Sweetbriar, 1 Sweetbriar Drive, West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA

Significance: Samuel Breck, a merchant with a future in state and national politics, built Sweetbrier in 1797. Like other Philadelphians in his social and financial position, Breck wished to escape the city's late 18th century yellow fever epidemic and could afford to commission a stately house upriver in one of the neighboring locales. However, despite resemblance to villas in the area, Sweetbrier was not a seasonal retreat but the Breck family's full-time residence. In order to create Fairmount Prrk, the City of Philadelphia purchased Sweetbrier and surrounding properties during the mid 19th century the benefits of a sylvan landscape that had once attracted exclusive private development were thus extended to the public at large.
Survey number: HABS PA-1670
Building/structure dates: 1797 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1870 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1929 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1975 Subsequent Work
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 72001151