Packer Mansion
Jim Thorpe, Carbon County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Standing on the nearby hill is the home of Asa Packer, industrialist, philanthropist, congressman and founder of Lehigh University. The ornate mansion, built in 1860, has been carefully preserved with its original furnishings and is maintained as a memorial.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Asa Packer arrived in the Lehigh Valley a poor carpenter and left it one of the richest men in America, having built the Lehigh Valley Railroad into an anthracite-coal empire. In 1860 he crowned his fortune with an ornate Italianate mansion overlooking Mauch Chunk (today's Jim Thorpe), and he poured his wealth back into the region—most enduringly by founding Lehigh University in 1865. The house survives with its original furnishings intact, a preserved window into Gilded Age industrial wealth.
Why it matters
Packer embodies the 19th-century American arc from self-made laborer to industrial magnate and philanthropist, and his railroad and university reshaped the economy and education of eastern Pennsylvania.
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Related people
- · Asa Packer
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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