A Late Victorian Interior - 306 N. 35th St. c1900

     Edward P. and Euretta M. Alexander built 306 N. 35th St. in 1874. They were at the center of five generations of Powelton residents whose story was told in an earlier blog..

    The home was significantly altered in 1894 with a new facade and enlarged with a design by Addison Hutton. 

    Originally, the house was a classic Italianate.

   The 1894 renovation changed the facade and clad the whole house in Pompeian brick.

   Photos from about 1900 show the interior of this upper middle class home. (Photos courtesy of Julian Alexander, Jr.)

The Entry Parlor and Stairs, 306 N. 35th St., c1900

 

Entry Parlor (Rear View, Entry at Left) and Dining Room, 306 N. 35th St., c 1900

 

 

 

The 2nd Floor Rear Sitting Room, 306 N. 35th St., c1900

 

 

 

 

The 2nd Floor Rear Sitting Room, 306 N. 35th St.

 

1st Floor Front Parlor, 306 N. 35th St., c1900

 

 

1st Floor Front Parlor Overlooking 35th St., 306 N. 35th St., c1900

Through View of 1st Floor Main Rooms, 306 N. 35th st. c1900

 

Entrance to 306 N. 35th St., 2018

 

Tile Work in Entrance Hall, 306 N. 35th St., 2018

 

 

 

 

 

Putting Poweltonians on the Map

       Did you ever wonder who lived in your house in the decades before you? We generally know something about our immediate predecessors, but what about the first residents? Were the houses on your block generally owner-occupied in 1900? Did you ever wonder who these “Victorians” were? The Historic Preservation Committee of the Powelton Village Civic Association has been collecting information about the earliest residents of Powelton Village. Taken as a whole, this information provides a unique look at a Victorian neighborhood.
       The information we are finding is being added to the Interactive Map on PVCA’s website: http://poweltonvillage.org/interactivemap. The basic information comes from the censuses of 1860-1930 which give names and some social characteristics such as place of birth and occupation. This has been supplemented using city directories for the 1850 and ‘60s, 1887-1895, and 1950. Once we have names, we can start Googeling. (You can also Google addresses.) We have found an astonishing array of genealogies, biographies, news items, etc. that provide interesting insights into who these people were and how they were related. We have also started searching Philadelphia newspapers for the 19th and the 20th centuries on-line. With help from the University City Historical Society, we were able to collect information on about 1,000 dead transfers which are very helpful in a neighborhood where many houses were rentals.
       Without the interactive map, this would just be a disk full of data. The interactive map is based the 1927 Bromley Atlas. It shows almost all of the houses that were ever in the area. A mouse click on a house provides extensive information about the architecture, the owners, and previous residents. There are photos of most houses and we are adding photos of previous residents.
       The map is designed for “touring” the neighborhood. Each page has links to neighboring houses so you can tour a block. For example, starting at the Riebenack mansion (now Drexel University’s Ross Commons) at 34th and Powelton you can follow down 34th St. to see who lived where Drexel’s new Millennium Hall now stands. Other links help you follow individuals or families as they moved around the neighborhood. For example, take a tour of the homes of Kevin Bacon’s father and grandparents starting at 3603 Baring St. Interested in houses that aren’t there anymore? Try the houses where the Powel School stands (3501 and 3515 Powelton Ave. and 302 and 304 N. 35th St.). The large house that was at 207 N. 35th St. (now a parking lot) and the house at 3500 Powelton Ave. (now replaced by the Powelton Apartments) had fascinating histories and we have links to numerous photos. A red square marks 3316 Baring St. which once sat on the land now occupied by 3308-3310 Baring and 3315-3333 N. 34th. In addition, this blog is filled with links to individual addresses mentioned in the text.
       There are many surprises. For example,  George Washington Taylor was a leader in the anti-slavery movement who boycotted goods made with slave labor. Isaac Ray laid the medical and legal foundation for the “insanity defense.” Architect Frederick Thorne designed his home (205 N. 36th St.) in a Victorian style that reflects Japanese design. Some Poweltonians were members of the corrupt Republican machine that ran Philadelphia for decades (e.g., Richard Peltz) as well as Republican reform politicians (e.g., Erastus Poulson). There are many, many more.
       The map now has entries for about 450 houses with information from an average of more than three censuses each. The quantity and quality of the information available through the Interactive Map probably rivals (and may well exceed) what is available for any historical population of comparable size. There is much more to add and we are posting new information every week.
       A number of people have contributed to the map including: Keith Roeckle who set up and maintains the clickable map; Sabra Cameron who searched for additional information; and John Wheeler who collected and organized extensive information from deed transfer summaries. Scott Ryder has helped me with all aspects of the search for information. He has also helped immensely with all questions about architecture and we have coauthored many articles.

(Reproduced in part from the Powelton Post.)

Professor F. W. Hastings’ English and Classical Academy

    Part of Powelton’s history is the story of local institutions such as its churches and schools. During Powelton’s early decades, there were a number of “institutes,” “academies,” and “seminaries” that offered academic training to the children of upper middle class families. These included the Powelton Institute which was located in the Powel Mansion from 1858-1860 and T.J. Sanderson’s School for Boys at 35th and Spring Garden (1862-1866). One of the longest running schools was Mrs. Sutton’s Home School for Girls which was centered at 3511 Hamilton St., but which included 3507, 3509, and 3513 at various times. Much later, there was Friends’ West Philadelphia School at 35th and Lancaster (now the CEC).

The largest and, perhaps the most prestigious early school was run by Prof. Fulton W. Hastings. He was born in Ohio in 1825. In 1860, he and his wife were living in the home of Rev. John McCluskey (probably at 3512 Hamilton St.) who started the Mantua Female Seminary (which later moved to 3412 Baring St. for a few years).    By 1861, Hastings had established his own academy at the southwest corner of 34th and Powelton in a building that may have been built for the school. In 1864 it advertised “Instructions given in all branches of an English, scientific and classical course. A new addition has been made, during the vacation, to our former well ventilated rooms affording a rare opportunity for class study and healthful exercise in military drill.” It provided both day and boarding for young boys.

In 1867, the school expanded to include the former Butcher Mansion (207 N. 35th St.) which was just to the southwest of their original building. It now included boys and young men (college preparatory). The 1870 census enumerated the Hastings and their three sons, another teacher, 13 boarding students ages 12 to 19, and five servants.

By 1878, the school was moved to 40th St. between Chestnut and Market. It was advertised as “Embracing English, Classical, and Commercial Departments. A Day and Boarding School for Young Men and Boys. Special advantages. All the teachers are graduates of college. Instruction extensive, thorough and practical. Pupils are ‘taught — drilled, but not crammed,’ and thoroughly prepared for business or high standing in college. Family School limited. Comfort of a Christian home. A high moral tone pervades the school. Location beautiful and healthful in all its surroundings.” Students came from as far away as Japan and Spain. In the same year (1878), Hastings was awarded an honorary PhD by Lafayette College. The 1880 census only lists the Hastings family (now with four sons) and three servants in the Butcher mansion.

Fulton Hastings died in Nov. 1885 and it appears the school continued under the Hastings name for a year or two.

The school trained many young men who went on to the finest colleges (Penn, Princeton, Yale, etc.) and solid careers. Local students included:
       - Albert Ashmead, Jr. (3500 Hamilton St.) who graduated from the Penn Medical School and became a researcher on leprosy, pellagra, and Asiatic diseases.
       - Charles and Henry Brooks (204 N. 35th St) also attended. Charles went to Hahnemann Medical College and became chief of the maternity department at Women’s Homeopathic Hospital.
       - Samuel Gibson (Baring above 33rd St.) became a lawyer then attended Penn Medical School. He was the first researcher to produce immunity to the tubercle bacillus.
      - William Dreer (3312 Arch) later became president of Dreer nurseries.

Other graduates included lawyers, Presbyterian ministers, merchants, and a playwright.  One thing that sets the Hastings Institute apart from other local schools is the frequency with which its name appears in brief published biographies of prominent men.

The Electrical Exhibition in Powelton, 1884

(Click to expand)

                 On September 2, 1884, Poweltonians suddenly got a unique glimpse of the future.  On that date, the Franklin Institute opened the International Electrical Exhibition in a temporary building at 32^nd and Lancaster Ave.  There had been a few such exhibitions in Europe beginning in 1881 in Paris.  However, this was the first in the U.S.  It marked an important turning point in history when electricity came out of the research laboratory and started to enter the lives of ordinary people.  The New York Times understood this when it noted that

 “if an exhibition had been desirable 10 years ago, it would have been very difficult to find the materials, if we except the one department of the telegraph.  Nothing calls to mind more clearly how very recent indeed are the most noted improvements in applied electricity than does an examination of the dates when the most noted and important of the appliances were invented.  Another of the curious circumstances is found in the fact that few even of the newest contrivances show the advent of hitherto undiscovered principles.  It is in the method of application and in the ingenuity rather than the originality that the striking effects are shown.” [1]

 Although it covered all aspects of electricity, the largest share of the exhibits was given over to illumination.  The first electric lights in Philadelphia were street arc lights installed on Chestnut St. three years earlier.  The first electric system in West Philadelphia wasn’t started until 1891.  Although there were gas street lights and gas lights in homes, they only provided small patches of warm lighting.  It was into this darkness that the Exhibition burst into light.

The International Electrical Exhibition Building (Left) and the Pennsylvania Railroad Terminal

                The Franklin Institute built a temporary building of wood and glass.  It included a central arched span 100 by 200 feet.  The front corners rose to 60 foot towers.  It was linked by an elevated walkway to the Pennsylvania Railroad Terminal which included additional exhibits.  The New York Times article reported that “Powerful lights flash from the roof of the main building and shine all over the city.”  One tower held the Navy’s newest search light which illuminated small objects 2.5 miles away [to east of  Broad St.].”  The other was a tower of different color incandescent bulbs mounted by Thomas Edison.  The Times went on to explain that
 “in the interior are 350 arc lights and 5,600 incandescent lamps….  A dozen steam engines [run]… 16 of the biggest dynamo machines ever constructed …. [T]he illumination… presents a scene of surpassing splendor.  Not the least of the attractions is a beautiful fountain… the whole being illuminated by electric lights surrounding it, and shining down from above.  Looked at from the gallery the appearance is that of wonderful brilliancy.  Then, too, there are the colored lights arranged in groups and the burnished chandeliers of artistic design, to say nothing of the great lines of fire from aloft which irradiate the spaces with the refulgency of noonday and a splendor all their own.”
 

                The Exhibition offered a large display of historical items most provided by the Patent Office.  It included 19 electrical and ten mechanical telephones, the first patented electric motor, early lightning rods and Morse’s first telegraph from 1846.  New inventions included a large electric clock which transmitted the time through wires to clocks throughout the hall.  There was a “perfect hatcher” which could incubate 2,100 chicks at a time.  Wanamaker & Brown set up electric sewing machines which were “running with lightning speed and by lightning power.”  Cloths made on them were for sale at their store.  One exhibit displayed a synchronous multiplex telegraph capable of sending 72 messages to 72 recipients back and forth through a single wire.  The Inquirer reported that
“At the exhibition the force carried through a single slender wire may be seen moving a number of heavy machines, such as would tax a steam engine’s strength, and doing it without expense for coal or water, without ashes or smoke, and without danger of exploding.” [2]

                Off in one corner was a curious device invented by Thomas Edison.  It was described as an “Apparatus showing conductivity of continuous currents through high vaco.”  It was called the “Tri-Polar Incandescent Lamp.”  Edison didn’t have time to study it and considered it an aesthetic matter.  Its actions could not be fully explained until the discovery of the relationship between electrons and electricity.  This was the first public showing of the vacuum tube which became the foundation for modern electronics. 

The Exhibit of the Weston Electrical Instrument Corp.

 There were also more decorative exhibits.  At the exhibit of the Weston Electrical Instrument Corp. (a major competitor of Edison), a large jar contained gold fish whose scales were illuminated by submerged incandescent lamps.  The exhibit also included bouquets of real flowers surrounding a small incandescent bulb.  The Inquirer noted that “At first a young lady, evidently a belle in society, timidly drew back from her escort when he offered her one of the bouquets. In a few minutes her natural fear of the subtle, powerful, but eminently useful agent, was alleviated and she was induced to take the brightly illuminated flowers….” [3] 
 

The Franklin Institute offered a series of lectures on a wide variety of topics.  These included lectures on “Dynamo-Electric Machinery” and “The Divining Rod.”  They also commissioned a large series of primers to explain the principles of electricity and many advanced topics.
 

The hall was used only once more for an exhibition of recent inventions and in 1886 it was offered for sale and dismantling.  But for a brief six weeks, it lighted up Powelton’s night sky.  More than 300,000 visitors to the Exhibition saw for the first time the true potential of electricity to change everyday life.  It brought electricity out of scientific laboratories and presented it as much more than a mysterious curiosity.  We can only imagine the awe inspired by an electric sewing machine or a lighted bouquet of flowers.  But today satellite images of massive glowing cities can still awaken a sense of what electricity has done to change the world we live in.

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[1] "A Dazzling Exhibition." New York Times, Sept. 3, 1884.

[2] Inquirer, Sept. 23, 1884. Pg 4.
[3] "Electric Sparks." Inquirer, Sept. 6, 1884. Pg. 8

Tax Revolt in the Borough of West Philadelphia

          In 1850, the City of Philadelphia was limited to the area we now call Center City – from South St. to Vine St. between the Delaware and  Schuylkill Rivers. The area that now makes up the whole city was Philadelphia County. It was only in 1854 that the boundaries of the city were expanded to include the whole County
         Between 1840 and 1850, the population of the City increased by 30%, largely through immigration. For the first time, the immigrants included many Catholics. The increased population led to crowded housing and the building of narrow trinities. The City began to experience increased crime and clashes between Protestants and Catholics. Many of the old buildings in the City were replaced by taller stores and businesses. These developments made the old parts of the City less attractive to upper-income families.  Residential development west of the Schuylkill started to become attractive to families seeking a more tranquil environment..
          In 1835, the area we now call West Philadelphia was Blockley Township. It was largely rural with many farms and wooded areas and a few small unincorporated villages. In January 1837, the Court of Quarterly Sessions established the Borough of West Philadelphia out of the eastern section of Blockley (shown in blue on the map below). The action was taken in response to a petition from 21 petitioners [1] who claimed support of a “majority of the resident freeholders of” Hamilton Village, Greenville and Powelton. [2]

Section of Rea and Miller 1849 Map
with Blue Line Added to Show the
Border of Borough of West Philadelphia in 1837.

          However, Greenville probably did not have the requisite population of at least 300 to constitute a village and Powelton could hardly be claimed to be a village. In addition to these “villages,” the new borough included the Powel estate, the Bingham-Baring estate, and the Crean estate (roughly Filbert to Spring Garden between N. 39th and N. 40th) above Market St.  Below Market St. (lower green area on the map) it included the Blockley Alms House, Woodland Cemetery, Wetherill’s (below Walnut along the Schuylkill) and a few smaller properties. In March 1837, the Legislature passed a law authorizing the new borough to elect ten councilmen. [3]
          The Borough quickly became the target of a taxpayer revolt. The new Borough added to the taxes levied on each property. For example, in 1841, a property in the Borough valued at $10,600 paid $89.24 in taxes including: County tax of $42.80, Borough tax of $21.83, Poor tax of $14.55, and $10.86 in state tax. [4]
          In addition to those taxes, property owners were soon hit with other charges.  The development of the area depended on investments in infrastructure. Even the main roads were not paved.  In April 1837, the Legislature authorized the hiring of surveyors to lay out roads in West Philadelphia Borough and all of Blockley Township. [5] The Borough was authorized to require owners of lots where houses had been built along paved roads to grade and pave footways and gutters. [6]
          Protests began even before then.  In March 1838, the Inquirer reported complaints from residents of Blockley Township and the Borough of West Philadelphia about the cost of proposed roads and the requirement to pave footways.  The complaints stated that “No petition from inhabitants is requested… to authorize an expenditure, which in some cases, may cost an individual, in grading especially, a large proportion of the value of his lots… and all non- resident freeholders of Hamilton and Mantua Villages, are to be subjected to the ruin of their property, without appeal.” [7]
          Despite these protests, the Borough began making investments in infrastructure. In June 1838, it advertised for bids for the grading of a half-mile of Washington (Market) St. In 1840-’41, property owners and occupiers on Washington St. from the bridge to William (39th) St. were required to “grade, curb, gutter and pave the footway” of their lot. [8] The street was “pitched [and] pebble-paved.” [9]  (When about half of this section of Washington had to be regraded in 1853, the cost was covered by the District of West Philadelphia. [10])
          Opposition to the Borough escalated in 1842. The Guardians of the Poor (which ran the Blockley Almshouse) protested a proposal by the Borough to grade, curb, gutter and pave Darby Rd. (Woodland Ave.).    They claimed this involved a “useless and extravagant expenditure of the public money and might be deemed a precedent upon which with equal reasons the Borough Council might require the whole of the Darby road and Lehman street, and all other streets about the Alms-House Farm” to be developed similarly. They, therefore, joined a lawsuit brought by William M. Meredith and Clark Hare before the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth seeking to invalidate the incorporation of the Borough. [11]
          At the same time, 36 residents and land owners in the Borough expressed their strong support for the suit challenging the formation of the Borough. They noted that the Borough boundaries included more than 600 acres of farmland and protested the “oppressive taxes” and “lavish expenditures in leveling hills and filling hollows” and “despotic mandates” to grade, pave, gutter and curb roads along their properties. The 15 resident property owners who signed it included three members of the McIlvain family of lumber merchants and builders. The 15 non-resident property owners who signed included owners of undeveloped estates: John Hare Powel, William and John Crean and the trustee for the Baring estate. [12] In the meantime, Powel and Clark Hare refused to grade, pave, gutter and curb over a deep hollow along their property on Darby Rd. The landowner across the street noted that “the road is frequently almost impassable…” and he had “repeatedly seen carriages with four horses stalled” on that stretch of road. [13]
          In May 1843, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court announced that it had quashed the incorporation of the Borough of West Philadelphia. It ruled that the bill authorizing the Court of Quarterly Session to incorporate areas “does not authorize the incorporation into a borough of two or more villages, together with a tract of open farm land. If it did, it must appear that a majority of the whole mass joined in the petition” for incorporation. [14]
          In February 1844, the Legislature incorporated a new, smaller, Borough of West Philadelphia. [15] The new boundaries (the red area on the map) excluded Woodland Cemetery, the Alms House, and the Baring, Powel and Crean estates. The bill named six commissioners who were entitled to collect any taxes due to the late Borough at the time it was dissolved and to use the funds to pay off its creditors.
          Between 1840 and 1850, the population of the Borough of West Philadelphia more than tripled going from 2,896 to 10,662 – a huge 13% per year. The population of Blockley Township increased 67% from 3,318 to 5,553 over the decade (5.1% per year). In 1844, it was reported that West Philadelphia “contains over one hundred and fifty buildings, including several large furnaces, and other manufacturing establishments…. West Philadelphia is rapidly improving, and at some future day will form part of the city itself." [16]

Ad for Lots in Mantua by Samuel Hutchinson (Public Ledger, Jan. 29, 1847)

           A map published by Samuel Hutchinson in 1848 is entitled "Plan of the Proposed New Borough of Mantua."  Hutchinson was a conveyancer (real estate agent) at 5th (now 34th) and Haverford in Mantua.  Instead, in February 1850, residents of Mantua requested the Legislature to annex Mantua and neighboring areas into the Borough of West Philadelphia. [17]  A week later, this proposal received the support of more than 300 residents of the Borough. [18]
           In March 1850, the Legislature expanded the boundaries of the Borough to include Mantua and the Powel and Bingham-Baring estates (the yellow areas of the map). [19] The Inquirer reported that the “area is now greater than that of the City, [and the townships of] Northern Liberties, and Spring Garden combined” and listed numerous new residences that were being built in the Borough.  It also noted that “Colonel John Hare Powell [sic.] has had Powelton surveyed for sale and improvement….. The improvement of the Southern front of this property will give the Lancaster Turnpike a village character and appearance from the Bridge to Hestonville." [20]
          In April 1851, the legislature renamed the borough the District of West Philadelphia. [21] The District invested in a new system of piped water and gas which became a major attraction for upper-income families. When the County police force was strengthened, three policemen were assigned to the West Philadelphia district.
          The years leading up to consolidation in 1854 saw increased development in the area.  In 1854, Baldwin and Thomas’s gazetteer of the U.S. reported that in the District of West Philadelphia a “new town hall on Washington [Market] street is a 5-storied brick building, with an iron front. The beautiful villages of Hamilton and Mantua are included in the corporate limits. Numerous elegant residences have been erected within a few years. The town is lighted with gas and supplied with good water….” [22]
          The District Hall was still standing in 1918 when Joseph Jackson noted that:
“At the southeast corner of Thirty-seventh and Market streets stands the last of the commissioners' halls…. This building originally was erected for a Masonic hall, and several lodges of that fraternity used to meet there. About 1850 the Commissioners of West Philadelphia… who had formerly held their meetings in a schoolhouse at Thirty-third and Ludlow streets, and in Keen Hall, then on Market street west of Thirty-third, removed to the building at the southeast comer of Thirty-seventh and Market streets, which they renamed Commissioners' Hall." [23]

_______________________________________________________________________

1  Editors. 1843. "The Borough of West Philadelphia." Public Ledger, March 1, 1843, 2.
2 The website of the Philadelphia City Archives includes the following: “By virtue of P.L. 163, 1 April 1834 the Court of Quarter Sessions was empowered to establish boroughs. Unfortunately, that court's relevant records for the years prior to 1844 are not extant." (Philadelphia City Archives. "The chronology of the political subdivisions of the County of Philadelphia, 1683–1854." accessed Dec. 24, 2016. http://www.phila.gov/phils/docs/inventor/graphics/wards/wards1.htm.) However, the original petition is found in the Court’s decision of March, 1843 that quashed the original incorporation. (Watts, Frederick, and Henry J. Sergeant. 1853. Reports of cases adjudged in the Supreme court of Pennsylvania. Vol. V. Philadelphia: James Kay, Jun, and Brother.)
3   P.L. 40, March 13, 1837.
4 1841. "Report of the County Board." Inquirer, Sept. 18, 1841, 2. The numbers given are not exactly consistent with the reported total.
5   P. L. 95, sect. 12.  April 4, 1837.
6   P. L. 91, sect. 19. April 16, 1838.
7   "West Philadelphia." Inquirer, March 24, 1838, 2.
8  For the south side of the street: "Notice to owners of lots in West Philadelphia." Inquirer, Sept. 8, 1840, 3. For the north side of the street: "Notice to owners of lots in the Borough of West Philadelphia." Inquirer, May 20, 1841, 3.
9    Inquirer, Sept. 9, 1853. 1.
10   Inquirer, Sept. 9, 1853. 1.
11 "Extracts from the Minutes of the Guardians of the Poor." Public Ledger, Feb. 18, 1843, 3.
12 Hopkins, Moses, Christopher Wiltberger, P. Mounier, and others. 1843. "To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." Public Ledger, Feb. 18, 1843, 3.
13   "Mr. Charles P. Heath's statement." Public Ledger, March 22, 1843, 2.
14 Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 1853. "Case of the Borough of West Philadelphia." In Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, edited by Frederick Watts and Henry J. Sergeant, 281-4. Philadelphia: James Kay, Jun, and Brother.
15   P.L. 28.
16 Tanner, Henry Schenck. 1844. A New Picture of Philadelphia or the Stranger's Guide to the City and Adjoining Districts. 4th ed. New York: Map and Geographical Establishment. 134-5.
17  Public Ledger, Feb. 9, 1850. 1.
18  Public Ledger, Feb. 15, 1850. 2.
19   P. L. 215.
20   "A large and improving borough." Inquirer, Sept. 2, 1850, 2.
29   P. L. 211.
22 Baldwin, Thomas, and Joseph Thomas. 1854. A New and Complete Gazetteer of the United States. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co. 1272.
23  Jackson, Joseph. 1918. Market Street Philadelphia: The most historic highway in
America Its merchants and Its story. Philadelphia: Joseph Jackson. 199.