by We went to Cape May for their holiday house tours, and squeezed in a tour of the Emlen Physick Estate while we were there. The 18-room mansion was designed by renowned architect Frank Furness in 1879 for Dr. Emlen Physick Jr. (1855–1916).
Furness’s firm employed Louis Sullivan as a draftsman for a time, and Sullivan’s later use of organic decorative motifs can be traced in part to Furness. Sullivan would go on to be known as the “father of skyscrapers” and “father of modernism” due to his work in Chicago and other midwest cities in the early 1900s, and would also become a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright.
Though Dr. Physick completed his medical training, he never practiced. Instead he lived the life of a country gentleman, raising dogs and operating two farms north of Cape May. He lived in the home with his mother and aunt.
The home is one of the best examples of Victorian Stick Style architecture in the country. “Its exterior is distinguished by Furness’s trademark oversized features, including gigantic upside-down corbelled chimneys, hooded ‘jerkin-head’ dormers, and the huge stick-like brackets on the porch.”
Following Dr. Physick’s death, the home passed through several owners, and eventually fell into disrepair. In 1970 the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC) was formed to save the home from demolition.
