Cedar Grove deserves more respect than it gets. Unassuming in the fast company of the other Fairmount Park mansions, it has many special things to reveal. It is furnished largely with original items – unique among the Fairmount Houses – and it is the earliest of the major houses. Only Boelson Cottage is older, but this distinction has an asterisk since Cedar Grove was originally in the Frankford section of the city and was moved to Fairmount in 1926.
Built by the Paschall family in 1748 as a summer retreat, it was originally two and a half stories with a pent eave and a simple gable end. By marriage it moved into the Wistar-Morris family and was enlarged in the 1790’s. One of the additions was a changed roof line to the gambrel shape, which makes the attic space much more useable, and a beautiful half round window to light this space. It stayed in the family as a summer home until a railroad line was built in close proximately in the mid 1880′