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“Lemon Hill,” Henry Pratt House

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1800. Sedgley Dr., off Kelly Dr., Fairmount Park
  • "Lemon Hill," Henry Pratt House (Richard W. Longstreth)
  • "Lemon Hill," Henry Pratt House (Richard W. Longstreth)
  • "Lemon Hill," Henry Pratt House (Richard W. Longstreth)
  • (Damie Stillman)

The last built of Fairmount Park's surviving great houses, Lemon Hill, was commissioned by merchant Henry Pratt in 1800 in the then up-to-date neoclassical style. Hallmarks of the new mode are the smooth surfaces of the exterior that contrast with the sculptural and physical character of the detail of “Mount Pleasant” ( PH133). Elegant oval rooms overlooking the river ornament each story and recall the oval bay included in the house built for the U.S. president on Market Street by William Williams in 1794, and the contemporary oval office of the White House. Lemon Hill was the first property added to the Water Works grounds in 1844 that marked the beginning of Fairmount Park.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
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Data

What's Nearby

Boathouse Row
Fairmount Water Works
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building (Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Offices)
Eastern State Penitentiary

Citation

George E. Thomas, "“Lemon Hill,” Henry Pratt House", [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-PH132.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 2

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence M. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 119-120.

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