An Historic Home Driving Tour

An Historic Home Driving Tour

Each historic house has its own schedule, so it's difficult to coordinate your visit to see all the sights. For most of the year you can visit the houses Thursday to Sunday. In winter, all of Germantown's historic houses, except the Johnson House, are closed. A morning stroll through Morris Arboretum, followed by lunch in Chestnut Hill and a visit to a historic house or two, could easily take the better part of a day.

You can follow Germantown Avenue from lower Germantown north to Chestnut Hill. Many of the homes you'll see were built when Germantown Avenue was a dirt road; today it's lined with cobblestones. Begin your tour at Stenton, James Logan's manor just off Germantown Avenue at Windrim Avenue and 18th Street. At Queen Lane is John Wister's Grumblethorpe, built from stones quarried on the property. A few blocks north on Germantown Avenue is Market Square, a park that was once the site of a prison and its stocks and a focal point for trade. Facing Market Square on your left is the Deshler-Morris House, with fine antiques and lovely gardens; diagonally across the square in a row of restored redbrick buildings is the Germantown Historical Society, which provides a good introduction to the houses in the area.

Drive north a half mile farther to the Quaker-style Wyck House, at the corner of Germantown Avenue and Walnut Lane. Just before Pastorius Street is the tiny, historic Germantown Mennonite Church. On this site in 1708 the Mennonites established their first church in the New World. The little log church was replaced in 1770 by the current building. Turn left on Tulpehocken Street; at No. 200 West is the Victorian Gothic Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion. Continue north on Germantown Avenue past the Johnson House, once a tannery, later a station on the Underground Railroad. At No. 6401 is Cliveden, an elaborate house at the end of a long, graceful driveway. Across the street is Upsala, a Federal-style home of the Johnson family (who also owned the Johnson House).

Adjacent to Germantown is the residential community of Mount Airy, and farther north, at the "top" of Germantown Avenue, is Chestnut Hill. The town's tony shopping district runs from No. 7900 to 8700. Half a mile north at No. 9201 is the Woodmere Art Museum, with works from the 19th and 20th centuries. From here, you could detour to the Morris Arboretum or the natural setting of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education to take a walk; both places are lovely at any time of year.