Mount Pleasant at Fairmount Park
Written by PA Heritage Staff in the Sharing the Common Wealth category and the Fall 2001 issue Topics in this article: Andrew Jackson Downing, architecture and architects, Boathouse Row, Calvert Vaux, Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 (Centennial Exposition), Fairmount Park, Fairmount Water Works, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., Mount Pleasant (mansion), Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of ArtEach year the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission names an outstanding example of Pennsylvania’s history as a Commonwealth Treasure. For 2001 the Commission has designated Fairmount Park. The forty-four hundred acre park is being recognized for its wealth of manmade and natural sites, which create a rich legacy of architecture, history, culture, and ecology. Founded in 1855, with roots dating to 1812, Fairmount Park represents one of the earliest endeavors in the American Park Movement. The park incorporates a number of Georgian and Federal style mansions built by wealthy Philadelphians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Mount Pleasant. Fairmount Park also features design innovations by noted American landscape architecture pioneers Andrew Jackson Downing, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Calvert Vaux. Other riches in the park are Boathouse Row, Fairmount Waterworks, the Philadelphia Zoological Garden, Memorial Hall from the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
