Bellevue Mansion

William and Deborah were heavily involved in religious affairs of their Quaker Meeting and in the period 1825 to 1840 depended on Bellevue with its housemistress to keep their children occupied during the summer months.

To the younger generation of that time, the railroads represented progress, allowing anyone to travel quickly and boosting the economy of the region.

But they also carried huge loads of coal, thundering by the house at inconvenient times, and the constant noise was annoying for guests staying at Bellevue.

In 1854, Philadelphia expanded its borders to include the surrounding suburbs, and after the Civil War its population swelled to several hundred thousand.

Philadelphia's typhoid fever rate was among the highest in the nation, and most well-to-do families drank bottled spring water.

He started purchasing land in southern New Jersey in the 1870s, eventually acquiring 150 square miles (390 km2) in the Pinelands, which contained an aquifer replenished by several rivers and lakes.

Wharton suggested that a city-controlled company could develop the necessary water mains and pumps, funded by public purchase of stocks and bonds.

Unmaintained and boarded up, the mansion was used for several decades by the city water department to store pipes and fittings, and was finally demolished in construction of new housing for the newly organized industry nearby in North Philadelphia.

Bellevue Mansion, looking south from Nicetown Lane in 1856. Painting by Edmund Darch Lewis .
Bellevue Mansion in 1858
Charles Wharton purchased Bellevue in 1802
Deborah Fisher Wharton , daughter of Samuel R. Fisher , in the year she was married.
William Wharton, ~1840
Bellevue Mansion from the east. Anna Wharton stands in the foreground.
Interior of Bellevue Mansion, 1858. Deborah Fisher Wharton sitting at left. Anna Wharton, standing, died in 1863 at 29 of tuberculosis. Mary Wharton Thurston's children, William and Esther (Hetty), orphaned in 1861, at right.
Map of the Bellevue Estate in 1870. Much of the estate near the train tracks had been sold, and some additional lots were purchased by the family south of Lamb Tavern Road.
Map of the Bellevue Estate in 1820, overlooking a small valley in which a brook flowed from Germantown down into the Schuylkill River. The family owned most of the land between Nicetown Lane and Ford Road.
Map of the Bellevue Estate in 1895. The City of Philadelphia condemned what was left of the Wharton Estate for the "Cambria Reservoir". Newly planned streets in light blue. The house sat between 27th and 28th Streets, just north of Allegheny Ave.
Map of the Bellevue Estate in 1840. The Reading Railroad built its Norristown line 30 yards (27 m) north of Bellevue Mansion, with the Bellevue station nearby. With this progress, the quiet of the estate was doomed and the family began selling off lots near the train right of way. A second rail line, constructed nearby in 1842, carried anthracite coal from northern Pennsylvania to large coal terminal on the Delaware River at Port Richmond .
Map of the site of Bellevue Mansion, 1920. Industry sprang up near the rail lines. The Tastykake factory stands across Hunting Park Ave. from where Bellevue Mansion stood, and Pep Boys is just down the street. Roosevelt Expressway , constructed in 1958–1961, is included as a relevant modern landmark.