The Philadelphia Country House

"Some of them stick in the minds of locals as place names, street names, or both - Belmont, Lansdowne, Stenton, Mount Pleasant. But they started as country houses, well-to-do Philadelphians' answer to English manor houses. You can read all about them and get a good look at them - inside and out - in this very handsome and informative book."

"In this illuminating and handsomely illustrated volume, Mark Reinberger, a senior architectural historian, and Elizabeth McLean, an accomplished scholar of landscape history, examine the country houses that the urban gentry built on the outskirts of Philadelphia in response to both local and international economic forces, social imperatives, and fashion."

"The Philadelphia Country House is the most complete study ever of the city’s colonial rural residences. It is likely to remain the definitive word on its subject in the pre-Revolutionary period in Philadelphia’s orbit for a long time to come. The volume has been years in the making, and the wealth and depth of information from archival sources and surviving sites that the authors have deployed here is prodigious.  This well-illustrated volume includes current photographs complemented by numerous reproductions of historic images, as well as new analytical architectural drawings."

"Colonial Americans did, of course, emulate English architecture and society, yet they created new forms suitable for life in America. Nowhere is the tension better seen than in the bourgeois estates built by wealthy Colonists on the fringes of Philadelphia. Many of these houses still stand, in landscapes that retain much of their history. Through them, we learn about American versions of the classics. In a new book, architectural historian Mark Reinberger and Elizabeth Mclean, an accomplished scholar of landscape history, examine these country houses that nevertheless exhibited city manners."

"This scholarly achievement by Reinberger and McLean is a significant addition to American architecture studies... Recommended for specialists in American architecture and Philadelphia area studies and as a model of architectural and landscape scholarship."

"Overall this important contribution will become the standard reference on the subject."

"For the importance of its subject, the intelligence of its argument, and its visual quality, this is the best book on the architectural history of British colonial America."

"Reinberger and McLean have succeeded in illuminating the nature and significance of a specific building type in colonial America, the country house or seat, focusing on those around the city of Philadelphia. The scholarship is extremely sound, the documentation is profuse, and the book effectively presents a tremendous amount of information on a significant topic that deserves elucidation. No comparable study exists."