The origins of a beleaguered public park

There has been much media attention to the appalling narcotics addict situation in Philadelphia’s McPherson Square and its library. The story has gone nationwide.

Most readers of this newspaper probably have never been to McPherson Square. It interests me because I love Philadelphia history, and because I grewup about 10 blocks north of there.

The site of McPherson Square has a long history. Actually, I have found two interesting histories for it. You can take your pick. (That’s what historians often do, but don’t tell them I said so.)

Some sources say that a fellow named Joran Kyn arrived on the Delaware River in 1643, a year before William Penn was born. He was a Swedish soldier, who came here with Gov. Johan Printz in the dayswhen the Swedes were running things. Kyn later founded Upland, which became Chester.

Printz gave Kyn about 200 acres of land out in the wilderness, around a low hill in the fork of two streams. When the English took over, Joran Kyn changed his name to George Keen. His great-great-greatgranddaughter, Margaret Stout, in 1782marriedWilliamMcPherson, and they built a mansion on that property owned by Mary Keen, her mother. They called it Stouton.

Or, youmay like this story better. A Swede named Peter Laicon settled on that land, called Poor Island, in 1681, just before William Penn took over the area. Laicon’s two daughters both married Keens, and one of their granddaughters was the Margaret Stout who married William McPherson.

There’s no doubt thatWilliam McPherson was one of two sons of Capt. JohnMacPherson (spellings vary), who built the Mount Pleasant mansion on the Schuylkill, still standing in Fairmount Park. Capt. John got rich as a privateer, seizing French ships. He was a writer, inventor (with a patent on a “bugproof bed”) and compiler of the first Philadelphia street directory, among many varied achievements.

When the Revolution erupted, his son, John, joined the American army and was killed in the attack on Quebec in 1775. His other son, William, was a British army officer, who then tried to resign. He waswounded at the Battle of Monmouth before he finally was released and joined the American side.

William and Margaret built Stouton mansion in 1782, where the library now stands. Margaret died there on Christmas Day 1797. In 1803, William married Elizabeth White, widowed daughter of William White, of Philadelphia, America’s first Episcopal bishop.

William died in 1813. The land surrounding the mansion was sold off gradually through the years, and the family moved away. The last occupants of the house and surrounding buildings were the Webster family, who had operated the farm on McPherson land since 1806. John H. Webster became prominent in the community; a school is named for him.

In 1893, a granddaughter of William McPherson sold the mansion and its existing grounds to the city for $74,546. The public park opened in 1895, and the mansion opened as a library in 1898, with 4,000 books.

The oldmansion was demolished in 1915 and replaced in 1917 by a newlibrary funded by millionaire Andrew Carnegie, who was financing libraries all over the world.

When Joe Clark was mayor, it was still a respectable public square. By the time Bill Green IIIwas mayor, Hollywood filmed a lurid and disturbing movie called “Fighting Back” in Philly, about brutal vigilantes attacking neighborhood thugs; it depicted addicts inMcPherson Square. How would we explain that to Joran Kyn?