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Survey of
Historic Sites and Buildings

	MOUNT PLEASANT Pennsylvania
Location: Fairmount Park, between East River Drive and Columbia Avenue entrance, Philadelphia. Philadelphia Museum of Art

Ownership and Administration (1961). City of Philadelphia, administered by Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Significance. Situated on a hilltop overlooking the Schuylkill River, Mount Pleasant is the most important of a number of distinctive homes in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. In the opinion of the architectural historian, Thomas T. Waterman, it is the finest colonial house north of the Mason-Dixon line. Its somewhat pretentious character re-creates vividly the atmosphere of wealth and station enjoyed by the men who helped to make Philadelphia the leading city of the Colonies.

Mount Pleasant has an unhappy historical association with Benedict Arnold, who bought it in 1779, little more than a year before his at tempted betrayal of West Point. The house was later confiscated and Arnold's possessions sold publicly. The mansion was leased for a short time to Baron von Steuben and eventually came into the possession of Gen. Jonathan Williams of Boston. It remained in the Williams family until it became the property of the City of Philadelphia in 1868.

Mount Pleasant reflects the wealth and luxury that centered in Philadelphia, the largest city of the colonies. It is located in Fairmount Park, and was built in 1761-62. (National Park Service)

Present Appearance (1961). Mount Pleasant is an opulent representation of late Georgian design, constructed of rubble masonry coated with stucco to resemble dressed-stone masonry. The hilltop location, its 6-foot hewn-stone basement, its 12-foot ceilings, and high, hipped roof with balustraded deck, combine to impart a lofty appearance in keeping with the elaborate design. The north and south walls are windowless, relieved only by the brick belt course that extends around the house. Pavilions on the east and west sides frame arched doorways, above which are Palladian windows opening onto each end of the second-floor hall. The first floor consists of a large entrance hall that extends through the house, serving both east and west entrances. The stairway rises from a small separate hall at the southeast corner. The north room on the first floor is a large parlor extending across the end of the house. In the middle of the north wall is a chimney piece almost 8 feet wide, flanked by pedimented doors set, curiously, against the solid wall behind them. The three second-floor chambers are especially notable for their design and workmanship, most evident in the scrolled ornamentation and arched cupboard doors in the great chamber on the southwest corner. The house has been furnished handsomely in period style by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and is maintained by this institution as an out standing survivor of 18th-century Philadelphia. [59]