The Solitude
[http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/research/casva/research-projects.html A Project of the National Gallery of Art, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts ]
Overview
Alternate Names:
Site Dates:
Site Owner(s): John Penn (1760–1834)
Associated People:
Location: Philadelphia, PA
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History
Texts
- Penn, John, date unknown, entry in Penn's MS Journal, Historical Society of Pennsylvania (quoted in Westcott 1877: 437–438)[1]
- "I felt indeed the accustomed 'amor patriae' and admiration of England, but sometimes a republican enthusiasm which attached me to America and almost tempted me to stay. . . . Earlier in the year I had made a dear purchase of fifteen acres, costing £600 sterling, and on the banks of the Schuylkill. I named it, from the Duke of Wurtemberg's, The Solitude—a name vastly more characteristic of my place. Advancing my house, I gradually altered my sceme to the great increase of the expenses it put me to. I might be in part actuated in this by a motive now grown stronger, the vanity of English taste in furnishing and decorating the house; and thought the money less thrown away as I then purposed keeping a house in the country, either for my agent to wait my return to the old country should my affairs require it."
- Shoemaker, Rebecca, May 23, 1785, in a letter from Philadelphia to Samuel Shoemaker in London, describing The Solitude (quoted in Gleason 2002: 36)[2]
- "He lives a most recluse life over [[Schuylkill River|Schuylkill. He bought about twenty acres of land and is making it all a garden and has built a house in a most singular style."
- Washington, George, July 19, 1787, diary entry describing The Solitude, estate of John Penn, near Philadelphia, Pa.[3]
- "Dined (after coming out of Convention)at Mr. John Penn the youngers. Drank Tea & spent the evening at my lodgings."
Fig. x, William Russell Birch, ""Solitude in Pennsylv.a belonging to M.r Penn," in The Country Seats of the United States (1808), pl. 9.
- Birch, William Russell, 1808, The Country Seats of the United States of North America (1808: unpaginated)[4]
- "Here a pleasing solitude at once speaks the propriety of its title. Upon further research the solitary rocks, and the waters of the Schuylkill add sublimity to quietness. The house is built with great taste for a bachelor, by the former Governor John Penn, since the revolution."
Images
John Nancarrow, "Plan of the Seat of John Penn, jun'r: Esqr: in Blockley Township and County of Philadelphia," 1790.
William Russell Birch, "Solitude in Pennsylv.a belonging to M.r Penn," in The Country Seats of the United States (1808), pl. 9.
Other Resources
The Solitude - Philadelphia Zoo
Notes
- ↑ Westcott 1877, view on Zotero.
- ↑ Samuel and Rebecca Shoemaker Diaries, vol. 2, p. 208, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; quoted in Gleason 2002, view on Zotero.
- ↑ Washington Papers, Founders Online, National Archives.
- ↑ William Russell Birch, The Country Seats of the United States, ed. by Emily T. Cooperman (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), 58, view on Zotero.
