What might draw in science fiction fans and historian buffs to the neighborhood of Society Hill in Philadelphia? The Samuel Powel House , a stately Georgian mansion, built of brick in 1765, two hundred and forty-one years ago, by a merchant and shipmaster named Charles Stedman.
Even as Stedman finished building the home, his financial difficulties forced him to sell the mansion. Unfortunately, the home’s purchase for 3,150 pounds in August of 1769, wasn’t enough to keep Stedman out of debtors’ prison. The new owner, though, would fare much better, eventually becoming the first mayor of Philadelphia under the rule of the British as well as the first mayor of Philadelphia following the American Revolution.
The new owner, Samuel Powel, was known as the “Patriot Mayor,” and he and wife Elizabeth Willing were known for entertaining many of the founding fathers and other well known guests: George and Martha Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Benjamin Rush and Marquis de Lafayette all attended functions at the mansion. John Adams described meals there as “sinful dinners” and the house furnishings and decorations as a “splendid seat.”
In the 20th Century, the owners sold much of the interior furnishings and details to museums, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In fact, a room of this home at 244 South Third Street is recreated at the Metropolitan. The room’s exact purpose is unknown; located behind the ballroom, it may have served together with the ballroom as a place from which to serve drinks, or it may have been the best bedchamber in the mansion.
Science fiction fans may also have an interest to find a room in Philadelphia and visit the Samuel Powel mansion because of author Harry Turtledove’s series of novels that take place in an alternative history, where the Civil War ended differently and the Confederates were allowed to secede from the Union. In the novels, the U.S. government comes to Philadelphia and the Powel House becomes the new White House.
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