The Fell-Van Rensselaer House #1 – Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Facing Rittenhouse Square on the northeast corner is the former home of financier Alexander Van Rensselaer. It is one of the few splendid old mansions to survive demolition.The house was completed in 1901 at the corner of 18th and Walnut, it is the work of the famous Boston architectural firm of Peabody and Stearns. In 1898, Alexander Van Rensselaer had the good sense, and apparently the pedigree, to marry the recently widowed daughter of Anthony Drexel. The former Sara Drexel Fell is said to have paid for the house herself, hence the appellation Fell-Van Rensselaer house.

It exemplifies the "Beaux Arts" style of architecture as applied to private residences. It is a beautifully balanced composition, erudite in its detail, gracious in scale and proportion, and totally appropriate to the lives of the people who built it. Besides finance, Mr. Van Rensselaer was a founder and longtime President of the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as a Board President of Drexel Institute. His wife died in 1929, he followed her in 1933, after which the house remained shut throughout the Depression. In 1942 the estate finally rented it to the Pennsylvania Athetic Club rowing association. No doubt overjoyed to at last get warm bodies in the place, they probably took whatever the club could pay for rent. Penn Athletic’s tenancy wasn’t long term, however, and the house was soon empty again. Most recently, the building has been subdivided into luxury condominiums.

The Alison Building next door contains the offices of the Presbyterian Ministers’ Fund, the oldest life insurance company in the world (1717). Adjacent to it, at 1811 Walnut Street and also facing the Square, is the Rittenhouse Club, another of the city’s old and exclusive clubs. The author Henry James used to sit at a window and view this Square, too, with his worldly eye.