Saturday, April 2, 2022: Even though it is on the Philadelphia Main Line, Harriton House, 500 Harriton Road, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (610-525-0201) predated the start of the “Main Line” by almost two centuries. In fact, the name Bryn Mawr, meaning “high hill” in Welsh, applied to the property that this 1704 house stood on long before those in power named the nearby town with the same name. Welsh Quaker Rowland Ellis built this house and lived here until 1719 when he sold the property to Richard Harrison. The most famous owner, however, became Charles Thomson who married Hanna Harrison, daughter of Richard Harrison, in 1774. Thomson served as secretary to the Continental Congress, and after 15 years in public service, he retired to this place in 1789 until his death in 1824. During his retirement, he pursued his interests in agriculture and translating the Bible from Greek into English. After Thompson’s death, different tenant farmers lived here until 1926 when the family sold the house and property. On the day I was there, I noticed how the Harriton House Association made the interior look the way it did when Charles Thomson lived there. A few pieces of the furniture were even once owned by Thomson! The three rooms on the ground floor included the main reception area that served as a living room or dining room, an adjoining room served as a smaller parlor, and PBS filmed an episode of the show, “A Taste of History” in the kitchen. The upper floor displayed two 18th-century styled bedrooms, and on what has been left of the grounds, I saw a bee keeping area and a building that once served as a barn, and later as a pool house, but currently, it has been serving as an administrative center. Overall, long before the Main Line became a home for the elite, this area of PA once comprised of farmlands, and this place could give you a taste of what the area was once like in those times.
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