French Azilum
French Azilum, located in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, was a planned settlement for refugees fleeing the French Revolution. Several influential Philadelphians, including Stephen Girard, Robert Morris and John Nicholson, Pennsylvania's comptroller general, were sympathetic to the exiles, and also saw a chance to profit financially. In 1793 they aided in the purchase of 1,600 acres (6 km2) of land in northeastern Pennsylvania, which was then wilderness. An area of 300 acres (1.2 km2) was laid out as a town plot including a 2-acre (8,100 m2) market square, a grid of broad streets and 413 lots, approximately one-half acre each. About 30 log houses were built. A small number of exiles arrived that fall. Some were royalists, loyal to Louis XVI and thus fleeing imprisonment and possible death during the French Revolution. Others came from the French colony of Santo Domingo (Haiti) where there were slave uprisings inspired by the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of the French Assembly. According to legend, Marie Antoinette (then Queen of France) and her two children were to settle here.
Soon several small shops, a schoolhouse, a chapel and a theater appeared in the market square. A gristmill, blacksmith shop and a distillery were built, cattle and sheep were kept, and fruit trees and gardens were planted.
The largest building in the colony was "La Grande Maison", a two-story log structure 84 feet (26 m) long and 60 feet (18 m) wide. It is rumored, but not proven, that it was to be for the Queen. Major social gatherings were held there, and both Talleyrand and Louis Phillipe (who later became King of France) were entertained here.
This quasi-aristocratic French court did not last. In the late 1790s, after Morris and Nicholson went into bankruptcy and money from French sources dried up, many of the exiles moved to southern cities including Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans. Some returned to Santo Domingo, and after Napoleon made it possible for exiles to return to France, many did. The LaPortes, Homets, LeFevres, Brevosts and D'Autremonts remained in Pennsylvania and settled in local communities. By 1803 French Azilum passed into history.
None of the more than fifty structures of French Azilum remain. The house and garden plots were absorbed into larger tracts of farmland.
The LaPorte House, built in 1836 by the son of one of the founders of the colony, includes delicately painted ceilings and interior decor which reflect the French influence, and acts as a house museum. An original foundation has been left exposed for public viewing and a reconstructed, relocated log cabin, circa 1790, also serves as a small museum. Guided tours of the LaPorte house are available seasonally, as well as a self-guided tour of over 20 acres (81,000 m2) of the original settlement, including several outbuildings of the LaPorte Farm.
French Azilum is managed by French Azilum, Inc., a non-profit corporation founded in 1954, and is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Adapted from Historic PA Leaflet No. 11
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Coordinates: 41°44′10″N 76°19′05″W / 41.736°N 76.318°W