Pancoast-Lewis-Wharton House

This typical affluent Georgian row house displays the usual features of the style – a nicely detailed frontispiece, marble sills & belt courses and Flemish bond brick with glazed headers. It is a fine example, but rather unremarkable in a neighborhood of beautiful Georgian architecture. The ornate fanlight though is particularly noteworthy. It does have a pedigree. Until quite recently it was the parish house for Christ Church and before that it was the birthplace of Joseph Wharton, the founder of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Wharton was a very important Quaker industrialist and philanthropist having helped found both Bethlehem Steel and Swarthmore College.