An Homage to Powelton Gardeners

This is a slightly revised version of a piece I wrote for the Powelton Post a year ago.

     Powelton’s tree-lined streets and its gardens have turned green again.  Fortunately, we have some information about the gardens and the gardeners during the Victorian era.

     The 1880 census shows seven gardeners/florists living in Powelton.  At least three of the larger homes had greenhouses: William Wilson’s house (3501 Powelton), Dr. Edward H. Williams’s (33^rd & Arch), and David Paul’s house (33^rd between Hamilton and Spring Garden).  In 1899, the Colton family added a plant “conservatory” to their house at 3407 Powelton.  We know there were formal gardens behind the Febiger’s (3421 Powelton) and the Scattergood’s (3515Powelton).  Cora Sellers (3301 Baring) had a large garden to the west of their house with a grape arbor that screened the view of the stables.  The Du Pont family (3500 Powelton) also had a grape arbor and fruit trees.  Notably at one time the drive at the Du Pont’s southern entrance circled a mounded planting area that was probably over 6' high and about 20' in diameter that held giant elephant ear plants.

     Alfred Lutz ran a commercial nursery in Powelton for about 45 years beginning about 1875.  He built two large hot houses on the 3100 block of Pearl St. (which no longer exists).  Each was about 70' by 15'.  In 1911, the site had a single 32' by 110' hot house.  In 1887, he won first prize for a window box at the Philadelphia Chrysanthemum Show and recognition for hydrangeas at the Spring Show of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

     The most famous Powelton gardener, was William Dreer (1849-1918).  The Dreer Nurseries were started in 1838 by William’s father, Henry, with a nursery at the Woodlands estate and a seed and florist store on Chestnut St. near Front.  In 1850, Henry moved the nursery to the 3500 block from Wallace to Mt. Vernon St. in Mantua where they remained until his death in 1873.

     The Dreers were “seedsmen.” Henry Dreer had immigrated from Germany and later he sent William to Germany to study the seed business.  When Henry died in 1873, his real estate was worth about $100,000 and his personal property about $25,000.  William then moved the nursery to Riverton, N.J. where it grew to 295 acres, 14 greenhouses, and 250 employees.  He moved to the Aldine Hotel in center city for a few years, then to 3312 Arch St.

Dreer Ad from 1894

     In 1887, William and his new bride, Anna Williams, took ownership of her family home at 101 N. 33^rd St.  Anna was the daughter of Edward Williams, a partner in the Baldwin Locomotive Works.  Williams came to Powelton in the mid-1860s and built the mansion at 101 N. 33^rd St.  Later it had a magnificent “Japanese Room” built by the Wilson Brothers.  The property was quite large and almost certainly included gardens or a greenhouse.

Dreer Ad from 1908

     Henry Dreer was one of the first to introduce color printing to bulb catalogs and seed packets.   The nursery specialized in bedding plants, and those great Victorian favorites: palms, ferns and water lilies.  At the turn of the century, Dreer was recognized as a pioneer in waterlily hybridization. Unfortunately, the nursery was later known as the inadvertent importer of the Japanese beetle.

      Dreer died in 1918 and the nursery closed in 1944.

Something Noticed While Walking the Dog My Architectural Archeologist, Scott Ryder, has discovered signs of past civilization. Actually, remains of a large house that stood at 3500 Powelton before the Courts were built. Having discovered that the Du Pont family once occupied this site, he went about looking for any remaining physical evidence of that time. After passing the site numerous times, he noticed that the granite curbing around the original footprint of the property is quite a bit larger and of a better quality than what we usually see. It extends about three quarters of the 3500 block of Powelton and south down 35th St. to the property line of the Courts Apartments. At that point you can see the original curb cut for the carriage entrance. The drive is shown on the 1872 Hopkins map (at the right). At that time the site was owned by Dr. W. A. Pieper. In 1881, the Du Pont family purchased this lot and the lot to the west and enlarged the house. Our investigations continue.