Wyck Historic House & Garden, Philadelphia

About Wyck Historic House & Garden

Wyck Historic House & Garden in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood is a National Historic Landmark where visitors tour a colonial house altered in 1824 by architect William Strickland and explore centuries-old gardens. The 2.5-acre site includes the oldest rose garden in America in its original plan, perennial beds, extensive vegetable and herb gardens, and a woodlot with fruit trees. Outbuildings from the late eighteenth through early twentieth centuries—a carriage house, greenhouse, ice-house, and smoke house—dot the grounds. Walk-in house tours are available on weekends, and visitors can arrange group tours, curator-led tours, or behind-the-scenes tours accessing upper-floor collections rooms with over ten thousand family objects. The grounds themselves are open for free access most days. Visitors pull an old-fashioned doorbell at the front door to be welcomed inside. The site served as one family's ancestral home for nine generations from 1690 to 1973 and now engages thousands annually with programs exploring history, horticulture, and urban agriculture.