[4] Penn met with the local Native American Lenape tribes to negotiate fairly and sue for peace, seeking not merely their blessing but cooperation in settling the land.

He achieved amicable relations and platted the village of Philadelphia north of the confluence of the large southerly flowing Delaware River and easterly Schuylkill, a smaller tributary entering from the northwest.

In addition to the central manor house, separate outbuildings for baking and brewing, a large stable, boathouse, and numerous farm buildings were erected.

He left the colony for England in 1701 to fend off a threatening French claim to his British grant, dying destitute in his home town of Ruscombe after having been defrauded by his English agent of rents and income due him.

The Warner Company of Philadelphia, established in 1794 as a dealer in sand, gravel and other construction materials, acquired much of the otherwise deserted land where the manor once stood.

Charles Warner, its president, presented the deed for a just under ten-acre parcel where the Pennsbury buildings had stood to the state as a permanent memorial to Penn.

[6] In the 1920s and 1930s there was considerable interest in preserving buildings and history of colonial America, due in part to the country's celebration of its sesquicentennial and the stresses of waves of immigration, a world war, and the Great Depression.

[citation needed] Sites relating to Founding Fathers were reconstructed in this era, including Abraham Lincoln's former home in New Salem, Illinois in the 1920s and the long-destroyed Northern Virginia birthplace of George Washington known as Wakefield, in 1930.

[4] Penn wrote to his overseer James Harrison frequently from England during the construction of the estate, providing insight into his intentions and progress of the project.

Pennsbury Manor was designed by local architect R. Brognard Okie, (1875-1945), known for his sensitive Colonial Revival constructions in the area, and restoration of the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia.

[5] Since the late 20th century the museum staff has concentrated their attentions indoors, creating an increasingly accurate depiction of domestic life in Penn's time through interpretive programs and such decorative elements as period appropriate wall colors, textiles, and furniture arrangements.

It took about 15 years of coordinating between the Lenape tribal historic preservation officers and the staff members of Pennsbury Manor to bring not only the Five Civilized Tribes but the hundreds of ancestors back home.