The Atsion Mansion, Then & Now

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,984
8,737
All,

I have acquired a slide that was taken right after the state purchased Wharton. It shows the Atsion Mansion from what today is the parking area. As history tells us Joseph Wharton failed to make repairs at Atsion unlike Batsto, and this photo pretty much proves that again. I am pretty confident this is a personal slide taken by an individual, and not one that was used for promotion. That is not a photo the state would want to promote as it is somewhat dark. I played with it to lighten it up.

Atsion Mansion just after the state purchased it and today 9/8/2012

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The slide.

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Guy
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,984
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I don't know the exact year. However, from the sign it is obvious to me it is after the state purchased it. I suspect that not long after purchasing they mowed the place so it has to be sometime after 1954 when they first started buying. The person I got it from gave me a 1955-1959 timline so maybe they may know more than they are telling. I will write them and ask.

Guy
 

Gibby

Piney
Apr 4, 2011
1,644
442
Trenton
That is a great photo and I agree with Boyd's statement that the decaying mansion is more appealing than its current form. Interesting to see the two smaller wood structures too.

Wishful, I also took a close look at the background hoping to see a glimpse of the mill through the trees.
 

NMuscella

Scout
Aug 18, 2023
31
48
20
Southampton NJ
Might be a little late to the conversation haha, but it appears this photo shows the wooden frame building off to the left to be the old icehouse for the Mansion and General Store. The overgrowth in front of the mansion are what remains of the English Garden from the Richards Era.

The garden was described in 1894 "About the mansion was a great garden, where fruit and vegetables grew as by magic to supply his (Samuel Richards) table, and cattle and pigs had their appointed times to grow fat for the slaughter."

There is a contemporary source that Samuel Richards would grow cabbages in this garden to feed his hefty appetite for sauerkraut!
 

NMuscella

Scout
Aug 18, 2023
31
48
20
Southampton NJ
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This would actually be a good example of what the Atsion Mansion garden would have looked like in the 1830s.

When I went up to research the Samuel Richards papers, I learned that Richards hired a gardener to tend to his Philadelphia garden and Atsion garden.
 
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