hen it was
acquired by the city as a part of Fairmount Park.

At Number 5442 Germantown Avenue, standing directly on the sidewalk as
was often the case, and with a beautiful box-bordered garden of
old-fashioned flowers about one hundred by four hundred feet along the
south end, is one of the most interesting old plastered houses in
Philadelphia. Well known in history, it is no less notable
architecturally. In general arrangement it differs little from numerous
other gable-roof structures of the vicinity, two and a half stories high
with chimneys at each end and handsome pedimental dormers with
round-topped windows between. It is in the excellent detail and nice
proportion of the wood trim, both without and within, that this house
excels. Interest focuses upon the deeply recessed doorway with its
sturdy Tuscan columns and pediment, and the great, attractively paneled
door. The fenestration is admirable with twenty-four-paned windows set
in handsome frames with architrave casings and beautifully molded sills,
the lower windows having shutters and the upper ones blinds. A notable
feature is the heavy cornice with large modillions, and beneath a
relatively fine-scale, double denticulated molding or Grecian fret.

Within, a wide hall extends through the middle of the house, widening at
the back where a handsome winding staircase with landings ascends to the
floor above. Opposite the staircase is a breakfast room overlooking the
garden. The parlor and dining room on opposite sides of the hall, the
bedrooms above and also the halls all have beautifully paneled
wainscots. There are handsome chimney pieces in each room with dark
Pennsylvania marble facings about the fireplaces and ornamental panels
so nicely made that no joints are visible. Throughout the house the
woodwork is of unusual beauty and unexcelled in workmanship.

The house was built in 1772 by David Deschler, a wealthy West India
merchant, the son of an aide-de-camp to the reigning Prince of Baden,
and Margaret, a sister of John Wister and Caspar Wistar. After the
retreat of the American forces at the conclusion of the Battle of
Germantown, Sir William Howe, the British commander, moved his
headquarters from Stenton to the Deschler house. While there he is said
to have been visited by Prince William Henry, then a midshipman in the
Royal Navy, but afterward King William IV of England.

Upon Deschler's death in 1792 the house was bought by Colonel Isaac
Franks, a