1801 Walnut St./
134–50 S. 18th St. (OP)
Fell-Van Renssalaer
Mansion
1896–98, Peabody &
Stearns
Sarah Drexel Fell, whose family once owned several elegant houses on Rittenhouse Square, built this house for her future husband, Alexander Van Rensselaer of New York. Peabody and Stearns, a Boston architectural firm whose clients were the social elite of Boston, Newport and Philadelphia, created a masterpiece of the Beaux Arts style, which draws primarily from classical models and their Renaissance and Baroque descendants. Here, the paired columns and ornamental sculpture, the strict symmetry of the main facade with its curved bays, and the white Indiana limestone facing reinforce the aura of French Neo-classicism. Inside, the ceiling of the onetime “Doges’ Room” on the second floor is covered with medallion portraits of the popes.