Back in the Day…

Robert Smith was the Colonies’ foremost master builder/architect.

By Jim Murphy

If you walk by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission sign on 2nd Street below South Street, you instantly realize Robert Smith was an important figure in Philadelphia.

But you have no idea how much he really contributed to our city and country.

Sure, he worked on Ben Franklin’s house and helped secure the dance floor at the Powel House, where George Washington frequently danced. Plus, his plans were used to create the prestigious Carpenters’ Hall.

In addition, he built St. Peter’s Church, the original Old Pine Street Church, the famous steeple on Christ Church, and the Walnut Street Prison and may have worked on the eastern wing of Pennsylvania Hospital, too.

But he also made major contributions to the war effort against the British. And that work may well have shortened his life.

The war situation in Philly

In September 1777, the British occupied Philadelphia. But they couldn’t get their supplies to their troops.

The reason: Robert Smith helped design and build 65 chevaux-de-frise placed in the Delaware River between Fort Mifflin and Fort Mercer. These giant wooden platforms 40 x 60 feet in size with wooden spikes were built to impale ships. Thirty tons of stone held each one in place. And only 10 river pilots knew where they were located.

Unable to pass the forts safely because of the chevaux-de-frise, 250 British ships were bottled up in the Delaware River for six weeks.

Interesting Oddities:

• Relief came in November 1777, when a fleet of British warships with 228 cannons attacked and destroyed Fort Mifflin … enabling the supply ships and their cargo to reach Philadelphia. But the six days of horrific fighting at the fort gave George Washington and his troops just enough time to get to Valley Forge and live for another day. So the chevaux-de-frise did their job.

• Evidently unearthed by Hurricane Sandy, a part of one of these devices, a singular cheval-de-frise, was discovered at Bristol, Bucks County, on November 10, 2012. That was 235 years to the day that the British began their six-day assault on Fort Mifflin. The piece, 29 feet long with an iron spike at one end, was found in 28 feet of water about 150 yards from shore. This ship-impaler piece is now on display at Brandywine Battlefield, says This Week in Pennsylvania Archaeology.

• Robert Smith’s work along the river in frigid conditions may have led to his early death at age 55. While rushing to complete the building of barracks at Ft. Billingspsort (now Paulsboro, New Jersey), he became ill. Smith died two months later without ever seeing the fruits of his military labors. ■