Strawberry Mansion
Fairmount Park, 1790

Historic Strawberry Mansion is the summer home built for Judge William Lewis in 1789. It is located in East Fairmount Park.

William Lewis was born in 1764 in Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania where his childhood home still stands. He was born into a Quaker family, which would mark his entire life and career. As a lawyer during revolutionary times, he consistently defended other Quakers against charges of treason after they refused to fight in battle or pay taxes. In doing so he participated in creating the foundations of Conscientious Objection. Lewis drafted the First Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in 1770, and advised Alexander Hamilton on the first national bank.

Photo 57, Nov 2007