Wyck House

Wyck House
Wyck House is located in Philadelphia
Wyck House
Wyck House is located in Pennsylvania
Wyck House
Wyck House is located in the United States
Wyck House
Location6026 Germantown Avenue
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Coordinates40°1′18″N 75°10′43″W / 40.02167°N 75.17861°W / 40.02167; -75.17861
Area2.5 acres (1.0 ha)
ArchitectWilliam Strickland
Part ofColonial Germantown Historic District (ID66000678)
NRHP reference No.71000736[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPOctober 26, 1971[2]
Designated NHLDecember 14, 1990
Designated NHLDCPJune 23, 1965
Digital photograph of the front face of the Wyck house, with its historic roses climbing the trellis, facing northeast toward Germantown Ave. The building in the background is the Green Tree Tavern (6023 Germantown Ave.), built in 1743.[3]
Wyck in March 1840, from daguerreotype made by Prof. Walter R. Johnson. Image transferred to Lantern Slide c.1913 by John G. Bullock (1854-1939). Original in collection of Library Company of Philadelphia.

The Wyck house, also known as the Haines house or Hans Millan house, is a historic mansion, museum, garden, and urban farm in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1971 for its well-preserved condition and its documentary records, which span nine generations of a single family.[4][5][6]

During the American Revolution, the Wyck house was occupied by British forces and used as a field hospital during the Battle of Germantown, in October 1777.[7][6] Wyck was the site of an early American brewery from 1794 to 1801,[8] and later became a meeting place of influential American scientists and artists including Thomas Say, Charles Lucien Bonaparte, John James Audubon, Thomas Nuttall, William Cooper, William Maclure, Charles Alexandre Lesueur, Margaretta Morris, Elizabeth Carrington Morris, and George Ord.[9][10] Wyck is the type locality of the Queen snake (Regina septemvittata), discovered on the second floor of the house by Reuben Haines III and described in 1825 by Thomas Say.[11][12] It is also the type locality of the terrestrial gastropod Ventridens suppressus (Say 1829).[13][14]

The house was renovated in 1824 by William Strickland, the famous Greek revivalist architect.[5] The following year, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette returned to visit the sites of the Battle of Germantown, and was hosted in a reception at Wyck.[6][15]

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. ^ Listing at the National Park Service
  3. ^ Cotter, John L.; Roberts, Daniel G.; Parrington, Michael (1992). The Buried Past: An Archaeological History of Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-3142-7.
  4. ^ "NHL nomination for Wyck". National Park Service. Retrieved March 28, 2017.
  5. ^ a b American Philosophical Society Library (Mss.Ms.Coll.52). Wyck Association Collection. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. https://search.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.Ms.Coll.52-ead.xml;query=Wyck;brand=default
  6. ^ a b c Claussen, W. Edmunds (1970). Wyck: The Story of an Historic House. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Published by Mary Troth Haines.
  7. ^ Hotchkin, Samuel Fitch (1889). Ancient and Modern Germantown, Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill. P. W. Ziegler & Company.
  8. ^ Cotter, John L.; Roberts, Daniel G.; Parrington, Michael (1992). The Buried Past: An Archaeological History of Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-3142-7.
  9. ^ Halley, Matthew R. (2018). "Lost tales of American ornithology: Reuben Haines and the Canada Geese of Wyck (1818–1828)" (PDF). Cassinia. 76: 52–63.
  10. ^ McNeur, Catherine (October 31, 2023). Mischievous Creatures: The Forgotten Sisters Who Transformed Early American Science. Basic Books. ISBN 978-1-5416-7418-9.
  11. ^ Halley, Matthew R. (May 2019). "Rediscovery of the holotype of the extinct cephalopod Baculites ovatus Say, 1820 after nearly two centuries". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 167 (1): 1–9. doi:10.1635/053.167.0101. ISSN 0097-3157. S2CID 164642352.
  12. ^ Say, Thomas (1825). "Description of three new species of Coluber, inhabiting the United States". Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 4: 237–241.
  13. ^ Say, Thomas; Binney, W. G. (1856). Descriptions of terrestrial shells of North America. Philadelphia: Childs & Peterson.
  14. ^ "ANSP Malacology Collection Specimen Search Details". clade.ansp.org. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
  15. ^ Jenkins, Charles Francis (1911). Lafayette's Visit to Germantown, July 20, 1825: An Address Delivered Before the Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, March 1, 1909, the Pennsylvania Historical Society, May 10, 1909, the Site and Relic Society of Germantown, May 20, 1910, the City History Society of Philadelphia, Jan. 11, 1911. W. J. Campbell.