Colonial Mansion
Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
This house, of true Georgian style, was built before 1760. The ground was purchased by Thomas Poultney, merchant, in 1749. John Passmore, first mayor of Lancaster, occupied the house at one time.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
This Lancaster house, built in the true Georgian style before 1760, stands on ground merchant Thomas Poultney purchased in 1749. Georgian architecture — with its balanced proportions and formal symmetry — was the fashionable choice of prosperous colonial townsmen. John Passmore, Lancaster's first mayor, lived here at one time, tying the house to the early civic life of what was then one of the largest inland towns in the American colonies.
Why it matters
It preserves a piece of colonial Lancaster's rise as a thriving inland commercial center and the refined Georgian taste of its merchant class.
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Related people
- · Thomas Poultney
- · John Passmore
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lancaster County
Lancaster, PA · est. 1982
One of Pennsylvania's oldest counties, Lancaster was formed in 1729 and named for Lancashire in England, reflecting the mix of British, German, and other settlers who made it home. The county seat grew into an important inland town and briefly served as the state capital from 1799 to 1812. Its deep, well-watered soils became some of the most productive farmland in America, worked by a patchwork of ethnic and religious communities including the Pennsylvania Germans.
Bailey's Printshop
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From 1773 to 1780, Francis Bailey ran a printing office on this Lancaster site, serving as official printer to both the Continental Congress and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In an age when the press was a weapon of revolution, his shop turned out patriot documents—including Thomas Paine's "Crisis No. 4," one of the essays meant to steel American resolve through the darkest stretch of the war. Bailey is also credited with being among the first to call George Washington "Father of His Country" in print.
Mathias Roeser
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From 1740 to 1771 the gunsmith Mathias Roeser worked here in Lancaster, at the heart of colonial Pennsylvania's craft economy. His shop was central to the development of the Pennsylvania rifle, the long, accurate frontier firearm that became famous in American hands. Family members and his apprentice William Henry, Sr., went on to lead the trade and supply arms to the patriot cause during the Revolution.
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