Hackett Mansion (165 Spring Garden Street)

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(Photo by Richard F. Hope)

Hackett Mansion (165 Spring Garden Street)

3-story brick house on a stone foundation, with a 2-story brick addition, for a total of 7 bays. Projecting straight wood pediments over the windows and hood over the front entrance stoop; dental roof cornice. The style has been identified as “Greek Revival/Italianate”,[1] with a suggested construction date c. 1835-60.[2]

The building has, in the past century, been known as the home of State Senator William Clayton Hackett (1874-1930),[3] who donated Hackett Park to the City of Easton in 1914 in accordance with a prior (refused) offer made by his father, Joseph Hackett. The City reconsidered, and asked Senator Hackett (now his father’s heir) to renew his father’s donation offer.[4]

W. Clayton Hackett was, at various times, President of Hackett Company, Inc. (men’s clothes), Vice President of the Easton National Bank, Vice President of the Lehigh Water Co., and a Pennsylvania State Senator elected in 1914 and 1918.[5] Hackett died in 1930, and is buried in Easton Cemetery.[6] He left the property as a life estate to his widow Bessie, and remainder to his daughter, Ann Hackett,[7] who (under her subsequent married name) was still listed as an owner until February 2009.[8]

The property is part of original town Lot No.40, which the Penn Family sold to John Wagener in 1793.[9] After Wagener (a “Cooper”) moved to Moore Township, he resold the property for $200 to Easton town father Samuel Sitgreaves in 1802.[10] The 1802 deed spoke of a “Messuage tenement”, indicating that a house of some sort had already been built on the property by that time.

Five years later (in 1807), Samuel Sitgreaves sold the Lot to George Dingler for $1,000,[11] whose estate (in 1831) subdivided the Lot and sold the corner property (including a house) separately.[12] The next three owners were all women. The property was acquired in 1835 by Euphemia Wall[13] (later Euphemia Dawes after her marriage to Joseph Dawes), who held it for some 30 years. At the end of this period, a brick house was standing at the corner.[14] The “Greek Revival/Italianate” style of the current house at the corner (see above) is consistent with construction during the period of Euphemia Wall Dawes’s ownership.

·  The corner house was apparently not Mrs. Dawes’s residence, but rather used as a rental. This appears to be the case because Mrs. Dawes retained the northern portion of the lot (on North Second Street) until her death,[15] but sold off the brick house at the corner some years earlier.[16]

In 1855, James Fitz Randolph was apparently the tenant in the corner house, then apparently numbered 39 Spring Garden Street under the numbering scheme in effect at the time.[17] Randolph had been a US Congressman from New Jersey in 1828-33, as well as the holder of other political posts, and was otherwise a newspaper editor and bank president in New Brunswick, NJ.[18] In approximately 1842, James Randolph left New Jersey and came to Easton in the “Transportation” and coal business,[19] to take advantage of Easton’s position as the hinge of the canal system that supplied coal from the Pennsylvania coal mines to Philadelphia and New York City.[20] Randolph’s career change apparently joined the “coal and iron business” of one of his sons, Theodore Fitz Randolph,[21] who later became a governor of New Jersey.[22] James Randolph appears to have managed his sons’ coal dealership in Easton in the 1860s.[23] However, by 1860, Randolph had moved his residence farther South on North Second Street.[24]

·  Randolph’s residence in Easton led to the burial of the only Confederate soldier in Easton Cemetery: a young relation whose family had been connected with Theodore Randolph’s iron and coal business interests in Mississippi.[25]

By 1860, after James Randolph moved, the new tenant at 39 Spring Garden Street was Isbon Benedict, a grocer and “spice factor” with his store at the SE corner of 3rd and Ferry Street[26] (the Benjamin Ihrie Building[27]). An inscription reading “Charles Benedict -- Easton – 1850” in childish cursive handwriting was found underneath the wallpaper on a third floor wall by the current (2009).[28] Isbon Benedict did, in fact, have a young son named Charles, who was born in 1850.[29] He would probably have been learning his cursive letters in the late 1850s, when his family replaced the Randolphs as tenants and the walls were presumably re-papered – no doubt the occasion when he decided to decorate it with his inscription of his name, town, and birth year.[30]

In 1866, Euphemia Wall Dawes sold the corner property for $3,500 to Sarah Milligan. The deed specifically mentions a house was built of brick on this corner property.[31] By 1870, the tenant in the corner house was Beates R. Swift.[32] At that time (in 1870-71), Swift was the Chief Burgess of Easton.[33] It is accordingly likely that the style and size of the brick house at the corner was substantial, also consistent with the broad outline of the Hackett Mansion standing there today. In 1873, Swift moved out of the corner house, and purchased Euphemia Wall Dawes’s remaining North 2nd Street house from her estate.[34]

·  Beates Swift’s father was Dr. Edward Swift, and a brother was Dr. Edward Clement Swift, both noted Easton physicians resident at 46 North 2nd Street.[35] An uncle was yarn and twine (cotton thread) manufacturer John Swift, who lived at the house that became 42 North 2nd Street.[36] Beates Swift’s 1863 Civil War Diary (when he was a young man) was edited and published (with extensive commentary) by the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society in 2004. He spent most of his enlistment period on medical disability for a wasting sickness, grew disillusioned with the War, and ended up voting for an anti-war Democratic Party candidate at home despite his father’s strong abolitionist and pro-war sentiments.[37] He later received a government pension for his War-related “debility”.[38] Beates Swift studied law with Judge James Madison Porter, and thereafter with James Madison Porter, Jr. He and the younger Porter shared office space on North 3rd Street for their law practices, and took over the office after the younger Porter died in 1879. After some 30 years of law practice, Beates Swift retired in 1896 at age 56, and became an avid stamp collector.[39]

·  The property that Swift purchased was listed as 49 North Second Street, prior to the inauguration of the modern street numbering scheme in 1874,[40] and was assigned to 105 North 2nd Street in 1874.[41] It was thus apparently North of the corner.[42] Swift remained the resident at 105 North Third Street until after 1910.[43] Swift apparently further subdivided ownership of his portion of the property, by selling it to Elizabeth P. Porter (a sister of James Madison Porter, the founder of Lafayette College[44]) and having Ms. Porter sell a portion of her holding back to Beates Swift’s children.[45]

In the same week in 1873 that Beates Swift purchased Euphemia Dawes’s remaining house, Sarah Milligan sold the brick house at the corner (now apparently without Swift as a tenant) to Dr. Henry Lachenour.[46] He was the son of Dr. Daniel Lachenour, “one of the most prominent physicians in Easton”,[47] who had shared a medical practice and residence address on North 3rd Street.[48] However, after his father died in 1875,[49] Dr. Henry established his own, separate medical practice in his new house, at what became 165 Spring Garden Street.[50]

Dr. Lachenour retained ownership of the property until 1885, when he sold it[51] and purchased instead the Col. Thomas McKeen Mansion farther up Spring Garden Street.[52] A series of owners succeeded Dr. Lachenour as owner of the brick house at the corner in the 19th Century,[53] until it was acquired by Senator W. Clayton Hackett in 1907.[54] The Hackett Mansion house appears to sit where the “brick dwelling” house stood at the corner in Euphemia Wall Dawes’s time.

·  Two of the prior owners were important shoe merchants in Easton. The first was John A. Nightingale (owner from 1891-93[55]), who had purchased half of the Bixler Family Homestead on Northampton Street in 1852 for his shoe store. The Spring Garden Street house was probably his retirement home after he sold that business to W.W. Moon.[56] Nightingale’s obituary in 1894 states that his funeral was to be held in his former residence at 167 Spring Garden Street.[57]

·  The second of the two shoe salesmen was Charles M. Hapgood (owner from 1900-05[58]), who had been a partner with Captain Jacob Hay in the boot and shoe business until 1889,[59] and in 1880 had built the mansion at the corner of Northampton and Fourteenth Streets (in Captain Hay’s mansion housing development) that now serves as the Ashton Funeral Home.[60]

·  In 1900, John Rice and his wife, Carrie, were listed at No.157,[61] evidently as renters. Mrs. Rice was Carrie Arndt (Drake) Rice (born 1869), a daughter of Samuel Drake (see entry for 54 N. Third St.). Mr. Rice was from Pottstown.[62] By 1910, they had moved from this address to Clinton Street.[63]

In 1920, Senator Hackett expanded the property by re-acquiring in essence the northern part of the Lot at 105 North Second Street[64] that had formerly been owned by lawyer Beates R. Swift.[65] Senator Hackett died in 1930, and his daughter, Ann, inherited the property.[66] She died in 1984, leaving her (third) husband as the sole property owner until his death in 2007. His estate sold the property to its current owner in 2009.[67]

[1] Survey Card, City of Easton Building Description Survey (Area 1 Zone B), 165 Spring Garden Street (for Application for downtown Historic District, approved by City Council Resolution 12 May 1982).

[2] City of Easton, Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey Form, Attachment: Building Description Survey Area 1 Zone B (City Council Resolution approved 12 May 1982). However, the actual Survey of Area 1 Zone B “165 Spring Garden Street” proposed a construction date of 1824, not including the addition which was first found in a 1919 Sanborn map.

[3] Obituary, “Former State Senator Hackett Who Died Yesterday, Had Active Career”, Easton Express / Easton Argus, Thursday, 11 Dec. 1930, p.1; see 1910 Census, Series T624, Roll 1381, p.27A (W. Clayton Hackett, age 35, dry goods merchant); 1920 Census, Series T625, Roll 1609, p.90B (Clayton Hackett, age 45, bank VP).

[4] Article, “The World War I dedication grove”, in Easton Is Home, Heritage Edition 2004 59 (Easton Is Home 2004). Joseph Hackett had served a term in the Pennsylvania State Assembly from 1879-82. Obituary, “Former State Senator Hackett Who Died Yesterday, Had Active Career”, supra.

[5] Obituary, “Former State Senator Hackett Who Died Yesterday, Had Active Career”, Easton Express / Easton Argus, Thursday, 11 Dec. 1930, p.1.

[6] Notice, “Funeral of Former State Senator Hacket”, Easton Express / Easton Argus, Thursday, 13 Dec. 1930, p.9.

[7] Deed, Ann Hackettt Orchard to Ann Hackett (William) Orchard, 236 556 (23 Feb. 1965)(recitals), referring to Will of W. Clayton Hackett at 34 W.B. 227 (died 10 Dec. 1930; wife Bessie died 21 Oct. 1961); Deed, Ann Hackett Gerhardt (formerly Ann Hackett Orchard) to Ann Hackett (Reginald B.) Gerhardt, 628-000713 (7 July 1981).

[8] Northampton County Tax Records, www.unpub.org.

[9] Deed, John Penn the Younger and John Penn the Elder to John Wagener, G2 378 (4 Apr. 1793); A.D. Chidsey, Jr., The Penn Patents in the Forks of the Delaware Plan of Easton, Map 2 (Vol. II of Publications of the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1937).

[10] Deed, John (Margaret) Wagener to Samuel Sitgreaves, G2 379 (9 June 1802). The entire Lot had a 60’ front on Third Street, and extended 230’ on Spring Garden Street.

For a brief biography of Samuel Sitgreaves, see generally separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for Sitgreaves Folly (East): Montague Building at 237-39 Northampton Street, and the Former Y.M.C.A. Headquarters at 109 North Third Street.

[11] Deed, Samuel (Mary) Sitgreaves to George Dingler, D3 200 (1 Apr. 1807)(Lot #40, dimensions 60’ X 230’, described as a “Messuage tenement and Lot of Ground”, sold for $1,000).

[12] Deed, John Ludwig, Administrator of Estate of George Dingler, to Martha Moore, A6 134 (10 Feb. 1831)(described as a “Messuage Tenement and Lot”, part of Lot No. 40, sale price $900).

[13] Deed, Martha Moore to Euphemia Wall, A6 134 (26 Jan. 1835)(sale price $900).

[14] Deed, Euphemia Dawes (formerly Euphemia Wall) to Sarah Milligan, A12 170 (26 June 1866)(sale price $3,500, “Brick Messuage of Tenement and lot of land”).

[15] See Deed, Euphenia Dawes Estate to Beates R. Swift, B14 417 (7 Apr. 1873), recited in Deed, Francis B. Swift, et al. (heirs of Beates R. Swift) to W. Clayton Hackett, F47 534 (3 June 1920).

[16] Deed, Euphemia Dawes (formerly Euphemia Wall) to Sarah Milligan, A12 170 (26 June 1866)(sale price $3,500, “Brick Messuage of Tenement and lot of land”).

[17] C[harles] Kitchen, A General Directory of the Borough of Easton PA 46 (Cole & Eichman’s Office, 1855). The location of the house is inferred because prior to the inauguration of the modern street numbering system in 1874, No. 41 Spring Garden Street was the Henry Fulmer Mansion, which was located at the NW corner. See www.WalkingEaston.com entry for the Parking Lot at 201 Spring Garden Street, and sources cited therein. No. 39 was, accordingly, the next property to the East -- probably the NE corner property.

[18] Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774 – Present, “RANDOLPH, James Fitz”, bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000044 (accessed 24 Apr. 2008); see also 1840 Census, Roll 256, p.62, entry for “Jas. F. Randolph” in North Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey.