Asa Packer Mansion

The Asa Packer Mansion, in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, was the home of Asa Packer (1805 - 1879), coal and railroad magnate and founder of Lehigh University. It is one of the best preserved Italianate Villa homes in the United States. Packer commissioned it to be built in what was then the Borough of Mauch Chunk. It was completed in 1861. The architect was Samuel Sloan of Philadelphia who also designed the Southern Mansion Hotel in Cape May, New Jersey and Longwood (Haller Nutt mansion) in Natchez, Mississippi. Upon the death of Mary Packer Cummings, Mr. Packer's daughter, the home was willed to the Borough of Mauch Chunk to remain as a memorial to her father and his many accomplishments. The borough, not certain what to do with the home,...