Physick House

Built in 1786 by Henry Hill, a prominent patriot and wine merchant, this Federal house is the last remaining of only three free-standing mansions built in this neighborhood in the eighteenth century. Hill imported most of the fine furnishings and fittings, including the fanlight said to be the largest of any home in Pennsylvania at that time. In 1815, Dr. Philip Syng Physick acquired the house. Its interior restoration interprets the grand Neoclassic style fashionable in his day, and the collection includes medical artifacts that belonged to him. Dr. Physick saw patients here each afternoon between 2 and 3 pm, including Dolley Madison, Andrew Jackson, John Marshall, and persons from abroad. Renowned for his speed and dexterity, he performed surgery on the well-to-do in their own homes, a common practice before antiseptic surgery was understood. He also operated at Pennsylvania Hospital in the "dreaded oval room," the glass-domed surgical amphitheater that still exists. Known as the "Father of American Surgery," Dr. Physick introduced techniques and designed instruments at the vanguard of modern surgery, including the stomach pump, catgut sutures, and "rubber band" ligatures. He lived here until his death in 1837, and his descendants remained until the mid-twentieth century, when the house became the property of Pennsylvania Hospital. In 1965, during the early years of the restoration of Society Hill, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Annenberg bought and restored the property and deeded it to the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks to be opened to the public as a house museum.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States