# Atsion Mansion

Atsion Mansion is a country estate in the community of Atsion in Shamong Township, New Jersey. The estate is one of the finest examples of Vernacular Greek Revival architecture in the state of New Jersey.
The home was built by Samuel Richards, a wealthy and influential ironmaster from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as a summer country estate for his family. Richards's main residence was located on Arch Street in Philadelphia.
The mansion is currently under the management of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in Wharton State Forest.

## History

An iron forge at Atsion was established in 1766 by Charles Read, a businessman in the Province of New Jersey prior to the American Revolutionary War. Read was engaged in an ambitious project to establish a network of ironworks in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, but became financially overextended. He sold a minority interest in Atsion to David Ogden Jr. and Lawrence Saltar in 1768. Read sold out his remaining interests in 1773 to Abel James and Henry Drinker, while Ogden sold his shares to Saltar, who would operate the forge in partnership with James and Drinker. The three partners, all Quaker merchants, constructed a iron furnace in 1774 to make pig iron to the forge, which until then had been supplied by Batsto furnace. The ironworks and surrounding village were sold to Jacob Downing, Drinker's son-in-law, in 1804, but the business declined after 1815, and the ironworks was abandoned by 1823, when it became the property of Samuel Richards.
Richards repaired and reopened the ironworks in 1824. Around this time, the mansion had begun the process of construction in the footprint of an older home built by the Quakers. By December 1824 the mansion was complete enough for Richards to host, what contemporary sources called, "a grand housewarming." The end of construction was completed in 1826, evidenced by the year on four cast iron downspouts on the exterior of the mansion.
Richards died on January 4, 1842, in Philadelphia. Iron production at Atsion ceased around the time of Richards's death. The family would continue to use the mansion until 1855, when members of the immediate family moved to Brussels, Belgium.
The property was passed down through differing owners, with Joseph Wharton purchasing the lands at Atsion in 1892, as a part of his 96,000 acre holdings in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, and converted the mansion into a storage facility for cranberry and peanut harvesting. Following Wharton's death in 1909, the mansion sat vacant until 1955 when the State of New Jersey purchased the Wharton Tract and established Wharton State Forest in 1956.
The mansion underwent a 1962 restoration campaign by G. Edwin Brumbaugh, son of former Pennsylvania governor Martin Grove Brumbaugh. The 1962 campaign restored the exterior facades and porches to the original 1826 configuration. Interior stabilization was undertaken during this campaign.
A full restoration of the mansion was undertaken from 2008 to 2009 with an estimated price of $1.2 million, which included further restoration to the exterior, a full interior restoration, and the addition of the western porch which had been removed during the Brumbaugh restoration campaign.

## Exterior

The exterior of the mansion features a patterned stucco scoring over an ironstone core, intended to replicate marble blocks. The exterior also includes a L-shaped verandah porch supported by thirteen makeshift doric columns. The columns are cast-iron waterpipes that were created at the Weymouth Iron Works in Weymouth Township, New Jersey, another iron furnace operated by Richards.
The mansion features a five-bay window orientation on the basement, first and second floor levels. The fourth floor consists of 3 lunette windows in the gable section of the exterior. Four chimneys rise from the home, the smoke escape for nine fireplaces locate inside of the home.

## Interior

The interior of the mansion is divided into 20 rooms on four levels.
The basement contains a kitchen with various storage rooms for food, luggage, and supplies.
The first floor contains a double parlor, which extends the full length of the home. A dining room and secondary kitchen are also located on this floor.
The second floor contains 6 bedrooms, all used by members of the family or their guests.
The third floor contains 4 bedrooms used by the servant staff. It is estimated that between 16 and 20 domestic household servants resided in the home along with the family.