Powel House

This guide to the Powel House in Philadelphia tracks two fortunes that crossed in the same doorway in 1769: Charles Stedman, the shipmaster who built the mansion to show off his success and was in debtors' prison within a few years of selling it, and Samuel Powel, the young heir who bought it and hired the city's finest woodcarvers, Hercules Courtenay and Martin Jugiez, to panel the rooms around you. You'll hear about the guests Powel entertained here, including George Washington, and about what happened decades later to those same carved rooms, when a struggling owner found them worth more taken apart than left standing. Look closely at the paneling as you listen; the woodwork itself is a character in this story.