The house stands on land granted by William Penn in 1684, and deeded to one of Germantown’s original Dutch Mennonite settlers. Hans George Benzelius (aka George Bensell) bought the land in 1727, and the Bensell family held it for over 70 years, erecting the first house structure in the 1790s.

James Matthews, a Philadelphia whipmaker, owned the house for just three years before transferring it in 1810 to Germantown Academy, the school property across the present School House Lane (now the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf).

Over the next 85 years, the ‘Mansion House’ served as the residence of the Academy’s principals. The house reverted to private use in 1895, deeded to a school trustee, and in 1909, the house as we know it (having been divided into two properties) was sold to Julia Lincoln, wife of Rev. George W. Lincoln.

The house was successively willed to the Lincolns’ daughter and granddaughter, both named Elisabeth Shellenberger.

The younger Elisabeth (Betty) was a star athlete who played on US teams from 1939 into the 1960s and was named to both the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and US Field Hockey Hall of Fame. She subsequently became an influential umpire, USA Field Hockey’s prestigious Shellenberger Award is named in her honor.

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