Hill-Physick House

About Hill-Physick House

Built after the Revolutionary War by the wealthy Madeira wine importer Henry Hill, this stunning four-story square brick house is the only free-standing Federal townhouse remaining in Society Hill. The house was named a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

With its commanding entrance and doorway fan transom, its impressive windows, grand proportions and classical lines, the Hill-Physick House is an exceptional example of the Federal style. It’s stately and spacious interior rooms are decorated with outstanding examples of French-influenced Neoclassic furnishings, popular during the period.

Hill-Physick House was later the home of Dr. Philip Syng Physick. Graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Dr. Physick became one of the foremost physicians of the time and is known as the father of American surgery.

While Henry Hill built the house with the fortune he made importing Madeira wine, he only lived there briefly, succumbing to yellow fever in 1798. The house was purchased by Abigail Physick who in 1815 deeded it to her famous brother. Dr. Philip Syng Physick lived there until his death in 1837.

Wealthy and connected, Dr. Physick hosted the country’s elite at his grand home. Guests included novelist James Fenimore Cooper and deposed king of Naples and Spain, Joseph Bonaparte, medical colleagues like Dr. Benjamin Rush and Stephan Girard, notable wealthy neighbors and even some of his celebrated patients: Dolly Madison, the daughters of President John Adams and President James Monroe, Chief Justice John Marshall and President Andrew Jackson to name a few.