Woodford Mansion, a hidden gem of Strawberry Mansion, stands as a representation of Colonial Philadelphia. The mansion is located in Fairmount Park at the corner of 33rd and Dauphin Streets.It was built in 1756 and in 1928 was turned into a museum with the help of the Naomi Wood Trust, which donated all of the Colonial era furniture that would have been in the house.
“To me it’s real history,” Gerry Francis, Woodford Mansion’s docent, said. “When you study history you have to look at all sides.”
Francis believes the mansion gives a new view to visitors since two of the three owners of the mansion were loyalists during the Revolutionary War.
“Each house has a personality,” Francis said, describing the mansion and how it would have been used during the Colonial era. “This is a house, not a home.”
He describes it this way because the heads of the households that lived there were men, and therefore centered the house on business, with the main rooms being the upstairs parlor and 
ballroom. He said that if a woman was head of the household, the home would be centered on the kitchen, with all the other rooms jutting out from it.
ballroom. He said that if a woman was head of the household, the home would be centered on the kitchen, with all the other rooms jutting out from it.The mansion is L-shaped and is two-levels, although each owner had added onto it. Francis's favorite area of the house is the basement, although due to the Disability Acts, the museum is unable to take tours there. The basement was where the slaves and servants would work and live and was important to the owners because they were literally beneath them.
“It’s a real museum experience,” Francis said. “[But] our main mission is education.”
By Caitlin Burns and Thomas Dougherty
Group 3, Strawberry Mansion/ Brewerytown
1 comment:
Friends of ours from northern New Jersey, and we from the District of Columbia, regularly meet, visit and enjoy Philadelphia.
As it turns out we had the good fortune to visit Woodford on Sunday, June 13 (two days prior to this blog) and the docent, Mr. Gerry Francis, was most generous with his time and knowledge as he guided us through the house and its treasures.
Mr. Francis brought the history to life as one would expect from his background as a librarian and historian.
As Woodford, in its heyday, was owned by loyalists to the British crown his responses were couched in the role of those 18th century inhabitants. The one thing missing from the mansion was a British flag from that period.
A comment about accessibility:
Regarding the penultimate paragraph asserting that disability laws cause the basement to be unviewable by visitors, I believe that to be a “red herring” by the Trust covering Woodford. There are currently limitations to access, with the second floor being the most notable example, yet visitors are not prevented from viewing it. Law, generally, “grandfathers” historic sites from the need to make modifications – that doesn’t preclude people from seeing what they desire and are able to “see”.
The original Coleman house has stairs that are used as the mansion’s main entrance to the first floor. The changes, wrought by the Frank family, added the inaccessible second floor and also an alternative (then primary) entrance which could provide an unobtrusive ramping to the first floor making that portion truly accessible.
“Grandfathering” does not preclude locations of historic significance from being unobtrusively modified to provide greater access to persons with disabilities.
jmt
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