Fonthill - Mercers Castle in Pennsylvania

 
The Pennsylvania Castle Home Of Henry Chapman Mercer

A little about our visit  to Fonthill in 2023, with extra history, and old photos, in addition to the photos I took the day of our visit.

Fonthill, 2023

If you are looking for a sight to see in Pennsylvania, the Fonthill Castle is a fantastic tour. There's so much to see, and it's nothing like anything I've ever seen anywhere else. The one hour tour flies by, and the tour costs just $15. 

 From the visitors center website - "Fonthill Castle is a unique historic site! It offers limited accessibility with steep stairs and narrow, uneven passages throughout the interior of the site. Fonthill Castle is not recommended for those with limited mobility, issues with stairs, those who cannot stand for long periods of time, or those with concerns about small spaces/claustrophobia." Note - I am extremely claustrophobic, but did not struggle (much) with this tour. Perhaps because of the abundance of windows?   For me, the worst was the first room you enter.  After that the ceilings are higher and there are more windows.  Your experience may vary.

The Visitors Center, located next to the castle.

A few quick notes about our visit

The parking area is nicely shaded.  It's a short distance from the air conditioned welcome center, where you can purchase your tickets, use the restroom, and wait for your tour to begin.  Tours are limited in size - only so many can fit into the rooms, and on the stairs.  It's VERY important that the group stays together throughout the tour - if you need to leave for any reason, the tour guides have walkie talkies to call someone to escort you out.  This castle is an absolute maze, something you can't fully grasp until you are inside.  It would be very easy to get lost, with almost every rooms having several points of entry.

At the age of 65, in 1921, Henry wrote of himself, "My subjects are Archaeology and History with a little Art thrown in."  As Linda Dyke says in her annotated chronology of Henry Chapman Mercer, "He used these three terms as umbrellas to cover rather broad areas of scholarship and effort." 

 Mercer painted, drew, wrote books (both fiction and non fiction) traveled extensively, hoarded artifacts, studied and created museums, designed tiles, manufactured pottery and tiles in a factory he had built, and he had a law degree, and built a couple of castles in Pennsylvania. Still, all of that doesn't fully describe Henry's interests, works, and accomplishments.  He was an eccentric man with many interests, and plenty of money to fund all of his interests.

The first question on our tour was "Where did Henry get his money?"  It's a logical question - he obviously had a lot of it.  And he was a brilliant, eccentric, man, who worked very hard  - so its not unreasonable to think he may have earned it.  However, in Mercers case, he simply inherited it.  First from wealthy parents, and then much more from a very wealthy, childless, and  utterly fascinating, aunt.  

Here I will digress for a bit to tell you about Henry's Aunt Lela, because she was too interesting to skim over, and because it was her money that allowed Henry to do so very many things - including build his castles.  There's a VERY large portrait  [see above photo] of her at the top of one of the staircases, and several other smaller portraits around the castle.

Mrs. Lawrence "was once described as “the most popular American woman there was in England.” Her husband’s position led to her presentation to the queen and acquaintance with statesmen, authors and artists of the day, on whom she left a very positive impression. Her address book read like a social register of important people: James Buchanan, Gen. George McClellan, James G. Blaine, Benjamin Disraeli, Princess Mary of Cambridge (granddaughter to George III) and her mother the Duchess of Cambridge, Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie, Thomas Carlyle, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Henry James..." - The Bucks County Herald.

There's a biography written about E.L., 

The Bread Box Papers

https://amzn.to/3BlRIe3

Upon her husband’s sudden death in 1869, E.L. returned to Doylestown to build a family home (named Aldie) for her retired father and her sister Mary’s family, staying there herself for months at a time.   After settling her family into the Doylestown home, Elizabeth purchased a home in Washington D.C., where she could resume the social scene. It was there that she often attended teas with Clover Adams, and how she became a character in Henry Adams book Democracy, An American Novel.

Having no children of her own, she was quite fond of her sisters three children, William, Lela,  and Henry Mercer.  Lela, sister of Henry, was named after Elizabeth, whom the children called "Aunt Lela".    Elizabeth was incredibly generous towards her niece and nephews -  paying for their  trips abroad,  for their educations, and offering her support so that Lela could marry a young man with no financial prospects,  Later she  contributed the seed money for what was to become the Mercer museum, and when she died in 1905, the money she left Henry allowed him to build Fonthill.

Henry Chapman Mercer

1856-1930

Born June 24 1856, into a wealthy family, Henry was tutored at home before attending the Tennent School at Hartsville, and the Mohegan Lake School in NY.  He attended Harvard, and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1881.

But Henry never practiced law.  He quickly realized he preferred art and architecture.   In 1881, Henry began a 9 year tour of Germany and France, where he became deeply influences by the folk art and culture.

From May to September 1889, Mercer Museum founder Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930) journeyed down the Rhône, Allier, and Loire Rivers in France on a houseboat. Making frequent stops to visit sites of historical interest, Mercer dutifully documented his voyage with photographs, sketches, and a narrative manuscript which he titled “Seven Hundred Miles in a French House Boat.”

"When Mercer returned to Doylestown, he became active in the Bucks County Historical Society. He had always been interested in local artifacts, and in 1882 he began to join in the search for evidence of prehistoric human life in the Delaware Valley. Archaeology was a relatively new field, and though Mercer was an amateur, he was able to join professionals, learning alongside them at the dig sites.

In his lifetime, Mercer conducted site excavations in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico and the Ohio, Delaware and Tennessee River valleys, as well as in the Leigh Valley.

 In 1885, he published a book entitled The Lenape Stone which detailed the history of a small, engraved stone discovered in a farmer's field. The engraving depicted humans and a mastodon. Since the two were pictured on the same stone, it could possibly prove that humans inhabited the area during the prehistoric period with the mastodons. After diligent research and careful reasoning, Mercer concluded that the authenticity of the stone could not be proved. More important than the conclusion of the book was Mercer's methods and the process by which he reached his conclusions, establishing him as a scholar and an ethnologist."

Assorted tools & artifacts are stored in several rooms throughout the castle, behind "Goose Wire" 

 Convinced that industrialization was destroying America's crafts and handmade items, he became an avid collector of and advocate for their preservation. In 1891 Mercer was invited to become a manager of the Free Museum of Science and Art, which later became the University of Pennsylvania Museum.  In 1893, he joined the Academy of Natural Sciences, becoming curator of the Department of American and Prehistoric Archaeology. During his tenure at these museums, Mercer wrote many scholarly papers and concerned himself with the cataloging and registration of artifacts. After disputes with other executives at the museum, criticism of his work, and the loss of two mentors, Mercer left his job and his illustrious career as an archaeologist in 1897 at the age of 39.

"Mercer was struck by the realization that the cast-off tools of early America represented a rich lode of archaeological evidence of pre-industrial culture." - Henry Chapman Mercer and the Moravian Tile and Pottery Works

Mercer amassed a sizeable collection of pre-Industrial Revolution artifacts. In October 1897, he exhibited this collection in a room at the Bucks County Courthouse. For this occasion, the Bucks County Historical Society published a catalog of all things he had collected so far entitled Tools of the Nationmaker. At the time, his work was highly underestimated, but it set the tone for emerging thoughts on recent historic America.

One of the fireplaces at Fonthill

While collecting more Pennsylvania artifacts, Mercer became aware of the nearly-extinct tradition of redware pottery.  Henry apprenticed himself to the  Herstine family of Ferndale, and attempted to learn the craft. After some disappointing results from the kiln, Mercer decided that that it was not a skill that could be learned in weeks, or even months.   He then decided to attempt two dimensional tiles.  In 1899, with the help of local professionals and friend/assistant Frank Swain, Mercer constructed the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, which went into business in September of that year. By trial and error, Mercer improved many of his glazes and discovered that the soft Pennsylvania clay was perfect for his terracotta tiles.   Mercers designs were not meant solely for building, but also by decorating. 

 Rich in colors, in unusual shapes, they often represented seasons, or stories.  By 1900, Mercer tiles were highly sought-after in the Philadelphia area.

"The great tile processes of the past were precluded in the United States on account of the high cost of labor. My first effort therefore was to invent new methods of producing handmade tiles, cheap enough to sell and artistic enough to rival the old ones."  - Henry C. Mercer

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FONTHILL CASTLE

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In 1910, Mercer completed his first poured concrete structure - Fonthill Castle.  

THE CONCRETE HOUSE

An article in the Bucks County Gazette, June 1908

Without the least sign of a splurge Henry C. Mercer is going about the construction of a large reinforced concrete summer home near the town, and working out an experiment which will either prove or disprove the value and economy of building houses of that sort.

It's only an experiment he said yesterday to the gazette correspondent.“ I'm trying lots of things which would be risky for an architect but it may bring out some points of value edison's plan of building concrete houses with iron forms is an impractical dream i might save money on the construction but in the end you would only have a lot of houses monotonously alike. Building 1 as we are here by means of wooden forms there is the greatest latitude for the expression of individuality. Concrete houses, too, must be adopted eventually because our lumber is giving out and wood will become too expensive for the average man to use.”

In addition to some of the wonderful natural beauties of a 200 acre tractive ground which former owners had nearly devastated by ruining springs and sinking quarries. The quarry has been turned into an attractive Italian garden and the springs are being cleaned and walled.

The castle is built over and round an existing farmhouse, with some of the original stone house still visible.  

October 1909

All of the area teachers were visiting the construction site.

I did double check the date - this article is from October 1909.  A year later, in 1910, another article again states that the castle was "nearing completion"

October 1910, the new "Concrete Mansion" was nearing completion 

Henry had no formal training in architecture.  He studied castles for years, then consulted with an engineer. 

All of the concrete was mixed by hand!

"Most of the eight to ten workmen who Mercer employed at Fonthill at any one time were, he claimed, "unskilled day laborers" paid at a wage of $1.75 a day. One exception was Mercer's Moravian Pottery and Tile Works employee, Jacob Frank, who was charged with setting all of the tile in Fonthill. This detail shows Frank at work placing tile upside down in carefully graded sand, in preparation for pouring one of Fonthill's flat ceilings during construction."  - https://www.mercermuseum.org/building-henry-mercers-fonthill/

Lucy The Horse

Owned by Patrick Trainor, Mercer's foreman, Lucy powered the hoist, which raised concrete and other building materials as the walls of the building rose higher. Mercer commemorated Lucy's three-year role in Fonthill's construction by mounting an iron weathervane of the hard-working animal in silhouette on his completed castle.

Lucy is not the only animal commemorated in the castle - "Rollos steps" feature one of Mercers dog's footprints in the cement.  

Mercer was very fond of animals, birds in particular. The feathered hats that women wore in the late 19th and early 20th century were responsible for the death of many birds. He became an active opponent of what was called the Plume Trade and supported laws to ban bird hunting for hats.

Mercer with his dog Rollo

In his will, he bequeathed $6,000 [Roughly equivalent to $109,000 in 2023] to the American Anti-Vivisection Society (Ending the use of animals in science through education, advocacy, and the development of alternative methods.), and another $6,000 to the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Old postcard of Fonthill Castle in Doylestown Pa

Fonthill has 44 rooms, including 10 bathrooms, five bedrooms, roughly 32 stairwells and 18 fireplaces.  

At a time when many homes still did not have indoor plumbing, each of the guest rooms at Fonthill had their own attached bathrooms, with very large bathtubs.  There is also an Otis elevator, and an intercom buzzer system in all of the bedrooms.

Mercer used fire to make the cement ceiling look old.

There are 200 glass windows, of varying heights and shapes, in Fonthill.

The castle was completed at a cost of $32,482 (The equivalent of just under $600,000 in 2023).  

A wealthy man, Mercer had no need of an income, and yet he worked tirelessly.  In his study, there were desks the entire way around the room - so he could start work by the morning sun, and move around the room as the sun moved, ending his day at a desk with a large oil lamp hung over it, for once the sun went down.

Large oil lamp over Henry's evening desk.

"Henry was a well-rounded elitist who craved knowledge and who suffered from insomnia. He wasn’t content unless he was exploring, building, preserving or creating. He was known to continually burn the midnight oil reading and inventing."  - Legend Has It, Henry Chapman Mercer

Looking up at the second story of the library

There are books in nearly every room of the house. Most are stored in old tile crates, which are numbered, and Henry kept meticulous records of which room, and crate, each book was stored in.  It appears that Henry read most of the books, as he made notes in many of them. 

“If [Doyle] is tired of Sherlock Holmes – He should let him alone – It is as if he has a grudge against him and was determined to pull down the old house and build a cheap 20th century bungalow in its place.”  - Note by Mercer in Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane” 

On display in the library, during our tour.

"As convincing as a tapeworm, as charming as a bottle of dead flies.  H.C.M. Nov 1929"

On A Farewell to Arms, by Hemmingway

According to a 1906 article in the Philadelphia Record, William Mercer, Henry's brother, was "prominently associated with the manufacture of cement castings for lawn ornamentation, and unique experiments along this line...  But the fame of the latter [Henry] should be even better known in connection with his tireless industry and study and painstaking effort to collect the most complete display of early implements to be found within the State of Pennsylvania"

In 1911 Mercer told a lecture audience, "this survival in our midst, of an ancient art with a brilliant history reaching back to the beginning of civilization has changed the course of my life."

Henry never married, but some stories say that he had a relationship with a debutant who would come and stay in one of the female guest rooms quite regularly.  There's a rumor that Henry proposed, but that  she declined on the grounds that he was a bit too eccentric for her.

Even when married couples came to visit, they did not stay in the same room in the castle. There were separate guest rooms for women, and men.

Although Henry owned several vehicles, he never drove, choosing instead to ride his bike everywhere.  When he did need to travel by vehicle, he was chauffeured.

Postcard of the Columbus Room

During WWI [1914-1918], with many friends and family  in Germany,  Henry opposed America's entry into the war on the allied side.  The popular anti-German hysteria of the era often made him a target for criticism.

"Towards the end of his life, the eccentric archaeologist, historian, architect, and collector Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930) channeled his antiquarian interests and his love of Gothic literature into November Night Tales (1928), a volume of highly imaginative weird tales in the mode of M.R. James." November Night Tales, by Henry Chapman Mercer https://amzn.to/41yB8Cc

The medicines Henry was taking prior to his death are preserved and on display in his second bedroom.  One of them is Mercurochrome, which many of us remember applying to cuts and scrapes.  It was discontinued once the harmful effects of mercury were discovered.  Henry had been taking mercurochrome orally - not an uncommon practice at the time.

Henry Chapman Mercer Died March 9th, 1930.

In his 1930 obituary, the Morning call included an editorial about Mercer's frequent archeological digs in the Lehigh Valley, titled "Death of Archeologist Who Knew Lehigh Well." 

The Mercer Museum, valued at $500,000 in 1930, was bequeathed to the Bucks County Historical Society, along with a $130,000 trust fund for its maintenance.  The museum housed more than 20,000 tools and implements used by pioneer settlers of America.

The Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, owned and operated by Dr Mercer, were bequeathed outright to Frank King Swain, manager of the plant, along with an additional cash bequest of $100,000.

Other bequests in his will included: $6,000 to the American Anti-Vivisection Society (Ending the use of animals in science through education, advocacy, and the development of alternative methods.), $6,000 to the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and $5,000 to the Home for the Aged & Infirm in Philadelphia.  

The residue of his estate, along with Fonthill Castle, were bequeathed to the Bucks County Historical Society.  

His will specified that Fonthill be maintained intact, with all the tiles, tapestries, paintings, drawings, engravings, books, works of art, exhibits and decorations left in place.  It further stipulated that the buildings and grounds shall be open to visitors to afford them the opportunity of viewing and studying the history and meaning of tiles as applied to architecture.

His brother William objected to a codicil that had been added to the will.  Originally he had expected to receive the "residue of the estate", after public bequests, but Henry had added a codicil specifying that the residue would go to the Historical Society.  On the tour, our guide had mentioned a falling out between the brothers, after William tore down a historic home.

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READ MORE 

THE BOOK LIST

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Books About Henry C. Mercer:

The Mercer Mile: The Story of Dr. Henry Chapman Mercer and His Concrete Buildings https://amzn.to/41toBA0

Henry Chapman Mercer -  A Study

By Joseph E. Sandford · https://amzn.to/3I7KgXN

Henry Chapman Mercer and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works

By Cleota Reed ·  https://amzn.to/3W3g71t

Books BY Henry C. Mercer:

Mercer published over 250 works ranging from letters to the editor to theses.

The Bible in Iron. Doylestown, PA: Bucks County Historical Society, 1914.

Guide Book to the Tiled Pavement in the Capitol of Pennsylvania. Doylestown, PA: Bucks County Historical Society, 1910.

The Hill Caves of the Yucatan: A Search for Evidence of Man's Antiquity in the Caverns of Central America, Being an Account of the Corwith Expedition of the Department of Archaeology and Paleontology at the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1896.

The Lenape Stone; or, The Indian and the Mammoth. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1885.

Fashions Holocaust, 1897

The Tools of the Nationmaker: A Descriptive Catalogue of Objects in the Museum of the Historical Society of Bucks County. Doylestown, PA: Bucks County Historical Society, 1897.

Ancient Carpenters' Tools

Illustrated and Explained, Together with the Implements of the Lumberman, Joiner, and Cabinet-maker in Use in the Eighteenth Century

By Henry C. Mercer https://amzn.to/3Bt19Io

FICTION - 

November Night Tales https://amzn.to/3pB2evo

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March 1930

1906 Philadelphia Record

March 1954

Death of Frank Swain