The mansion was a fine house, and capable of being made comfortable. It was of old style, three stories high, skirted by broad pillared porticos, tastefully decorated with growing plants.
The halls and rooms were hung with portraits and works of arts, and marble busts of the great characters of earlier days were there in abundance. Many fine oil portraits of Forrest in different roles were among the collection of art. Many interesting play-bills of his early performances, and portraits of most of the actors who had won fame before the footlights were on the walls.
The bedrooms were each furnished with high-post bedsteads, and old types of bureaus and dressers.
The library was unique and wonderfully furnished, and the eight thousand volumes embraced the classics, treatises upon art, and interesting histories of the stage. In niches of the walls were busts of the nation’s great men. Art masterpieces in oil and marble were to be found in the old home.
The farm attached to the fine mansion contains one hundred and eleven acres.
Edwin Forrest was born in Philadelphia, March 9, 1806. He died there December 12, 1872.
His father was Scotch, his mother of German birth. He exhibited from early age a taste for the stage, and when eleven years old participated in theatrical representations as a member of an amateur club, sometimes performing female roles.
His first appearance on the regular stage was on November 27, 1820, in the part of Douglas in Home’s tragedy of that name.
A protracted professional tour in the west and south ensued, in which he won considerable reputation.
His first great success was achieved May 26, 1826, in the Park Theater, New York, as Othello. This led to a long engagement at the Bowery Theater, where he enjoyed extraordinary popularity.