'Governments, individuals, and old houses': the Slate Roof House of Philadelphia

Abstract

In 1867 the Slate Roof House was demolished, removing one of the last vestiges of Philadelphia's earliest architecture from the urban landscape. Debate over the building's removal brought preservation of historic relics to the forefront of public debate and inspired a host of artists, writers, and interested members of the public to record their impression of the site. The artifacts and documents they created, along with evidence recording its earlier existence provide the most complete archive of a seventeenth-century, first-period structure in Philadelphia. ☐ Built by a wealthy merchant and respected citizen in seventeenth- and early eighteenth century Philadelphia, Samuel Carpenter, the house was one of many real estate investments. A sophisticated relationship between public and private spaces, an imposing exterior facade and interior plan, and substantial architectural finish and furnishings made the Slate Roof a unique and clearly significant structure in Penn's town. Comparison with contemporary architecture suggests that Carpenter employed strategies that linked the Slate Roof House to imposing semi-public, semi-private structures in a British and European provincial context. ☐ Using evidence from photographs, paintings, sketches, primary and secondary sources, the context of the Slate Roof House in Philadelphia and the broader Atlantic world since the seventeenth century is explored.