THE LETITIA PENN HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA
WILLIAM PENN'S FIRST AMERICAN HOME
When William Penn, English Quaker, met Guli Springett, he fell in love with her at once. In 1672 they were married.
Ten years later when, as Proprietor of Pennsylvania, Penn was about to sail in the Welcome for America, he wrote a letter of which the following is a portion:
"My dear wife and children, my love, which neither sea, nor land, nor death itself, can extinguish or lessen toward you, most tenderly visits you with eternal embraces and will abide with you for ever.... My dear wife, remember thou wast the love of my youth and the joy of my life, the most beloved as well as the most worthy of all my earthly comfort, and the reason of that love were more thy inward than thy outward excellencies, which were yet many. God knows, and thou knowest it, that it was a match of Providence's making, and God's image in us both was the first thing and the most amiable and engaging ornament in our eyes. Now I am to leave thee, and that without knowing whether I shall ever see thee more in this world."
Penn landed at New Castle, Delaware, in October, 1682. He had already sent forward the plot of his new country village; his cousin, Lieutenant Governor Markham, had come to America in 1681, bringing with him instructions for the beginning of the settlement. On this plot there was evidence of his thought for his wife and his daughter Letitia; two lots were set apart for the family, on one of which he planned to build, while the other he designed for Letitia.
When he reached America, he found that, by some mistake, Letitia's lot had been given to the Friends for a meeting house. He was vexed, but nothing could be done. So he decided that the lot reserved for his own use should be made over to her. He did not carry out his purpose for some time, however.
For a time Penn remained at Upland (now Chester), but in 1684, he went to Philadelphia to oversee the erection of the houses for the settlers. His own house he built on a large plot facing the Delaware River and south of what is now Market Street. The house was of brick, which was probably made nearby, though many of the interior fittings had been brought from England in the John and Sarah in 1681. It was the first brick house in the new settlement, the first house which had a cellar, and was built in accordance with the request the Proprietor had made:
"Let every house be placed, if the person pleases, in the middle of the plat, as to breadth way of it, that so there may be ground on each side for garden or orchard, or fields, that it may be a green country town, which will never be burnt and always wholesome."
For a few months the Quaker kept bachelor's hall in his new house. Then he went to England, intending to return before long. Before his departure he arranged that the house should be used in the public service. Probably it was the gathering place for the Provincial Council for many years. Thus it was the first state house of Pennsylvania.