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Thesis Semester [blog] 25 years ago
2006.02.06 18:28
Because of Roma Interrotta and related genius loci issues, I've been doing a lot of reading/research, and thus I now know that when I look out my mother's living room windows I'm looking at the site where the oldest house in Pennsylvania once stood.
URY HOUSE -- Originally a fort, and once the oldest house in Pennsylvania was located at 8403 Pine Road. Ury House was reputed to have been built by Swedish refugees who sailed up the Delaware River and Pennypack Creek, circa 1645. [William Penn did not arrive and found Philadelphia until 1682.]
John Adams was a guest at the house during the First Continental Congress. Thomas Jefferson too was a guest and planted a pecan tree on the lawn. And George Washington once ate (mistakenly) salted strawberries there.
Ury House was demolished in 1973.
My parents moved to what was part of the Ury House estate in 1981, and thus I only have earlier vague memories of an old house on Pine Road, and until yesterday I had completely forgotten that there even once was a house at 8403 Pine Road.
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