The Joseph Priestley House was the American home of eighteenth-century British theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher (and co-discoverer of oxygen), educator, and political theorist Joseph Priestley from 1798 until his death. Located in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, United States, the house, which was designed by Priestley's wife Mary, is Georgian with Federalist accents. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) operated it as a museum dedicated to Joseph Priestley from 1970 to August 2009, when it closed due to low visitation and budget cuts. The house reopened in October 2009, still owned by the PHMC but operated by the Friends of Joseph Priestley House (FJPH).
Fleeing religious persecution and political turmoil in Britain, the Priestleys emigrated to the United States in 1794 seeking a peaceful life. Hoping to avoid the political troubles that had plagued them in Britain and the problems of urban life they saw in the United States, the Priestleys built a house in rural Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, political disputes and family troubles dogged Priestley during the last ten years of his life.
After the Priestleys died, their home remained in private hands until the turn of the twentieth century, when George Gilbert Pond, a professor from what is now Pennsylvania State University, bought it and attempted to found the first Priestley museum. He died before he could complete the project and it was not until the 1960s that the house was first carefully restored by the PHMC and designated a National Historic Landmark.
A second renovation was undertaken in the 1990s to return the home to the way it looked during Priestley's time. The home has been a frequent place of celebration for the American Chemical Society; they commemorated the centennial and bicentennial of the discovery of oxygen gas by Priestley as well as the 250th anniversary of Priestley's birth.
Location
Following the French and Indian War (1755–1763) and the forced migration of Native American tribes westward, German, Scots-Irish, and other European immigrants settled in the central Susquehanna Valley, including in the area that would become Northumberland, Pennsylvania.Hirsch, 25; Bell, 517–18. Northumberland was laid out around a central village green in 1772, on land originally purchased from the Iroquois by the Province of Pennsylvania in 1768, as part of the first Treaty of Fort Stanwix.Schofield, 346–347; Kieft, 7.
During the American Revolution, the village was evacuated as part of the Big Runaway in 1778, and only finally resettled in 1784.McMinn, "[ National Register of Historic Places Registration: Northumberland Historic District]" (PDF). In 1794, when the Priestleys moved there, it included Quaker and Wesleyan meeting houses, a brewery, two potteries, a potash manufacturer, a clock maker, a printer (who issued a weekly newspaper), several stores, and approximately one hundred houses.
The Priestley property, which was purchased in 1794 at a total cost of £500 (£ in ) from Reuben Haines, who had secured the patent to the land for Northumberland,Schofield, 347; Richardson, "Current Interpretation", 21. comprised four lots of the original village plan (numbers 29–32). Currently, the house and grounds occupy 1 acre (4,000 m2) at 472 Priestley Avenue. (The address of the house was originally "North Way", but the street was later renamed in honor of Joseph Priestley.Bell, 515–545.) This street forms the northwest boundary of the property; the other boundaries are Hanover Avenue to the northeast, Wallis Street to the southwest, and the North Shore Railroad to the southeast.
A baseball field is located beyond the railroad line; beyond that lies the Susquehanna River, which was the original southeastern boundary of the property. The confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River with the main (or North) branch of the Susquehanna is a short distance southwest of the property, which is at an elevation of 456 feet (139 m).
The property's original area was 2 acres (8,000 m2),Glazer, "Scientist Discovered Oxygen". but this was reduced by about half around 1830 when the Pennsylvania Canal (North Branch Division) was dug through the house's front yard, between the house and river. On May 31, 1860, the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad opened with a train from Danville. This was the second railroad track in Northumberland, and ran behind the house.Kieft, 11; Bell, 531.
The canal closed in 1902 and was later filled in. The modern railroad line approximates the canal's course through the front yard; the track behind the house no longer exists.
Priestleys in America
Emigration to Northumberland
The last three years the Priestleys spent in Britain were a time of political upheaval. During the Birmingham Riots of 1791, which began on the second anniversary of the storming of the Bastille in the wake of the conservative British reaction against the French Revolution, the Priestleys' home, Joseph's church, and the homes of many other religious Dissenters were burned. The Priestleys fled Birmingham and attempted to live in London, but could not escape the political turmoil.Schofield, 317–321.
In 1794, they joined the tide of 10,000 emigrants who moved to America during the largest emigration from Europe to America until the end of the Napoleonic Wars.Hirsch, 25; Graham, 1. The Priestleys left Britain at the beginning of April on the Samson,The ship's name was the Samson according to Kieft (7), but Schofield (324) has it as the Sansom. and arrived in New York City on June 4, 1794.Schofield, 324.
Two of their three sons, Joseph, Jr. (eldest) and Harry (youngest), had already emigrated to the United States in August 1793, along with Joseph Priestley's friend, the radical activist Thomas Cooper.Graham, 29. Their middle son, William, had moved to America from France, probably early in 1793, following the September massacres of the previous year.Rail, 158; Kieft, 6.
Although Europeans knew Priestley best as a scientist (he had published his paper on the discovery oxygen gas in 1774), Americans knew him best as a defender of religious freedom and as an advocate for American independence.Schofield, 326. Immediately upon his arrival, he was fêted by various political factions vying to gain his support. Priestley declined their entreaties, however, hoping to avoid the political discord that had embroiled him in Britain. He wrote to John Adams that he "made it a rule to take no part whatever in the politics of a country in which I am a stranger, and in which I only wish to live undisturbed".Qtd. in Graham, 39. (Priestley never became a citizen of the United States.Richardson, "Current Interpretation", 22) He also turned down an opportunity to teach chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania at this time.Schofield, 324–32; Graham, 39–40, 48–50, 64.
On their way to Northumberland, the Priestleys stopped in Philadelphia, where Joseph delivered a series of sermons that helped promote the spread of Unitarianism. According to J. D. Bowers, who studied Priestley's influence on Unitarianism in America, "[f]or a decade Priestley served as the inspiration and leading force in the spread of Unitarianism in America and the formation of numerous societies that followed his teachings on congregational formation, the education of youth, lay preaching, and espousing one's faith in the presence of opposition from (and to) both the Protestant majority and a competing liberal faction."Bowers, 2. Through Priestley's influence, at least twelve congregations were founded in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky, including the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia and Northumberland's Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Susquehanna Valley.Bowers, 3.Priestley Chapel History: The Beginning
When he preached, Unitarians and non-Unitarians flocked to hear him and his sermons were published throughout the country. During his years in America, Priestley became increasingly convinced that the Millennium was approaching. His close study of the Bible, together with the happenings in France, persuaded him that he would see Christ's return.Garrett, "Priestley's Religion", 12.
While Priestley enjoyed preaching in Philadelphia, he could not afford the expense of living there; he also disliked the city's Quakers, who he believed were too opulent, and feared the yellow fever epidemic that had recently decimated the city.Richardson, "Joseph Priestley's American Home", 62, 67.
He considered settling in Germantown, which had better access to transportation and communication than Northumberland, but his wife preferred the country and wanted to be near her sons. Priestly then debated about splitting his time between Northumberland and Philadelphia, but soon realized this plan was impractical. Determined to ensure the future economic stability of his family, he bought land and settled in Northumberland by July 1794, which was "five days of rough travel" north of Philadelphia.Kieft, 7. They both hoped that, in time, their new community would grow.Schofield, 346; Graham, 60–61; Richardson, "Joseph Priestley's American Home", 62.
Settling in Priestley yearned for a more cosmopolitan community than Northumberland provided, writing to his sister that it was "seemingly almost out of the world" and complaining that he had to wait a week for news. He wrote to his friend John Vaughan: "We know but little more than we did when we left you of European affairs."Qtd. in Graham, 61; see also 64–65.
During the winter of 1794–1795, Priestley wrote to friends that his situation was very "distant from my original views" and "my time here is far from passing so agreeably as it did in England", yet he was "very thankful for such an asylum" and he attempted "to make the best of my situation".Qtd. in Graham, 68; see also 71, 76. In his letters to friends back in Britain, Priestley consistently referred to himself as an exile and to England as his real home.Graham, 80.
His wife was happier with the couple's situation and wrote to William Vaughan: "I am happy and thankful to meet with so sweet a situation and so peaceful a retreat as the place I now write from. Dr. Priestley also likes it and of his own choice intends to settle here, which is more than I hoped for at the time we came up...This country is very delightful, the prospects of wood and water more beautiful than I have ever seen before and the people plain and decent in their manners."Qtd. in Kieft, 7.
Priestley's son, Joseph Priestley Jr., was a leading member of a consortium that purchased of land along Loyalsock Creek (between the North and West Branches of the Susquehanna River).Park, 14–24, 52–57. Shortly thereafter, Thomas Cooper, a friend of Joseph Priestley's, published a pamphlet in Britain titled Some Information Respecting America, meant to encourage others to settle in Pennsylvania and offering instructions on how to do so. It detailed a clear plan for establishing and financing a settlement. The French translation, Renseignemens sur l'Amérique,Cooper was, according to one scholar, "carefully phrased in legal terminology" and "lucidly outline[d] an ambitious financial venture".Kelly, 219. However, it is unclear whether Cooper's scheme was related to the lands that the younger Priestleys had purchased.