Due to the success of the archaeological excavation, supporters began to seriously consider the reconstruction of the Manor House and outbuildings. Historian Albert Cook Myers was selected to do the needed historical research to supplement what the archaeological evidence was revealing.

A Historian’s Perspective

Albert Cook Myers was no stranger to William Penn when he began his research on Pennsbury. On the contrary, he had written several respected books on Penn. Myers helped with research for the reconstruction project for several years. But his objections to the project’s cavalier attitude to historical sources when designing the buildings caused him to withdraw his support. Myers claimed that Okie ignored historical evidence that would have made the reconstruction much more accurate:

“It is my…opinion, drawn from a lifetime of William Penn research that the Pennsbury reconstruction is a colossal archaeological, historical and arhitectural monstrosity of vicious error.”

(Albert Myers, May 1943)