Graeme Park at 300

The exterior of the Keith House predates the Georgian style that dictated symmetry and balance, as shown in this view of the north side of the house today. The privy on the right is a reproduction of the one pictured in a lithograph of the estate in 1755.
Photo, Graeme Park, PHMC

The mansion at Graeme Park (graemepark.org) in Horsham, Montgomery County, was the residence of several prominent Pennsylvanians in the 18th century and is today one of the oldest buildings on the Pennsylvania Trails of History. To mark the 300th anniversary of the house, the Friends of Graeme Park posted numerous historical photographs and vignettes on their website and Facebook pages and invited the public to share their memories of the site. They also threw a 300th birthday party in May, featuring living history demonstrations, musical entertainment, dancers, food trucks, tours of the house, and of course, birthday cake. In this installment of Trailheads, we take a look at the fascinating 300-year history of Graeme Park.

The colonial governor of Pennsylvania from 1717 to 1726, Sir William Keith, shown here in armor and ermine, was born at Boddam Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, son of the third baronet of Ludquhairn.
Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee

The Keith Residency

The historic site we call Graeme Park was originally known as Fountain Low. Sir William Keith (1669–1749), provincial governor (technically lieutenant governor) of Pennsylvania from 1718 to 1726, had a stone house built in 1721–22 on property he had acquired from the estate of Samuel Carpenter, one of the early landowners in Horsham. Some accounts, including the 1977 nomination of the site as a National Historic Landmark (NHL), note that the main house was built to serve as a malthouse for processing grain into alcohol. Other research, including archaeological investigations, suggests that the malthouse was in a different location and that what we call the Keith House was a residence from the beginning. The site is frequently described as the only residence of a colonial governor still standing in the United States.

The two-and-a-half-story main building is constructed of brown fieldstone. The stones are not uniform, but they are carefully laid and fitted. The structure is one room deep from front to back. The walls are 2 feet thick with tall, narrow windows and an off-center door on the north side. The NHL documentation describes the house as plain and explains that the high gambrel roof reflects the “long persistent influence of the Swedish colonial tradition in Pennsylvania.”

In addition to the malthouse, Fountain Low included a barn and “long house,” which served as living quarters for workers, including enslaved people and servants on the estate. In a speech to the General Assembly in 1721, Keith announced, “My Mind is so fully bent upon doing this Province some effectual Service that I have lately formed the Design of a considerable Settlement amongst you, in order to manufacture and consume the Grain, for which there is, at this Time, no profitable Market Abroad. And although this Project will, doubtless, at first, prove very chargeable and expensive to me, yet if it meets with your Approbation, and the Good-will of the People, I am well assured it cannot fail of answering my Purpose, to do a real Service to the Country; and every Interest or Concern of mine shall ever be built on that Bottom.”

Keith had additional business interests, including a copper mine west of the Susquehanna River and a foundry near New Castle, Delaware. Benjamin Franklin, in his autobiography, described Keith as someone who had little to give but expectations (Keith had once promised Franklin he would help him acquire printing equipment and contacts in London but failed to deliver). “He was otherwise an ingenious sensible man, a pretty good writer, and a good governor for the people. . . . Several of our best laws were of his planning, and pass’d during his administration.”

In 1726, after several years of conflict with proprietor William Penn’s widow, Hannah, and the Penn family’s representative in Pennsylvania, James Logan, Keith was removed as provincial governor. He was elected to the General Assembly and remained in Pennsylvania for about two years before traveling to England to try to improve his prospects, leaving his family behind. Despite his intentions and hopes, his own financial situation was not good. He had numerous debts in the colony and incurred new ones in England. He never returned to Pennsylvania and died in poverty in London in 1749.

Dr. Thomas Graeme was born at Balgowan in Perthshire, Scotland. His daughter Elizabeth wrote his epitaph: “The soul that lived within this Crumbling dust In every Act was Eminently just. Peaceful through Life, as peaceful, too, in death, Without one Pang, he rendered back his breath.”
Graeme Park

The Graeme Residency

Keith’s family that remained in Pennsylvania were his wife, the former Ann Newbury Diggs (1675–1740), their four sons, and Ann’s daughter from her first marriage, also named Ann (1700–65), who had married Dr. Thomas Graeme (1688–1772) in 1719. Graeme had traveled to Pennsylvania with the Keiths as their physician. Like Keith, Graeme had been born in Scotland, and their families were linked by shared history and marriage. Graeme rose to prominence in the colony, becoming port physician of Philadelphia, 1728–40, and serving as provincial counsellor and justice of the Supreme Court.

In 1739 Graeme purchased Fountain Low, renamed it Graeme Park, and began transforming it from a utilitarian industrial estate into a Georgian manor, befitting his social aspirations. The NHL nomination notes the following: “In contrast to the austere exterior, the rich paneling, installed in 1739, is of a high degree of Georgian sophistication. . . . To the east is a large drawing room, over 20 feet square. The chimney and opposite wall are fully paneled from floor to ceiling with a simple sheathed dado and molded chair rail. A full cornice with a Greek fret band surrounds the entire room. The white plastered ceiling is 14 feet high and the deep window embrasures have interior paneled shutters.”

Graeme Park was at first primarily a summer residence, suited to entertainment and escaping the heat of Philadelphia. In addition to the new paneling, Graeme also added marble and imported ceramic Delft tiles to the fireplaces. He eventually constructed an outdoor (or summer) kitchen, laid out a formal garden, and established a 300-acre deer park so that his fashionable friends could hunt. As Graeme’s health deteriorated by mid-century, the family began to spend more of their time at Graeme Park, enjoying a high standard of living and entertaining many prominent Philadelphians.

Baptismal records indicate that Thomas and Ann Graeme had between nine to 12 children. Only Elizabeth (1737–1801), the youngest, remained alive when Thomas Graeme died in 1772. Highly educated, Elizabeth could read Greek and Latin, spoke French fluently, and wrote and published poetry. Moving in Philadelphia’s highest social circles by the mid-1750s, Elizabeth met Benjamin Franklin’s son William. They courted, and in the summer of 1756, they became engaged, although reportedly neither family approved of the match. Before they could marry, William accompanied his father to England, serving as his aide and attending law classes at the Inns of Court in London. When he returned to the colonies in the early 1760s, William left behind a child in foster care and brought with him his new wife.

Hoping to revive Elizabeth’s health and spirits, the Graemes sent her to England and Scotland, where she visited family, made social connections, and met several leading figures of literature and science. In 1765, while Elizabeth was still in England, her mother and sister Ann died. When she returned, she took up the duties of hostess at her father’s house in Philadelphia and at Graeme Park.

Graeme added wooden paneling, marble and tile to create a high-style Georgian parlor. The door on the left leads nowhere, existing only to balance the “real” door on the right side of the fireplace.
Photo, Graeme Park, PHMC

In 1771, at one of her many social gatherings, Elizabeth was introduced to Hugh Henry Fergusson (1748–1819). She and the young Scotsman developed a relationship, but Thomas Graeme was not in favor of his daughter’s suitor because of his age — a decade younger than Elizabeth — and lack of wealth. In advance of a planned trip to Scotland,

Fergusson proposed marriage. The wedding took place in April 1772 without Graeme’s consent or knowledge. Fergusson left for Scotland in June, and Elizabeth still had neglected to tell her father about their marriage. In September, he decided it was time to break the news. It did not go as planned. She later wrote, “I sat on the bench at the window and watched him coming up the avenue. It was a terrible task to prepare. I was in agony; at every step he was approaching nearer. As he reached the tenant house he fell and died. Had I told him the day before, as I thought of doing, I should have reproached myself for his death and gone crazy.”

Elizabeth Graeme is believed to be age 25 to 30 in this oil-on-canvas portrait by an unknown artist. If the cataloger’s estimate of Elizabeth’s age is correct, the painting predates her marriage to Hugh Henry Fergusson.
Graeme Park, GP86.1.1

The Fergusson Residency

As Graeme’s only surviving child, Elizabeth inherited Graeme Park, as well as her father’s other properties and his debts. Now that she was married, she needed her husband’s approval if she wished to sell any part of the estate to settle debts. Fergusson returned to Pennsylvania in the spring of 1773. For a while, the couple lived full-time at Graeme Park, giving up a rented house in Philadelphia to save money. Although Elizabeth loved the property, she wanted to be in the social whirl of Philadelphia; therefore, in October, the Fergussons put 700 acres of Graeme Park up for sale. There were no buyers, however, so they continued to live in Horsham year-round, until Fergusson left for England in 1775.

The American Revolution disrupted life at Graeme Park, as it did everywhere else. Fergusson declared himself loyal to Great Britain, working on behalf of the British during the occupation of Philadelphia. He involved Elizabeth in his activities, asking her to take a letter to Gen. George Washington from a friend who urged Washington to defect to the British side. In 1778 the colonial government seized Graeme Park as the property of a traitor and most of its contents were sold at public auction. Elizabeth was able to recover title to Graeme Park in 1781, thanks to the help of influential friends. By then, Henry Fergusson had gone back to England, never to return.

Enslaved Residents

Research by staff and volunteers at Graeme Park using tax lists, inventories and newspaper ads has shed some light on the enslaved people who lived and worked at the estate. Sir William Keith enslaved at least 14 people at Fountain Low; Dr. Thomas Graeme continued to enslave them when he acquired the property, and he added to their number over the succeeding years. At the time of Graeme’s death in 1772, two enslaved men, Mars and Alexander, remained in his possession. Elizabeth did not free either of them, at least not right away. Alexander was included on a valuation list in 1778 when Graeme Park was seized, and a 1785 tax list shows one enslaved person at Graeme Park.

Later Residents

In 1791, in poor health and with growing debts, Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson sold Graeme Park to her nephew, Dr. William Smith, who divided the property into separate lots for sale. In 1801 the portion that includes the Keith House was purchased by Samuel Penrose, who built the large barn that today serves as Graeme Park’s Visitor Center. He and his family built a new farmhouse nearby in 1810. Although they did not live in the Georgian mansion after about 1820, they maintained it and gave tours on occasion. Welsh Strawbridge purchased the property in 1920 from the Penrose family; he and his wife, Margaret, lived in the 1810 farmhouse, raising thoroughbred horses and farming. They maintained the Keith House and used it for special occasions. In 1958 the Strawbridges donated Graeme Park to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; Margaret Strawbridge continued to live at the site until her death in 1996.

This 1854 lithographic reproduction of a 1755 painting of Graeme Park shows the south side of the house. The image has been a crucial piece of evidence in reconstructing Graeme Park’s landscape from the mid-18th century and in guiding past archaeological research.
Wikimedia Commons / Mechanical Curator Collection, British Library

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Summer 2022 looks to be a lively time on the Pennsylvania Trails of History. Summer camps are booking up, and special events are planned throughout June, July and August. Stay tuned to PHMC’s online events calendar, your favorite site’s social media and website, or the weekly Trailheads blog for updates on in-person and virtual offerings.

Amy Killpatrick Fox is a museum educator in PHMC’s Bureau of Historic Sites & Museums. She writes a weekly blog also called Trailheads.