The Biddle's Andalusia Estate
Regarded as one of the finest Greek Revival Homes in America
John Craig (1754-1807), who established Andalusia in 1795, was the son of Scottish immigrants who had settled in Philadelphia. He grew wealthy by shipping goods overseas to and from the United States and throughout the Caribbean.
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In 1795, he and his wife, Margaret, purchased 99.5 acres of land along the Delaware River in Bucks County and Andalusia was completed in 1797. In 1806, John Craig hired Benjamin H. Latrobe to enlarge the house. Unfortunately, he died in 1807 before the changes were made, but Margaret oversaw the project’s completion.
In 1811, the Craigs’ only daughter, Jane, married Nicholas Biddle—then a lawyer, editor, and state legislator. When Margaret Craig died in 1814, Nicholas Biddle acquired the property from her executors.
Nicholas Biddle (1786-1844) expanded Andalusia to the property it is today. As one of the most prominent men in 19th-century America, he was noted for his leadership in finance and his skill at extending diplomatic goodwill on behalf of the nation. Between Andalusia and his Philadelphia townhouse, he entertained the likes of President John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Joseph Bonaparte, the exiled King of Spain. Biddle was not only the young country’s most powerful banker, but also a poet, the editor of the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, an authority on architecture, an experimental farmer, and the foremost political and financial adversary of President Andrew Jackson. During his lifetime, he acquired a spectacular library, now a treasure trove of antique books, preserved intact in their original environment.
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One of twelve children to state politician Charles Biddle and Hannah Shepard, Nicholas was a child prodigy who completed his studies at the University of Pennsylvania at age thirteen. Feeling that he needed more time to mature, his parents sent him to the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), where he graduated at age fifteen, sharing top honors and giving the valedictory speech at graduation. He studied law with his older brother William and with Judge William Lewis, and then through family connections, became secretary to General John Armstrong, Minister to France. Armstrong and Biddle arrived in Paris in 1804, in time to attend the coronation of Napoleon at Notre Dame Cathedral. During his time in Europe, Nicholas traveled to Italy and Greece, gaining a deep admiration for classical architecture that would later inform the design of renovations to Andalusia.
