Sitting atop a gentle knoll overlooking the Ohio River in what is now Freedom, Pennsylvania, sits the stately old mansion built by Captain William Vicary. Long a source of wonder, its unusual construction and elegant style speak of the wealth and status of its former owners.
Captain Vicary, a retired Philadelphia merchant sea captain and land speculator, moved with his family to his land near Big Sewickley Creek. Looking for land deals, Vicary most likely scouted this area of Beaver County in which to construct his family home. Finding the correct spot, Vicary purchased 604 acres of land, lots #33, 34 & 35, from Mark Wilcox on February 18, 1826 on which to situate his mansion. [1] Within a few months following the purchase, Vicary hired John Moore to do the actual construction. The original contract called for Moore to erect a stone dwelling measuring fifty two feet long by thirty eight feet wide along with a stone smokehouse, necessary, and spring house to be finished in December of 1826 for the sum of $2,450. He was also to construct a barn for an additional $650.
On the first of April, 1826, Vicary made several additions and changes to the original contract where he asked for the walls of the mansion to be made of cut stone with parapet walls; that the walls should be coped with cut stone; that there should be an ash house and oven of cut stone with partitions in the kitchen along with other revisions to both the house and barn. All of the buildings were to be completed by April 1st of 1827, and were to eventually cost an additional $1,435.
The mansion was not completed until November of 1829 because Vicary, unsatisfied with Moore ’s lack of progress and quality of work, took possession and paid his own people to complete the contract. This led to a dispute as to final payment between Vicary and the builder that resulted in a Pennsylvania Supreme Court case (Vicary vs. Moore Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Western District). Although Vicary eventually won, the case dragged on several years following his death. It is from this case that we find many of the details of the above contract.
Consisting of twenty rooms, the final product boasted eight main rooms each eighteen feet square with red oak floors supported on hand hewn beams. The inside walls were brick finished with plaster, and the main entrance door was made of solid oak two inches thick and supported by heavy iron strap hinges. The outside walls were of two foot thick cut sandstone blocks that were “faced” or smoothed.
Vicary lived here until his death in 1842, and Mary, his wife, continued living in the mansion with her children until her death in 1853. Upon their passing, the mansion was inherited by their only living child, Hannah and her future husband, Dr. T. F. Robinson. As with all new occupants, changes to suit their tastes and needs are inevitable and the Robinsons were no exception. One major addition made by the Robinsons was the creation of a stone mausoleum built for their daughter Leonora who died at the age of four years. The mausoleum was described in an article written in the Pittsburgh Sunday Dispatch in 1899 by Laura Withrow as follows: