Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion

"Fun with the Family"

Rumor has it that the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion is the model for the Addams Family house, as depicted by Philadelphia’s own Charles Addams. It is unclear how much cartoonist Charles Addams was influenced by the Victorian buildings he saw, but it is known that he was familiar with both College Hall (on the Penn campus) and the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion, and both may have shaped the architecture of the Addams Family house. This eighteen-room Victorian mansion in the Chestnut Hill section was built in 1859. Young children will love the children’s bedroom, filled with games and toys of the period. The gadgets are also wonderful, including an apple corer and a sausage stuffer. The gardens include a grape arbor and a small lake. At Christmas there’s a Dickensian Christmas celebration and in fall a ghost walk.