The Hills

Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Built in 1770, for Robert Morris (1734-1806) and his wife Mary White (1749-1827). He sited the house on 80-acres purchased that summer from Tench Francis which had formerly comprised part of the Springettsbury Farm. The Hills was "a favorite residence" overlooking the Schuykill below the west slope of Fairmount Hill. The stone house stood two stories over a basement and each side was flanked by piazzas. At the start of the Revolution in 1776, Morris stayed here when the rest of Congress fled to Baltimore although he kept a carriage packed with valuables on standby. It was eventually occupied by the British and required a significant restoration at the end of the war....

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This house is best associated with...

Robert Morris

"Financier of the Revolution" U.S. Founding Father & Senator from Pennsylvania

1734-1806

Mary (White) Morris

Mrs Mary (White) Morris

1749-1827

By the 1790s, The Hills had become a place of refuge where Morris fled to escape his creditors and arrest. The man who had been lauded as the Financier of the Revolution only a decade before now found himself in debt just short of $3 million. His luck ran out in 1799 and he was placed in debtors jail for two years. Perhaps not coincidentally, The Hills burned down that same year. The by-then 300-acre estate was divided into two portions and was sold with what remained of the furniture at Sheriff's auction. The southern parcel with included the ruin and 43-acres was purchased for $14,654 by Henry Pratt who built Lemon Hill here, an outstanding example of Federal architecture.