The Historic Waynesborough Open House and Candlelight tour is on December 15, 2024 from 3:00-5:00 p.m. Tour Anthony Wayne’s House and learn about holiday customs, create a festive craft, and enjoy beverages and cookies after the tour. All tours begin in the Carriage House located at 2049 Waynesborough Road, Paoli, PA 19301.

Admission is

$10 for adults

$5 for children

$25 for families and groups of four

Tickets available at the door or online.

The Powel House Holiday Open House is on Saturday, December 14, 2024 from 11AM to 4PM. Enjoy the Powel House seasonal decorations with pay as you wish self guided tours of Samuel and Elizabeth Powel's 18th century home. Guides will be stationed throughout the house to answer any question you may have.

The Powel House Committee cordially invites you to our traditional holiday party. Celebrate the season and enjoy the evening in the historic Powel House on Sunday, December 8, 2024. Enjoy the holiday buffet and cocktails while members of the Orpheus Club of Philadelphia lead guests in carols. This year, we are pleased to feature portrait artist Ted Stuessy, who will create personalized hand-cut silhouettes for guests to take home. There will be a silent auction to help support the preservation and interpretation of the houses of PhilaLandmarks and is a great way to find something special for the giving season.

No Refunds.

*This event has been cancelled*

The Battle of the Clouds

Join historian and author Gary Ecelbarger at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, for a new and fascinating look at the Revolutionary War battle that nobody won and which hardly happened at all.

This tale of wet gunpowder, muddy roads, and missed chances still fascinates military scholars and history buffs alike. What really happened the day the Continental Army and the British redcoats stared each other down from two opposing hillsides outside of Paoli?

Ecelbarger has written 10 books and dozens of essays and articles on the American Revolution, the American Civil War, and a host of 18th- and 19th-century personalities and events. His latest book, George Washington’s Momentous Year: Twelve Months that Transformed the Revolution, features the Philadelphia Campaign, the months-long push by the British Army to take over the colonial capital.

Gather round to experience and celebrate the simple process of cleaning and roasting "nuts" collected from a prolific ginkgo tree at Grumblethorpe. Join us on the 2nd Saturday of November for a funky fall fest!

Immerse yourself in the Halloween spirit at the Monster Mayhem Halloween Fundraiser at Hill-Physick House on Wednesday, October 30th. This year is all about your favorite classic movie monsters with themed decorations and drinks. We encourage you to dress up and come in costume but costumes are, of course, optional!

Monster Mayhem Halloween Fundraiser at Hill-Physick House is a fundraiser for PhilaLandmarks to continue preservation and interpretation at our historic houses. Tickets are $50 tax deductible. Purchase tickets online here or call 215-925-2251.

Join us at Stenton for a presentation that will focus on two double portraits; David Martin’s, 'Lady Elizabeth Murray and Dido Belle', (1779) and a recently discovered seventeenth-century double portrait entitled, ‘Allegorical Painting of Two Ladies’ (1650/60?) to consider what the paintings reveal about conceptions of race, gender, social class, and space- pictorial, geographical, historical space and time, and between viewer, sitters and artists. The talk will pose wider questions about the value of exploring stories of peoples and objects that are often overlooked and left hiding in plain sight. By asking questions of these two portraits we can start to undertake the important work of uncovering the intimate relationship between peoples, objects and the trans-Atlantic world; we can help paintings to talk, and we can make the time to listen to what they tell us.

Historic Waynesborough and St. David’s History Archives present a Cemetery Tour of the Ancient Churchyard at St. David’s Church on Saturday, October 19, 2024 at 2:00-4:00 p.m. Bill Stroad will lead a tour through the churchyard to discuss celebrated historical figures including Anthony and Polly Wayne, Judge William Moore, Catherine Wentworth Ruschenbierger and Revolutionary War soldiers. Learn about the Wayne family over the generations, stories of the old church’s New Year’s ghost and many surprising revelations. After the tour there will be a question-and-answer period. This is a rain or shine event. In case of rain, the discussion will be held in the church. This event is a free-will offering but registration is required.

Follow in John Adams’ footsteps to sample the indulgence of the political life of the First Continental Congress. The Powel House, Carpenters’ Hall, and Christ Church present a joint program for the 250th anniversary of the September 8th Sinful Feast. Through the lens of Adams’ diary entry, learn about the intersection of political, religious, and social life at each of these historical locations with guest lecture by Dr. Stephen Nepa, recreated Sinful Feast desserts, and a rooftop reception at Christ Church Neighborhood House.

$55 per person

Join us at Grumblethorpe for our second to last farm stand of the season and meet DAISY, the black angus cow, who will be visiting us from Erdenheim Farm!

Daisy is a friendly cow who loves pets and is looking forward to meeting our farm stand supporters!

Meet Daisy, buy some of our local produce, and while you are here, don't forget that you can also get your Historic Germantown stamp rally booklet stamped with the Grumblethorpe pear tree logo. Collect stamps from all participating sites through October 10th to win a prize!

PhilaLandmarks and the Grumblethorpe House Committee invite you to join us for an early summer evening farm to table dinner to be held al fresco on the grounds of the working farm at Grumblethorpe, home of the Wister family. The dinner will take place under the stars in Grumblethorpe's lush garden. The dinner will prominently feature home grown ingredients from the 280 year old working farm and kitchen garden grown by local students participating in the youth food program under the tutelage of the Grumblethorpe Youth Volunteer Mentor and Grumblethorpe Operations Manager. Grumblethorpe Staff and the teen farmers will all be present to share with you how much this place and your support means to the community. This meal is presented by Power Events Catering and the Grumblethorpe House Committee.Deadline to purchase tickets is Friday, June 7th.

Full Menu Below

Parking is available at the Wister school on Wakefield Street. Guests will enter Grumblethorpe through the back gate.

Night Music presents Haydn's Princely Music in the ballroom of the Powel House on May 30, 2024.

While in the service of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, Haydn composed almost 200 works for his patron to play on the baryton. This instrument resembles the viola da gamba but includes an extra set of sympathetic strings that can be plucked by hand. We place the oft-overlooked baryton at the center of a program that includes duos and trios by Haydn, his Esterházy colleague Andreas Lidl, and the “Swedish Mozart” Joseph Martin Kraus.

Featuring Karen Dekker, violin and viola; Eve Miller, cello; Heather Miller Lardin, baryton; and Steven Zohn, flute

This concert is part of the PhilaLandmarks Early Music Series. To see the full 2024 season, click here.

The Powel House Garden Party – This year’s “talk of the town”!

Join us for an elegant evening in the Powel House Garden. Whether you enjoy basking in a beautiful garden, learning about eighteenth-century history, or are a fan of Bridgerton, you’ll find something to love at this event. Enjoy a live violinist (playing everything from Vivaldi to Taylor Swift!), delicious hor d'oeuvres, a signature cocktail or mocktail, and good company on this spring evening.

Tickets are $125 [with a discounted rate of $85 for Garden Party “first-timers”]

Join us as we kick off the Hill-Physick House Spring Plant Sale and enjoy drinks and nibbles with first access to the handpicked herbs, house plants, annuals, perennials, and hanging baskets.

Tickets are $20 and directly support preservation at PhilaLandmarks.

Explore 18th century Annapolis through the William Paca House & Garden and the Hammond-Harwood House. Like the Powel House, the William Paca House & Garden and the Hammond-Harwood House are prime examples of Georgian architecture and decorative arts, including a collection of Charles Wilson Peale paintings and a reconstructed 18th century private garden. This special tour includes transportation, visits to both houses, lunch, and a unique behind the scenes preservation lecture by Michael Day about the restoration of The James Brice House, which is currently closed for public visitation.

On this tour you are not only supporting these sister sites in Maryland, you also are supporting preservation at the Powel House

Itinerary

8:30 AM Leave Philadelphia

11:00 AM Tours of William Paca House & Garden and Hammond Harwood House

1:00 PM Lunch at Paca Garden

2:30 PM Preservation Talk with Michael Day

There will be free time after the talk to explore the neighborhood

4:30 PM Leave Annapolis

Tickets are $150. Purchase can be made online, over the phone at 215-925-2251, or by check to

PhilaLandmarks

321 S. 4th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19106

Memo: Annapolis

 NO REFUNDS.
All proceeds from this event will be used to support PhilaLandmarks’
historic house museums.

Your purchase is your reservation! All reservations must be made by April 15th.

Telemann : Twitter&Tweets

Matthias Maute-recorder and traverso

G.Ph Telemann was one of the most inspired composers in music history, delivering high flying music to literally all instruments. His fantasias for recorder solo are like short messages from the 18th century.

Matthias Maute has assembled a program, where these baroque tweets are in dialogue with other composers throughout music history, from Machaut to Maute himself.

Obviously JS Bach, a good friend and colleague of Telemann, can’t miss in this fast paced musical conversation across time and space.

This concert is part of the PhilaLandmarks Early Music Series. To see the full 2024 season, click here.

You’re invited to celebrate Historic Waynesborough’s 300th anniversary and participate in the roof ribbon cutting ceremony! 

Saturday, April 13th 

11:00 am to 1:00 pm 

2049 Waynesborough Road 

Paoli, PA 19301 

Join us to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Wayne family’s arrival at Historic Waynesborough. The afternoon will feature food sponsored by Jeffrey Miller Catering, patriotic songs from the St. Norbert’s School choir, family friendly activities in partnership with Pennsylvania Colonial Plantation, Historic Sugartown and the Valley Forge Park Alliance and a ribbon cutting ceremony honoring the completion of the cedar shake roof project which was generously supported in part by a Save America's Treasures grant from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. In addition, critical support came from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Keystone Historic Preservation Construction Grant program and the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution as well as local supporters, members, and sponsors. We hope to celebrate this milestone achievement with you! 

The event is free to the public but does require advanced registration by April 5th, 2024.

The Romantic Viennese Piano: Music of Beethoven, Schubert & Schumann

Fortepianist David Kim will present this unique program on a stunning copy of an instrument by Viennese builder Conrad Graf.

“OUT OF THE WESTERN ISLES: the Celtic Influence on Baroque Parlor Music”

A celebration of the traditional music of Scotland and Ireland that captured the fancy of 17th and 18th-century continental Europe. Whether arranging dozens of songs for parlor performance, or incorporating Celtic rhythms and tonalities into their work in subtle ways, composers from Bach to Beethoven made use of the rich ethnomusicological outpouring of folk material from the western isles during these two centuries. Makaris shares this repertoire, alongside pieces by Scottish Baroque composers, traditional tunes, and beloved works by the famed 18th-century Irish harpist and bard, Turlough O’Carolan. Hailed as, “...a beautiful intersection of folk melodies and dance rhythms with the airy textures, refined gestures, and virtuosic asides of the Galant style” (Early Music America), Makaris brings together Baroque and folk musicians to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, HIP-style.

This concert is part of the PhilaLandmarks Early Music Series. To see the full 2024 season, click here.

Ever heard of the Ticking Tombstone? How about the Gray Devil?

Charles Adams will talk about those bits of local lore and other fascinating legends at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 10, at Historic Waynesborough in Paoli.

Adams has been tracking strange happenings all around Pennsylvania and the Jersey Shore for decades, and has written more than a dozen books on the subject. His talk will focus on the ghostly sightings, haunted houses and other oddities of the Philadelphia region, including Chester, Montgomery and Delaware Counties.

Adams is the editor of The Historical Review of Berks County. He has served as an expert for programs on The History Channel, A&E, The Learning Channel, the National Geographic Channel and MTV. In addition to ghost stories, he has published books on a host of other subjects that include baseball, train wrecks and ship wrecks.

Admission is $15. Light refreshments will be served. Tickets available online or at the door. Visit www.philalandmarks.org.

With "Bound up in Love," Filament embarks on a new collaboration with Franco-American soprano Alice Teyssier, centering female composers and musicians in a program that interrogates our collective understanding of women in music history and the ways we tell women’s stories through mythology. In this project with Teyssier, who is equally acclaimed in the fields of early and contemporary music, we use the juxtaposition of different national and compositional styles to cast a fresh light on timeless human issues like love, grief, longing, and motherhood, creating space to tell ancient stories in a new way.

This concert is part of the PhilaLandmarks Early Music Series. To see the full 2024 season, click here.

John Morton: A Founding Father and Chester County's Best Kept Secret

Come get acquainted with John Morton, the Founding Father from Chester County you’ve probably never heard of, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8, at Historic Waynesborough in Paoli.

Historian John E. Smith III will discuss the legacy of this prominent Pennsylvanian with Finnish roots who died a mere nine months after signing his name to the Declaration of Independence and whose Ridley Township estate was then ruthlessly plundered by the British Army. And he’ll reveal how and why this important figure passed into obscurity.

John Smith has a master’s degree in public history from Temple University. He served as an archivist at the Chester County History Center for five years before leaving that position to pursue research into local history and continue work as an independent researcher.

Admission is $15. Refreshments will be served.

In this program the founding member sopranos of Variant 6 - Jessica Beebe and Rebecca Myers - will explore the boundless possibilities of two both distinct and complementary soprano voices. Internationally acclaimed Philadelphia artists Leon Schelhase and Sarah Cunningham join them on harpsichord and viola da gamba for this luscious program of music by Purcell, Couperin, and Carissimi in themes of love, loss, faith, and philosophy.

featuring

Jessica Beebe - soprano, Rebecca Myers - soprano, Leon Schelhase - harpsichord,

Sarah Cunningham - viola da gamba

Variant 6 will perform in the ballroom of the Hill-Physick House. Doors open at 6:00PM for self-guided tours of the house with the concert starting at 7:00PM. Wine and cheese provided for your enjoyment before and after the performance.

This concert is part of the PhilaLandmarks Early Music Series. To see the full 2024 season, click here.

The Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution is pleased to announce the next in our series of historical lectures. We are excited that Temple University's history professor Joe Foster will be presenting an informative program about The Changing Face of Philadelphia, 1775 - 1780. Please join us for this evening event, in partnership with our friends at Historic Waynesborough.

Revolutions often bring rapid changes to a society, some of which are not anticipated by the revolutionaries; The American Revolution is no exception. It unleashed a host of changes, some of which horrified many of the revolutionaries themselves. But that is the nature of revolutions! And to examine how our revolution twisted and turned society inside-out, Philadelphia proves to be an excellent place to understand those rapid changes which excited many and frightened others.

In the space of five years, Philadelphia witnessed the overthrow of two political systems and the establishment of a political mentality that was often in conflict with itself. For the Quaker Party who had ruled Pennsylvania for nearly 75 years found itself ostracized by an emerging Irish Presbyterian revolutionary force with little love for the Quakers and the Quaker Party and their view of governing. By 1780 the revolutionary Presbyterians themselves were no longer in step with rapidly shifting winds to a new cadre of politicians, good revolutionaries, but authoring a new set of ideologies that stand to this day – and, yet, remain a constant debate to our understanding of the nation and society the Revolution created.

Joe Foster: assistant professor of History at Temple University. Received his M.A. from Villanova University and Ph.D. at Temple University. For nearly twenty years served as a senior editor of a five-volume publication, Lawmaking and Legislators in Pennsylvania, 1680-1775, and also published In Pursuit of Equal Liberty, George Bryan and the Revolution in Pennsylvania.

The lecture will begin at 6pm and last about 1 hour. You are welcome to join us afterwards for a reception with wine and beer served.

We look forward to you joining us.

The subscription for this event is $20/person

Seating is limited so please subscribe soon.

Tickets can be purchase by clicking the link below and paying with a credit card, or you may call the office to subscribe: (215) 545-1888

Join the family fun at the Holiday Candlelight Tour and Open House, 4-6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 10, at Historic Waynesborough in Paoli. The historic mansion has been beautifully decorated for the season by the Suburban and Springfield Garden Clubs. Take a tour, craft festive ornaments for the holiday tree, and enjoy refreshments, music, and more. Students from Conestoga High School Tri-M Music Honor Society and St. Norbert Elementary School will perform carols throughout the event. The Tree Lighting is at 5 p.m in the Carriage House.

Admission is

$10 for adults

$5 for children

$25 for families and groups of four

Tickets available at the door or online through the link below.

 This event is kindly supported by Main Line Gardens and Acme Markets.