The Brodhead Mansion
At 80 Broadway stands one of the older surviving homes in historic Mauch Chunk. Known today as the Brodhead Mansion, the original portion of the brick house dates to about 1827, when Mauch Chunk was still a young community developing around the rapidly expanding anthracite coal industry.
Before it became associated with the Brodhead family, the house belonged to the Lockhart family. One of the children who grew up here was Mary Lockhart, whose marriage would connect this house to one of the most powerful families in Mauch Chunk. She married Harry Packer, the son of railroad and industrial magnate Asa Packer.
The house later became the home of Albert Gallatin Brodhead, a prominent figure in nineteenth-century Pennsylvania. Brodhead served in the Pennsylvania State Senate, became Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1869, served as a Carbon County judge, and was involved with the region’s railroads, including service as superintendent of the Beaver Meadow Railroad.
Brodhead substantially enlarged the house in 1871, adding an annex that transformed the earlier residence into an eight-bedroom home. Inside were the features expected in the home of a prosperous nineteenth-century family: high ceilings, hardwood floors, elaborate moldings, a formal parlor with a marble fireplace, built-in cabinetry and a grand black-walnut staircase. There was even a separate rear staircase for servants.
More than a century and a half later, the house still stands along Broadway, surrounded by many of the Victorian buildings that give Jim Thorpe its distinctive character.
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