Ridgeland
Built in 1762, Ridgeland is a Federal style farmhouse located in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia and a great example of adaptive reuse for historic buildings. Click through to the article and learn more about public programs from the current tenant that attract thousands of visitors from the park each year.
The farmhouse is a snapshot of life from before the American Revolution, with may of the original outbuildings restored to their original condition. Located in West Fairmount Park Philadelphia, near other historic houses on Chamonix Drive, under the stewardship of the Fairmount Park Historic Preservation Trust.
Schuylkill River Villas
Many of mansions and “villas” were built along the Schuylkill River to get relief from the heat and congestion of Philadelphia. Paved roads were unknown in America until the early 19th century. Dirt roads in all but the busiest parts of the city made living conditions dusty, muddy in the rain, and completely unsanitary.
Disease had always been one of the reasons Philadelphians’ retreated to the surrounding countryside, but during the early 1790s their exodus took on a new urgency. A 1793 yellow fever epidemic claimed the life of one in ten city residents, and other outbreaks occurred throughout the decade.” In the same year, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Prothonotary Edward Burd acquired land that Joseph Galloway had long ago severed from the Shute estate. Burd waited until 1798 to build Ormiston on the Edgeley Point site, apparently modelling his villa on The Solitude – much as nearby Rockland’s builder would do in 1810.(( Schuylkill River Villas, Philadelphia HABS NO. PA~6184, PDF page 15 ))