Caleb Clothier House

Caleb Clothier House. . , Dating to 1851 and designed by Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloan as an Italianate Villa, the iconic Caleb Clothier House remains as one of the several founders' "cottages" along the Delaware River bank in Riverton., Clothier and nine other prominent Philadelphia Quaker merchants initially established Riverton as a summer resort for their families. They then founded the Riverton Improvement Company in 1852 offering building lots to other would be residents., An ardent advocate for the abolition of slavery, Caleb was a founder of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society; president of the Friends for the Cause of the Slave and Improving the Condition of Free People of Color; and treasurer of the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society. He was a founder of Swarthmore College and a manager of the Pennsylvania Hall Association., Caleb and his wife, Hanna Fletcher Hallowell Clothier, had six children. Their son, Isaac Hallowell Clothier, partnered with Justus Strawbridge to found the Philadelphia department store, Strawbridge and Clothier., In 1863, Edward H. Ogden and Sarah Morris Perot Ogden purchased the home. Edward, a Civil War veteran, served as the first mayor of Riverton in 1893. He was a founder and first president of the Riverton Country Club and founder and commodore of the Riverton Yacht Club. A graduate of Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, he was vice-president of T. Morris Perot Company, inventors of an Army hospital and medical wagon adopted by the U.S. Government during the Civil War. He was president of the Water Company and vice-president of the People's Gaslight Company of Jersey City., His wife, Sarah, was a member of the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames of America; Philadelphia Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution; and president of the Philadelphia Home for Incurables. Many meetings of the Porch Club were held on the Ogden's front porch; and Sarah served as the second president of the Riverton Porch Club. In 1908, she presented the town with the local library in honor of her husband., Based upon oral history from Ogden descendants "Edward and Sarah would assist runaway slaves to escape in any way possible as they opposed slavery." Coupled with Clothier's abolitionist pa, [Captions:] , This home is listed in the Riverton Historic District by the National Register of Historic Places: March 5, 1999,, Many revisions to the home by Philadelphia architect Stanley P. Stewart in 1931 mimicked Mount Vernon. The changes included relocating the belvedere from the rooftop to the garden before it was later adapted to become a bath house.