The Centennial House: Patriotic Relic or Just a Local Legend?
By Sam Pickard
From May through November 1876, the United States celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with the Centennial Exposition, a world’s fair held in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. After the exposition ended, many buildings were sold, disassembled, and moved to new locations to serves as houses, churches, and railroad stations. According to local legend, one of these buildings ended up as a house on Paxon Hollow Road in Marple Township. Was this a real relic of America’s 100th birthday or just a tall tale?
Centennial Exposition of 1876
The Centennial Exposition was a massive celebration of the United States’ first century of existence and the first successful world’s fair held in the United States. The exposition opened on May 10, 1876 with 186,272 in attendance—for perspective, Philadelphia’s total population at the time was only around 750,000. President Ulysses S. Grant, flanked by Brazilian emperor Dom Pedro II, stood on a platform in Machinery Hall and formally opened the fair by pulling a lever which activated the 1400 horsepower Corliss Engine which powered the exposition. More than 10 million people would visit the fair over the next six months.[1]
With hundreds of exhibits from across the United States and 50 foreign countries, the Centennial Exposition was the first mass tourism event in the U.S. and had a lasting impact on American culture. Lit by electric arc lights, this was the first widespread demonstration of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and George Westinghouse’s airbrake. Americans were also introduced to cutting-edge European industrial design and Japanese art and architecture.[2]
Once the party was over, however, it was time to clean up. With a few notable exceptions—such as Memorial Hall (now the Please Touch Museum) and the Ohio State Pavilion—buildings for the exposition were demolished or dismantled.[3] Many were sold at an auction in December 1876 to pay back a loan congress had given the exposition.
At this and subsequent auctions, state pavilions like those of Missouri, Delaware, and Connecticut were sold to buyers who moved them to locations on the Jersey shore for use as vacation homes or hotels. Others were moved to farms and estates or disassembled for building materials.[4] One building, the Kindergarten Cottage operated by the exposition’s women’s department, even found a new life on the Reading Railroad as Wingohocking Station until it was demolished in the 1930s.[5]
While many buildings were confirmed to have been moved or had their materials reused, there are also many which have a rumored or just plain debunked connection to the Centennial Exposition. St. Peter’s-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Cape May Point has long been rumored to be a building from the Centennial, but as of yet, no one has been able to conclusively link it to any specific building at the fair.[6] Similarly, the so-called Centennial House in Merchantville, New Jersey may have been built from the lumber of Centennial buildings… or just was built around that time.[7]
Other buildings have had their claims totally debunked, most notably the former Pennsylvania Railroad station at Strafford, now used by SEPTA’s regional rail. Originally built before the Centennial as the station at Wayne in Radnor Township, the building was moved to its present location in 1884.[8] Despite this, the rumor that it originated at the Centennial Exposition just won’t go away.
Marple’s Centennial House
Marple’s Centennial House was located 725 Paxon Hollow Road before it was demolished in about 1986 for the construction of Paxon Circle. Little is known about the house, which was recorded in the 1983 survey of the township’s historic resources as being “built for the National Centennial Fair in Fairmount Park in 1876 [and] on which more research must be done.”[9] In the special issue of the County Press published in June 1984 for Marple Township’s tricentennial, a photograph of the Centennial House was included, with the caption “Centennial House is an oddity in the township. It was built in what is now Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, and was a celebrated house for Philadelphia’s Centennial. It’s [sic] owner moved it piece by piece and reconstructed it in Marple.”[10]
With this dearth of information, what does the historical evidence tell us about the house?
The land on which the house was built was a 14-acre tract along Paxon Hollow Road acquired in September 1874 by George Broomall of Media in a sheriff’s sale, and sold to Dr. Benjamin S. Anderson of Marple in July 1875 for $1,600.[11] The 1875 deed does not mention a house on the property, though a house is depicted on “Dr. B. S. Andrews” property in an 1875 map of the township.[12] Notably, no dwelling is shown on an 1870 map, hinting that the house may have been built around the time Anderson purchased the property.[13] Additionally, Anderson is not noted as a buyer in articles covering the December 1876 auction.[14]
Could the style and architecture of the house give a hint? Does the style fit the times or does the form match any buildings at the exposition? The only photographs of the house are from the 1970s and 1980s, and show a heavily modified 2½-story frame farmhouse with a front porch and several additions. The original house appears to have been three-bays-wide and one room deep. Its most distinctive architectural feature is the centered cross gable on the roof—a common feature of Gothic Revival style houses. The house may have once had more decorative trim and windows, but these had been lost to time by the 1970s. While the height of the Gothic Revival style’s popularity was in the decades immediately before and during the Civil War (1840s-1860s), some continued to be built into the 1880s.[15]
So, while the style could match the time period of the Centennial, it was already well on its way out of style and would not likely have been a “celebrated house” at the exposition. Additionally, it does not seem to be a close match to any of the buildings at the Centennial Exposition. The “closest” in form—the Iowa State Building—was sold to a man from Camden County, New Jersey.
One final clue comes not from Marple, but Newtown Square. Located on PA-252 just north of Saw Mill Road is another 2½-story Gothic Revival house also called the “Centennial House.” Unlike the Marple house, however, no connection to the exposition is claimed. Instead, the house bears a datestone reading “C.G.+M.N. 1876” for the year Charles and Mary Neal built the home. Proudly displaying the centennial year on the datestone, the house has become known by that name.[16]
Conclusions
So, what’s the verdict? History is not always clear cut and sometimes there aren’t always clear answers, but rather, probable conclusions based on the evidence. The Centennial House almost certainly was not a “celebrated house” at the exposition and there is no evidence that Anderson purchased any buildings or materials at the auction after the fair. The house itself appears to have been a relatively simple interpretation of an architectural style that was already going out of fashion at the time of the Centennial, and the 1875 atlas seems to indicate that a house had been erected on the site before the Centennial Exposition opened. Finally, a similar house in Newtown Square is also called the “Centennial House” not because of where it came from, but when it was built. With all that said, while a connection to the exposition cannot be conclusively ruled out, it’s likely that the house was built in the years just before the Centennial and received its nickname (and later confusion) because of when it was built.
[1] Dorothy Gondos Beers, “The Centennial City, 1865-1876,” in Philadelphia: A 300-Year History, eds. Russell F. Weigley, Nicholas B. Wainwright, and Edwin Wolf 2nd (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1982), 460, 465-467.
[2] Beers, “The Centennial City,” 467-470.
[3] Joseph A. Gambardello, “Fair Farewell: A few buildings remain from the 1876 World’s Fair here,” Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia), 8 May 2019, B1, B5.
[4] “The Centennial Auction,” New-York Times (New York), 2 December 1876, 5; “Under the Hammer,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 2 December 1876, 2; Frank J. Prial, “Buildings From 1876 Centennial Live On in Spring Lake, N.J.,” New York Times (New York), 15 July 1976, 36.
[5] “Local Summary,” Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 12 September 1878, 3; “Historic Stations in Germantown End Careers This Week,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 20 September 1931, section 2, 1 & 4.
[6] Michael Calafati, Saint Peter’s-By-The-Sea Episcopal Church, NRIS ID# 95000978, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, 9 March 1985, digitally available through the National Parks Service, https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/95000978.
[7] Carol Benenson and Ed Fox, Centennial House, NRIS ID# 91000674, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, 5 September 1990, digitally available through the National Parks Service, https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/91000674; “Centennial House – Merchantville, NJ,” 11 August 2011, Waymark,https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMC95X_Centennial_House_Merchantville_NJ.
[8] “A Few Devon Items,” Daily Local News (West Chester, Pennsylvania), 9 August 1884.
[9] Delaware County Planning Department, Report on the Findings of the Delaware County Historic Resources Survey for Marple Township (Media, Pennsylvania: Delaware County, June 1983), 10.
[10] “Centennial House,” County Press (Newtown Square, Pennsylvania), [Marple Tricentennial Issue], 13 June 1984, 4.
[11] Delaware County Deed Book Z3:257.
[12] Everts & Stewart, Combination Atlas Map of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Everts & Stewart, 1875), 8.
[13] Henry W. Hopkins, Atlas of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: G. M. Hopkins, 1870), 43.
[14] “The Centennial Auction,” New-York Times, 2 December 1876, 5; “Under the Hammer,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 2 December 1876, 2.
[15] Virginia Savage McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide of Identifying and Understanding America’s Domestic Architecture (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014), 266-273.
[16] Clara McVeigh, “Appendix #8: 19th-Century Buildings,” in Historic Newtown Township (Newtown Square, Delaware County, PA.), 1681–1983, eds. Alice Lindborg and Carl Lindborg (Newtown Square, Pennsylvania: Newtown Township Tricentennial Commission, 1984), 382.