Director

In 1790, Philadelphia was devastated by the Yellow Fever epidemic. Wyck's fourth generation owners, Reuben Haines I and Margaret Wistar resided in downtown Philadelphia. Both Reuben and Margaret succumbed to the fever, leaving their country home, Wyck, in the possession of their son, Caspar Wistar Haines. Upon his inheritance, Caspar moved his family to Wyck to escape the contagion running rampant in the city. It was in this historical moment that this smokehouse was constructed. When Caspar and his wife Hannah arrived they immediately set to work updating the family home. They united the front and back buildings and stuccoed the exterior of the main house, they erected a coach house for their carriage, and they built the smokehouse to store and cure meat.

This smokehouse dates to 1797 when food preservation was essential to the nutritional survival of Wyck's inhabitants. Without modern day refrigeration, meat would spoil quickly if left untreated. Even still, butchering of larger animals was left for colder weather when naturally cool temperatures helped prevent meat from going bad too quickly. Smokehouses such as this one would be used to hang meats after they had been salted for later consumption.

Wyck's Smokehouse 

Wyck served as the ancestral home of one family from 1690 to 1973: the names most prominently associated with Wyck are the Wistar and Haines generations. Today, Wyck engages over 7,000 visitors annually with programs that incorporate the house, outbuildings, landscape, and objects saved over 300 years, revealing the enduring relevance of Philadelphia history in contemporary life. Wyck was established as a 2.5-acre historic site in 1973, and since 1978 the Wyck Association has administered the site. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991, Wyck is a truly remarkable survival of historic Philadelphia life in a densely urban neighborhood. The site consists of a colonial house with innovative 1824 alterations by architect William Strickland, the oldest rose garden in its original plan in America, and a collection of 100,000 family papers and more than 10,000 family objects, furniture pieces, and historical curiosities. Additionally, our site features perennial gardens, a woodlot, fruit trees, extensive vegetable and herb gardens, as well as a collection of outbuildings from the late 18th century through the early 20th century (a carriage house, greenhouse, ice-house, and smoke house). The legacies of Wyck’s prior owners—Quakers who represented the city’s leadership in business, natural history and science, and education reform—are the values of innovation, social responsibility and environmental sustainability. The Wyck Association perpetuates these values through its programming. In 2007, the Wyck Association restored the fruit and vegetable gardens that had been on the Wyck site for centuries. The Home Farm is multi-functional, growing food for an on-site Home Farm Club, providing an interactive outdoor classroom for local children and adults, and preserving historic agricultural traditions. Our farm programming connects historical and modern-day ideas of agriculture, horticulture, preservation, and community. Today Wyck’s audience includes visitors interested in broadening their knowledge of history, horticulture, and urban agriculture; Germantown children needing safe outdoor space and opportunities for hands-on learning about history, farming, nutrition, and environmental science; and Germantown and Mount Airy neighborhood residents seeking affordable, locally grown and chemical-free produce as well as quality programming for adults, children, and community. In 2015, our Board of Directors adopted a new strategic plan, which has set a course for improved organizational efficiency, identifies new programmatic goals, and presents a vision for Wyck that emphasizes the values of innovation, social responsibility, and environmental sustainability. Our mission is three-fold: to maintain the site so that it is both well-preserved and enjoyed; to produce engaging programs that use history to empower participants to improve their lives and the world we share; and to act as a catalyst in the revitalization of Germantown.

Wyck is a National Historic Landmark house, garden, and farm in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia that served as the ancestral home to one Philadelphia family for nine generations (1690-1973). Here, traditional Quaker culture blended with a passion for innovation. The people who lived and worked at Wyck expressed these values through their commitment to education, horticulture, natural history, and preservation. Today, the Wyck Association connects this family and its rich history to the Germantown community through programs that focus on history, horticulture, and urban agriculture, using the past as inspiration for the present. Our 2.5-acre, centuries-old site plays an essential role in the life of our 21st-century urban neighborhood, using buildings, landscape, and collections to provide educational, cultural, and nutritional resources for our neighbors and visitors.

The mission of the Wyck Association is to preserve and interpret Wyck, one of America’s most authentic historic sites, to engage learners of all ages, and to strengthen our neighboring community.

Jane Bowne Haines (1790 - 1843) moved from her family home in Flushing, New York to Philadelphia in 1812 to marry a man from another prominent Quaker family, Reuben Haines III. Reuben had inherited Wyck upon the death of his father, Caspar Wistar Haines, in 1802. A few years into Jane and Reuben's marriage they decided to relocate from their home in downtown Philadelphia to Reuben's family home, Wyck. Wyck was located miles from the city in Germantown and Jane was disappointed by the estate's lack of a scenic vista and formal gardens - she longed for a space to entertain her guests. In 1821, she designed this rose garden to provide a space to socialize and to soak up the beauty of nature. The garden was installed and the house was renovated by noted architect, William Strickland. By 1825 the upgraded estate was fit to host the Marquis de Lafayette on his travels through Germantown. The Oldest RosesThe oldest roses in the garden are thought to have been planted in the 18th century as medicinal plants, including the stand of Rosa alba semi-plena (located to the right of the seating area known as the summerhouse). This variety dates to before 1629 and is thought to be the rose symbolizing the House of York during the War of the Roses in England. Extremely fragrant and bearing large quantities of rose hips later in the season, this rose was used often in medicinal applications during the Colonial era. Another rose of great antiquity in Wyck’s garden is ‘Pink Leda’, a damask rose that the first European settlers brought to America. A rose with deep roots locally, the ‘Celsiana’ was growing in Germantown by about 1750. It went by the local name Germantown Damask; it was also known as the Tobacco Rose because its fragrant petals were added medicinally to tobacco. Wyck’s garden also features the dowager of all old European roses, Rosa gallica officinalis, along with the striped sport ‘Rosa Mondi’. R. gallica officinalis has been cultivated since the Crusades. Also called the Apothecary Rose, it was highly valued for its medicinal properties historically. Mystery Roses Several roses in the garden are mysteries. Among these is the ‘Elegant Gallica,’ a variety that would have been fully extinct had it not survived at Wyck and eventually been propagated for distribution commercially. An even rarer rose is ‘Lafayette,’ a gallica/damask hybrid which is available only through Wyck. It is believed to have been planted in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette’s visit to Wyck in 1825 during a return trip to Philadelphia. The name ‘Bella Donna’ referred to a number of roses throughout the 20th century, and great debates raged as to which rose was the real ‘Bella Donna’! The presence of the rose in Wyck’s garden, along with its name appearing on an early plant list, resulted in a decisive identification. The Early China RosesRoses were introduced from China in the late-18th and early-19th centuries. These roses caused great excitement; a rose revolution! Small and twiggy, less hardy, and bearing a scant fragrance, China roses re-bloom regularly, a quality virtually nonexistent in roses up to that time. ‘Old Blush’ was one of the first, along with ‘Slater’s Crimson China’ and ‘Miss Wilmot’s China’. The latter was known in China as White Pearl in Red Dragon’s Mouth. A number of roses in Wyck’s garden represent rose breeding efforts in the 19th century to combine genes from the China roses with those of the old European favorites. The 19th Century RosesA number of roses in Wyck’s garden represent efforts in the 19th century to combine genes from the China roses with those of the old European favorites. The oval bed in the center of the parterres contains several such roses, including ‘Marquesa Boccella,’ ‘Victor Verdier,’ and ‘Baronne Prevost.’ Elsewhere in the garden are the similar ‘Rose de Rescht’ and ‘La Reine.’ Although not strong re-bloomers by today’s standards, these roses were considered an important step toward the ever-blooming roses that gardeners were beginning to demand. The first American rose hybrid was created in 1811; it arrived at Wyck by 1824. ‘Champney’s Pink Cluster’ was a cross between the two favorite roses of a South Carolina rice planter, the Musk rose and the China rose. It exhibits the best qualities of both parents, reblooming reliably and more fragrant than many other roses. Climbing roses were not commonly planted until the introduction of the wichuriaina rose from China in the late 19th century. This extremely vigorous plant is very hardy and can grow to 20 feet or more. The hybrid wichuriainas ‘American Pillar,’ ‘Silver Moon,’ ‘Dr. Van Fleet,’ and ‘Tausendschoen’ (the latter found in the lattice on the front of the house) reflect the popularity of climbing roses in the early 20th century.

The Wyck rose garden is the oldest rose garden in the United States that is still growing in its original plan. The garden was designed in 1821 by sixth generation resident of Wyck, Jane Bowne Haines (1790 - 1843). The Wyck Rose Garden itself was dates to the 1820s and is home to over 50 cultivars of historic roses.  Included in the garden are the original rose plants from the 19th century design, as well as plants from the 18th century kitchen garden. Several roses in cultivation today were thought lost until they were discovered growing at Wyck, and all specimens of these varieties in commercial trade descend from Wyck plants.  Beginning with Rosa spinosissima in early May and ending with Rosa moschata in late October, Wyck’s historic roses are remarkable for their beauty as well as for their fragrance, which fills the garden. Wyck is a rare wonder for garden lovers and an important repository of plants that have disappeared from other historic gardens. Other areas of the property are planted not for decoration and pleasure but rather for practical purposes.  In the late-17th and 18th centuries, the property extended all the way to present-day Wissahickon Avenue but was sold off in the 1850’s as Germantown developed into a desirable suburb.

Wyck Historic House, Garden, & Farm

Wyck's Smokehouse

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context