Peale, Charles Willson, House

Belfield is a farmhouse and former country estate at 2100 Clarkson Avenue in Germantown, Philadelphia, built around the middle of the eighteenth century. The painter Charles Willson Peale bought the property in 1810, when it was a farm of about 104 acres, and lived there until 1820. He made changes to the house, and a nineteenth-century owner added a story. Peale developed a formal garden and a textile mill on the land, and the garden remnants, root cellars, fishpond and a portion of a greenhouse survive. Peale was the leading American painter of his day, known for miniatures and portraits, including several likenesses of George Washington painted at different stages of the general's life. He also painted portraits of Revolutionary figures and paid close attention to military uniforms, which gives his work historical value. Peale's varied activities, including his museum and his role in founding the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, add to the site's importance. The surviving farm buildings and grounds are now a private residence on roughly eight acres.