In the mid-1680's Welsh Quaker Rowland Ellis built a small house and
cultivated wheat, oats and Indian corn on 15 of the nearly 700 acre
piece of land he received from William Penn. In 1704 he built a large
stone house, at what we know today as Old Gulph and Harriton Roads,
which he named "Bryn Mawr" or "Great Hill." The extant three story,
nine room, T shaped structure had flaring eaves and tall brick
chimneys. The original interior had paneling and a closed-string
staircase.
Rowland Ellis was a substantial member of his Welsh community. He
represented Merion as a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and he was
an overseer or manager of the Quaker Schools in Philadelphia – the
first public schools in the country. Ellis was ultimately forced to
sell his property due to financial reverses. The property was sold in
1719 to Maryland tobacco planter Richard Harrison. Harrison increased
the number of acres under cultivation and renamed the property
Harriton. Harrison's principal crop was tobacco, which was grown very
successfully until his death in the 1740's. Though a Quaker, like
Rowland Ellis, Harrison cultivated his tobacco on the slave economy.
Harriton's most famous occupant was Charles Thomson, who acquired the
house and estate through his marriage to Richard Harrison's daughter,
Hannah Harrison, in 1774. Thomson was a Scotch-Irishman who emigrated
to America at the age of 10. Among his many careers he taught Latin and
Greek in the Philadelphia Quaker schools – those same schools of which
Rowland Ellis had been an overseer. Thomson later became a merchant and
distiller of rum, but he is best known as the first Secretary of the
Continental Congress, serving for 15 years.
In April of 1789, Thomson traveled to Mt. Vernon to inform George
Washington that Washington had been elected the first President of the
United States under the new constitution, shortly after which Thomson
retired from public life to Harriton. During his retirement at
Harriton, Thomson made the first translation of the Septuagint or Greek
Old Testament into English. The four-volume Bible was printed in
Philadelphia in 1808. Thomson's second retirement interest was
America's principal industry after the revolution – agriculture. He was
a beekeeper and "scientific farmer" at Harriton. In contrast to his
father-in-law's slave economy, Thomson was an abolitionist.
After Thomson's death in 1824, the house and farm were run by tenants.
By 1908, descendants of Hannah Harrison's brother started the Harriton
Guernsey Dairy, using the old house as a home for the dairyman and
about 85 acres for crops and grazing. The premier dairy operated until
about 1930, providing milk and cream to the local community.
The 1704 house was purchased by Lower Merion Township in 1969 with
funds principally raised by the Harriton Association. Today a restored
Harriton House and surrounding 16½ acre park are open to the public as
Lower Merion's only public historic house museum. The house and
surrounding park are owned by the Township and administered in a
public/ private partnership by the not-for-profit
Harriton
Association.
The Harriton House has been restored and furnished to the period of
Charles Thomson's occupancy (1789-1824), including objects owned and
used by Charles Thomson. The Harriton Association's collections of
decorative and useful arts, farm implements, and books and papers
document 300 years of life in Lower Merion. The Association's
collections also include four additional buildings at the historic site
representing 17th century settlement to 21st century comfortable
suburban residence. The most recently acquired buidling takes us to a
place of beginning – Rowland Ellis' small 17th century house, which has
been enlarged through the years, is today used for meetings, program
space, and the Association's beekeeping program.
