit. There are two coffee trees with their berries. Some few shrubs were in flower & others seeded, & I was politely furnished with a few seed of 2 varieties of flowers (Myrtle & an accacia). In front of the hot house, one at each end, is a Lion of marble, well executed, & a dog in front. On the roof is a range of marble busts."


  • Anonymous, 1821, describing an exhibition of an aloe plant from Lemon Hill, estate of Henry Pratt, Philadelphia, Pa. (The Plough Boy: 30) [9]
[June 6] "It is believed that, but two of those plants have come to perfection in the United States. One was at Springbury, the seat of William Penn, near Bush Hill. This plant flowered in 1777. From it the late Mr. William Hamilton got a sucker, which he was fortunate enough to rear, and it flowered at the Woodlands, in the year 1804. When Henry Pratt, Esq. bought Lemon Hill, from the late Robert Morris, there was an Aloe in the Green House. This plant has been cherished and tended for 70 years, with great care, and is now RAPIDLY advancing to an exhibition of all the fragrance and beauty, of which it is susceptible. We will here, perhaps a little out of place, embrace the occasion, to pay homage of our consideration and thankfulness to Mr. Pratt, for the distinguished liberality with which his gardens, green houses, &c. are, and long have been, thrown open to strangers and to citizens.
"Mr. Pratt, with a liberality and benevolence which entitle him to great praise, has bestowed his plant on the Orphan Asylum, on Cherry-street, near Schuylkill Sixth-street: where it will be exhibited to the public for the benefit of that charitable institution. A building for the reception of the Aloe, being completed at the Asylum, the plant was yesterday moved thither from Lemon Hill. The greatest care was necessary and was taken in the removal. The Aloe was carried, the whole distance, on the shoulders of 24 men, and we have pleasure in saying that it did not sustain the slightest injury.
"On the 28th of May last, it was observed that this interesting plant had put forth and unerring evidence that it was about to flower. It put forth an upright shoot, like a strong asparagus. This stem, since that time, has grown 5 feet 8 inches; considerably more than the plant had grown in 60 years before. It will be in full flower about the middle of July next.
"We give this early notice of this interesting exhibition to afford persons at a distance an opportunity of making their arrangements to enable them to enjoy the gratification of beholding so rare and beautiful a sight.--Democratic Press.
[June 8] "We have great satisfaction in announcing, that Mr. Henry Pratt, not content with the liberality he had already shewn to the Widow's and Orphan's Asylum, by the generous gift of the FLOWERING ALOE, has made most liberal additions to his bounty. To render the exhibition at the Asylum as interesting and of course as profitable as possible, Mr. Pratt yesterday sent to that institution a considerable number of rare and beautiful tropical plants. Among them were the Night Blooming Ceres, the Rose Apple of the West Indies, the Sago Palm, the Coffee Tree, the Sugar Cane, &c. &c.--Ibid."


  • Bernhard, Karl, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, 1825, describing Lemon Hill, estate of Henry Pratt, Philadelphia, Pa. (1828: 140–41) [10]
"A merchant, Mr. Halbach, to whom I was introduced, took a walk with me to two gardens adjoining the city. One of these belongs to a rich merchant, Mr. Pratt, and is situated upon a rocky peninsula, formed by the Schuylkill, immediately above the water-works. The soil consists mostly of quartz and clay. The owner seldom comes there, and this is easy to be perceived, for instead of handsome grass-plots you see potatoes and turnips planted in the garden. The trees, however, are very handsome, mostly chestnut, and some hickory. I also observed particularly two large and strong tulip trees; the circumference of one was fifteen feet. In the hot-houses was a fine collection of orange trees, and a handsome collection of exotic plants, some of the order Euphorbia from South America; also a few palm trees. The gardener, an Englishman by birth, seemed to be well acquainted with his plants. Through a hydraulic machine the water is brought up from the river into several basins, and thence forced into the hot-houses. There was also in the garden a mineral spring of a ferruginous quality. From several spots in the garden there are fine views of the Schuylkill, whose banks, covered with trees, now in the fall of the year, have a striking and pleasant effect from the various hues of foliage."


"But the most enchanting prospect is towards the grand pleasure grove & green house of a Mr. Prat[t], a gentleman of fortune, and to this we next proceeded by a circutous rout, passing in view of the fish ponds, bowers, rustic retreats, summer houses, fountains, grotto, &c., &c. The grotto is dug in a bank [and] is of a circular form, the side built up of rock and arched over head, and a number of Shells [?]. A dog of natural size carved out of marble sits just within the entrance, the guardian of the place. A narrow aperture lined with a hedge of arbor vitae leads to it. Next is a round fish pond with a small fountain playing in the pond. An Oval & several oblong fish ponds of larger size follow, & between the two last is an artificial cascade. Several summer houses in rustic style are made by nailing bark on the outside & thaching the roof. There is also a rustic seat built in the branches of a tree, & to which a flight of steps ascend. In one of the summer houses is a Spring with seats around it. The houses are all embelished with marble busts of Venus, Appollo, Diana and a Bacanti. One sits on an Island on the fish pond. All the ponds filled with handsome coloured fish.

"The grounds are planted with a great variety of shrubbery & evergreens of various kinds of the pine & fir, and the hot house is said to be the largest in the US. It is filled to overflowing with the choicest Exotics: the Chaddock Orange of different kinds & the Lemon loaded with fruit. There are two coffee trees with their berries. Some few shrubs were in flower & others seeded, & I was politely furnished with a few seed of 2 varieties of flowers (Myrtle & an accacia). In front of the hot house, one at each end, is a Lion of marble, well executed, & a dog in front. On the roof is a range of marble busts."


  • Committee of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1830, describing Lemon Hill, estate of Henry Pratt, Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Boyd 1929: 431–33) [11]

"This beautiful garden, so creditable to the owner, and even to the city of Philadelphia, is kept in perfect order at great expense. Few strangers omit paying it a visit, a gratification which is afforded to them in the most liberal manner by the proprietor. Nor can any person of taste contemplate the various charms of this highly improved spot, without being in rapture with the loveliness of nature—everywhere around him, so chastely adorned by the hand of man.

"Undoubtedly this is the best kept garden in Pennsylvania, and when associated with the green and hot house department, may be pronounced unrivalled in the Union. The gravel walks, espaliers, plants, shrubs, mounds, and grass plats, are dressed periodically and minutely. . . .

"Along the walks, the flower borders are interspersed with Thunbergias, Eccremocarpus, Chelonias, Mimosas, &c. The Laurustinus, sweet Bay, English Laurel, Rosemary, Chinese privet, Myrtle, Tree Sage and South Sea Tea, stand among them, and bear the winter with a little straw covering. Even the Verbena triphylla, or Aloysia Citriodora, has survived through our cold season in Mr. Pratt’s city garden; seven of these plants are evergreens, and if they become inured to our climate, they will add greatly to our ornamental shrubs.

"The treasures contained in the hot and green houses are numerous. Besides a very fine collection of Orange, Lemon, Lime, Citron, Shaddock, Bergamot, Pomgranate and Fig trees in excellent condition and full of fruit, we notice with admiration the many thousand of exotics to which Mr. Pratt is annually adding. The most conspicuous among these, are the tea tree; the coffee tree——loaded with fruit; the sugar cane; the pepper tree; Banana, Plantain, Guva, Cherimona, Ficus, Mango, the Cacti in great splendour, some 14 feet high, and a gigantic Euphorbia Trigonia—19 years old, and 13 feet high. The green houses are 220 feet long by 16 broad; exhibiting the finest range of glass for the preservation of plants, on this continent.

"Colonel Perkins, near Boston, has it is true, a grapery and peach Espalier, protected by 330 feet of glass, yet as there are neither flues not foreign plants in them, they cannot properly be called green houses, whereas Mr. Pratt's are furnished with the rarest productions of every clime, so that the committee place the conservatory of Lemon Hill at the very head of all similar establishments in this country.

"There are some pretty bowers, summer houses, grottos and fish ponds in this garden—the latter well stored with gold and silver fish. The mansion house is capacious and modern, and the prospects, on all sides, extremely beautiful. In landscape gardening, water and wood are indispensable for picturesque effect; and here they are found distributed in just proportions with hill and lawn and buildings of architectural beauty, the whole scene is cheerfully animated by the brisk commerce of the river, and constant movement in the busy neighborhood of Fairmount.

"An engine for raising water to the plant houses, is sometimes put in operation. Mr. Pratt placed it here at a cost of three thousand dollars. The vegetable garden is well kept and is of suitable size. For many years the chief gardener was assisted by eleven or twelve labourers, he now employs only six; probably owing to the finished condition to which the proprietor has brought his grounds. The whole plot may contain about 20 acres; Mr. Pratt has owned it 30 years or more. The superintendent aided by the liberal spirit of that gentleman, conducts his business with skill and neatness, and may challenge any garden for minute excellence or general effect."


  • Downing, A. J., January 1837, "Notices on the State and Progress of Horticulture in the United States," describing Lemon Hill, estate of Henry Pratt, Philadelphia, Pa. (January 1837: 4)[12]
"For a long time the grounds of Mr. Pratt, at Lemon Hill, near Philadelphia, have been considered the show-garden of that city: and the proprietor, with a praiseworthy spirit, opening his long-shaded walks, cool grottoes, jets d’eau, and the superb range of hot-houses, to the inspection of the citizens, contributed in a wonderful degree to improve the taste of the inhabitants, and to inspire them with a desire to possess the more beautiful and delicate productions of nature."


"Lemon Hill, half a mile above the Fairmount water-works of Philadelphia, was, 20 years ago, the most perfect specimen of the geometric mode in America, and since its destruction by the extension of the city, a few years since, there is nothing comparable with it, in that style, among us. All the symmetry, uniformity, and high art of the old school, were displayed here in artificial plantations, formal gardens with trellises, grottoes, spring-houses, temples, statues, and vases, with numerous ponds of water, jets-d'eau, and other water-works, parterres and an extensive range of hothouses. The effect of this garden was brilliant and striking; its position, on the lovely banks of the Schuylkill, admirable; and its liberal proprietor, Mr. Pratt, by opening it freely to the public, greatly increased the popular taste in the neighborhood of that city."

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Notes

  1. The sheriff’s sale took place on March 15, 1799, at the Merchants Coffee House. For $14,654.22, Pratt acquired 42 acres and 93 perches of Morris’s former estate, including the land upon which Morris’s house and greenhouses had stood. Owen Tasker Robbins, “Toward a Preservation of the Grounds of Lemon Hill in Light of Their Past and Present Significance for Philadelphians” (unpublished Masters of Science Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1978), 25, 30, view on Zotero.
  2. By the time Pratt purchased Lemon Hill, he was married to his third wife, Susannah Care (1776–1816), whom he had married in 1794. The couple would have four children together. Previously, he had married Frances Moore (c. 1757–1785) in 1778, with whom he had four children, and Elizabeth Dundas (1764–1793) in 1785, with whom he had six children. Of Pratt’s fourteen children, only seven survived to adulthood. For more information, see the Pratt family tree on the official Lemon Hill website: http://www.lemonhill.org/HistoryPF.html.
  3. Robbins 1978, 29, view on Zotero. Pratt was elected to a three-year term as President of the city’s Select Council in October 1799. J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, vol. 3 (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1884), 1708, view on Zotero.
  4. Scharf and Westcott 1884, 2212, view on Zotero.
  5. Robbins 1978, 29, view on Zotero. For additional information on some of the ships that Pratt owned both before and during his partnership with Kintzing, including cargo and trade routes, see Greg H. Williams, The French Assault on American Shipping, 1793–1813: A History and Comprehensive Record of Merchant Marine Losses (Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland & Company, 2009) view on Zotero.
  6. Oliver Oldschool, "American Scenery--for the Port Folio," Port Folio, n.s. 3, vol. 2, no. 2 (August 1813): 166, view on Zotero
  7. Kathleen A. Foster, Captain Watson's Travels in America: The Sketchbooks and Diary of Joshua Rowley Watson, 1772-1818 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997), view on Zotero
  8. 8.0 8.1 John Hebron Moore, "A View of Philadelphia in 1829: Selections from the Journal of B.L.C. Wailes of Natchez," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 78 (July 1954): 353–60, view on Zotero Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Moore_1954" defined multiple times with different content
  9. "The Flowering Aloe," The Plough Boy, and Journal of the Board of Agriculture (June 23, 1821): 30, view on Zotero; a nearly identical article appears in "The Flowering Aloe, From The Philadelphia 'Democratic Press,'" Niles' Weekly Register (June 16, 1821): 255, view on Zotero
  10. Karl Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Travels through North America, during the Years 1825 and 1826, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1828), view on Zotero
  11. James Boyd, A History of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1827–1927 (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1929), view on Zotero
  12. Andrew Jackson Downing, Notices on the State and Progress of Horticulture in the United States, The Magazine of Horticulture 3, no. 1 (January 1837), view on Zotero
  13. Andrew Jackson Downing, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America; . . . 4th ed. (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1849), view on Zotero

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