Roxborough
Manayunk
Wissahickon
Historical
Society

(as of May 8, 2024) Web Visitors from Near & Far ​ While Roxborough Manayunk Wissahickon Historical Society is a small organization located within Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, we've got web visitors from across the U.S. and around the world. Want to Contribute? ​If you would like to contribute images, or content, or have ideas for the RMWHS website, please contact us . ​ CANADA British Columbia New Brunswick Ontario Quebec ​ MEXICO ​ CENTRAL AMERICA Guatemala ​ SOUTH AMERICA Brazil ​ CARIBBEAN Cayman Islands ​​ EUROPE England France Greece Ireland Italy Netherlands North Macedonia Norway Poland Portugal Russia Scotland Serbi a Sweden Ukraine AFRICA Kenya Togo ​ MIDDLE EAST Isreal ​ ASIA Bangladesh China India Indonesia Japan Philip pines Thailand Vietnam ​ AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND VISITORS FROM 48 STATES (+DC) ... so far Alabama Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana ​ Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana Missouri ​Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island ​South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington DC Wisconsin Wyoming (We've yet to have visitors from Alaska and Nebraska.)

Research Assistance ​ RMWHS can provide you with resource assistance/guidance for your local history, property, or genealogical questions/projects -- however, our volunteer Archivists cannot take on an entire research project for you. To request a call from our Archivist, please fill out our contact form. Be sure to check voicemails for our call back -- we obviously can't help you if we can't reach you. ​ If your request is a Leverington Cemetery look up or quick fact check, please include all necessary details (who/what/when/where/etc.) and we'll get back to you. ​ ​ ​ Donations for our efforts are appreciated. ​ Donations will be used to preserve, expand, digitize, and improve the Archives. ​ Sylvia Myers Georgie Gould Image Requests We are happy to work with you to find the images you need. However, to avoid the RMWHS Image Collection being misused, everyone will need to sign and comply with a Photo Usage Agreement (PUA) . This includes but is not limited to: RMWHS members, students, teachers, researchers, non profit organizations, businesses, press, etc. ​ This applies to: all images -- including RMWHS photos, slides, maps, film, video, etc. -- as well as those already posted on our website. all intended uses -- including but not limited to: personal/private use (such as genealogies), academic research, educational presentations, publication of any kind, use on website, local publicity, non profit use, etc. Posting of RMWHS images on social media not permitted beyond RMWHS official use. Contact us with any questions. Again, we are trying to protect our collection and in today's digital age, this is now a necessity.

RMWHS In the News If you are aware of a newspaper, magazine, website, or other source that has written about, quoted, or mentioned RMWHS, please let us know. ​ 2023-11-12 -- Roxborough Manayunk Wissahickon Historical Society switching things up with Nov. 15 online ‘Show and Tell’ ​ 2023-04-21 -- Pa. State House honors Sylvia Myers ​ 2023-02-17 -- SEPTA begins work on Shawmont Station restoration ​ 2022-07-29 -- Community invited to help shape RMWHS Image Collection ​ 2021-02-07 -- RMWHS celebrates Black History Month with a spotlight on artist Claude Clark ​ 2020-12-13 -- R MWHS Launches New Website 2020-11-17 -- RMWHS looks ahead into the digital age 2020-02-24 -- Natural Selections: Manayunk and Manatawna: Our Lenape Place Names 2019-09-10 -- Get the picture with special session of Roxborough Manayunk Historical Society 2018-11-17 -- New sign dedicated at Leverington Cemetery in Roxborough 2018-03-14 -- Roxborough Manayunk Wissahickon Historical Society dedicated to preserving the past 2017-11-15 -- NATURAL SELECTIONS: Proposed city council bill — ‘more than just a moratorium’ for Roxborough area 2017-09-20 -- Roxborough Manayunk Wissahickon Historical Society presentation to focus on Schuylkill Navigation 2017-06-28 -- Annual Roxborough Independent Day Parade to step off Tuesday 2017-05-18 -- Roxborough Manayunk Wissahickon Historical Society speaker to discuss new Museum of the American Revolution 2017-04-18 -- Filmmaker to share history documentary with Roxborough Manayunk Wissahickon Historical Society 2016-06-03 -- NATURAL SELECTIONS: Plymouth Meeting struggles with possible loss of piece of history 2015-11-13 -- NATURAL SELECTIONS: Save the Shawmont Station 2015-07-02 -- A Tribute to Samuel Lawson, Founder of the Local Independence Day Parade of Churches and Sunday Schools 2015-05-22 -- NATURAL SELECTIONS: Why is Ridge Avenue there? 2015-04-14 -- Historical Society to discuss Upper Roxborough 2015-03-11 -- Upcoming historical society meeting discusses Civil War 2014-11-07 -- Talking historical homes at the next RMWHS meeting 2014-09-02 -- Talking about Lincoln's relationship 2014-08-19 -- Historical Society receive articles on Mt Vernon Church 2014-07-03 -- A Tribute to Samuel Lawson, Founder of the Local Independence Day Parade of Churches and Sunday Schools 2014-04-16 -- Discussing the famous inventors of Our Town 2014-04-15 -- Save Our History 2014-03-27 -- Historical Society showcases vintage WWI & WWII posters 2012-12-11 -- Judgement on the Bunting House to come by week's end 2012-11-02 -- Spirits abound in Hermit's Glen 2012-09-26 -- UPDATED: Bunting House receives 30-day reprieve from demolition, negotiations on future still continue 2012-09-24 -- UPDATED: Residents want historic building saved from wrecking ball 2012-06-29 -- A history of Our Town's parade 2011-09-01 -- RMWHS releases new book ‘Roxborough’ (Arcadia Press) 2010-09-21 -- Vintage baseball 2010-09-21 -- No namby pamby players: vintage ballists recreate old time baseball 2010-08-13 -- A treasure trove of memories 2010-02-03 -- Thinking first and then acting out : Manayunk-raised artist Claude Clark 2009-11-17 -- A celebration of thanksgiving and history 2009-04-22 -- RMWHS hosts tour of Founders Hall at Girard College 2009-03-18 -- Roxborough Manayunk Wissahickon Historical Society receives a real gem 2009-02-25 -- Celebrating 150 years of God & service 2009-02-18 -- Now accepting applications for ‘Mr. Nick Award ’ to honor RMWHS’ Nicholas G. Myers 2009-02-11 -- Knowledge is for all time essay contest 2008-11-12 -- Historical Society meeting talks sports 2008-07-09 -- A new sign commemorates 1777 Woods Barn massacre 2008-07-06 -- Shawmont Train Station now a city landmark (Register of Historic Places) 2008-03-26 -- 'Liberty or Death' at the RMWHS 2008-02-20 -- 'Knowledge is for all time': Mr. Nick Myers award essay contest returns 2008-01-09 -- Landmark 22 foot Garner Mural moves out 2007-12-05 -- Celebrating 100 years of linking lives 2007-11-21 -- Historical society makes history (RMWHS 40th Anniversary) 2007-11-21 -- David Young speaking at society anniversary meeting 2007-07-04 -- Remembering Wood's Barn : A Revolutionary War Tragedy 2005-11-09 -- A new and improved archive room for RMWHS 2005-07-06 -- Fourth of July is a tradition in Roxborough. 2004-04-21 -- Beauty found at reservoir 2003-05-07 -- Professional musician has done it all 2003-05-01 -- Another disease epidemic is recalled 2003-04-18 -- Young man makes movie on 21st Ward 2001-10-10 -- The Civil War sentinel has returned to cemetery post ​

Meetings & Events ​ Beginning in 2023, the RMWHS calendar will be designed to provide a mix of in-person and Zoom-based meetings, events, tours, activities, etc. The date, time, location, and format of the meeting will vary. ​ This less rigid schedule is a departure from our traditional calendar and was designed to allow us more flexibility so we are able to align our activities with community events, venue and speaker availability, museum hours, host organization scheduling, and other opportunities we might otherwise miss. ​ Efforts to live stream in-person events via Zoom and/or record for replay options will be made within reason. Some meetings and events on the schedule will be specifically designed and planned for a Zoom virtual meeting. There are some topics that will better lend themselves to this format like a presentation with photos, videos, or an interactive feature such as surveys, quizzes, or voting. ​ The RMWHS calendar will be updated as needed. Additional notices and updates will be directly mailed and/or emailed to current members. If you wish to get notifications about RMWHS activities, we'd love to have you as a member. Membership fees are modest and the monies raised support our ongoing efforts to preserve and promote local history, art, and culture. ​ For more information about the calendar, membership, or if you'd like to speak or present to the group, please contact us. ​ Georgie Gould, President, RM WHS ​ Go to RMWHS Calendar > Masks Optional at Events Masks are CURRENTLY OPTIONAL for all in-person gatherings UNLESS ou r host organization or locatio n requires we wear them. If you are planning to attend an event/meeting in-person, please bring a mask along just in case something changes or you decide you wish you had one. ​ Note: If you wish to wear a mask at ANY gathering -- please do! You will not be alone as some of us always do (including the president) . ​ Masks Required at RMWHS Archive Currently visitors ARE REQUIRED to wear masks in the RMWHS Archive due to the size of the room. If you are not willing -- or are unable -- to wear a mask, please request a virtual or phone consultation. We currently offer FaceTime, Zoom, Skype, and Google Meet. ​

Our Collection The RMWHS Archive contains a great many items, including: photos* , slides* , negatives* maps, books* , newspapers art, local brewery bottles, vinyl recordings school year books and class photos genealogies, scrapbooks historic property appraisals* church and cemetery records pamphlets* , flyers* , posters* manuscripts and more ​ The items preserved at the RMWHS Archive were obtained through donations from members, local residents, historians, authors, and descendants of families with roots that trace back to the earliest days of Roxborough, Manayunk, and Wissahickon. Local businesses, schools, churches, and a great many organizations have also contributed to the treasures the RMWHS Archive holds. ​ Note: The Archive does not have any computers. All resources must be searched through manually. If visiting the area, please contact us as far in advance as possible if you wish to visit or pick up research info or visit the Archive. We also can provide a virtual consultation and sharing of digitized items. ​ * Some of these items have been digitized -- contact us for a virtual visit! Got Donations?

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

Images of Our Neighborhoods 2023 Yearbook Yearbook Project 2022 Year book The following images were donated by members of the community, visitors, former residents, and those who have roots in the area. These images are now a part of the RMWHS digital image collection. ​ Share your local photos with us - send photos to rmwhsarchvies@gmail.com with your name and the location/event/subject of image (if it's not obvious). Mouse over any image below for details / Click on an image to enlarge

< 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.

Cemetery Records RMWHS currently has: Leverington Cemetery thousands of transcribed burial records tombstone records map (below) Roxborough Baptist Church original burial books for various years map (in Archive) If you would like to request a burial look-up, contact us . ​ Note: RMWHS is not computerized. All resources must be searched through manually and it can be a slow process. If visiting the area, please contact us as far in advance as possible if you plan to pick up research info. We are open by appointment only so please keep that in mind when traveling to our area. Appointments and calls with our Archivist can be requested online . ​ RESEARCH TIPS: Always check www.findagrave.com . This information is posted by volunteers and is free to access. This is a good starting point but cemeteries, churches, and historical societies have additional more info. Be sure to try variations of the surname spelling and cast a wide net -- if the name is William Smith, try W Smith as you may otherwise miss Willie or Wm. Also try spelling various on the surname or a *asterisk as a wildcard to get wider results. Keep looking even if you think you have it all. Funeral homes & undertakers logs, coroner reports, doctors notes, there are often more death event documents that could be found if you keep digging and they could hold valuable you're looking for such as next of kin, home addresses, obit placement, memberships, veteran status, and more. ​ Leverington Cemetery Map

< Previous > Back to Historical Map List < Next > 1869 - Survey of Wissahickon Source: URL: Free Library of Philadelphia https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/65525 Full Name: Map of the Survey of Wissahickon Creek from its Mouth to Paul's Mill Road Defining Boundaries of Land Appropriated by the Commissioners of Fairmount Park, ca. 1869, Map Visit the source URL to use zoom features, find additional formats, or download a high quality image.

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

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

Main Street Manayunk Historic District Description The Main Street Manayunk National Historic District is located on the north bank of the Schuylkill River, approximately 5 miles northwest from the center of Philadelphia. The community of Manayunk has retained a strong individual physical identity. Geographically, Manayunk and the adjacent communities of Roxborough and Wissahickon are separated from other sections of Philadelphia to the east, by the steep ravine of the Wissahickon Valley. Main Street is located within the narrow flood plain of the Schuylkill. North of Main Street, the topography rises steeply to Ridge Avenue on the crest between the Schuylkill and Wissahickon. Because of the geographical and cultural isolation of Manayunk, the physical appearance of the townscape and individual buildings differs markedly from those of similar eras built in other sections of the City. While Philadelphia residential and commercial buildings are typically red brick, those of Manayunk are commonly constructed of random coursed stone, Wissahickon Schist, either exposed or faced with stucco. It is the combination of steep topography, and white painted, pitched roof, stucco row houses which epitomizes the physical character of Manayunk. Describe your image The clear hierarchy of land use developed in Manayunk followed construction of the canal. The principal mill buildings were located on Venice Island between the Schuylkill River and Canal, though many of the major mills had operations on both sides of the canal, linked by bridges; often mill offices were located on the south side of Main Street. In contrast, commercial uses -- such as offices, hotels and banks, and mixed residential/ commercial buildings tended to concentrate on the north side of Main Street. Residential construction, typically in the form of attached 2- or 3-story row houses occurred on the side streets off the north side of Main Street. While the earliest development consisted of mill buildings and worker housing, later 19th century development included a broader range of commercial uses, including banks, warehouses, and retail stores, particularly at the west end of Main Street, corresponding to Main Street's developing role as a full retail and business center. Little development or redevelopment occurred in Manayunk after the turn of the century, and the overall physical appearance of the Main Street historic district has changed little since this time, although many retail and business uses have been replaced with lower grade warehouses, and storage uses. The earliest buildings remaining in Manayunk are mills of the 1840s and 1850s, and worker housing of the same era. Several of these mills remain on the Main Street side of the canal, at the east end of Main Street. The finest remaining mill building within the historic district is that located at 4268-72 Main Street, originally known the Blantyre mill. The two, 3-story pitched roof buildings, set at right angles to Main Street were constructed in 1847, of random stone rubble, with cut stone quoins, and brick arches over the window openings. An unusual feature are the fanlights in the gable ends facing Main Street. Describe your image Other important early mills include a 2-story building at 4050 Main Street, constructed about 1850 (originally the Roxborough Mills), a 4-story building at 4100 Main Street (formerly the Dexter Mills - dyeworks) and the rear buildings are facing the canal at 4208 Main Street (formerly Economy Mills). These buildings are typically long, narrow span structures of random stone rubble, often with a later stucco facing, and shallow pitch roofs. Window openings commonly have brick arch lintels, while windows are typically wood, arched head double hung with 4/4 or 12/12 lights. Another noteworthy loft building located on the north side of Main Street at 4313 in a 3-story, 6-bay structure built in 1859 of Wissahickon Schist. The building has segmentally arched brick labels over each window, and wood double hung windows. Describe your image Examples of housing of this era remain, both on Main Street, and on the narrow side streets. The housing is utilitarian, working class attached housing, Vernacular in style, although exhibiting distinct characteristics of formal design styles. The earliest housing is typically constructed in a Vernacular Federal style, while later housing is of a Vernacular Italianate style. The earliest remaining residential buildings are located at 104-106 Levering Street, constructed about 1840. These are 3-story, 2-bay, Federal style, stucco over stone rubble, pitched roof structures. The 2nd floor windows are double hung wood with plan frame, and the 3rd floor windows are casements. 103-105 Pensdale Street is a group of small Vernacular style worker houses built circa 1860. Built of stone rubble faced with stucco they have double hung 2/2 arched head windows and decorative wooden cornices. In contrast to the early simple random stone and stucco mills, later commercial buildings are commonly of brick, exhibiting the richer detailing typical of the late Victorian era, and are similar to such buildings in Philadelphia Some of these later buildings were manufacturing facilities, but many reflected the increasing importance of Main Street as a business and retail center. The finest example of a later industrial building is 4236 Main Street, an elegant 3-story, 3- bay brick loft constructed about 1890. The 1st-floor storefront incorporates a cornice, and central entrance flanked by pilasters. Crowning the building is a heavy wood cornice. 4346 Main Street is the former Manayunk Trust Company building, a monumentally scaled, single story banking hall, built in 1890. Constructed of brick, the building has pilasters with decorative capitals and consoles, stone cornices, and monumental scale windows with a stone surround enhanced with Greek key design. 4360 Main Street is a heavy 3-story, 5-bay brick warehouse constructed about 1890. The Romanesque detailing includes paired semi-circular headed windows on the 3rd floor, Palladian style 2nd floor windows, brick pilasters and a molded tin cornice. A similar style 2-bay, 4-story Romanesque style brick warehouse is located on 108-12 Levering Street. Noteworthy retail buildings include 4356 Main Street, an elegant 2-story building of 1880, featuring extensive use of glass. The ground floor consists of large storefront windows and recessed entrance way, with decorative metal transom panels above. The 2nd floor has large, fixed sash with transom lights, metal faced dividing mullions, and molded metal cornice. Describe your image Finally, there are some interesting turn of the century commercial buildings. 4437 Main Street is a handsome single story brick bar built in 1903. The facade incorporates a decorative ogee arch stepped brick gable parapet, with metal trim. 4323-24 Main Street, the Nickles Building of similar date, is a 2-story, 2-bay brick retail store with elegant, curved glass display windows, and a large ornate metal cornice and parapet. 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 13 Map Top of page

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

Ridge Ave Roxborough Historic District Italianate Architecture Like the Gothic Revival style, the Italianate style began in England as part of the Picturesque movement, a reaction to formal classical ideals in art and architecture that had been fashionable for about 200 years. The movement emphasized rambling, informal Italian farmhouses, with their characteristic square towers, as models for Italian-style villa architecture. The first Italianate houses were built in the United States in the late 1830s; the style was popularized by the influential pattern books of Andrew Jackson Downing published in the 1840s and 1850s. By the 1860s, the style had completely overshadowed its earlier companion, the Gothic Revival. Most Italianate examples date from 1855 to 1880. The hallmarks of the style are low-pitched roofs with wide eaves supported by decorative brackets; tall, narrow four-over-four or two-over­two double-hung windows, sometimes arched, often with crowns or other decorative hoods; cupolas or towers; double doors with bolection mouldings; and decorative door surrounds and porches elaborated with brackets.83 ​ “Houghton,” the grand residence of J. Vaughan Merrick Jr. at 5301 Ridge Avenue, which was built about 1860, is the best example of the Italianate style on Ridge Avenue (Figure 30). The mansion includes all of the character-defining features of the Italianate: a tower, bracketed eaves, large porches supported by square pillars, and four-over-four double-hung windows. ​ The urban, rowhouse variant of the Italianate style can be found at the row at 6109 to 6115 Ridge Avenue. The three-story, mixed-use buildings have bracketed cornices at the storefronts and rooflines, brick facades with butter joints, and windows with stone lintels and sills. 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 83 Drawn from Virginia & Lee McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), p. 210-214. Top of page

< Previous > Back to Historical Map List < Next > 1855 - Consolidated City of Phila Source: URL: Free Library of Philadelphia https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/11728 Full Name: New Map of the Consolidated City of Philadelphia, 1855, Map Visit the source URL to use zoom features, find additional formats, or download a high quality image.

Ridge Ave Roxborough Historic District Ridge Road In 1686, before Europeans settled Roxborough, Mary Farmar, the widow of Major Jasper Farmar, discovered large deposits of lime on her 5,000-acre estate in Plymouth Township, Montgomery County. In 1687, the residents of Plymouth Township petitioned the Court of the Quarter Sessions to lay out a roadway from Philadelphia to the Township to transport the lime, which was valuable as a building material, especially in a city where brick construction would become predominant. The residents of Plymouth Township again petitioned the Court of the Quarter Sessions “to grant them a common Cartway or Road to extend from Wissahickon Mills [where the Wissahickon flowed into the Schuylkill] up into the Perkioming Creek” [in Collegeville] in March 1706. That same year, surveyor Thomas Fairman certified that he had laid out the road as ordered by the Court. In June 1706, the Court directed Fairman to survey the road leading from the City of Philadelphia at 6th and Sassafras (Arch) Streets to Wissahickon Mills so that it could be confirmed. In 1707, Fairman reported to the Court that he had surveyed the road, which had existed but had not been confirmed. In 1709, the road was extended from Collegeville west to Manatawny (Pottstown). Ridge Avenue was known by many names during its first century including the Great Road, King’s Road, Wissahiccon Road, Plymouth Road, Manatawny Road, and Reading Road. Describe your image At several points during the eighteenth century, in 1723, 1753, 1786, and 1797, the route of the Ridge Road from the western bank of the Wissahickon to the top of the ridge, where Ridge, Righter, and Hermit intersect today, was shifted to ease travel up the steep hill. By the end of the eighteenth century, this section of the Ridge Road was established on its current line (Figure 9). 20 Describe your image To help orient travelers, milestones marking the distance from the City of Philadelphia were placed along Ridge Road in the middle of the eighteenth century. On 12 August 1768, Jacob Hiltzheimer noted in his diary that he “Went up the Wissahockon Road to set milestones.” 21 A Plan of the City of Philadelphia and Environs Surveyed by John Hills of 1808 identifies the locations of some of the milestones along Ridge Road. The Milestone 6 was located immediately west of the bridge across the Wissahickon. Milestone 7 was located near the intersection with Rittenhouse Lane, now Walnut Lane. Milestone 8 was located near the current intersection on Ridge Avenue and Gates Street. Milestones 9, 10, and 11 were not depicted on the map, but would have been located west of Domino Lane, at Port Royal Avenue, and at the Montgomery County line, respectively. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the milestones on Ridge Road were used like addresses. For example, in 1837, the National Gazette advertised a farm for rent “on the Ridge road, near the eight mile stone… The location of this property is on the most elevated part of Roxborough, and for salubrity and fertility cannot be excelled by any in the vicinity of the city.” 22 In 1841, John Parker and David Millar offered a $2 reward for “a brown COW, some white on her forehead with large horns,” which had strayed away “in Roxborough township, Ridge Road, near the seven mile stone.” 23 Ridge Road was an important trade route, providing access to the interior of Pennsylvania and beyond. Freight was hauled in Conestoga wagons (Figure 10). James Logan, secretary to William Penn, appears to have coined the term Conestoga wagon in 1717. Logan ran freight wagons between Philadelphia and the Conestoga Valley in Lancaster County. In 1787, Benjamin Rush described the Conestoga wagon as "a large strong waggon covered with linen cloth is an essential part of the furniture of a German farm. It is pulled by four or five large horses of a particular breed, and will carry 2000 to 3000 pounds." The Conestoga wagon’s curved shape prevented cargo from shifting as it traversed rough terrain. The large, broad wheels allowed the wagon to maneuver in ruts and mud. Rush noted that, during the fall harvest season, "on the road between Philadelphia and the Valley you'll see 50 to 100 [Conestoga wagons] a day." Wagon traffic was significant. More than 10,000 wagons made the trip to Philadelphia annually by 1775. Convoys sometimes included as many as 100 wagons on a single train. As historian David McCullough has noted: the crowds and noise [in the center of eighteenth-century Philadelphia] seemed overwhelming … on market days, Wednesdays and Saturdays, when German-speaking country people came rolling into town in huge farm wagons loaded with produce, live chickens, pigs, and cattle. The “thundering of coaches, chariots, chaises, wagons, drays, and the whole fraternity of noise almost continually assails our ears,” complained a visiting physician. [Continental Congress] delegate Stephen Hopkins from Rhode Island counted one day seventy farm wagons on Market Street. 24 Describe your image As the population expanded westward, Conestoga wagons leaving Philadelphia took one of three main routes: over the Appalachian Mountains to Pittsburgh where the freight was then shipped downriver into the Ohio Valley; along the National Road connecting Baltimore and Frederick, Maryland with Wheeling, West Virginia and eventually to Vandalia, Illinois by 1852; and down the Great Wagon Road through the valley of Virginia into North Carolina. Wagoners with horse-drawn Conestoga wagons carried supplies and finished goods westward on three-to four-week journeys and returned with flour, whiskey, tobacco, and other products. In addition to the long-distance trade, wagoners moved cargo locally and regionally, hauling agricultural products, lumber and other building materials, and various other goods. Shipping companies, like Philadelphia’s Inland Transportation Office, hauled “Goods, Mdze. &c., by waggons to … Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Lancaster, and all other parts of the Western Country” (Figure 11). 25 As one witness reminisced: When Conestoga wagons roamed the highways of Pennsylvania before freight trains appeared, Ridge road was the direct route to and from that astonishingly fat region, the Schuylkill Valley. From Berks, Lebanon, and Montgomery poured an endless string of Conestogas, hauled by great horses -- often four to a team. Down that valley poured the output of America’s first iron works. At certain seasons Ridge road was white with lime wagons from the kilns about Bridgeport. Indeed, a great part of the city’s bread and butter flowed down the Ridge. 26 Describe your image Inns and taverns along Ridge Road provided food and shelter for travelers. The first, the Leverington Hotel, was erected in 1731 at what is now the southeast corner of Ridge Ave. and Leverington Street. It was demolished by real estate mogul Albert M. Greenfield in 1925. 27 Located at the top of the steep hill at the eastern edge of the ridge, where Ridge, Hermit, and Righter intersect today, the Plough Tavern was constructed in 1746. After housing travelers on the Ridge Road, the building was used for many purposes including as an almshouse and church. It was abandoned in 1925 and demolished in 1937. 28 The Sorrel Horse Tavern, located on Ridge Road above Port Royal, was erected in 1785. When it sold in 1867, the “valuable hotel property, known as the ‘Old Sorrel Horse Tavern’” was described as “a 2½-story stone house, 4 rooms and a large hall on the first floor, 4 rooms on second floor, and 3 rooms on third floor; a large stone barn, stabling and shedding sufficient to accommodate 30 to 40 horses, ice house, and 3 wells of never-failing water.” 29 In 1878, the Sorrel Horse Inn was described as “once famous, but now empty.” 30 The tavern was used by the Roxborough Passenger Railway Company, but eventually demolished. During the eighteenth century, Ridge Road was poorly maintained and passage could be difficult, as is evidenced by this account by the Duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt: On the twentieth of April [1795] Mr. Guillemard, Caleb Lownes, and myself, set out on horseback from Philadelphia, through Ridge Road, on our way to Norris Town. This road, like all the public roads in Pennsylvania, is very bad, for provision is brought to that city from all parts in large and heavy laden wagons. The constant passage of these wagons destroys the roads, especially near the town, where several of them meet. Ridge Road is almost impassible. 31 In response to the poor travel conditions, the Ridge Turnpike Company was founded to improve Ridge Road (Figure 12). Chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on 30 March 1811, the company was authorized to sell 1,500 shares of stock at $50 per share and to build a macadamized road, not less than 40 feet, nor more than 60 feet in width, from the intersection of 10th and Vine Streets at the edge of the City of Philadelphia to the bridge over the Perkiomen in Montgomery County. The Company was also responsible for all of the road’s maintenance and repairs. 32 Construction of the 23½-mile road was completed in 1816 at a cost of $7,500 per mile. The Ridge Turnpike was never profitable, in part because of the competition of the nearby Germantown Turnpike, which also led to the Perkiomen Bridge, and in part because teamsters avoided the steep grade up the ridge to the west of the bridge over the Wissahickon. In 1825, the Ridge Turnpike Company collected about $10,000 in tolls, but faced about $10,000 in expenses. That year, the company paid no dividends and carried about $140,000 in debt. 33 The numbers of Conestoga wagons in the United States increased year after year until the 1830s, when canals began competing with them for freight hauling. In the east, railroads replaced Conestoga wagons and canals by the 1850s. However, the prairie schooner, a lightweight, flat variant of the Conestoga wagon, carried pioneer settlers from Missouri to the West Coast. And the Conestoga wagon remained in use on farms in Pennsylvania well into the twentieth century (Figure 13). 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 20 See Joseph S. Miles and William H. Cooper, A Historical Sketch of Roxborough, Manayunk, Wissahickon (Philadelphia: G. Fein & Co., 1940). P. 17-19. 21 Joshua L. Bailey Jr., “Old Milestones about Philadelphia, Illustrated,” Bulletin of the Friends’ Historical Society of Philadelphia, vol. 9, no. 2, November 1919, p. 46-62; Jacob Cox Parsons, ed., Extracts from the Diary of Jacob Hiltzheimer: Of Philadelphia. 1765-1798 (Philadelphia: Wm. F. Fell & Co., 1893), p. 15. 22 The National Gazette, 2 February 1837, p. 3. 23 Public Ledger, 27 September 1841, p. 3. 24 David McCullough, American History E-book Set (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), n.p. 25 See, for example, advertisements for the Inland Transportation Office, National Gazette, 27 December 1823, p. 2; National Gazette, 9 January 1824, p. 3. 26 Inquirer, 9 April 1929, p. 10. 27 “Northwest Expect Realty Boom Soon,” Inquirer, 19 July 1925, p. 55. 28 “Famed Inn Must Go,” Inquirer, 25 October 1937, p. 17. 29 Inquirer, 30 October 1867, p. 8. 30 “An Old Tony Weller: The Tales He Tells of the Coaching Days of Yore, The Times, 3 May 1878, p. 1. 31 Duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels through the United States of North America, the Country of the Iroquois, and Upper Canada, in the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797, with an Authentic Account of Lower Canada (London, 1797), vol. 1, p. 2-3. 32 “Ridge Avenue Passenger Railway Company v. City of Philadelphia,” July 15, 1897, The Atlantic Reporter 37 (May 5-August 25, 1897): 910. 33 Donald C. Jackson, “Turnpikes in Southeastern Pennsylvania,” in Judith A. McGaw, ed., Early American Technology: Making and Doing Things From the Colonial Era to 1850 (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1994), p. 232-233. Top of page

Main Street Manayunk Historic District Manayunk Social Development The development of Manayunk as an important industrial center impacted the social development of the community. The town of Manayunk received its name at the first town meeting, May 4, 1824. Originally the area was known as "Flat Rock" because of a large flat rock formation at the lower side of the Flat Rock Bridge. The name was changed to Manayunk for the Indian word "Maniung" meaning "where we go to drink." Describe your image After completion of the canal, the population of Manayunk increased rapidly. From 1818 to 1822, Manayunk's population grew from 60 to 800. A census taken in April 1827, counted a population of 1,088. By 1840, the population of what is now the 21st ward (Manayunk, Roxborough & Wissahickon) was 5, 797 people, and Manayunk had grown sufficiently large to incorporate as a separate entity, withdrawing from the township of Roxborough. In 1854, with a population of over 6,000 people, Manayunk was incorporated into the City of Philadelphia. However, it continued to remain a somewhat socially isolated area because of its own industrial base, and hilly topography. Most of the early foreign-born inhabitants attracted by the employment opportunity, came from the industrial areas of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Irish and English immigrants were succeeded by Germans, Italians and then Poles. The strong economy resulted in a high degree of social mobility, and many foreign-born laborers later became mill owners. Growth in employment generated a demand for housing, and quickly followed by housing construction on the steep slopes above the Schuylkill. In the early period of Manayunk's development there was a little physical separation between the working and management classes; geography and topography limited the open space available for housing, resulting in dense rowhouse development. 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 13 Map Top of page

Ridge Ave Roxborough Historic District Boundary and Description Boundary Description The Ridge Avenue Roxborough Thematic Historic District is comprised of 188 tax parcels, each of which is defined by metes and bounds description in its deed. A list of the 188 tax parcels comprising the district can be found in the district inventory. Description Topography The northwestern section of Philadelphia including Roxborough is located in a geological region known as the Piedmont Upland Section of the Piedmont Province. The bedrock in Roxborough is primarily mica schist but becomes trap rock with veins of serpentine stone at the northwest along the Montgomery County line (Figure 1). 1 Roxborough is located on a steep ridge formed by the Wissahickon Creek to the east and the Schuylkill River to the west. The ridge runs from the confluence of the Schuylkill and Wissahickon at East Falls or the Falls of the Schuylkill northwest for approximately five miles, where it crosses into Montgomery County. Historically, streams drained the land on the ridge, running east to the Wissahickon and west to the Schuylkill. Most of the streams have been culverted. Ridge Avenue, the primary thoroughfare in Roxborough, leaves East Falls at the confluence of the Schuylkill River and the Wissahickon Creek, runs up a steep slope more than 200 vertical feet to the top of the ridge, and then along the ridge to the northwest into Montgomery County. The section of Ridge Avenue between the Wissahickon Creek and the Montgomery County line is approximately five miles in length. The highest point along Ridge Avenue is approximately 420 feet above sea level, in the stretch between Cathedral Road and Manatawna Avenue. Built Environment The area along and around Ridge Avenue in Roxborough between the Wissahickon Creek and the Montgomery County line is primarily a residential corridor with a commercial core from Martin Street to Hermitage Street and several traditional, shopping center, and strip mall commercial developments scattered throughout (Figure 2). Most buildings are detached and semi-detached, but some are row buildings. With the exception of a few institutional buildings, nearly all structures along the corridor are three stories or shorter. The residential buildings are both single and multi-family. Most, but not all, properties include some green space. Ridge Avenue is a major, two-lane thoroughfare for most of its length in Roxborough, but expands to six lanes west of the intersection with Henry Avenue. Most of the buildings included in the Ridge Avenue Roxborough Thematic Historic District were historically and are currently used for residential purposes. Many of the others are commercial or mixed-use commercial and residential. The district includes five churches, some with cemeteries, one stand-alone cemetery, one public park, one school building and one former school building, and several institutional buildings (Figure 3). 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 1 Charles Edward Hall, The Geology of Philadelphia County and of the Southern Parts of Montgomery and Bucks (Harrisburg: The Board of Commissioners for the Second Geological Survey, 1881). Top of page

< 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.