601 E Indiana Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19134, USA

Stouton

McPherson Square, 601 East Indiana Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Built from 1784, for Brigadier-General William Macpherson (1756-1813), and his wife, Margaret Stout (1764-1797). The 212-acre property that covered all of Poor Island had been developed from 1727 by Mrs Macpherson's grandfather, Peter Keen, when it was known as "Keen's Place". In 1784, the General bought out the interest held by his wife's uncle, Reynold Keen, and built the house seen today at Indiana and Kensington Avenues, where the Library now stands. The General was eldest surviving son of the swashbuckling Captain John Macpherson of Mount Pleasant. He died here in 1813 and his family returned to Philadelphia leaving Stouton to be run by their tenants, Stephen and Mary (Thorp) Webster. The Webster had been employed at Stouton since 1806 to develop Stouton as a dairy farm. Stephen retired in 1850 and his son took over.

John Webster (the son) lived here with his wife and six children and from the 1870s into the 1880s he expanded the farm's operations to include brick manufacturing, making the most of the building boom. Stouton itself remained the property of the Macpherson family and when John retired in 1891 it was in the ownership of the General's grand-daughter, Mrs Julia M. (Washington) Horner. Two years later (1893) she sold the house to the City of Philadelphia for $74,546. What land hadn't already been sold off was gradually disposed of by the Horner family over a period of 20-years. The city converted the house into the Library that stands in its place today and as the area was predominantly populated by Irish-Catholics, "Macpherson" Square became today's "McPherson" Square.

Free Library of Philadelphia, McPherson Square Branch, 601 East Indiana Ave Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA

McPherson Square was one of twenty-five branch libraries constructed between 1904 and 1930 by the Free Library of Philadelphia using a $1.5 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation. Andrew Carnegie`s public library construction grants were a major impetus for the growth of these institutions throughout the country. Philadelphia was second only to New York City in the size of the Carnegie grant it received and the number of branch libraries constructed. Each jurisdiction receiving Carnegie library funds was responsible for providing a site and operating expenses equal to ten percent of the cost of construction. Prior to receiving the Carnegie funds in 1903, branch libraries of the Free Library of Philadelphia (founded 1891) were housed in a variety of preexisting structures. The Carnegie library construction campaign provided twenty-five purpose-built branch libraries for the City of Philadelphia, each designed according to the latest standards of library professionalism and using fashionable, but conservative, architectural forms and motifs.

McPherson Square was the nineteenth Carnegie branch library opened by the Free Library of Philadelphia. The construction contract was awarded by the Free Library Board of Trustees Carnegie Fund Committee on December 9, 1915 and the branch opened to the public on May 25, 1917. Because this branch was built in the middle of an existing city park the site was acquired by the Free Library trustees much earlier, on April 9, 1904. The McPherson Square branch was designed by the prominent Philadelphia firm of Wilson Eyre & McIlvaine in the form of an elegant domed Palladian villa.