Historic Quaker Houses of Philadelphia
The Shippen-Wistar House
238 South Fourth Street
Built: ca. 1765
Above left: Side elevation, Fourth Street. Above right: Front entry on Locust Street. Image source: Lee J. Stoltzfus
1830 Portrait of Dr. Caspar Wistar
By Thomas Sully:
Drawing of the Wistar House ca. 1922
By Frank H. Taylor:
Image source: The Library Company of Philadelphia
This and the house adjoining, upon the south - long the residence of the Hon. John Cadwalader - are now owned by the Mutual Assurance Company and are occupied as offices. The site of these houses was, with other land adjoining, granted by the Penns to Joseph and William Shippen. Dr. Wistar bought the ground and built in 1798, living here to the end of his life, in 1818. Dr. Caspar Wistar was eminent as a scientist and a scholar. He succeeded Thomas Jefferson as president of the American Philosophical Society, the members of which formed the coterie, famous as the "Wistar parties," which met here.
The Shippen-Wistar House Description
Philadelphia Register of Historic Places:
Above: Image source: Philadelphia Register of Historic Places