The William Vicary Mansion
Sitting atop a
gentle knoll overlooking the
Ohio River
in what is now Freedom,
Pennsylvania
, sits the stately old mansion built by Captain William Vicary. Long a source of
wonder, its unusual construction and elegant style speak of the wealth and
status of its former owners.
Captain
Vicary, a retired
Philadelphia
merchant sea captain and land speculator, moved with his family to his land
near Big Sewickley Creek. Looking
for land deals, Vicary most likely scouted this area of
Beaver
County
in which to construct his family home. Finding
the correct spot, Vicary purchased 604 acres of land, lots #33, 34 & 35,
from Mark Wilcox on February 18, 1826 on which to situate his mansion.[1]
Within a few months following the purchase, Vicary hired John Moore to do
the actual construction. The
original contract called for
Moore
to erect a stone dwelling measuring fifty two feet long by thirty eight feet
wide along with a stone smokehouse, necessary, and spring house to be finished
in December of 1826 for the sum of $2,450. He was also to construct a barn for
an additional $650.
On the
first of April, 1826, Vicary made several additions and changes to the original
contract where he asked for the walls of the mansion to be made of cut stone
with parapet walls; that the walls should be coped with cut stone; that there
should be an ash house and oven of cut stone with partitions in the kitchen
along with other revisions to both the house and barn.
All of the buildings were to be completed by April 1st of
1827, and were to eventually cost an additional $1,435.
The
mansion was not completed until November of 1829 because Vicary, unsatisfied
with
Moore
’s lack of progress and quality of work, took possession and paid his own
people to complete the contract. This
led to a dispute as to final payment between Vicary and the builder that
resulted in a Pennsylvania Supreme Court case (Vicary vs. Moore Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania, Western District). Although
Vicary eventually won, the case dragged on several years following his death.
It is from this case that we find many of the details of the above
contract.
Consisting of twenty rooms, the final product boasted eight main rooms each
eighteen feet square with red oak floors supported on hand hewn beams.
The inside walls were brick finished with plaster, and the main entrance
door was made of solid oak two inches thick and supported by heavy iron strap
hinges. The outside walls were of two foot thick cut sandstone blocks that were
“faced” or smoothed.
Vicary
lived here until his death in 1842, and Mary, his wife, continued living in the
mansion with her children until her death in 1853.
Upon their passing, the mansion was inherited by their only living child,
Hannah and her future husband, Dr. T. F. Robinson.
As with all new occupants, changes to suit their tastes and needs are
inevitable and the Robinsons were no exception.
One major addition made by the Robinsons was the creation of
a stone mausoleum built for their daughter Leonora who died at the age of
four years. The mausoleum was
described in an article written in the Pittsburgh Sunday Dispatch in 1899 by
Laura Withrow as follows:
“The mother’s heart was broken. She
wanted her child still to be near her, even though death had come between.
Thus was conceived the idea of building a family vault on the lawn near
by the house.
The remains were temporarily interred in the garden and the vault was
constructed, the designs being furnished by Dr. Robinson.
The entire vault is covered with earth, thus forming an immense mound back of
the ornamental front. The vault is
built of massive stonework. Benches
are at either side of the interior, an especially large one being in the rear
end….. The great mound is a bead
(sic) of myrtle and violets. Arbor
vitae trees form a perfect circle around the vault.
An iron fence, the double gate being hung on stone pillars, incloses
(sic) the front… On the urn, surmounting the whole are two beautiful
figures. One is that of a kneeling
woman, wringing her hands in sorrow for her dead.
The other, in the guise of a woman, is an angel of light hovering over
the sorrowing one with a message of comfort.”
With the death
of Leonora, the Robinsons’ only surviving child, Anna M.V. Robinson inherited
the mansion in 1880. Following the
untimely death of her first husband Tobias Hetchie, Anna married and shared the
mansion with James Harvey. As with their predecessors, the
Harveys
also made some changes and additions to the mansion.
These changes included: adding
the large front porch that is still visible today, adding a smaller side porch,
removing a large stone wall from the yard, and placing glass in the large oak
entrance door.
Sometime around 1912, the
Harvey
family packed their belongings and moved to
Los Angeles
,
California
. The empty mansion was rented to a
prominent Freedom family named Bischoffberger.
In a letter written to Mrs. Alton Bonzo by Margaret Schuldt, a daughter
of the Bischoffbergers, in 1979, Mrs. Schuldt talks about some of the changes
made by her family:
“…Papa
fixed the large room in the attic as our party room.
He had a beautiful hardwood floor laid.
There were two good sized bedrooms off the large room.
…Papa had made an apartment above the kitchen & laundry.
There was an outside stairway going from the apartment over the kitchen.
“
Surprisingly,
even though they were renters, the Bischoffbergers made changes to the house and
must have expected to buy it at some point.
One of the true enduring mysteries of the mansion is why it was never
sold to them. According to Mrs.
Schuldt:
“You
see my Dad wanted to buy the house & was told he could have first chance on
it when we lived in it but it was sold, you might say, right out from under him
& that was their reason for moving out to one of our own houses on
Eighth Street
….Which made them quite unhappy….”
During the
Bischoffbergers’ residence, the mansion was nearly lost to a fire.
Apparently Mr. and Mrs. Bischoffberger were away in
Erie
attending a funeral of Mr. Gottlieb Walters, an uncle of Mr. Bischoffberger,
and the children had walked into town. According
to an article in the Daily Times
dated
Tuesday, December 19, 1916
titled Big
Fire Damage:
“Fire at the residence of E.J. Bischoffberger in
East Third avenue
, Freedom, Saturday night about
9 o’clock
resulted in damage to the structure and furnishings estimated at from $500 to
$600.
The family was from home at the time and the fire which is thought to
have originate at or near the furnace in the basement was discovered by an
engine crew in the
Conway
yards who gave the alarm by blowing the locomotive’s whistle.
The fire ladies responded with their big motor fire truck and by good
work confined the fire to the main hall on the first floor to which it had eaten
its way by the time they arrived.
Mr. Bischoffberger arrived home from
Erie
about
one o’clock
Sunday morning and could not be censured if he regards the happening in the
light of a rather costly “house warming”. “
In any event,
the mansion was sold to Freedom resident Joseph Nannah in 1924 for the princely
sum of $10. Nannah made his own
changes by removing the large stone fireplace in the kitchen because it was not
useful. Also, in 1925, the stone
mausoleum was dismantled and the bodies removed to Oak
Grove
Cemetery
in Freedom where they now rest. At
this point, it is unclear as to who was actually responsible for the removal of
the mausoleum
Once again, the mansion was passed on to an only daughter, Hazel, a
teacher for the Freedom,
Conway
and Monaca school districts for 45 years. In
1948, a victim of rising costs and maintenance problems, Hazel placed her own
“stamp” on the mansion when she divided it up into three apartments in order
to help pay the bills. In the 1950’s, Miss Nannah had the wooden floor of the
large porch removed and replaced with the concrete floor that you see today.
Miss Nannah and her various tenants lived
here until the land was appropriated by the state for the construction of Route
65 in the late 1960’s.
Faced with the impending destruction of this historical structure,
a one-woman letter writing campaign was begun by Mrs. Mildred Arbutina
Pappas. A former Freedom resident,
Mrs. Papas conducted her campaign from her new home in
Washington
,
D.C.. Thanks to her efforts, and help
from local organizations and governments, the Pennsylvania Department of
Transportation built a retaining wall to save the mansion.
Placed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 18, 1974,
ownership of the land was transferred to Beaver County in the mid-1970’s, with
the mansion being purchased from Nannah heirs, Gerald and Aloha Fehr Phillips,
for $41,000 in 1982. In
February of 1999, the
William
Vicary
Mansion
became the official home of the Beaver County Historical Research &
Landmarks Foundation. Today, the
mansion is being restored to its former grandeur and is open to the public for
all to enjoy.
Sources:
“Captain
William Vicary – The Legend” by
Laura Withrow,
Pittsburgh
Sunday Dispatch,
February 19, 1899
.
Deed – Mark
Wilcox to William Vicary dated
February 18, 1826
.
Beaver
County
Recorder of Deeds. Vol. G Page 388.
Deed – Anna
M.V. Harvey to Joseph Nannah dated
November 19, 1924
.
Beaver
County
Recorder of Deeds.
“Freedom
Home is Rich in Historical Lore” , The Beaver Valley Times,
March 26, 1955
.
Letter from
Margaret Schuldt to Mr.s Alton Bonzo dated
September 24, 1979
.
Beaver
County
Research & Landmarks Foundation.
“Vicary
Changes Proposed Under
County
Option
Plan” by Debra Utterback, The
Beaver
County
Times,
February 22, 1987
.
Vicary Vs.
Moore, Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania
, Western District,
Pittsburgh
.
“Big
Fire Damage”, The Daily Times,
December 19, 1916
.
