{"nrhp_refnum":"80003581","name":"Morris, Anthony, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"N of Norristown on Stump Hall Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Norristown","county":"Montgomery County","state":"PA","lat":40.186948495000024,"lon":-75.36824137499997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-12-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Exploration/Settlement","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story stone house in Worcester Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, built of coursed rubble on a 25-foot square plan, with a stable to the east. It sits on land originally about 158 acres that also holds the remains of a gristmill built in 1728.","why_significant":"The nomination describes it as a well preserved, very early Montgomery County residence of an important early settler, Anthony Morris, a Philadelphia merchant brewer who held public offices including mayor of Philadelphia. It retains much of its original fabric, including the original floor plan, fireplace, ceiling beams, and black paint traces on window sills. The property is also associated with the later gristmill and weaving-related water use along the stream.","narrative":"Built of coursed rubble in 1717 on a 25-foot square plan, this two-story house in what later became Worcester Township, Montgomery County, stands on land that Anthony Morris bought in 1717 from Sarah Harsent of Worminghurst, England. Morris was a Philadelphia merchant brewer who also served on the Supreme Court, the Provincial Council and the Assembly, and was mayor of Philadelphia. He raised fifteen children here. After his death in 1721, his executors sold the property in 1728 to Johannes Beehn, a weaver, who built a gristmill on a nearby stream whose foundations survive. The house keeps its original two-room-over-two plan, a stone fireplace with a chestnut lintel and original trammel bars, chamfered chestnut ceiling beams, and flagstone steps to a cold storage room. Its wood-frame doors were altered over time, but about four-fifths of the original building remains. Black paint traces on the window sills have been preserved.","period_of_significance":"1717","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Restored with care; about 80% of the original building is intact, with the exterior doors altered.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.246673-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/80003581.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003581/efaa3c5aea-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003581/efaa3c5aea-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Hshuvaeva","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anthony_Morris_House.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Hshuvaeva</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anthony_Morris_House.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996794","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Morris_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4773145"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/montgomery-county/morris-anthony-house-80003581/"}