Your walk brings you to 1048 Washington Street, home to the 18-room Emlen Physick Estate that architect Frank Furness raised in 1879. Picture the 18-room mansion as it first rose in 1879, designed by American architect Frank Furness for Dr. Emlen Physick Jr., his widowed mother Mrs. Ralston, and maiden Aunt Emilie. This is Furness’s bold Stick style made visible: gigantic upside-down corbelled chimneys punctuate the roofline, hooded "jerkin-head" dormers cut dramatic silhouettes, and huge stick-like brackets support the porch with muscular grace.
Many of the original furnishings remain on display inside, so the rooms still whisper the rhythms of family life from long ago. In 1970, the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities formed to save the estate from demolition; the city purchased the property, and MAC leases, restored, maintains, and operates it as a Victorian historic house museum that offers guided tours year-round. Picture Furness's oversized details and the family life that once filled these rooms, then notice the Carriage House across the four-acre grounds, a companion piece built to match the mansion.