The Origins of Morris Arboretum & The Mansion From Which It Bloomed | Hidden City Philadelphia

On the eve of the Great Depression a man and a woman got into a heated discussion in Philadelphia. No one was close enough to overhear, but from all indications they were arguing about a piece of property. The man, Fiske Kimball, was the impresario of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a zealous architectural historian. A lion-like force of nature, Kimball was eager to move the museum’s treasures into the new Parthenon-esque building on the Schuylkill River and acquire more objects for its vast spaces. It was the tail-end of the Roaring Twenties and he was prowling for pieces of history in places like Italy, France, Belgium, and Persia.