eb2be089-e03b-49a2-bf71-97f30136b8df Ridge Ave Roxborough Historic District Native Americans Prior to the European settlement, Native Americans from the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Nation inhabited the area that the settlers named Roxborough. A Native American trail predating William Penn and his establishment of Pennsylvania, known as the Perkiomen Path, ran along the line of what is today Ridge Avenue. The Perkiomen Path connected the area around the confluence of the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers where Penn later established Philadelphia with the Native American village at Manatawny, now Pottstown, and lands farther to the west. Like Ridge Avenue, the trail ran up from the Falls of the Schuylkill, along the ridge rising between the valleys of the Schuylkill River and the Wissahickon Creek, and into what is now Montgomery County. 2 Through his surveyor Thomas Holme, William Penn purchased the land between the Schuylkill River and Pennypack Creek, including the area that would become Roxborough, from a group of Lenni Lenape leaders in July 1684 (Figure 4). Although Swedes and other Europeans had settled in the Delaware Valley in the mid seventeenth century, it does not appear that any Europeans had established permanent settlements in the Roxborough area prior to the 1684 purchase. Describe your image This information has been posted by RMWHS with the permission of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Sections: 1 Intro and Nomination Form 2 Boundary and Description 3 Statement of Significance 4 Native Americans 5 Patent Holders and Early Settlers 6 Ridge Road 7 Early Roxborough 8 Georgian and Colonial Architecture 9 During the Revolutionary War 10 Federal Architecture 11 Development of Manayunk 12 Greek Revival Architecture 13 Early 19th Century 14 Gothic Revival Architecture 15 Italianate Architecture 16 During and After the Civil War 17 Second Empire Architecture 18 Queen Anne Architecture 19 Turn of the Century 20 Conclusion and Bibliography 2 Paul A. W. Wallace, Indian Paths of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1965; reprinted, 1998), p. 127-128. Top of page

Historical Maps 1843 < Previous > Back to Historical Map List < Next > 1843 - Phila County Source: URL: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3824p.la000784b/ Full Name: A map of the county of Philadelphia : from actual survey Visit the source URL to use zoom features, find additional formats, or download a high quality image.

Historical Maps 1854 < Previous > Back to Historical Map List < Next > 1854 - Consolidated Phila Wards Source: URL: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3824p.ct008335 Full Name: An outline of the newly consolidated city, showing the boundaries of the wards : according to the act passed by the Legislature, Jany. 31st, 1854 Visit the source URL to use zoom features, find additional formats, or download a high quality image.

2cd924c3-529b-4ccb-9cf2-96ff92f7418a Ridge Ave Roxborough Historic District Greek Revival Architecture The Greek Revival style of architecture was the dominant style for American domestic architecture between about 1825 and 1850. Archaeological investigations of the Classical World including Ancient Greece in the early nineteenth century as well as Greece’s war for independence (1821 to 1830) aroused interest in Greek architectural forms in the United States. Americans associated the forms with their new democracy. Philadelphia was the first city in the United States to adopt the Greek Revival style, as evidenced by Benjamin Latrobe’s Bank of Pennsylvania of 1801 and William Strickland’s Bank of the United States of 1818. Pattern books and carpenter’s guides by Asher Benjamin, Minard Lafever and others spread the style. Greek Revival buildings typically have gabled or hipped roofs of shallower pitches than their predecessors, broad cornices, and entry or full-width porches supported by classical columns. The Valentine Keely House at 8144 Ridge Avenue is the most stylistically pure Greek Revival building in Roxborough (Figure 24). Built in 1844, the symmetrical, five-bay Valentine Keely House has a portico supported by Doric columns, a hipped roof with a shallow pitch, and half-height third-floor windows separated by a string course from the façade below to give the appearance of a classical entablature. Advances in roofing technology in the early nineteenth century, especially the development of metal roofs, allowed for roofs with shallower pitches. Earlier cedar shake roofs required a steep pitch to effectively shed water. With the shallower pitched metal roofs, rooftop dormers gave way to half-height third-floor windows, creating more usable space in garrets. The half-height third-floor windows became a hallmark of houses constructed in rural areas around Philadelphia in the decades leading up to the Civil War. Describe your image Numerous examples of Greek Revival houses with half-height third-floor windows can be found along and around Ridge Avenue. The houses are usually three or five bays wide and often have open, full-width front porches. They are built of Wissahickon schist, which is either left uncovered or finished with smooth stucco. They often have double, gable-end chimneys. Good examples can be found at 5635 Ridge Avenue and 7101 Ridge Avenue (Figure 25). Describe your image This information has been posted by RMWHS with the permission of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Sections: 1 Intro and Nomination Form 2 Boundary and Description 3 Statement of Significance 4 Native Americans 5 Patent Holders and Early Settlers 6 Ridge Road 7 Early Roxborough 8 Georgian and Colonial Architecture 9 During the Revolutionary War 10 Federal Architecture 11 Development of Manayunk 12 Greek Revival Architecture 13 Early 19th Century 14 Gothic Revival Architecture 15 Italianate Architecture 16 During and After the Civil War 17 Second Empire Architecture 18 Queen Anne Architecture 19 Turn of the Century 20 Conclusion and Bibliography Top of page

d033a9c0-a465-4a11-93fd-ac6d8f6de40e Ridge Ave Roxborough Historic District Patent Holders and Early Settlers Between 1681 and 1685, William Penn conveyed more 4,000 acres of land in lower northwest Philadelphia to 11 original purchasers. Most of the land was located to the northwest of the Wissahickon Creek, in what is now known as Roxborough and Manayunk, but a small portion of the original 11 parcels was located to the southeast and east of the creek, in what is now known as East Falls and Mt. Airy. The names of several of the original purchasers are identified on Thomas Holme’s Map of improved part of Pensilvania in America, divided into counties, townships and lotts. of 1681 (Figure 5). The original purchasers did not settle the land between the Wissahickon Creek and Schuylkill River, but instead held the properties as investments. Over the next six decades, the original 11 parcels were subdivided numerous times, and by 1741 had been carved into 43 lots. Europeans began settling in the area in the 1690s. In 1676, Andrew Robeson, his wife Elizabeth, and their son Samuel emigrated from Great Britain, settling in Gloucester, South Jersey. Robeson served in South Jersey as the Surveyor General and Judge. In 1690, they moved to a property called “Shoomac Park” near the mouth of the Wissahickon Creek, in what is now East Falls. They obtained the estate from Joshua Tittery, who had obtained it from Robert Turner, William Penn’s original grantee. Robeson erected a house and renamed the estate “Roxburgh,” after his birthplace, Kelso, Roxburghshire, Scotland. Robeson became Chief of Justice in Pennsylvania and was instrumental in the establishment of Roxborough as a township. Robeson also operated a flour mill on the Wissahickon. After the deaths of Robeson, his wife, and son in the 1690s, the property passed to nephew Andrew Robeson Jr. The Robeson family held the property until 1864, when John and James Dobson, the well-known carpet manufacturers, purchased it. The old mill burned in 1866. The Fairmount Park Commission took much of the property in 1872 for the Wissahickon branch of Fairmount Park. 3 The old Robeson house was used as a hotel and public house known as the High Bridge Mansion in the late nineteenth century and as a restaurant in the twentieth century. In 1956, the Fairmount Park Commission approved its demolition, concluding that it had “no particular architectural design nor historical significance.” 4 Describe your image John Kelpius, a Bavarian religious leader who espoused millennial and universalistic doctrines, arrived in Philadelphia in 1694. He and his followers settled and lived as hermits in small huts in the woods adjacent to Wissahickon Creek, near Roxborough’s present day Hermit Lane. 5 The hermits conducted religious services in the wooded area overlooking the Wissahickon.6 Kelpius died in the first decade of the eighteenth century, and his followers eventually disbanded. 7 Although the name Roxborough, or Rocksburrow, has been attributed to Kelpius, who wrote about "foxes burrowing in rocks,” the area was named by Robeson for his native land, Roxburgh, Scotland. Brothers Gerhard and Wigard (Wickert) Levering arrived in Pennsylvania from Holland during the summer of 1685 and first settled in Germantown. Wigard Levering purchased 200 acres in Roxborough in 1691 and moved to the area, where he farmed. He purchased another 300 acres in 1697 in the area that came to be known as Leverington. He prospered and died a wealthy man in 1744. 8 Wigard’s eldest son William was born in Germany in 1677 and came with his family to Pennsylvania at the age of eight; he was 15 when his family moved to Roxborough. In 1717, Wigard gave William a large tract of land, which consisted of the unsold portions of Wigard’s speculative land holdings in Roxborough. William was a farmer like his father, but engaged in other ventures as well. He built the Levering Hotel, Roxborough’s first hotel, in 1731. He also gave land on which Roxborough’s first school was built in 1748. 9 He died in 1746, having amassed a valuable estate. 10 Wigard’s son Jacob was the first of his 12 children to be born in Roxborough. In 1717, Wigard granted Jacob 85 acres of land, which abutted the along the Schuylkill River in the area of Green Lane, extending to Levering Street and comprising much of present-day Manayunk. Jacob lived on this land, first in a log cabin, and then in a stone house that he built in 1736 on the northwest side of Green Lane. Besides farming, Jacob was also engaged in industrial undertakings. He owned a distillery in Roxborough and a saw mill on the western side of the Schuylkill River in what is now Montgomery County. Jacob died in 1753 with an estate valued at the substantial sum. 11 Wilhelm Rittinghausen, born in 1644, learned the papermaking trade in Mulheim, Germany, while working at his uncle Mathias Vorster’s mill. The two men later went to Holland, where they were employed in a Gelderland mill near Arnhem. In 1688, Mr. Rittinghausen, by now a Dutch citizen, immigrated to British North America and changed his name to William Rittenhouse. In 1690, he established a paper mill in Roxborough on the Paper Mill Run or Monoshone Creek, a tributary of the Wissahickon Creek. The mill was located near the confluence of Paper Mill Run and the Wissahickon, about 1.6 miles above the point where the Wissahickon flows into the Schuylkill. 12 Joining him in the venture were three partners, Robert Turner, Thomas Tresse, and a printer named William Bradford. Rittenhouse developed a successful mill, owing to his ability to organize financial backers as partners and a printer-partner as a contractual customer for the products. Previous to Rittenhouse’s operation, all paper was imported from Europe and taxed accordingly. The new mill provided a local source of printing, writing, and wrapping paper, as well as pasteboard. All of the mill’s fiber for hand papermaking was obtained from discarded rags and cotton. The paper that came from the Rittenhouse mill during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was made by hand, each sheet crafted separately. First, workers pounded rags into pulp in stone or iron mortars using trip-hammers. After pulp was placed in frames, it needed several days to dry completely. The final product carried the Rittenhouse watermark. In 1706, Rittenhouse bought out the other partners and became sole proprietor of Rittenhouse Paper Mill. Rittenhouse proved that papermaking in America could be a viable, economically sound business. Rittenhouse died in 1708 and left the paper mill to his son, Claus. The business prospered at the site, and was operated by six generations of family descendants. Rittenhousetown grew up around the mill. For 20 years, Rittenhouse Paper Mill was the only paper mill in the Colonies. In 1710, William Dewees, who was married to Claus Rittenhouse’s sister, built a mill nearby in Chestnut Hill, having learned the trade at Rittenhouse Paper Mill. In 1729, the Willcox Ivey Mill was built in Chester County. Forty years after the founding of Rittenhouse Paper Mill, the number of printers and paper mills grew exponentially. The Rittenhouse family monopoly in paper was over, but Rittenhouse’s descendants continued making paper on the Monoshone Creek until the nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution, when the development of the Fourdrinier, with its endless web and cylinder papermaking, changed the industry forever. 13 Among the many prominent members of the Rittenhouse family, David Rittenhouse (1732-1796) was an astronomer, inventor, clockmaker, mathematician, surveyor, fabricator of scientific instruments, and public official. Rittenhouse was a member of the American Philosophical Society and the first director of the United States Mint. Several eighteenth and nineteenth-century buildings survive at the Rittenhouse Paper Mill site including the Rittenhouse Homestead (1707), the Bake House (1725), the Abraham Rittenhouse Home (1720), and the Enoch Rittenhouse Home (1845) (Figure 6). The Rittenhouse complex was not included in this thematic district because of its distance from Ridge Avenue, but it precisely represents both the early mill culture and early architectural styles in Roxborough Township.14 Describe your image Between 1746 and 1747, Joseph Gorgas built one of Roxborough’s more impressive surviving residences on a large tract of land bordering the Wissahickon Creek, which he purchased from Benjamin Shoemaker. Gorgas was a Seventh Day Baptist and wished to have an isolated residence for meditation and solitude, as well as for pursuing his grist mill business. The stone house is three stories, with an adjoining grist mill and saw mill. When it was built, it was one of the largest residences in the area and may have been one of the first three-story homes in the immediate vicinity of Philadelphia.15 The Gorgas property was not included in this thematic district because of its distance from Ridge Avenue, but it certainly represents a high point of Georgian architectural achievement in Roxborough Township.16 Describe your image Other early Roxborough families included the Righter, Livezey, and Houlgate families.17 The earliest settlers were primarily engaged in farming and milling. Grist mills, located on the Wissahickon and its tributaries, were the most common type of industry in eighteenth-century Roxborough. In 1779, there were at least eleven mills in the area, eight of which were grist mills.18 Glen Fern, the Thomas Livezey House, still stands on the east bank of the Wissahickon. Constructed in 1733-39 and added to later in the eighteenth century, the house evidences many characteristics of the Georgian style. Livezey, who purchased the property in 1747, operated one of the largest mills in the colonies. In addition to the house, the foundation of the mill and the associated dam survive. Glen Fern was not included in this thematic district because of its distance from Ridge Avenue, but it precisely characterizes both the early mill culture and early architectural styles in Roxborough Township.19 This information has been posted by RMWHS with the permission of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Sections: 1 Intro and Nomination Form 2 Boundary and Description 3 Statement of Significance 4 Native Americans 5 Patent Holders and Early Settlers 6 Ridge Road 7 Early Roxborough 8 Georgian and Colonial Architecture 9 During the Revolutionary War 10 Federal Architecture 11 Development of Manayunk 12 Greek Revival Architecture 13 Early 19th Century 14 Gothic Revival Architecture 15 Italianate Architecture 16 During and After the Civil War 17 Second Empire Architecture 18 Queen Anne Architecture 19 Turn of the Century 20 Conclusion and Bibliography 3 Kate Hamilton Osborne, An Historical and Genealogical Account of Andrew Robeson of Scotland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and of his Descendants from 1653 to 1916 (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1916), 6-14. 4 “Park Commission OKs Destruction of Shoomac Mansion,” Inquirer, 12 December 1956, p. 17; “Senator Stiefel Sues to Preserve Shoomac House,” Inquirer, 20 December 1956, p. 19. 5 John Fanning Watson and Willis Pope Hazard, Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the Olden Time: or, Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Incidents of Philadelphia and Its Inhabitants from the Days of the Founders (Philadelphia: E.S. Stuart, 1899), 458-460. 6 Horatio Gates Jones, The American Historical Record, and Repertory of Notes and Queries Concerning the History and Antiquities of America and the Biography of Americans, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: Samuel P. Town, 1873), 3. 7 J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co., 1884), 1319. 8 Horatio Gates Jones, The Levering Family; or, a Genealogical Account of Wigard Levering and Gerhard Levering, Two of the Pioneer Settlers of Roxborough Township, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: King & Baird, 1858), 3-12. 9 Ibid., 187. 10 Ibid., 18-21. 11 Ibid., 22-25. This nomination draws liberally from Emily Cooperman and Claire G. Schmieder, “Historic Context Statement for Neighborhood Cluster 2,” prepared for the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, 2009. 12 James Green, The Rittenhouse Mill and the Beginnings of Papermaking in America (Philadelphia: The Library Company of Philadelphia and Friends of Historic RittenhouseTown, 1990), 5; Horatio Gates Jones, “Historical Sketch of the Rittenhouse Papermill; the First Erected in America, A.D. 1690,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 20 (1896): 317. 13 Green, The Rittenhouse Mill, 3-5; Jones, “Historical Sketch of the Rittenhouse Papermill,” 322. 14 Rittenhouse Town was designated as historic and listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places on 26 June 1956 and on 7 June 1973. 15 Unfortunately, the HABS data pages for The Monastery are not among the documents in the Library of Congress’ Historic American Building Survey collection. Julius Friedrich Sachse, The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania, 1708-1742: A Critical and Legendary History of the Ephrata Cloister and the Dunkers (Philadelphia: P.C. Stockhausen, 1899), 284-285. 16 The Joseph Gorgas House, the Monastery, and associated outbuildings was designated as historic and listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places on 26 June 1956. 17 Information about the original and early purchasers as well as “Map Showing the Roxborough Tracts Bought by the First Purchasers” and “Map Showing the Roxborough Tracts Purchased by Early Settlers” is provided in: Joseph Starne Miles and Rev. William H. Cooper, A Historical Sketch of Roxborough, Manayunk, and Wissahickon (Philadelphia: George Fein & Co., 1940), p. 75-79. 18 The grist mills were owned by the Robeson family, John Vanderen and Martin Rittenhouse, Nicholas Rittenhouse, William Rittenhouse, Abraham Rittenhouse, Peter Care, John Gorgas, and Thomas Livezey. The Rittenhouse papermill was in operation, as well as a fulling mill owned by Matthew Houlgate and Christian Snyder and an oil mill owned by Benjamin Gorgas. Jones, The Levering Family, 187. 19 Glen Fern was designated as historic and listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places on 26 June 1956. Top of page

ae96d554-2c19-4287-8dd0-679d2ee7794e Main Street Manayunk Historic District The Schuylkill Canal During the mid-19th century, the tow path waterway provided an important means for the transportation of goods and materials in the United States. The Manayunk Canal formed a segment of the Schuylkill Canal System, constructed to provide a navigable waterway along the Schuylkill River, linking the Delaware River and the coal regions above Reading. The Schuylkill Canal System, part of a broader canal system, provided the crucial link to the west. The openings of the canal forged a link between the land located regions of western Pennsylvania, and the port of Philadelphia, creating a tow path water transportation which enabled the cheap transport of anthracite coal to markets all along the eastern seaboard. Describe your image A plan to provide a navigable link between the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers had been conceived by William Penn in 1690. However, such a link was not a reality until 1825. In the interim, surveys for a possible canal were completed in the mid-18th century, and isolated improvements made to the river channel. The first serious planning for a canal began in 1731 when a group of Philadelphia citizens lead by Robert Morris Organized the Society for Improvements of Roads and Inland Navigation. As a result of their efforts, the State of Pennsylvania chartered the first two canal projects in America, the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company, and the Delaware and Schuylkill Navigation Company, forerunner of the Schuylkill Navigation Company. The State authorized $440,000 for the projects, however, by 1794 only 15 miles of canal was completed, funds had been exhausted and work stopped on both projects. Describe your image The motivating force behind eventual construction of the Schuylkill Canal System was Joshua White, credited with developing a method for burning hard anthracite to process iron ore. He understood the potential of the canal to reduce the cost of transporting anthracite coal from the coal fields above Reading to industries along the Schuylkill in Philadelphia. White petitioned the State for the right to improve the river, but his proposal was rejected. In 1815, the State of Pennsylvania chartered the foundation of the Schuylkill Navigation Company. The Company, established by Philadelphia financiers and headed by Cadwallader Evans was granted a charter to construct a canal from Philadelphia to Port Carbon, just below Pottsville. Describe your image This information has been posted by RMWHS with the permission of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Sections: 1 Intro and Nomination Form 2 Description 3 Significance of Manayunk 4 The Schuylkill Canal 5 Schuylkill Navigation Company 6 Manayunk Canal 7 Economic Development 8 Manayunk Social Development 9 The Industry of Venice Island 10 Main Street Manayunk 11 Bibliography 12 Boundary Details Top of page

0692a89b-d1a7-4821-a817-38c373e30e1a Main Street Manayunk Historic District Schuylkill Navigation Company The Schuylkill Canal was not a continuous canal, but a series of waterways constructed to bypass unnavigated sections of the river. The Schuylkill navigation system covered a distance of 108 miles; 62 miles by canal and 46 miles by slack water navigation created by dams in the river. The system included 92 locks to overcome a 9,588' difference in elevation. Locks were typically 75' to 80' long and 8' to 17' wide. By 1828, the Schuylkill Canal provided safe passage the length of the river. In the early years, there was no effective competition to the canal and rates were high. As a result of this monopoly, the State Legislature authorized construction of the Reading Railroad. Describe your image On January 13, 1842, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was opened to Pottsville in direct competition to the canal and by 1844, it carried more coal than the canal. To meet the railroad competition, the canal was enlarged, and costs were lowered. Tonnage increased as a result and the period 1850-1860 marked the Golden Age of the Canal. During this period, the canal showed the greatest profit and carried the greatest tonnage, peaking at 1.7 million tons. Rail transportation assumed increasing importance during the Civil War; after the war, railroads continued to grow, and canal transportation declined. On June 23, 1870, the Reading Railroad signed an agreement to lease the canal and from this time on commercial use of the canal virtually ceased. Describe your image This information has been posted by RMWHS with the permission of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Sections: 1 Intro and Nomination Form 2 Description 3 Significance of Manayunk 4 The Schuylkill Canal 5 Schuylkill Navigation Company 6 Manayunk Canal 7 Economic Development 8 Manayunk Social Development 9 The Industry of Venice Island 10 Main Street Manayunk 11 Bibliography 12 Boundary Details Top of page

cc6f3200-62a2-414c-a075-1dc5b15d74ec Ridge Ave Roxborough Historic District Federal Architecture The Federal style of architecture, which emerged after the Revolutionary War, is closely related to the earlier Georgian or Colonial style, but Federal buildings are lighter and more delicate than their predecessors, which were generally weighty with stout detailing. Like the earlier houses, Federal houses are generally side-gabled, two-story, symmetrical boxes. Wissahickon schist remained the predominant building material, but the stone was sometimes faced with stucco. The Federal style was employed in Roxborough Township from the 1780s through the 1820s. The Levering-Jones House at 6341 Ridge Avenue, which also served for a short time as the General Washington Tavern, is an excellent example of the Federal style (Figure 20). Built about 1796 by William and Martha Levering, the house was converted to a tavern in the early nineteenth century. It was later converted back to a residence and was the boyhood home of prominent historian Horatio Gates Jones Jr. The house was restored to its original appearance in the twentieth century. Its side-gable, symmetrical façade, pedimented door surround, and pedimented dormers with Gothic windows are all hallmarks of the Federal style. The Starne-Smick House at 7552 Ridge Avenue, built about 1795, is another good example of a Federal style house in Roxborough. Although without the high-style embellishments of the Levering-Jones House, the Starne-Smick is a large, well-preserved, significant example of the style. The Joseph Ozias House of 1811 at 7953 Ridge Avenue is another example of a well-preserved Federal style house. The cut-stone front façade with quoins at the corners is an interesting feature of this otherwise modest residence. Describe your image This information has been posted by RMWHS with the permission of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Sections: 1 Intro and Nomination Form 2 Boundary and Description 3 Statement of Significance 4 Native Americans 5 Patent Holders and Early Settlers 6 Ridge Road 7 Early Roxborough 8 Georgian and Colonial Architecture 9 During the Revolutionary War 10 Federal Architecture 11 Development of Manayunk 12 Greek Revival Architecture 13 Early 19th Century 14 Gothic Revival Architecture 15 Italianate Architecture 16 During and After the Civil War 17 Second Empire Architecture 18 Queen Anne Architecture 19 Turn of the Century 20 Conclusion and Bibliography Top of page

900b2961-dce5-49a4-8644-344cdeebb707 Ridge Ave Roxborough Historic District Gothic Revival Architecture The picturesque Gothic Revival style was popularized by landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing’s Cottage Residences, first published in 1842 and reprinted in many editions in the mid and late nineteenth century. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, American architecture styles, including Georgian, Adam, Federal, and Greek Revival, were predicated on Classical forms and vocabulary. In the early nineteenth century, as industry grew, rural areas transitioned into suburbs, a middle class emerged, and the field of architecture was professionalized in the United States. Those architects proposed a new architectural vocabulary appropriate for housing in suburban environments. In 1837, architect Andrew Jackson Davis (1803-92) published Rural Residences, in which he drew from British sources to champion the Gothic Revival style for domestic architecture for the first time in America. Rural Residences was influential, but the Gothic Revival style for American domestic architecture was catapulted into collective national consciousness by landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-52), a friend and collaborator with Davis, who published A Treatise of the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1841), followed by Cottage Residences (1842), and The Architecture of Country Houses (1850). In his books, Downing popularized the modest-sized, inexpensive detached cottage in a suburban or rural setting. Downing’s pattern books provided multiple design suggestions for this type of dwelling, ranging from a small suburban cottage to a villa in the Italian style. By the mid-1840s, the picturesque Gothic or Gothic Revival style of architecture began to increase in popularity for residences, largely due to Downing’s pattern books. Downing’s Cottage Residences is considered “one of the most widely used books in American architectural literature.”80 Downing’s The Architecture of Country Houses, a companion to Cottage Residences, has been called a “seminal” book in American architecture. According to the National Historic Landmark nomination for the Rotch House, a Gothic Revival house in New Bedford, Massachusetts designed by Davis in 1845, “the publication and eventual dissemination and popularity of Downing’s Country Houses became a watershed event in the evolution of American domestic architecture, and today cultural historians recognize the book’s significant consequences for the shaping of popular taste in the pre-Civil War period.”81 While his books included many details of house and landscape designs, Downing provided the designs as suggestions, which a builder could adapt to the site and the needs of the homeowner. Downing’s books, in collaboration with Davis, who provided many of the architectural designs and illustrations, inspired the design of numerous cottage residences in rural and suburban settings, leading to an era characterized by these types of Victorian cottage residences. A rural, rather than urban, setting was considered important to the Gothic Revival style, as the building was intended to be compatible with the natural landscape, not situated on a narrow urban lot.82 The primary distinguishing characteristic of the Gothic Revival style is the centered cross gable roof with decorated barge boards. Other characteristics include finials, steeply pitched roofs, pointed arch lancet windows extending into the gables, and open entry and full-width porches with flattened, pointed Gothic arches. One of the best examples of the Gothic Revival style in Roxborough is the Amos Barnes House at 559 Righter Street, at the intersection of Ridge, Righter, and Hermit. Constructed of Wissahickon schist about 1856, the Barnes House effectively represents the Gothic Revival style with Victorian Cottage elements, as reflected in the center cross gable decorative barge board at the roofline. Originally, the building had a full-width front porch and lancet window at the gable (Figure 29). Other excellent examples of the Gothic Revival style on Ridge Avenue include the houses at 5508 Ridge Avenue, which includes the centered cross gable, arched gable windows, and full-width front porch; and 8029 Ridge Avenue, which includes the centered cross gable, lancet windows, and a highly ornamented, full-width, front porch. The building at 8029 Ridge Avenue is unique in that it is clad in wood shiplap siding rather than masonry. Also, rather than decorative bargeboards, it has bracketed cornices, linking it to the Italianate style as well. Describe your image This information has been posted by RMWHS with the permission of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Sections: 1 Intro and Nomination Form 2 Boundary and Description 3 Statement of Significance 4 Native Americans 5 Patent Holders and Early Settlers 6 Ridge Road 7 Early Roxborough 8 Georgian and Colonial Architecture 9 During the Revolutionary War 10 Federal Architecture 11 Development of Manayunk 12 Greek Revival Architecture 13 Early 19th Century 14 Gothic Revival Architecture 15 Italianate Architecture 16 During and After the Civil War 17 Second Empire Architecture 18 Queen Anne Architecture 19 Turn of the Century 20 Conclusion and Bibliography 80 Adolf K.Placzek, “Preface to the Dover Edition,” in Andrew Jackson Downing, Victorian Cottage Residences (New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1981), p. iii. 81 Peggi Medeiros and William E. Krattinger, National Historic Landmark Nomination for William J. Rotch Gothic Cottage, designated February 17, 2006, p. 9. 82 Leland M. Roth, A Concise History of American Architecture (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1979), p. 100-103; Virginia & Lee. McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), p. 200. Top of page

99477795-38e3-434c-b69e-f61ee051751a Ridge Ave Roxborough Historic District Turn of the Century Although the Roxborough Railroad failed to provide access to the rural sections of Roxborough for suburban development, the construction of the Walnut Lane Bridge over the Wissahickon in 1907 and 1908 did better connect Roxborough to Germantown and open the way for development of the open land overlooking the valley (Figure 38). Until the bridge opened at the dawn of the automobile era in 1908, traveling between Germantown and Roxborough required the steep descent into the gorge and the equally steep climb out of it, an extremely difficult task in the era of horse-drawn carriages and wagons. Constructed by engineers of the City of Philadelphia, the concrete arch bridge, the longest single-span masonry arch in the world when completed, was considered an engineering marvel.109 While the Walnut Lane Bridge offered a convenient connection to Germantown, Roxborough’s boosters still wanted a direct connection to burgeoning North Philadelphia and to the downtown beyond that did not require negotiating the steep hill up the Ridge from the Schuylkill or the deep Wissahickon gorge. The Henry Avenue Bridge, which carries Henry Avenue over the Wissahickon and Lincoln Drive, was contemplated as early as 1912 as part of a subway extension plan, but was not implemented for nearly two decades. By the time it was implemented, the automobile had supplanted all other forms of transportation. After many years of planning and false starts, the bridge was designed by prominent engineers Ralph Modjeski and Frank Masters in collaboration with renowned architect Paul Cret in 1927, constructed in the early 1930s, and completed in May 1932. At the same time, Henry Avenue was extended from East Falls, across the Wissahickon, and through Roxborough to Ridge Avenue in the Andorra section. The wide, four-lane boulevard, which runs along the western boundary of the Wissahickon section of Fairmount Park, was designed for automobiles, not horses or trolleys, and opened the remainder of Roxborough for suburban development. Although the mass transit facilities were built into the bridge, no transit line was run along Henry Avenue and the bridge’s transit facilities were never used. Even before the bridge was completed, real estate agents were marketing suburban homes along Henry Avenue. For example, in 1927 real estate agents Mason & Bruhns advertised an “exceptional home ‘In the Open Suburbs of Philadelphia,’ 613 Walnut Lane at Henry avenue, adjoining the Wissahickon Valley and proposed golf course. New Henry Avenue Bridge will enhance value.”110 Describe your image In 1907, while the Walnut Lane Bridge was under construction, Fowler & Kelly published an aerial view of Roxborough from West Laurel Hill Cemetery drawn by Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler (Figure 39). The bird’s-eye, which includes the incomplete Walnut Lane Bridge, depicts Roxborough, with its dense suburban development in Wissahickon and Leverington and its open rural land to the north and east, in its final moments before the automobile would forever alter development patterns and the built environment in the lower northwest section of the city. Describe your image Figure 39. Thaddeus Mortimer, Birds Eye View of Manayunk, Wissahickon-Roxborough from West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1907, published by Fowler & Kelly, Morrisville, Pa., 1907. This information has been posted by RMWHS with the permission of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Sections: 1 Intro and Nomination Form 2 Boundary and Description 3 Statement of Significance 4 Native Americans 5 Patent Holders and Early Settlers 6 Ridge Road 7 Early Roxborough 8 Georgian and Colonial Architecture 9 During the Revolutionary War 10 Federal Architecture 11 Development of Manayunk 12 Greek Revival Architecture 13 Early 19th Century 14 Gothic Revival Architecture 15 Italianate Architecture 16 During and After the Civil War 17 Second Empire Architecture 18 Queen Anne Architecture 19 Turn of the Century 20 Conclusion and Bibliography 109 Contemporary accounts of the Walnut Lane Bridge also include “The Walnut Lane Bridge Across the Wissahickon Valley,” The Press, 27 April 1907; “Bridge Over the Wissahickon Creek and Its Main Span,” Public Ledger, 11 July 1907; “Bridge False Work Collapses; One Dead,” Public Ledger, 28 December 1907. On the design and construction, see George S. Webster, “Annual Report of the Board of Surveys,” in Second Annual Message of John E. Reyburn, Mayor of the City of Philadelphia ... for the Ending December 31, 1908 (Philadelphia, 1909), II, 328-329; George S. Webster and Henry H. Quimby, “Walnut Lane Bridge, Philadelphia,” Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 35, no. 6 (August 1909): 587-625; “The Walnut Lane Bridge, Philadelphia,” Engineering Record 54, no. 20 (17 November 1906): 542-544; “Moving the Centering of the Walnut Lane Arch at Philadelphia,” Engineering News 58, no. 7 (15 August 1907): 168; “The Walnut Lane Bridge, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia,” Engineering Record 56, no. 9 (31 August 1907): 222-226; J.A. Stewart, “The New Bridge Over the Wissahickon at Philadelphia,” Scientific American 97, no. 22 (30 November 1907): 392-393; George Maurice Heller, “The Design of the Centering for the 233-Ft. Arch Span, Walnut Lane Bridge, Phila., Pa.,” Proceedings of the Engineers’ Club of Philadelphia 25, no. 3 (July 1908): 257-278; “The Effect of Temperature on the Walnut Lane Concrete Arch,” Engineering News 62, no. 15 (7 October 1909): 376; “Walnut-Lane Bridge, Philadelphia, Pa.,” The Builder 98, no. 3516 (25 June 1910): 727-730; “The Largest Single-Span Concrete Bridge in the World,” World To-Day 15 (December 1908): 1293; Frederic Blount Warren, “The Walnut Lane, Philadelphia, Bridge: A Majestic Concrete Structure,” Scientific American Supplement 66, no. 1715 (14 November 1908): 306. 110 Inquirer, 27 November 1927, p. 69. Top of page

0c66d294-f32d-4281-b999-89b4759f758d Ridge Ave Roxborough Historic District Early 19th Century Despite the explosive growth in Manayunk in the first half of the nineteenth century, Roxborough remained during these decades a linear village along Ridge Road with an economy based largely on agriculture and milling. However, many Roxborough farms were diversifying, supplementing their incomes with stone quarrying, lumbering, and other commercial activities. Real estate advertisements offer a window into activities in Roxborough. In 1836, a 40-acre property near the six-mile stone on Ridge Road was offered for sale. It included a three-story stone house, a stone barn with stabling for four horses and 12 cows, a grain house, cart house, poultry house, hog house, corn house, two apple orchards, and a “kitchen garden, well set with Strawberries, Raspberries, &c. [from which] 170 quarts have been picked in one day.” The property included several acres of timber and “quarries of excellent turnpike stone.”66 In 1839, “a valuable small farm,” a 57.5-acre property on “the Philadelphia and Norristown turnpike road” at the western edge of Roxborough Township, was offered for sale. It included a stone dwelling, “a good large barn with stabling sufficient for eight cows and four horses,” an apple orchard, three springs, and land “in a good state of cultivation and all under good fence.” The property also included “3 acres of good young thriving timber” and “a good Stone Shop, formerly occupied as a Weaver Shop.”67 Also in 1839, a 33-acre farm, “situate on the Ridge Turnpike Road, in Roxborough township, nearly opposite the Sorrel Horse Tavern,” was offered at public sale. The advertisement declared that the “land is in a good state of cultivation and has a body of valuable timber.”68 Hinting at changes, an 1844 advertisement offered a 22-acre farm in Roxborough Township “on a public road leading from Ridge pike to Flat Rock Bridge and Manayunk,” that, in addition to the usual stone house, barn, and spring house, included “a stream of water running through the Farm, sufficient for steam machinery.”69 At about the same time that the farm was advertised with a water source sufficient for steam machinery, omnibus lines connecting Roxborough and the City of Philadelphia with reliable, relatively inexpensive, daily transportation were initiated.70 A line was established in 1840 with omnibus service every day but Sunday leaving Amy’s Hotel in Roxborough at 8:30 a.m. and returning to Roxborough from the Black Bear Inn on S. 5th Street near Market Street at 3:30 p.m. The fare was 20 cents (Figure 26).71 A line was established in 1842 with omnibus service leaving the Sorrel Horse Inn in Roxborough for the City of Philadelphia via Wissahickon, Falls of Schuylkill, and Laurel Hill at 6:30 a.m. and returning to Roxborough from the Merchants’ Exchange at 3rd and Walnut Streets at 1:45 p.m. The fare to Roxborough was 25 cents.72 While the first of the two omnibus lines was named the Farmers’ Line, its primary customers would not have been farmers, who carted their fruits, vegetables, and meats to market in wagons. Instead, the riders would have been a new breed of Roxborough residents who had frequent and sometimes daily business in the city. While the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad had facilitated commuting from Manayunk and the lowest reaches of Ridge Road to the City of Philadelphia as early as the mid 1830s, the omnibus lines of the early 1840s opened up all of Roxborough to commuting.73 Describe your image The introduction of the omnibus lines on Ridge Road in the early 1840s indicated that Roxborough, which had been a farming and milling community for nearly 150 years, was transitioning. As early as 1839, the beginnings of suburbanization were evident in Roxborough. That year, Charles Jones and T. Mason Mitchell advertised development lots for sale on Green Lane, just off Ridge Road, that were measured in square feet, not acres. The 50-foot wide lots, which were between 150 and 250 feet deep, were promoted as having attractive views, a healthful environment, convenient to the railroad and turnpike, and in the proximity of several churches and the Village of Manayunk. The advertisement promised: “The Lots will, when built upon, be sufficiently large for handsome gardens attached to each. This, on viewing the neighborhood, will prove a desirable and safe investment to many persons, either for summer or permanent residences.”74 The advertisement made no mention of barns, meadows, fruit trees, spring houses, or other farm accoutrements. The development lots on Green Lane were intended for commuters, who walked to Manayunk or took the train or omnibus to the city. They may have been the first suburban housing lots laid out in Roxborough Township. Although the omnibus lines and suburban house lots portended changes coming to Roxborough, Charles Ellet’s Map of the County of Philadelphia from Actual Survey of 1843 indicates that Roxborough remained a linear village running along Ridge Road (Figure 27). The map clearly shows that, outside of densely developed Manayunk, Roxborough Township was sparsely populated with few roads running east and west off the main spine. The Ellet map of 1843 identifies the main commercial and institutional sites in Roxborough. It depicts four inns, all on Ridge Road: the Leverington Hotel near Green Lane, Roxborough Hotel at Gorgas Lane, Buttonwood Tavern at Livezey’s Mill Lane, and Sorrel Horse Tavern above Ship Lane. The 1843 map depicts three manufacturing facilities associated with the textile industry: the Gorgas Cotton Factory on Gorgas Lane at the Wissahickon Creek; Haley's Dye Works on Gorgas Lane; and Rees' Print Works on Eliza's Lane. The map calls out five mills along or near the Wissahickon: Wise’s Mill and Livezey’s Mill on the upper Wissahickon; a spice mill and the Rittenhouse Paper Mill at the confluence of the Wissahickon with Paper Mill Run; and Robinson's (misspelling of Robeson’s) Mill on the Wissahickon at the crossing of the Ridge Road. The map notes the Roxborough Poorhouse in the Old Plow Tavern on Ridge Road below Shur's Lane. It calls out the Baptist Church as well as the German Reformed Church at Ship Lane. The German or Dutch Reformed Church was founded in 1835 and transitioned to the Roxborough Presbyterian Church in 1854. The map identified a schoolhouse at the intersection of Wise’s Mill Road and Livezey’s Mill Lane. The school, known as the Heiss or Yellow School House, was established in 1812. The map called out the hall of the Roxborough Masonic Lodge, No. 135, located on Ridge Road at Shur's Lane. The fraternal organization had been founded in 1813.75 An 1851 inventory of tax-exempt property in Philadelphia County listed all such properties in Roxborough, again portraying the rural area as sparsely populated. The 1851 inventory included the Roxborough Baptist Church and Burial Ground, Dutch Reformed Burial Ground, Lutheran Church, a volunteer fire brigade called the Good Intent Engine Company, the poorhouse or almshouse, three schoolhouses, and two tollhouses associated with the Ridge Road Turnpike.76 Like Ellet’s map of 1843, John Levering’s Plan of the Township of Roxborough of 1848 depicts Roxborough as a linear village along Ridge Avenue, but also shows the very beginnings of suburban development along Green Lane as well as High Street (Lyceum Avenue).77 Houses on relatively small lots on a grid of streets first appear in Roxborough on the 1848 map. Suburban development was occurring along Ridge Avenue as well, especially in the lower section near the Wissahickon railroad station and other transportation options. For example, in 1850, a real estate advertisement offering a property at the corner of Ridge and Hermit Lane (now 559 Righter Street) extolled its easy access to transportation. “The situation is high and healthy, with a daily communication to and from the city, by Stages passing the door, or by Omnibuses connecting the Railroad at Wissahickon Railroad Bridge, and half a mile therefrom, and within half a mile of the Manayunk Steamboat Landing, affording an hourly conveyance to of from the city—thereby making it a desirable private Country Residence, or for a man of business, whose location is in the city.”78 While men of business may have commuted to Manayunk for managerial positions in the mills as early as the early 1840s, by 1850, men of business were living in Roxborough and commuting to the business center in the heart of Philadelphia. Describe your image As Roxborough began its transition in the 1840s from a farming and milling community to a suburb for the industrial area flourishing at nearby Manayunk, several institutions were established to support the growing population. In 1841, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Roxborough Lodge, No. 66, was established. The fraternal organization erected a hall at the northwest corner of Ridge and Lyceum. The Roxborough Lyceum, an educational organization that housed a consortium of libraries, was chartered in 1854 and erected a building on Ridge across from the Odd Fellows Hall in 1856. The Lyceum became the Roxborough Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1896. The German Lutheran Church was established in 1845 at Pechin and Martin Streets, on the boundary of Manayunk and Roxborough. The current church at the site dates to 1902. The Ridge Avenue Methodist Church was established in 1847. The first Methodist services were held in Yellow School House, before a church building was erected at Ridge and Shawmont. St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church was established in 1859 and a large church complex on Ridge near Shur's Lane was begun in 1862, when the sanctuary cornerstone was laid. The Church was consecrated 1863 and a tower added in 1871. The church was enlarged and a parish building constructed in 1874. The church was enlarged again in 1885 (Figure 32). Farther to the north, St. Alban's Episcopal Church was established in 1859 and a church building was erected on Fairthorne, just off Ridge, in 1861. In 1854, the City and County of Philadelphia were consolidated, ending more than a century and a half of independent government in Roxborough Township and incorporating the emerging suburb into the City of Philadelphia. With the consolidation, the newly annexed portions of Philadelphia were divided into wards. Roxborough comprised part of the 21st Ward, which included Roxborough, Manayunk, and Penn Township (East Falls and Allegheny West). In 1860, the 21st Ward had a population of 17,159. Samuel Smedley’s Atlas of the City of Philadelphia of 1862 shows that during the decade leading up to the Civil War, Leverington had emerged as a neighborhood in its own right within Roxborough, with twelve blocks of suburban development bounded by Ridge, Krams, Manayunk, and Martin on the west side of Ridge and more subdivision and construction along Leverington on the east Ridge (Figure 28).79 Describe your image This information has been posted by RMWHS with the permission of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Sections: 1 Intro and Nomination Form 2 Boundary and Description 3 Statement of Significance 4 Native Americans 5 Patent Holders and Early Settlers 6 Ridge Road 7 Early Roxborough 8 Georgian and Colonial Architecture 9 During the Revolutionary War 10 Federal Architecture 11 Development of Manayunk 12 Greek Revival Architecture 13 Early 19th Century 14 Gothic Revival Architecture 15 Italianate Architecture 16 During and After the Civil War 17 Second Empire Architecture 18 Queen Anne Architecture 19 Turn of the Century 20 Conclusion and Bibliography 66 Public Ledger, 3 December 1836, p. 3. 67 Public Ledger, 19 January 1839, p. 4. 68 Public Ledger, 30 October 1839, p. 4. 69 Public Ledger, 24 December 1844, p. 4. 70 Stagecoaches had traveled Ridge Road since the eighteenth century. For example, in 1834, a stagecoach line ran regular service between the City of Philadelphia and Norristown, leaving the City at 3:00 p.m. daily and arriving in Norristown “early the same evening,” and leaving Norristown for the City at 7:00 a.m. An announcement of the line noted that “Passengers will be taken up and set down in any part of Philadelphia or Norristown.” Philadelphia As It Is (Philadelphia: P.J. Gray, 1834), p. 125. 71 Public Ledger, 14 November 1840, p. 3. 72 Public Ledger, 7 July 1842, p. 3. 73 Competing with the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad for commuters to Manayunk, J.W. Funck offered a combination rail and boat service to Manayunk as early as 1848. He operated railroad passenger cars from 3rd and Willow Streets to Fairmount, where passengers connected with a steamboat to Laurel Hill and Manayunk. The service ran at 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. and then every 30 minutes from 1:30 p.m. through the afternoon. See Public Ledger, 21 June 1848, p. 4. 74 Public Ledger, 24 April 1839, p. 1. 75 Horace H. Platten and William Lawton, The History of the Roxborough Masonic Lodge, No. 135 (Philadelphia: The Centennial Committee of the Roxborough Masonic Lodge, No. 135, 1913). 76 Elihud Tarr, Memorial of the Commissioners of the County of Philadelphia to the Legislature upon the Subject of the Laws Exempting Certain Property from Taxation, Together with a Schedule of Exempt Property (Philadelphia: The County Commissioners, 1851). 77 John Levering, Plan of the Township of Roxborough with the property holders' names &c. Manayunk, published by M. Dripps, 1848. 78 Public Ledger, 26 July 1850, p. 4. 79 Samuel L. Smedley, Atlas of the City of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1862). Top of page

Historical Maps 1752 < Previous > Back to Historical Map List < Next > 1752 - Phila & Adjacent Source: URL: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3824p.ct000294 Full Name: A map of Philadelphia and parts adjacent : with a perspective view of the State-House Visit the source URL to use zoom features, find additional formats, or download a high quality image.

9c89da16-ca78-44e6-a7d2-0d24c5906b7d Ridge Ave Roxborough Historic District Georgian and Colonial Architecture The Georgian style was the dominant architectural style of the English colonies from the early eighteenth century to about 1780, but forms of the style persisted in some areas to as late as 1830. Although the style derives its name from England’s King George, the buildings in this style in Roxborough probably owe as much to Germany as to Britain, and therefore may be more appropriately referred to as simply Colonial in style. Georgian or Colonial style houses were typically side-gabled, two-story boxes with windows and doors arranged in strict symmetry. Additions were often constructed to the sides or rears as new needs arose. Georgian houses in northwest Philadelphia were typically constructed of Wissahickon schist. Relatively simple buildings, they were typically ornamented with molded cornices, door surrounds, and, in the early years, with pent eaves. The buildings typically featured shed or pedimented dormers. The Georgian vernacular farmhouse at 900 Northwestern Avenue is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Roxborough (Figure 17). The ancient farmhouse stands with an early barn on a rural lot at the northern edge of Roxborough, providing an impression of township during its bucolic, farming days. The house has been dated to 1690 and the barn to 1700 by one local historian. While dates for the buildings have not yet been thoroughly documented, they more likely are situated in the 1720s, when Hans George John owned the property.57 The whitewashed stone house with shake roof, which sits very low to the ground, includes many of the features of early German Colonial buildings in southeastern Pennsylvania: pent eaves, shed and gabled dormers, large chimneys, and multi-paned windows. The tall stone barn with steeply pitched roof is typical of early German-American construction. The twin house at 7549 and 7551 Ridge Avenue is an excellent example of a Georgian vernacular building (Figure 18). It is a symmetrical, side-gabled, two-story, stone building set low to the ground with a steeply pitched roof. Although the buildings include informal date stones on the front facades reading 1717 and 1784, it appears that the building was not constructed as early as 1717, but was actually constructed at some point after 1764. While marketing the 179¼-acre property, which was roughly bounded by Ridge Road and the Wissahickon Creek and the current lines of Shawmont and Wigard Avenues, for sale in 1764, John Malcolm advertised it as: A Valuable Plantation, in Roxborough Township, about nine miles from Philadelphia, containing 180 Acres, 100 of which is well wooded, the rest clear, and under Fence, with a good Log-house, Barn and Stable, 6 acres watered meadow, and more may be made, a Well of excellent Water by the Door, an Orchard of the best Newtown Pippins. The Situation is exceedingly high, commands an extensive Prospect. 58 Malcolm made no mention of the two-story stone house on Ridge Road in his 1764 advertisement offering the property for sale, but only mentioned a log house, barn, and stable. Malcolm sold the property in 1764 to Andrew Crawford. The property was held by members of the Crawford family during the later eighteenth century, when the existing two-story, stone, twin building was likely constructed.59 Describe your image Several other significant eighteenth-century buildings stand along Ridge Avenue in Roxborough including the twin houses at 6633 and 6635 Ridge Avenue, the twin houses at 7616-18 Ridge Avenue, the buildings at 6835 Ridge Avenue and 7625 Ridge Avenue. All are two-story, side-gable, stone buildings with dormers. The vernacular stone building at 7701 Ridge Avenue is an unusual survivor; dating to about 1790, the small, side-gable, stone building has 2-½ stories with half-height windows at the top floor, a fenestration style that would become prevalent in the middle third of the nineteenth century. This information has been posted by RMWHS with the permission of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Sections: 1 Intro and Nomination Form 2 Boundary and Description 3 Statement of Significance 4 Native Americans 5 Patent Holders and Early Settlers 6 Ridge Road 7 Early Roxborough 8 Georgian and Colonial Architecture 9 During the Revolutionary War 10 Federal Architecture 11 Development of Manayunk 12 Greek Revival Architecture 13 Early 19th Century 14 Gothic Revival Architecture 15 Italianate Architecture 16 During and After the Civil War 17 Second Empire Architecture 18 Queen Anne Architecture 19 Turn of the Century 20 Conclusion and Bibliography 57 Jim Duffin kindly provided his research into the property, which concludes that the house was likely built by Hans George John in the 1720s, not the 1690s, as others have claimed. 58 Pennsylvania Gazette, 1 March 1764, p. 3. 59 The 180-acre property was sold by the Pennsylvania Land Company to John Malcolm in 1763 (Deed Book H-19-202); from John Malcolm to Andrew Crawford in 1764 (Deed Book H-19-213). It passed by will to Hugh Crawford and then to Ann, Mary, Jane, and Hugh Crawford Jr. by will in 1783. Top of page

Historical Maps 1862 < Previous > Back to Historical Map List < Next > 1862 - Atlas of Phila (NW) Source: URL: Free Library of Philadelphia https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/12334 Full Name: Atlas of the City of Philadelphia, 1862, Section 20 [Northwest] Visit the source URL to use zoom features, find additional formats, or download a high quality image.

0bde0beb-8c39-44b3-9265-153294e93123 Main Street Manayunk Historic District Economic Development The development of Manayunk as a significant regional and industrial center was due to construction of the Manayunk Canal. While Manayunk continued to flourish as a manufacturing center into the 1930s, it is the 19th century industrial development, which is of historic significance. Before the canal was opened in 1819, industry located in Manayunk because of the access to water; pre-canal industries included grist mills, glass and paper, iron rolling and wood screw production. Industries were typically small scale, serving a local market. After completion of the canal, Manayunk quickly expanded as a center of diverse small scale industrial production including cotton, drugs, oak grinding, and the manufacturing of hat bodies and paper. The construction of the canal brought three potential benefits for industry: 1. The availability of coal for industrial production. 2. The availability of waterpower. 3. Transportation of raw materials and finished goods. Realizing the value of the newly available waterpower, the Schuylkill Navigation Company began marketing this valuable industrial commodity. The first waterpower was sold to Captain John Towers on April 10, 1819, and he proceeded to construct the first mill in Manayunk, on land formerly part of the Levering estate. In 1820, Charles Hagner constructed the second mill, between Green Lane and Leverington Street, for the preparation of Oil and grinding of drugs, and subsequently other mills were constructed. During the 1820s, the scale of industrial production magnified, and operations increasingly focused on cotton textile production. By 1828, 10 mills were in operation with 6 homes under construction. A commentator described Manayunk in 1828 as follows: "I rode over to a new village called Manayunk, lying about 4 miles above me on the left bank of the Schuylkill, it is flourishing and increasing in dwelling houses and mills. I visited the largest cotton factory, belonging to Mr. Boris and Mr. Jerome Keating. These gentlemen have a 4-story stone building, 200' long, containing 4,500 spindles and one hundred and twenty power looms, all worked by about 200 persons. " Many of the area’s first factories combined assembly line production with forms of cottage industry. Because a large portion of Manayunk labor force was unskilled, there was substantial technological innovation. In. contrast, competing textile centers such as Kensington, with it skilled hand weavers, were slow to adopt mechanization. Mechanization led to increased labor organization and some of the unions were organized in Manayunk in the 1830s. The national depression of the late 1870s ended the early diverse phase of industrial growth and reinforced cotton textile manufacturing as the dominant industry of Manayunk. The scale of production continued to increase, many of the first mill structures were demolished and redeveloped as larger multi-story structures to accommodate new industrial processes. Describe your image With the commencement of the Civil War, cotton from the South became unavailable resulting in the closing of many mills. Surviving mill owners switched to wool to supply the needs of the Union Army. After the war, wool and wool blend textiles continued to be an important aspect of Manayunk industry while cotton industries declined. Because of competition from mills in the South, industrial specialization prevailed with factories linking their output to a few steps in the production process, selling their materials to other factories. By the end of the century, Manayunk factories were producing standard cotton and wool fabrics, as well as carpet yarns, silks, "shoddy" blends, hosiery, dress goods, cashmere, jeans, and other articles. Despite this diversification, the first generation of mill owners such as Ripka and Schofield, who prospered before the Civil War, continued to define the structure of Manayunk industry. After the war, the rate of industrial expansion declined, and the new mills were generally less profitable. While textile and textile related production continued to be important through the 1920s, the manufacture of paper, soap, chemicals increased in importance until the Depression. Today, although no longer a regionally significant location for industrial activity, Manayunk remains a relatively satisfactory location for existing industries. Factors contributing to the area’s longevity include easy access to the interstate highway system, a stable community, availability of water, and physical isolation from the deteriorated sections of the City. This information has been posted by RMWHS with the permission of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Sections: 1 Intro and Nomination Form 2 Description 3 Significance of Manayunk 4 The Schuylkill Canal 5 Schuylkill Navigation Company 6 Manayunk Canal 7 Economic Development 8 Manayunk Social Development 9 The Industry of Venice Island 10 Main Street Manayunk 11 Bibliography 12 Boundary Details Top of page

Status: This is a historic cemetery and no longer open for new burials. Bethany Lutheran Cemetery 378 Martin Street, Philadelphia, PA, USA Owner: Lutheran Church of SE Pennsylvania Status: This is a historic cemetery and no longer open for new burials. Visitors should see the sign posted on the cemetery gate. No pets are permitted. History German-speaking Lutherans of the Roxborough, Manayunk, Wissahickon area organized the Bethany German Lutheran Church (Bethanien Kirche) in 1845. The cemetery located at 378 Martin Street was opened in 1847 and the last burial took place in 1955. While the precise number of individuals buried in the cemetery is not known as the records have been lost, there were 73 grave markers that were transcribed and added to findagrave.com. However, the actual number buried in the cemetery plot is likely several times that given the size of the cemetery, growth of the congregation, and the number of deaths that would have occurred over the 104 years. RMWHS Archivists found evidence that at least than 9 Civil War soldiers are buried at Bethany Cemetery. Ongoing research will be done by RMWHS to add what is known of others buried here. If you have burial records, newspaper articles, obituaries or documentation of someone buried at Bethany, please share the information with RMWHS. Gallery of Photos

69d054a1-fcdc-4f47-8f71-e8f94053e952 Main Street Manayunk Historic District Intro and Nomination Form Source: The information provided in this section was extracted from the "Main Street Manayunk Historic District (1984)" PDF which is available through the Philadelphia Historical Commission. The content here accounts for only about 10 of the 36 pages in the original document. Notice: The text in this section may not be reused or repurposed without the permission of the Philadelphia Historical Commission -- contact them directly to secure the necessary approval. The images in this section are from a number of different sources -- contact RMWHS for details. Download: The complete historic district document entitled "Main Street Manayunk Historic District (1984)" is available to download for free from the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Nomination of the Historic District Philadelphia Register of Historic Places "Main Street Manayunk Historic District" Describe your image This information has been posted by RMWHS with the permission of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Sections: 1 Intro and Nomination Form 2 Description 3 Significance of Manayunk 4 The Schuylkill Canal 5 Schuylkill Navigation Company 6 Manayunk Canal 7 Economic Development 8 Manayunk Social Development 9 The Industry of Venice Island 10 Main Street Manayunk 11 Bibliography 12 Boundary Details Top of page

Historical Maps 1876 < Previous > Back to Historical Map List < Next > 1876 - Fairmount Park Int'l Exhibit Source: URL: Free Library of Philadelphia https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/52583 Full Name: Fairmount Park International Exhibition: Philadelphia, 1876, Map Visit the source URL to use zoom features, find additional formats, or download a high quality image.

Status: Structural improvements began in 2023 Shawmont Station 7700 Nixon Street, Philadelphia, PA, USA Owner: SEPTA Status: Structural improvements began in 2023 Visitors to the station are urged to be cautious. Access to the property is not permitted and parking is not available below Shawmont Ave. If you do visit, park on Shawmont Ave and walk down -- but be careful crossing the tracks as this is a working train line. History The following timeline was created by John Johnstone, Historian, Shawmont Station Advocate, RMWHS member. __________________ 1825 - Nathan Nathans, Center City Philadelphia lawyer, purchases land bordering Schuylkill Navigation Company's Towpath, along the Schuylkill River at a Sheriff's Sale, in Roxborough Township, above the Flat Rock Dam, formerly owned by the Criedlands. 1826 - After returning from England, Architect, William Strickland writes his "Reports on Canals, Railways, Roads, and Other Subjects", made to the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvement. The Schuylkill Navigation Company completes laying their Schuylkill Turnpike between Domino Lane in Roxborough and Montgomery County, previously known as The Pebble Road. Nathan Nathans builds his vacation home on a small section of land between the Schuylkill Turnpike and Towpath, close to the Schuylkill River. 1827 - The Schuylkill Navigation Company maps it entire system between Schuylkill County PA, and Philadelphia, including prior land purchases for their towpath, as well as mapping their turnpike roads and bordering buildings. Visible on map is Nathan Nathans' country home. 1830 - Nathan Nathans sells his land and vacation home to John Wise, local Miller, but remains legal executor of Mr. Wise's estate. 1832 - The Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad operate Philadelphia's first passenger train between 9th& Green Streets, Philadelphia, and Germantown, utilizing Mathias Baldwin's steam locomotive, "Old Ironsides". 1833 - Architect William Strickland and Engineer Henry Campbell design the Norristown branch of the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad and construction begins. 1834 - Horse-drawn passenger trains operate from 9th and Green Streets to Manayunk on a set of single tracks, while tracks are laid northwest to Norristown. Nathan Nathans sues the Philadelphia, Germantown, and Norristown Railroad, for damages associated with laying tracks in front of John Wise's house. 1835 - The Norristown Branch is completed, and passenger trains make their way to Norristown. Nathan Nathans loses lawsuit to Railroad, and John Wises' house and property are sold to Henry Croskey, local Lumber Merchant and Passenger Railway Enthusiast. Mr. Croskey creates a runoff stream leading to the Schuylkill River on his property during his lumbering process and names it "Green Tree Run". He also builds an access road between the Ridge Turnpike in Upper Roxborough and the Schuylkill Turnpike and names it "Green Tree Lane". He names his newly acquired house by the Railroad, "Green Tree Station", which he facilitates for passenger service and freight service for his lumbering business, while using the Schuylkill Navigation Company for lumber transport as well. At Green Tree Station, Mr. Croskey houses Schuylkill Navigation Company workers overnight, who load large shipments of lumber onto barges, making it a "mixed use" building. 1836 - Engineer, Henry Campbell designs and sells steam Engines to the Railroad for the Norristown Branch. Freight branches are extended to the Plymouth Limekilns from Conshohocken and to a King of Prussia Quarry from Norristown. Campbell's poorly designed engines easily de-rail on grades and sharp curves. Mathias Baldwin produces more engines for the railroad, and steam engines fully replace horses on the Railroad. The Norristown Branch becomes double-tracked to facilitate high traffic. 1837-1840 - Henry Croskey continues to purchase nearby land for his lumbering business and builds his new homestead on a hill above Green Tree Station. He is noted to have made vast improvements to the area and to have facilitated the Railroad, Turnpike and Waterway, consistent with Pennsylvania's Internal Improvement plan. Both the Coleman and Crawford stagecoach companies start transporting passengers from the Ridge Turnpike to Railroad stations on the Norristown Branch. 1842 - The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad open passenger and freight service between Broad and Cherry Streets, in Philadelphia and Pottsville, PA, with a branch to Port Richmond, on the Delaware River, for coal transport. Their Main line runs along the West Bank of Schuylkill River, opposite to the Norristown Branch of Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad. 1843 - The Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad combine freight and passenger services with the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, with mutual access to the Delaware River docks at the foot of Noble Street, from the 9th and Green Street terminus. Henry Croskey opens a second business at the Railroad dock, utilizing the Railroad for lumber transport between Green Tree Station and the Delaware River. The Schuylkill Navigation Company loses revenue to the Railroads, which run from the Coal Regions in five hours, as opposed to the Navigation Company, taking six days. 1850 - A freshet causes flooding from the Schuylkill River and the Flat Rock Bridge below the Flat Rock Dam, between Lower Merion and the Schuylkill Turnpike, is destroyed. To facilitate travel close to the two points, a ferry is operated upstream between Rose Glen Station in Gladwyne, and Green Tree Station. 1853 - Henry Croskey moves to Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, though his lumbering business is maintained in Roxborough. Mr. Croskey becomes a leader in planning for intercity, public rail transportation. 1857 - Henry Croskey sells Green Tree Station and grounds of approximately seven by ten perches, to the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad, for one dollar. He also sells his estate above Green Tree Station to Thomas Shaw, inventor, who would invent several permanent improvements for the Railroads. The University of Pennsylvania begins having boat races on the Schuylkill River, between Green Tree Station and Spring Mill, through to the early Twentieth Century. The Railroad builds a freight station across the tracks. 1870 - The wealthy Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, who permanently leases the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad, absorb a financially troubled Schuylkill Navigation Company. Green Tree Station receives several upgrades to include a tin, fireproof roof with remodeled chimneys, an addition to house a permanent Station resident, its central doorway & stairway are removed and replaced with a bay window, housing a telegraph. Windows facing its platform are converted into doorways, one of which for a waiting room. Scored concrete is painted white and its passenger platform roof replaced. 1873 - With the Pennsylvania Railroad having a station in nearby Chester County, also named "Green Tree", Green Tree Station in Philadelphia County, is changed to "Shawmont", named after nearby resident and inventor, Thomas Shaw. 1874 - Henry Croskey opens and is President of the horse-drawn Ridge Avenue Railway, operating from North Philadelphia into Roxborough and Barren Hill, which eventually becomes electrified in 1884 - The Pennsylvania Railroad opens their Schuylkill Branch for service, which parallels the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad's Norristown Branch and Main Line, between Manayunk & Pottsville, PA, with through service to Wilkes Barre. They also open their own Shawmont Station, 300 feet north of the Philadelphia & Reading's. 1894 - Thomas Shaw develops an inclined railway to travel between Manayunk and Roxborough, but it never materializes. 1909 - The Brendel Family moves into Shawmont Station as permanent tenants/station masters. 1916 - The last freight barge travels down the locks of the Schuylkill River, though the locks remain open for recreational use. 1921 - The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad close passenger operations on the West Side of the Schuylkill River, below Bridgeport, and use that section exclusively for freight. The Norristown Branch is used for all local and express passenger trains between Philadelphia's Reading Terminal and Reading/Pottsville/Williamsport Lancaster/Harrisburg/Gettysburg/Shippensburg. The ferry between Rose Glen Station and Shawmont Station is closed. 1929 - The shutters on the windows of Shawmont Station are removed and put into storage. Scored concrete on front façade is replaced with flat concrete. 1940 - All locks along the Schuylkill River are closed. No recreational boating is permitted between Shawmont and East Falls. 1950 - The Reading Railroad cuts back passenger service from Williamsport to Shamokin. 1960 - The Pennsylvania Railroad cuts back passenger service from Norristown to Manayunk. Their circa 1884 Shawmont Station is removed, though that line continues to carry freight. 1963 - The Reading Railroad cuts passenger service to Shamokin and Harrisburg. Other than local commuter trains, the only express trains travelling Reading's Norristown Branch are to Reading and Pottsville. 1972 - Though Hurricane Agnes causes flooding along much of the Schuylkill River, Shawmont Station is spared. 1974 - Shawmont Station receives its last paint job. 1976 - Conrail takes over the Reading Railroad's passenger operations. 1979 - SEPTA takes over Conrail's passenger operations and the Norristown Branch becomes the R6 line. SEPTA extends Pennsylvania Railroad's Schuylkill Branch ¾ mile to Ivy Ridge from Manayunk and tracks North of that completely close for freight service, following abandonment by Conrail. Abandoned tracks above Port Royal Avenue in Shawmont are paved over into a bike path to Valley Forge. 1981 - SEPTA cuts back passenger service from Pottsville to Norristown. 1986 - SEPTA cuts back Pennsylvania Railroad's Schuylkill Branch from Ivy Ridge to Cynwyd and a new Ivy Ridge Station is put on the R6 Norristown Branch, one mile south of Shawmont. 1991 - Shawmont Station is no longer a scheduled stop, but a whistlestop. Its waiting room is closed. 1995 - Shawmont Station is no longer a whistle stop but remains occupied. 2008 - Through the work of Historian John Johnston and Preservation Architect William Breard, Shawmont Station is placed on Philadelphia's Register of Historic Places, as the oldest passenger railroad station in America. The effort required the personal collection of documents and materials from across the state. 2013 - The last of the Brendel's descendants, move out of Shawmont Station, after occupying the Station for 104 years. SEPTA decides to have the Station restored and submits historical railroad documents to John Johnstone. 2014 - Research and documents show that Shawmont Station, originated as an 1826 country house, and is not only the oldest passenger railroad station in America, but also the oldest building owned by any railroad, in the World. *2021 - SEPTA calls for bids for the restoration work needed at Shawmont. *2023 - The $1.26M structural rehab to shore up the building began on January 18 by Contractor Donald E. Resinger. *Updates added by Georgie Gould Gallery of Photos Restoration Photos by Amanda Robinson, SEPTA Project Manager Additional Items 1884-08-20 Philadelphia Inquirer 2008-02-23 Phila Daily News 1885-06-19 The Times

Historical Maps 1847 < Previous > Back to Historical Map List < Next > 1847 - Phila & 10 Miles Around Source: URL: Free Library of Philadelphia https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/42118 Full Name: Map of the Circuit of Ten Miles Around the City of Philadelphia, 1847, Map Visit the source URL to use zoom features, find additional formats, or download a high quality image.