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Exterior
5/5
Interior
5/5
Site
3/5
History
4/5
Overall
5/5
The original single story house was added to in the high Georgian era making Woodford one of the grand Georgian Mansions of Philadelphia. The house and interior collection is not to be missed
Although one of the oldest of the Fairmount Park mansions, with parts of the house dating from the 1750’s, its high Georgian appearance depends on 1772 additions, including a second floor. Only three bays wide at the front, its appearance is still quite grand with a slightly projecting center pavilion and a pediment at the roof line.
The pediment is echoed in the shallow pedimented portico over a very simple understated front door, without any fanlight and only a simple casing. There is a fabulous Palladian window at the second floor above the front door but it is too large resting on the peak of the pediment below and touching the molding above. .
An open latticework railing at the top of the hip roof surrounds a deck and sets off the twin chimneys nicely. The three bay sides of the main portion of the house are plain but like the front, rigidly symmetrical. A large wing projects off the rear of the house and another wing added on to that.
Always owned by wealthy families, the changes on the interior are an interesting reflection in the changes in housing function among the elite. The original house had only three rooms at the ground lever with a parlor on the left and two bed chambers on the right (a kitchen was in the basement). The 1772 additions added bed chambers on the second floor above the old part of the house, a kitchen in the rear “el” and a large space, possibly for entertaining.
A new family moved around 1800. They converted the two downstairs bed chambers to a dining room moving all sleeping to the second floor. Two of the four upper bed chambers were combined to a single large space. The interiors are largely original (to the 1800 changes) and filled with the amazing Naomi Wood collection of early American furniture and accessories. The collection compliments several original interior features such as the overmantle in the downstairs parlor and the two Federal era mantle pieces in the dining room and upstairs large room.
