When Cope was 35, his father died, leaving him a quarter of a million dollars. The next year, 1876, Cope moved his wife and daughter from their house by the apple orchard in Haddonfield, New Jersey back to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – this time to a row house in the City. He bought two units and used the one next door as a paleo-lab for his fossil collection. He stopped doing field work to catch up on his writing. He hired teams to look for fossils for him. And, he helped the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition set up their fossil displays. In 1877 he was able to buy half of the "American Naturalist."