The century-and-a-half-old Park House — also headquarters for the Conshohocken Historical Society and the Conshohocken Art League — was built for Conshohocken industrial magnate Alan Wood Jr. and his wife, Mary. According to the Historic Resource Survey compiled by Conshohocken Historical Society in 1989, the couple “occupied the house from their marriage in 1861 until 1876 when Wood was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served one term.”
“They continued to live in the house after his return to Conshohocken and the iron business and moved out only upon completion of their mansion ‘Woodmont’ in Gladwyne in the 1890s,” the document continues. “After her husband’s death in 1902, Mary Wood returned to the 128 E. Fifth Ave. house, where she lived until she died. In 1918, she bequeathed her house and the surrounding park to the Borough of Conshohocken.”
The one block-square tract — bordered by Harry and Hallowell streets and East Fifth and Sixth avenues — also contains Conshohocken’s Fellowship House recreation center and bucolic Mary Wood Park.
“Back in the day, some very important people of that period were guests at the house,” says local historian and author Jack Coll.
Among them was Hannibal Hamlin, United States vice president under President Abraham Lincoln during the latter’s first term in office.
“While serving in Washington, D.C., [Wood] met and became good friends with Hannibal Hamlin, who would later spend time at the Woods’ home in Conshohocken with Alan and his wife, Mary,” Coll notes in his “Remembering Conshohocken & West Conshohocken.” “Hamlin would occasionally spend the night as a guest of the Woods, marking the very first visit from a president or vice president, sitting or past, within the borough limits.”