Country houses in the eighteenth century.(Current and coming)(Philadelphia )

To the north and to the west of Philadelphia along the Schuylkill River is an area known in the colonial period as Liberty Lands. In the eighteenth century, as an incentive for prospective settlers, William Penn offered tracts of eighty acres in Liberty Lands to anyone who purchased at least five thousand acres elsewhere in Pennsylvania. The area is not that far from the center of the city, and it was well worth the trip, for, in the words of Samuel Breck, the owner of the country estate Sweetbriar, "The prospect consists of a river, animated by its great trade carried on in boats of about thirty tons, drawn by horses; of a beautiful sloping lawn, terminating at that river ... of side-screen woods; of gardens, greenhouse, etc." The country retreats built there were seen as an escape not only from the heat of the city in summer, but also from exposure to diseases that decimated urban populations.

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This large parcel was incorporated into Philadelphia in 1855, when Fairmount Park was built there to protect the city's water supply from being encroached on. At that time many houses that already stood in the park were converted to other uses. In many cases, this saved them from being radically altered--a fate that often befalls houses with a succession of owners.

Objects associated with eight of these eighteenth-century country houses form the loan exhibition at the Philadelphia Antiques Show on view at the Thirty-third Street Armory from April 8 through 12. The antiques show, which is highly regarded for the consistently high quality of the Americana on offer, is also justifiably ...