Rittenhouse Square homes for sale—“ground zero for Philadelphia’s Gilded Age millionaires”
Rittenhouse Square is one of Philadelphia’s five original parks (originally named Southwest Square) laid out by William Penn in the 17th century. It gained its current name in 1825 as it became a center for the city’s wealthiest inhabitants to build their extravagant homes, a trend that continued through America’s Gilded Age in the late 19th and early 20th century. After World War II, many of the historic homes that fronted the park and lined the adjacent streets were replaced by modern apartment buildings, but a few of the historic townhomes remain. (The 2010 photo of Rittenhouse Square is in the public domain).
A house on historic Delancey Street was recently listed for $5.78 million—fully renovated. The original house was built in 1860 (Federal style) but was restyled as a Beaux Arts home in 1918. In the 1960s, it was owned by Nobel Prize-winner and writer Pearl Buck.
Another home—a carriage house on Chancellor Street—also is for sale. The home was originally built in 1880; the carriage house was recently converted to a single-family home (it was a multi-use space when it was purchased two years ago). It is listed for $2.35 million.
And the former compound of Henry P. McIlhenney, former chair of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was purchased recently by Bart Blatstein and renovated into a new Gilded Age home— "if you can call a sprawling 17,000-square-foot urban villa a house."
Read
Bart Blatstein's mansion brings the Gilded Age back to Rittenhouse Square
By Inga Saffron
The Inquirer
November 17, 2017
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Incredible Beaux Arts home on Delancey Place lists for $5.78M
By Melissa Romero
Curbed Philadelphia
October 15, 2017
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Historic Rittenhouse carriage house asks $2.35M after major makeover
By Melissa Romero
Curbed Philadelphia
November 13, 2017