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The Ryerss Mansion | 06:09PM Sep 03, 2007

 The Ryerss Mansion and with it, Burholme Park is located next to Jeanes Hospital in the outskirts of Philadelphia. My Mother was staying at the hospital due to severe back pain. I found myself taking this picture on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. It was the day after she was admitted to the hospital.

The history of Burholme Park goes back to the early 19th Century when Joseph Waln Ryerss, a Philadelphia merchant, purchased 85 acres of ground from Joseph Jeanes to build a country villa. The Jeanes family (Quakers) had a farm located there for many years throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Park now consists of approximately 70 acres and is maintained by the city. The cupola atop the original mansion was added in the early 1890's, while the rear portion was added by the city in 1920 to house the museum collection.

The mansion was built in 1859 in the Italianate style and was named "Burholme" after an ancestral estate in England. The name means "a house in a woodland setting." It is a typical, grand-scale, mid-century, Italianate villa, pinkish in color, with a red metal shallow roof, elongated and rounded windows, and a deep porch on three sides.

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  • Canon
  • Canon PowerShot SD40
  • F9
  • 1/250 sec
  • 0
  • Flash did not fire, auto
  • Multi-segment
  • 2
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