1722 Colonial Governor's Country Estate in Horsham, Pennsylvania
859 County Line Road, Horsham, PA 19044
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Modest admission for guided tours; site grounds open during posted park hours. Confirm current rates and schedule on the Graeme Park website.
Access
Limited Access
Open grounds with mown paths; the 1722 stone house has narrow doorways and stairs typical of early eighteenth-century construction.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1722 · National Historic Landmark (1972) · Only surviving residence of a Pennsylvania colonial governor · Home of Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson, early American woman writer
Sir William Keith, the deputy governor of Pennsylvania under the Penn family from 1717 to 1726, built a malt house and country residence on a 1,200-acre Horsham tract beginning in 1721. The two-and-a-half-story stone building, completed by 1722, was used initially as a brewing operation; Keith intended the estate, which he called Fountain Low, as both a political seat and a commercial enterprise. After Keith's political fortunes declined and he left the colony, the property was sold in 1739 to Dr. Thomas Graeme, a Scottish-born Philadelphia physician.
Under the Graeme family, the building was converted from a brewery to a refined country residence. Thomas Graeme's daughter Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson became one of colonial America's earliest published women writers and a central figure in mid-eighteenth-century Philadelphia literary circles; her literary salons at Graeme Park drew Benjamin Rush, Francis Hopkinson, and other figures of the Revolutionary generation. Elizabeth's first-floor parlor remains a focal point of the interpretive tour.
The property passed through several owners after the Revolution and was eventually deeded to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1958. It is operated as a historic-house museum by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission with on-site partnership from the Friends of Graeme Park. The Keith House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972 and is the only surviving residence of any of the colonial governors of Pennsylvania. The building retains substantial original paneled interior woodwork.
Sources
The Keith House does not market itself as a paranormal site, and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's interpretive program focuses on Sir William Keith's tenure, the Graeme family's literary legacy, and the building's surviving eighteenth-century interior. The folklore that has circulated around the property in regional ghost compendiums describes a colonial-era woman seen walking near the house at night, occasionally framed in local retellings as a victim of Revolutionary War-era violence.
This framing is not corroborated by the site's archival record. Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson, who is the only documented Revolutionary-era resident of the house, died in 1801 of natural causes after the war; she is buried in Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia. Visitors interested in the property's authentic eighteenth-century history will find that the documented record is itself substantial — the building's surviving paneled rooms, Elizabeth Fergusson's salon culture, and the architectural progression from brewery to country house. Reports of after-hours apparitions on the grounds remain folklore.
Tour the 1722 Keith House, the only surviving residence of a Pennsylvania colonial governor. Costumed interpreters present the building's eighteenth-century floor plan, paneled interior, and the Graeme family's literary and political connections during the late colonial period.
Walk the open grounds of Graeme Park, a Pennsylvania state historic site. The 42-acre property preserves the pastoral setting of the Graeme family's eighteenth-century country seat, including a tenant farmhouse and meadows along County Line Road.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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