A special desk and sheep tell the story of Harriton House
The celebration of America's 250th anniversary continued with a look at historic sites in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, including an estate that is more than 300 years old, which houses an iconic desk and a special line of sheep.
"Harriton House has hundreds of stories," Harriton Association Executive Director Laura Carpenter said.
Carpenter was excited to share the history of Harriton House, completed in 1704 by a Welsh settler. That man first called the house Bryn Mawr, meaning "big hill."
"About 1719, 1720, he sold the property to Richard Harrison, who was Hannah Harrison-Thompson's father," Carpenter said.
The Harrisons then changed the name of the estate to "Harriton." Carpenter said that before the house was built, the land was first cleared by employees. However, slaves eventually worked in the former tobacco plantation and inside the home.
"Prior to 1789, when this kitchen was built," Carpenter said. "The original kitchen in the house would have been staffed by probably an enslaved person, particularly during the time of Richard Harrison's occupancy."
Richard's daughter, Hannah, later married Charles Thompson, who lived in the home and used a special artifact that Harriton House Visitor Services Associate Stephen Pierce showed was still at the home to this day.
"This is Charles Thompson's personal travel desk. He probably got this close to around the time he was voted in to be secretary to the Continental Congress on Sept. 5, 1774," Pierce said. "I cannot confirm nor deny what went through here, but a lot of great pieces."
The stories also lived on in the newest generation of sheep still living at Harriton House and whose ancestors came all the way from Tunisia.
"Yeah, we don't know exactly how," Pierce said. "But, we believe that Charles Thompson was really good friends with Richard Peters, who got kind of the first type of flock from George Washington after he passed."
With a story this rich, Harriton House has even more planned. Harriton was just one of several sites where visitors could hear the Declaration of Independence read over the Fourth of July weekend.
