Background:
The imposing Butler Mansion, set well back from Germantown Avenue in the middle of the block between Haines and High Streets, was probably built in the late 1840's. In the last half of the nineteenth century, E. H. Butler and his son Edgar H. Butler made substantial additions and modifications from the 1850's through the 1880's (including a portico and conservatory) and tore down the much older original house included in the property (a two story stucco house with a hip roof, fronting on Germantown Avenue).

The nineteenth-century property also included a large barn, a combination dwelling and workshop, and a two-family tenement house--all included in the insurance surveys. The mansion was demolished in 1914 for the construction of Germantown High School.

Additional Sources:

• GHS: Keyser, Naaman. Manuscript Notes for v. 2 (north of Chelten), History of Old Germantown, p. 37 (unpublished typewritten text).

• HSP: Campbell Collection, vol. 33, p. 163: Butler House - Rose House (manuscript text and photograph, front view taken from across Germantown Avenue).

• HSP: Franklin Fire Insurance Policy 6411 for Frederick Seckel in 1847 and for E. H. Butler in 1856 (surveys, floor plans and site map for five buildings).

• HSP: Franklin Fire Insurance Policy 6990 for Frederick Seckel in 1846 (survey and site plan for stone dwelling, and later, a frame carpenter shop).

• HSP: Perkins Collection, vol. 61D, pp. 48-49: Butler House (no text, but a small and a large version of the same photo found in the Campbell Collection, dated 1901/1905).

• HSP: Shoemaker Collection, folio 13: "E. H. Butler's Residence, (torn down 1914 to make way for high school). E cor Germantown Road & High St." (photographed from the south corner by Russ, 1913; text limited to geneological notes).

• Hotchkins, Rev. S. F. Ancient and Modern Germantown, Mt. Airy, and Chestnut Hill. Philadelphia: P. W. Ziegler and Co., 1889, p. 141 (text).