John Harris / Simon Cameron Mansion

John Harris, Jr. (1727-1791), founder of Harrisburg, built this stone residence in 1766 at the end of the French and Indian War. In 1785, Harris and his son-in-law, William Maclay, laid out the Borough of Harrisburg in the house's front parlor. After Harris' death, the house passed to his sons, first David Harris and then Robert in 1805; Robert lived there until 1835, when it was sold to local attorney Thomas Elder. After Elder died in 1853, Reverend Beverly Waugh used the house as the Pennsylvania Female College, but Civil War turmoil and Waugh's death in 1861 forced the college into bankruptcy. In 1863, Simon Cameron, President Lincoln's first Secretary of War and organizer of one of the most powerful political machines in U.S. history, acquired the property as his home. During his tenure as Lincoln's Minister to Russia after serving as War Secretary, Cameron traveled through Europe and obtained fine furnishings for the house, including 14-foot-high pier mirrors from France whose installation required lowering the first floor by three feet to provide enough ceiling clearance. After Cameron's death in 1889, the house passed to his daughter, Margaretta Haldeman, and then in 1915 to her son Richard. His death in 1933 ended the home's use as a private residence. In 1941, Haldeman's sister donated the house to the Historical Society of Dauphin County, which has maintained it as a museum with rare antiques, important 19th-century furnishings, and archives of the heritage of the nation, Harrisburg, and Dauphin County.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania · United States