James Logan
William Logan and the Revolution
George and Deborah Logan
Preservation of Stenton
Architecture
Collections
THREE GENERATIONS OF LOGAN FAMILY
Stenton was home to three generations of the Logan family, one of the most important in Philadelphia. The Logans were prominent Quakers and were actively involved in politics in the Colony and later, the United States. The history of Stenton is rich with stories about early America, told through the experiences of one family but also reflecting wider issues that were central to the development of the United States.
JAMES LOGAN (1674-1751)
James Logan built Stenton in the 1720s as a country house. Born in Ireland of Scottish parents, Logan named Stenton after the village in Scotland where his father had been born. James Logan was a Quaker and as a capable young man in Bristol, England he came to the attention of the founder of the Colony of Pennsylvania, William Penn. He accompanied Penn to North America in 1699. Although Penn left a short time later, Logan remained in the Pennsylvania Colony with wide-ranging responsibilities for administration. He spent the next fifty years serving in various capacities in Pennsylvania - agent for the Penn family, merchant, politician, justice, scientist and scholar. He was the leading political figure in Pennsylvania for many years.
Logan was a Quaker and a man of taste and erudition. In the 1720s he began to build Stenton as his country house. Although originally intended as a "plain, cheap farmer's stone house" it evolved into a brick mansion in the early Georgian style - a striking piece of architecture noted for its symmetry, elegance, and simplicity of design. Records indicate that he commissioned pieces of fine furniture and collected a library of nearly 3,000 books. Logan's library was one of the largest in the American Colonies and is now part of the
Library Company of Philadelphia. Logan enjoyed scholarship immensely; as his friend Benjamin Franklin commented of James Logan, "His life was for the most part a life of business, tho' he had always been passionately fond of study." During the twenty years that he lived at Stenton many people came to visit him, ranging from Franklin and John Bartram to many Native American Indian Chiefs.
WILLIAM LOGAN (1717 - 1776) AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
William Logan inherited Stenton after his father's death in 1751. He used Stenton mainly as a summer residence, living in Philadelphia during the rest of the year. Stenton was a working farm during this William's tenure, with over 500 acres. William's tenure at Stenton was also an exciting time in American history as the colonies moved ever closer to war with England. William died in 1776, the year of the Declaration of Independence. This first reading was heard by a fifteen-year old girl who lived next door to Independence Hall. Her name was Deborah Norris and she was to marry William Logan's son and come to live at Stenton. Stenton was mostly vacant during the Revolution. An important landmark before and during the Battle of Germantown in October 1777, it served for a time as the headquarters for General George Washington and General Sir William Howe, the British Commander. General Howe stayed at Stenton for several days immediately before the Battle of Germantown and it was here that he heard the word of General Washington's attack. After the Battle of Germantown, Stenton was saved from burning by Dinah, the black servant who was the housekeeper.
GEORGE (1753 - 1821) AND DEBORAH (1761 - 1839) LOGAN
Deborah Norris, a skilled historian and writer, married George Logan in 1781 and together they lived at Stenton well into the 19th century. Deborah's seventeen volumes of diaries provide us with a superb account of life in Philadelphia after the Revolution, the formative years of the United States. Deborah Logan participated in literary and poetic circles, and she wrote in her diary nearly every day for almost forty years. She trained girls in housekeeping skills. Her husband, Dr. George Logan, was a medical doctor and great friend to Jefferson and painter Charles Willson Peale. Indeed, Thomas Jefferson called George Logan "the best farmer in Pennsylvania, both in theory and practice." A founder of the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, George Logan's barn constructed in 1787 today contains a remarkable collection of farm tools. After George Logan died in 1821, Deborah kept alive the memory of the early generations of the family. She transcribed many of James Logan's papers and was elected the first woman member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Her diaries are now housed in the
HSP archive collection.
PRESERVATION OF STENTON
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| Photograph taken on May 23 of 1900, the day The Colonial Dames opened Stenton to the public. |
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Stenton remained in the Logan family until the early years of the twentieth century. It survives largely through the skill and hard work of The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, an organization dedicated to patriotic services and historical activities in America. Offered the chance to save Stenton in 1899, they took on the task and for the last 100 years have been custodians of this important piece of our nation's heritage. When the City of Philadelphia acquired the property in 1910 they charged The NSCDA/PA "to preserve and maintain Stenton as an historic object lesson." Their efforts resulted in the Colonial Revival garden that stands behind Stenton, an early 20th century interpretation of an 18th century garden. Continuing the tradition begun by Deborah Logan, they have also studied the house and documents of the past to interpret them to the visitors of today and to preserve them for future generations.
ELEGANT ARCHITECTURE
Stenton is one of the earliest and finest examples of Georgian architecture in Philadelphia. Although a Quaker, Logan took great pride in his house, and looked to it as his retreat from his many duties and responsibilities. As he said in a letter to a friend
"I am about purchasing a plantation to retire to for I am heartily out of love with the world." Stenton was that plantation, a place for Logan to study and learn. Stenton presents this opportunity today as well, a quiet oasis where visitors may see how people lived in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Relatively untouched - electricity and plumbing were never installed at Stenton - the house gives an unparalleled sense of what it would have been like to live in Colonial America. Its front façade
displays all the symmetry typical of 18th century architecture, with Flemish bond work and pilasters, while the sides and back are neither so well laid nor symmetrical. Modeled after houses that Logan may have seen in his youth in England or Ireland, this unsullied gem is a superb example of early American architecture. The entrance hall with its brick floor provided a space where visitors to Stenton could wait upon entering. There is fine paneling throughout the house, most especially in the 'Best Parlour'. The second floor has a distinguished room running the full width of the front of the house, separated by a triple door. On one side is the Yellow Lodging Room, which contained the most expensive furnishings recorded on the inventory completed at James Logan's death. The other side is the Blue Lodging Room, which research points to as the location of much of James Logan's library. Deborah Logan referred to this room as her 'apartment in the library'.
OUTSTANDING COLLECTIONS
Stenton today is furnished with Logan family pieces, many returned by family members in the last one hundred years. There are also many fine examples of objects of the period. As a wealthy and influential Philadelphian, Logan commissioned furniture from some of the most well-known and skilled craftsmen in the Colonies, as well as importing pieces from England. The collection reflects a wide range of styles from the William and Mary period of the late 17th century to later Queen Anne and Chippendale furniture. There is also a superb group of early American textiles and clothing. The period rooms at Stenton use the collections to the best advantage in providing a look at 18th century space usage and furnishings in line with the most up to date scholarship and research.
