September 14, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

New lease on life for Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion
by KRISTIN PAZULSKI

Mansion director Michael Gaines leads the historic home’s revival.

West Tulpehocken Street in Germantown is lined with old, historic homes and mansions, many of them privately owned. They loom along the street, proudly displaying the architectural history of Philadelphia in their facades, windows, and peaks.

But in the 200 block of W. Tulpehocken, the gray tower of the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion rising from an unruly garden is all that can be seen from the street. Beyond the garden is the home that Ebenezer Maxwell built in 1859. A three-story, gray stone structure with maroon accents, the building served the public as a historic mansion museum until it was closed to the public earlier this year due to financial woes and previous mismanagement.

The mansion’s board began to explore ways of making the mansion self-supporting since it was not doing so as a museum. But Michael Gaines, a former board member who is now executive director, cannot see the mansion as anything but a museum.

When the Local met with Gaines last week, the mansion’s ground floor was covered in a hodgepodge of antique furniture. A musty smell wafted from the open front door and two young men carried out chairs and mirrors on their way to a storage facility.

Gaines spent part of the interview on the phone, insisting to a less-confident Rochelle Christopher, a Maxwell employee, that the mansion would be ready for the public by April and pointing out to the moving men which furniture was to be taken for storage

Gaines has high expectations for the mansion.

“We are developing new, innovative ways to keeps the mansion open as a museum and keep people coming back again and again,” he said.

Although the museum is closed to the public, private tours can be arranged by appointment.

Gaines, who became executive director in July, said the mansion’s board had considered alternative ways of using the house, including a bed and breakfast, or possibly leasing the space as offices, but added that he could not accept ending its museum role.

“The other ideas made me cringe,” said Gaines, who fought to keep the mansion a museum.

Eventually, he said, those who wanted to change the mansion were outnumbered and resigned from the board, leaving Gaines and the other board members to figure out how to enliven the mansion’s programming. Fortunately, they have a beautiful piece of architecture to work with.

Maxwell Mansion was built in 1859 by Ebenezer Maxwell, a cloth merchant who lived in the building for only three years before selling it to Rosalie Stevenson and moving next door to a smaller house. The house remained in Rosalie’s family until her daughter, Augusta, died in 1956.

After Augusta’s death, the mansion was almost demolished by an oil company interested in building a gas station on the property. Neighbors rallied successfully against the oil company’s purchase in zoning hearings — since the company would not buy the property unless the zoning was changed to permit a gas station.

In 1965, after years of vacancy, it was again scheduled for demollition by an adjacent nursing home, which planned to use the property for its own expansion. Gaines said the mansion, which was approaching its 100th year, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, which prevented the demolition.

After this, a committee of the Germantown Historical Society, called the Maxwell Mansion committee, leased the building from the nursing home for 10 years and worked on restoring most of the mansion’s interior and exterior. By 1975, the group had formed a non-profit organization, Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion, Inc., and raised money to purchase the house.

The renovated mansion was opened for public tours, eventually becoming part of Historic Germantown Preserved, an association of 15 museums devoted to highlighting the area’s history.

In 1996, a group of students from LaSalle University developed what Gaines described as a “genius” business plan for the mansion, but nothing was ever done with it.

A few years later, according to Gaines, the mansion began to suffer from mismanagement, finally losing its last executive director in 2004. For a while, a managing director oversaw the mansion museum’s programming, but she eventually left and the mansion’s direction was left to the Maxwell Mansion board.

At about the same time, Gaines said, issues with a former employee chased away the museum’s volunteer base and membership began to drop, leading to the closing, but he added that now there was renewed hope.

Part of the new plan is improved programming, and one of the first events to showcase this planning is an Art Show and Tea fundraiser on Sunday, Sept. 17. The event was inspired by a painting of the mansion done by museum intern Adam Meyerowitz The event will run from 1-4:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 at the door, or $15 in advance, and can be reserved by calling 215-438-1861.

From Oct. 27-29, the mansion will replace its traditional ghost tour with a Clue-like murder mystery. Patrons will tour nine of Maxwell Mansion’s rooms in the evening, meeting nine different characters that will tell their side of the story. At the end, guests vote on the murderer, the location of the murder and the weapon.

A Gala Christmas Weekend will be held the mansion from Dec. 11-13. A silent auction and hors d’oeuvres will welcome guests to the mansion on Friday night, followed by an open house on Saturday and a Dickensian party on Sunday.

Gaines said he had an even more extensive plan for the success of Maxwell Mansion, but could not share all the details at this time. He added that the board was still discussing the plan, implementation of which could take eight to 10 years.

Contact staff writer Kristin Pazulski at 215-248-8819 or Kristin@chestnuthilllocal.com.