Vernon-Wister House, Germantown

"Vernon", Germantown Philadelphia, PA

Vernon is the product of two periods, the informal farmhouse Colonial architecture of the 18th Century and the more formal architecture which came into vogue in the early years of the 19th Century. Tracing down the ownership of the property from the first owner, Peter Shoemaker, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1685 on the ship “Francis and Dorothy”, no reference is made to any buildings on or near the site of “Vernon” until 1741, when a stone house is mentioned in a Deed of Partition between Isaac and John Shoemaker, grandsons of Peter.

Very likely this building now forms the kitchen wing of “Vernon”, and it may originally have been the barn mentioned in an inventory of the property of Melchior Meng in 1778, Meng having acquired the property by purchase from John Shoemaker in 1757. We know that Meng‘s house bordered directly on the Main Street, now Germantown Avenue, as was the invariable custom, the barns stables, etc. being placed in the rear of the property. If our surmises are correct then the older portion of “Vernon”, must have been built before 1741.

Meng sold the property to James Matthews in 1804, and it was he who built the later portion of Vernon in 1805, which date appears on one of the rain conductor heads. Matthews conveyed the house to John Winter shortly after it was finished. John was a grandson of the John Wister who built “Wister’s Big House”.

This later section, which became the main part of the house, contained a central hall with stair at the southwest end and rooms to the right and left, the first and second floor plans being identical, the older portion then forming the kitchen and servants‘ quarters.

In 1895, the house and property were acquired by the City of Philadelphia, and the house was altered in 1898 for the use of the Germantown Branch of the Philadelphia Free Library. The stairway and partitions in the first and second floor were removed and a gallery formed at the second floor level. In 1907, the ‘library’ moved into its new building. The old house is now vacant (part of the Colonial Germantown Historic District).

There are two stories of how the name “Vernon” originated, one is that John Wister named it in honor of Washington’s house at Mt. Vernon, and the other mentioned by Jones Wister, his grandson, in his book of Reminiscences is that it commemorates the name of Diana Vernon, heroine of Sir Walter Scott’s “Rob Roy” The lightness and delicacy of the beautifully proportioned facade, and the sturdy simplicity of the earlier section form a very interesting combination, but, as so often happens, the original wood finish of the older portion has given place to modern work and the interior has lost much of its charm. The interior of the later portion, however, is in keeping with the exterior and is enriched with four very ornate fireplace mantels, and the stairway which has disappeared, had all the refinement of detail characteristic of the architecture of the period.