Historic Quaker Houses of Philadelphia
 
Gone but not Forgotten:
The Shippen House
The Home of Edward Shippen and Family
South Second Street near Pine
Built ca. 1695

 Philadelphia Mayor Edward Shippen
One of the most Prominent Quakers of his Era:

  Edward Shippen (1639–1712) was the first elected mayor of Philadelphia. Born in West Yorkshire, England, he immigrated to Boston, where he was a successful merchant. As a Quaker, however, he faced harsh persecution from the Boston Puritans for his religious beliefs. He was severely persecuted there, including being whipped and imprisoned.
William Penn invited Shippen to move his merchant business from Boston to Philadelphia. Shippen became one of the wealthiest and most influential citizens in Pennsylvania. William Penn appointed him mayor in 1701. The following year, Shippen was elected to a second term, making him Philadelphia’s first mayor chosen by vote. He also served as chief justice of Pennsylvania’s supreme court. He was president of the Provincial Council from 1703 to 1704, making him the colony’s chief executive.

Edward Shippen - a Steadfast Quaker
But he was Neither Plain nor Simple:
"the biggest person, the biggest house, the biggest coach"

 The Shippen House Described in Annals of Philadelphia (1884)
A Princely Place, not Quaker Plain :

  This venerable edifice long bore the name of ‘the Governor's House.’ It was built in the early rise of the city — received then the name of ‘Shippey's Great House,’ while Shippen himself was proverbially distinguished for three great things — the biggest person, the biggest house, and the biggest coach.
It was for many years after its construction beautifully situated, and surrounded with rural beauty, being originally on a small eminence, with a row of tall yellow pines in its rear, a full orchard of best fruit trees close by, overlooking the rising city beyond the Dock creek, and having on its front view a beautiful green lawn, gently sloping to the then pleasant Dock Creek and drawbridge, and the whole prospect unobstructed to the Delaware and the Jersey shore.
It was indeed a princely place for that day, and caused the honest heart of Gabriel Thomas to overflow at its recollection, as he spoke of it in the year 1698, saying of it, that ‘Edward Shippey, who lives near the capital city, has an orchard and gardens adjoining to his great house that equals any I have ever seen, being a very famous and pleasant summer house, erected in the middle of his garden, and abounding with tulips, carnations, roses, lilies, &c., with many wild plants of the country besides. Quote: Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania…, John F. Watson, 1884, Internet Archive.

  Above: (Left to right) 1. The Muhlenberg House at Trappe (Built ca. 1750) 2. Peter Wentz Farmstead at Lansdale (Built in 1758) 3. The Harriton House at Bryn Mawr (Built in 1704) 4. Bellaire Manor / Preston House at Philadelphia (Built ca. 1715) 5. Grumblethorpe / Wister House in Germantown (Built in 1744)
Other colonial houses in the Delaware Valley with balustraded second-story balconies include the Worrell House in Edgmont Township (Built in 1683), and the Taylor House in East Bradford Township (Built in 1724).
These balconies appear on a wide range of colonial Pennsylvania house types including Philadelphia townhouses, Quaker country houses, and Pennsylvania German farmhouses. They appear on Germanic houses and on Anglo houses. Colonial Pennsylvania was an international melting pot.

 Rebeckah Shippen
Trying to keep Her Husband more Humble:

Rebeckah Shippen Says,
“No Fancy Fringed Valances in Quaker Houses”:

Edward Shippen was a Quaker, but he was neither plain nor pious. He did not believe that it’s a gift to be simple. Shippen was not particularly active in the Quaker establishment, although he attended monthly meetings and was in good standing with the Friends. His house was too grand and his coach was too fancy to pass as Philadelphia Plain. He was a Quaker grandee.
Rebeckah Shippen, his wife, was much more interested in Quaker testimonies than her husband was. In 1698 she attended a Women’s Yearly Meeting in Burlington, West Jersey. There she signed an epistle which supported the Quaker traditions of plain clothing, plain speech, and plain furniture. The epistle instructed that Quaker mothers should clothe their families in “plain apparel and not suffering them to wear any striped or gaudy flowered stuffs or silk.” The epistle also discouraged ruffles, long scarves, highly dressed hairstyles, and fringed valances. (Epistle from Yearly Meeting held at Burlington West Jersey, the 21st of the 7th month, 1698.)
Meanwhile, during this same decade of the 1690s, her husband built their distinctly un-plain “Great House / Governor’s House” on Second Street (illustrated on this page). Rebeckah Shippen valued simplicity for their home, while her husband preferred grandiosity. Apparently, simplicity lost the debate in the Shippen household.

Edward Shippen before Living in Philadelphia:
He was Whipped in Boston by the Puritans
for Being a Quaker:

Puritans Killing Quakers in Boston in the 1600s: