IN THE NORTHERN LIBERTIES, FAIRMOUNT PARK OUNT PLEASANT is fitly so named. Surely no pleasanter place for habitation could be found than the spot where this noble eighteenth century house rears its balustraded roof above a sea of surrounding greenery on the east side of the Schuylkill not far north of the Girard Avenue bridge. The site commands a broad view upstream and down and over the wooded slopes of the farther shore. Though in summer the density of the foliage somewhat obscures the prospect, at other seasons, when the trees are less fully clad, the eye sweeps the valley for miles. Then it is, as the once elegant countryseats are seen crowning every hill, that one feels how ample and almost princely must have been the manner of life that prevailed there in the long past days when the young city was still miles distant from these sylvan fastnesses. In Virginia the James River, in all the pride of the manorial estates that lined its banks, could not have surpassed the loveliness and charm of the Schuylkill winding among rolling highlands on whose summits spacious homes of comely dignity sheltered some of the most distinguished citizens of the metropolis of the Colonies. Society was gayer, more polished, and wealthier in Philadelphia than anywhere else this side of the Atlantic and the affluence and culture of the people were reflected in the houses in which they chose to spend their summers or sometimes to live the year round. Of no locality was this truer than on both the east and west shores of the Schuylkill, whose waters imparted an agreeable element of life to the scene and at the same time supplied the best of fish to grace the boards of gentry who were notoriously addicted to the pleasures of the table. In one of the choicest spots of this fair paradise of peace and plenty, Captain John Macpherson bought land in September, 1761, and set to building a great house, of almost baronial aspect, that commands consideration by its architectural presence alone, quite apart from the rich historic glamour that hangs over it. From the west or river front of the house, the land falls away rapidly so that the driveway approach is brought up to the east front. East and west fronts alike are of imposing mien. A high foundation of carefully squared stones is pierced by iron-barred basement windows set in stone frames. Above this massive grisly base, the thick stone walls are coated with yellow-grey rough-cast. Heavy quoins of brick at the corners and, at the north and south ends of the building, great quadruple chimneys joined into one at the top by arches, give the structure an air of more than usual solidity. A broad flight of stone steps, their iron balustrades overgrown with a bushy mass of honeysuckle, leads up to a doorway of generous breadth. The pillars at each side of the door and the superimposed pediment, the ornate Palladian window immediately above on the second floor and, above that again, the corniced pediment springing from the eaves, all contribute to set a stamp of courtly distinction upon the pile, a distinction for which only Georgian architecture has found utterance. Above the second floor the hipped roof springs, pierced east and west by two graceful dormers and crowned by a wellturned balustrade that traverses nearly the whole distance between the chimneys. The fan-light over the door has remarkably heavy fluted mullions and all the detail throughout the house, though highly wrought, is heavy as it was wont to be at the precise period when Mount Pleasant was erected. If one were asked, however, to say what it is before all else that gives a peculiarly striking appearance to Mount Pleasant, the answer would straightway indicate the two flanking outbuildings, set thirty or forty feet distant from the northeast and southeast corners of the house. Though designed for servants' quarters and various domestic offices, these two-storey hipped-roof buildings are made of the same material and finished with the same care as the rest of the house. Without them Mount Pleasant would be only an unusually handsome Georgian country house; with them it at once takes on the manorial port of one of the old Virginia mansions. Beyond the circle before the house, where grows a mighty spreading sycamore, and at some distance from either side of the road, are two barns. The grouping is impressive and eloquent of the state maintained by the Colonial occupants of this truly noble seat. The history of Mount Pleasant is not less engaging than its aspect. Captain Macpherson is one of the most picturesque personages to be met with in the picturesque pages of Colonial annals. Sprung from the Macphersons of Clunie in Scotland, he left his native country |