James Harper | |
|---|---|
 James Harper around 1870, portrait photograph byFrederick Gutekunst. | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromPennsylvania's2nd district | |
| In office March 4, 1833 – March 3, 1837 | |
| Preceded by | Henry Horn |
| Succeeded by | See below |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1780-03-28)March 28, 1780 |
| Died | March 31, 1873(1873-03-31) (aged 93) Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Resting place | Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Party | Anti-Jacksonian |
James Harper (March 28, 1780 – March 31, 1873) was an Irish-American politician who served as aNational Republican member of theU.S. House of Representatives forPennsylvania's 2nd congressional district from 1833 to 1837.
He owned a brick manufacturing business, a wholesale grocery trade and developed the Philadelphia neighborhood now known asRittenhouse Square.
Harper was born on March 28, 1780, inCastlederg,County Tyrone inIreland. As a youth, he immigrated to theUnited States with his parents, and settled inPhiladelphia.[1]
Harper rose to prominence in commerce through the manufacture ofbrick and, from 1820 to 1830, in the wholesale grocery trade.
He was aFreemason, and was elected to the position ofGrand Master ofPennsylvania in 1824.[2] As Grand Master, he hosted fellow mason theMarquis de Lafayette during de Lafayette'svisit to the United States in 1825.[3]
In 1832, Harper was elected to theUnited States Congress as aNational Republican (Anti-Jacksonian), and representedPennsylvania's 2nd congressional district in theTwenty-third andTwenty-fourth Congresses. Letters he sent from Washington, D.C., some of which have been preserved by theHistorical Society of Pennsylvania, reflect a disgust with what Harper saw as an endemic of corruption byAndrew Jackson andhis administration.
In Congress, he allied himself withHenry Clay, and followed Clay in commissioning his portrait from the Philadelphia painterJohn Neagle.[4]
Harper chose not to stand for reelection in1836.
Following his retirement from Congress, Harper continued in the manufacture of brick, and branched out into real estate speculation and urban development. He bought the north side ofPhiladelphia's then undevelopedRittenhouse Square and built a fine house for himself at 1811Walnut Street around 1840. His mansion set a patrician residential tone for the square and he sold off the remaining lots at profit. The front part of his house, sold after his death to the Social Art Club, an exclusive men's club that renamed itself theRittenhouse Club,[5] still stands behind the 1901 façade that the club added.[6]
In Philadelphia, Harper was a member of the Board of Guardians of the Poor and of the Board of Prison Inspectors.[1] A patron of science, Harper was one of the founders of theFranklin Institute in 1824,[7] and a delegate tothe Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, often called theCrystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1851.
Harper was a pewholder atSt. Stephen's Episcopal Church.[3] He married Charlotte Sloan Alford, a member of an establishedPennsylvaniaQuaker family.
Harper died inPhiladelphia on March 31, 1873, and was interred inLaurel Hill Cemetery.[1]
The Harper, a 24-story luxury apartment[8] andHarper's Garden, a bar and restaurant, both in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood of Philadelphia, were named in his honor.[9]
Of his ten children, eight survived to adulthood and several of those entered public life:Alexander J. Harper was President of the Philadelphia City Council, Benjamin West Harper (named after Charlotte Harper's relativeBenjamin West) was a businessman and lieutenant colonel in the Pennsylvania National Guard, and Thomas Scott Harper was a physician and president of the Medical Board of Philadelphia.[10]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromPennsylvania's 2nd congressional district 1833–1837 1833-1835 alongside:Horace Binney 1835-1837 alongsideJoseph R. Ingersoll | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
