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Survey of
Historic Sites and Buildings

	ELFRETH'S ALLEY Pennsylvania
Location: North of Arch Street between Front and Second Streets, Philadelphia. Elfreth's Alley

Ownership and Administration (1961). Privately owned houses and four houses owned or leased by the Elfreth's Alley Association.

Significance. The dwellings fronting this narrow street are a unique representation of Philadelphia architecture. Half of those now standing were erected either before the middle of the 18th century or before the opening years of the Revolution, while the other half were constructed in the postcolonial and Federal years.

The alley itself was opened between 1702 and 1704 by mutual agreement between Arthur Wells and John Gilbert, both of whom lived on Front Street. Wells donated 5 feet of land extending from Front to Second Streets on the south side of the intended alley, while Gilbert, who owned the land on the north, donated 10 feet. Because Arthur Wells died shortly after the alley was paid out, it was first known as Gilbert's Alley. Following his death it came to be called Preston's Alley, after Paul Preston, who had married Gilbert's widowed daughter-in-law. Not until about 1750 was it commonly called Elfreth's Alley, for Jeremiah Elfreth, who then lived on Second Street just north of the alley. His first wife was a sister of Paul Preston's wife, and his fifth wife was the widow of a grandson of Arthur Wells. Elfreth had acquired title, through these two wives, to land on both sides of the alley at its Second Street end.

By the time the alley came to be known by Elfreth's name most of the present dwellings on the south side and two on the north side, at the west corner of Bladen's Court, had been built. Of these the two oldest surviving dwellings on the entire alley are Nos. 120 and 122 on the south side. Benjamin Franklin frequently visited the latter house, undoubtedly, because William Maugridge, the tenant from 1728 to 1731, was one of the original members of Franklin's junto.

The house next oldest is probably No. 108, built sometime after 1725 and before 1750 by Thomas Wells, a shipwright and the eldest son of Arthur Wells. Across the street on the north side, the two-story house at the northwest corner of Bladen's Court, No. 117, was probably built about 1734 by William Parker, a young blacksmith; the house next door, No. 119, was built between 1737 and 1747. This house was purchased in 1757 by Matthias Meyer, a German potter from Hilsbach. His daughter Hannah was married here in 1770 to the Reverend John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, the "fighting parson" of Revolutionary fame, whose father, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, patriarch of the Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania, often called on the Meyers when he was in the city.

Next in age are the two houses numbered 130 and 132 across the alley on the south side near Second Street. These were built for income-producing purposes shortly after 1741 by Adam Clampffer, a German shopkeeper who lived nearby on Second Street. He and his heirs rented both properties to a succession of tenants until after the Revolution. By the middle of the 19th century, the narrow little house now No. 134 had replaced the original frame tavern and shop erected long before the Revolution. Sometime between 1753 and 1755 Richard Hall, a house carpenter, built the house numbered 118. Moses Mordecai, one of the original members of Mikveh Israel Congregation, was a tenant here in 1769 and possibly earlier. Jeremiah Elfreth built No. 124 and the original dwelling at No. 126 between 1741 and 1762, when he sold both properties. House No. 126 is being restored and will be used as a permanent museum for the Elfreth's Alley Association.

Down toward Front Street, Nos. 110, 112, and 114 were erected sometime between 1757 and 1762 by Thomas Patterson, another house carpenter. The three-story house at No. 116 represents the postcolonial period. It was built in 1785-86 by the brothers Benjamin and Enoch Taylor, who were bricklayers and masons. Across the street, No. 137, near Second Street, was built in 1789 by the cabinetmaker Josiah Elfreth, a grandson of Jeremiah Elfreth. The house adjoining on the east, No. 135, is known as the Coach House from the high arched passage that originally led back to stables belonging to Jeremiah Elfreth's house on Second Street. In 1811 the premises were described as "brick stores" owned by a distiller, John Angue, who had purchased the frame shops and the Elfreth dwelling, fronting on Second Street, in 1805. Whether the present house is identical with the brick stores or was erected after 1811 has not been established definitely.

Apparently the first dwelling built on the north side of the alley, erected between 1713 and 1727, occupied the sites of the lots now numbered 129 and 131. The present dwellings on the site, Nos. 129 and 131, presumably were built between 1796 and 1798. At the opposite end of the alley on the same side, the two houses numbered 109 and 111 appear to have been put up by John Pechin, a carpenter, possibly about 1811. On the site of the present No. 109 there had been an earlier dwelling, probably built between 1775 and 1779, which was occupied for 6 months in 1780 by Stephen Girard. The next two houses, Nos. 113 and 115, were probably built between 1805 and 1809 by Ephraim Haines. Haines had purchased the two lots in the autumn of 1805, at which time they included two brick stables. That on No. 113 had been erected in 1763, while the one on No. 115, standing since 1748 when the premises included "a large smith's shop * * * with four good forges, good stable and garden behind the same," was then owned by the blacksmith, William Parker, who was living in No. 117.

Bladen's Court, separating these last two properties, was opened between 1749 and 1753 by Abraham Carlile and Thomas Maule. The latter had recently purchased No. 117 from Parker but lived in Front Street north of the alley and next door to Carlile. Both their Front Street properties extended west this far. Carlile had the dubious distinction of being one of the two loyalist Quakers hanged in 1778. During the British occupation of Philadelphia in 1777, he had served the British as a keeper of the city gates at the north end of the town. A house carpenter and original member of the Carpenters' Company, he may have built the Spinning-Wheel House at the north end of the court, for it stands on what was once his property. The remaining houses in the center of the north side of the alley represent the Federal period of domestic architecture.

Until 1775, the sites of the present Nos. 125 and 127 may have been occupied by the "pothouse and potter's kiln," which were adjuncts of the property in 1741. The land was vacant, however, when Daniel Trotter purchased these two lots and the two to the west in 1793. He built a frame shop on No. 125 and in 1798 a second shop on No. 127. These were purchased by Barney Schumo, a turner, in 1810. Before his death he may have built the present No. 127, because his executors in 1819 sold a "messuage" and lot here. The dwelling now No. 125—the only four-story house on the alley—was not erected until after 1836.

It is obvious that these little houses were not the dwellings of merchant princes or members of the so-called first rank of society, but were occupied by artisans and tradesmen. Many of them stayed here only a year or two, although others lived out their lives on the alley. Only a handful were more than lightly touched by the decisive events of their particular generation; for many, so fleeting was their stay that few recorded evidences of their lives here have survived. Yet the houses themselves have survived, practically unchanged, while the city around them has altered to such an extent that only a vestige of its original character remains, and the alley is a present witness of the past.

Present Appearance (1961). To preserve the alley, the Elfreth's Alley Association was established in 1934 as a nonprofit organization, its membership open to all. The association has acquired title to the two easternmost houses on Bladen's Court: Nos. 1 and 2, better known as the Spinning-Wheel House, and leased for $1 a year each No. 114, where Daniel Trotter lived for 30 years, and No. 124, occupied by the chairmakers Gilbert Gaw and John B. Ackley in the 1790's. The rental income derived from these four properties is used for their maintenance and for the upkeep of the association garden in the rear of Bladen's Court.

Elfreth's Alley Day is held annually on the first Saturday in June. From noon until 5 o'clock various alley residents open their homes to the public, and hostesses garbed in colonial costumes serve lunch and welcome visitors. The income derived from this annual fete day is currently used for restoring No. 126, owned by the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks. At this writing, the exterior of the building has been restored and restoration of the front room on the first floor is partially completed. When finished, the first floor of the restored building will be used as a permanent museum and gift shop and the second floor as a permanent headquarters for the association. On the third floor a small apartment will be occupied by a permanent caretaker, thus permitting the building to be open to visitors all year.

Late in 1957 the association, believing that tradition and legend should be bolstered by fact, agreed to engage a researcher to investigate the history of the alley and its colonial residents. Title searches were made to establish the physical development of the alley and definitive historical and genealogical research begun to determine the background, relationships, and activities of the people who lived on and were associated with Elfreth's Alley. [82]

NHL Designation: 10/09/60