Independence Historic Resource Study

Arch Street Lots, 1781-1801

177 to 203 Arch Street [119]

Research on the Arch Street lots after the American Revolution has been less fruitful than on the Cresson section of Block Three. For the most part, the Arch Street residents during the post-war period were transitory, so that few directories list the same tenant year to year. Sometimes different records for the same year give two different residents. This mobility was not unusual in Philadelphia in the eighteenth century. Many short-term residents had homes and extensive property in outlying counties and needed to find temporary housing in the city on certain occasions. Often property owners leased out their city dwelling and rented another house. Thus the documentation for this block showed such an important local figure as Peter Muhlenberg as tenant in one of the three houses on Arch at the corner of Fifth Street in 1787, but did not find him there in any subsequent records. [120]

The earliest development along Arch Street clustered within the 49-foot bonus lot along Fifth Street to Cherry, which was bordered on the west with the Second Presbyterian Burial Ground. Documentation for the real estate west of the cemetery, however, has remained less defined. The title search for the properties has not been done, making it difficult to know when the structures were built and who built them. Only four city surveys prior to 1814 survived for the Arch Street lots and they give confusing information by recording different property owners. Only one city survey showed an Arch Street lot divided in two, with one property on Arch and the other on Cherry. Tax records, on the other hand, clearly indicate that Cherry Street supported different property owners from their Arch Street counterparts. Another city survey indicated that the 49-1/2-foot lot on Arch at Sixth Street had multiple sub-divisions along Sixth Street, as its Fifth Street counterpart had. [121]

Only one insurance survey for a property on Arch Street, dated 1785, could be found. [122] The Francis White directory for 1785 listed ten residents of the block between Fifth and Sixth streets on Arch, but only three (to be discussed later) could be confirmed as being located on the north side. [123] Directories and the census in the 1790s specify residents' location, but very little from this research could be determined about their lives. None of the residents' names turned up interesting articles in the newspaper, or verifiable wills.

The searchable CD-Rom with summaries of Pennsylvania wills from 1682 to 1834, however, did confirm that several Arch Street property owners had associations with one another. Property owners' wills turned up family ties with the Society of Friends or the Second Presbyterian Church, which located its burial ground on a large Arch Street lot. [124] Deborah Morris, identified on a 1782 city survey as owner of a lot, named in her will Isaac and Hannah Cathrall, and Joshua Cresson (residents and landowners in the Cresson section) to be trustees for her bequest to the Poor in Friends Alms House and the Free Negro School. [125] One city survey showed property owners Peter Brown, John Hart, druggist, and Caspar Wistar on adjoining lots. The first two named appeared together as executors for Catharine Hollingshead's will in 1813, and the latter two were mentioned in the will of Anthony Fothergill, M.D., probated in 1814. Finally, Robert Ralston, an Arch Street property owner, and David Mandeville, who lived on this block, on North Sixth Street below Cresson's Alley, both appeared together in a will of William Falconer, forty-five years a deacon of the Second Presbyterian Church. [126] The various connections to the Arch Street real estate may someday make an interesting sidelight for the block's history.

The residents at the corners tended to be widows or middle class businessmen, temporarily leasing or staying at a boarding house, whereas those who occupied the mid-block lots (rarely the owners of the property) were largely tradesmen. In 1790, two widows [127] and a wine merchant occupied the three houses at Fifth Street, 177, 179 and 181 Arch Street. The 1791 tax assessment shows these properties valued at 370, 300 and 370, whereas it valued the Arch Street addresses in mid-block only 170, 150, 75, 170, 40 and 85. In 1795 a gentleman, coachmaker and merchant were in residence at 177 to 181 Arch Street, and in 1801, a grocer, two gentlewomen and a merchant. Little of substance, however, has been found about any of these individuals. [128]

Near the corner of Sixth Street property values were similarly higher than mid-block. James Duncan at 201 Arch Street appeared on the federal census and again in the 1791 directory as a mariner. Duncan, however, told the tax assessor in 1791 that he was a clerk. The house he rented from Widow Fox's estate was valued at 400. [129] Widow Fox had received the property in 1789 from Robert McGee, a lumber merchant. McGee had insured the 3-story brick house (16' by 20') with its backbuilding (20'by 12, 2-1/2 stories) and a frame structure, in 1785 and that year appeared as resident on Arch Street in the White city directory. While simply finished, McGee's house featured "genteel winding stairs," a mark, perhaps, of his rising status as a merchant. [130] In 1794-1795 Samuel Lewis, Geographer and clerk for the War Department, lived at 201 Arch Street, Because he had status in the War Department, Samuel Lewis' life and record might be amplified with further research. Although two published books on Timothy Pickering, the Secretary of War, turned up no reference to Lewis, Pickering's published papers might offer some basic biographical information. [131]

In 1801 William Sanford, gentleman, replaced Samuel Lewis at 201 Arch Street. This individual may present an intriguing story for Block Three. He does not appear in the 1798, 1799, 1800 or 1803 city directories, which suggests he was visiting the city. An intriguing possible lead to his story turned up in the Pennsylvania Gazette for February 8, 1792, when William Sanford was listed as one of the directors for the Sierra Leone Company, which advertised, "Free Settlement on the Coast of Africa." The directors offered passage and free acreage — "not less than twenty acres of land for himself, ten for his wife, and five for every child"-- in Sierra Leone to anyone who applied with a certificate that vouched for his character. Both black and white settlers could go. The directors offered "the full assurance of personal protection from slavery for all such Black settlers," and quoted the company's charter of incorporation that forbade all its agents or servants to traffic, deal, or employ slaves. William Sanford was one of thirteen directors, along with Granville Sharp, William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, all notable Friends and abolitionists in England. [132] If this William Sanford happened to be in town on business for the company or general abolitionist activity in 1801, he found good company in the several Quaker residents on this block who had taken a stand against slavery. He also may have wanted to recruit the resident free blacks on the block as likely prospects for the company's mission.

Thomas Willis, turner, lived at 203 Arch Street throughout the entire decade according to the census record and 1791, 1795 and 1801 directories. In 1803 the directory listed him as a city commissioner at the same address, suggesting that he finally retired from his trade. [133] Unlike other tradesmen on Arch Street, he lived a comfortable lifestyle. The tax assessor in 1791 noted that he rented from Widow Walters' estate in a house valued at 300. Frederick Walters, bricklayer, had occupied a residence on Arch Street valued at 300 in the 1787 tax assessment. A pre-1814 city survey places the Widow Fox and Widow Walters lots 45 feet east of Sixth Street. Each of the lots measured 80 feet deep to a 3-foot alley, which ran eastward from Sixth Street approximately 80 feet. [134]

Thomas Willis evidently played an active role in local politics. Beside his election as a city commissioner in 1803, he served in the militia during the Revolution and rose to be one of the leading figures in the Republican Party during the 1790s. When the French Minister Edmund Charles Genet arrived in Philadelphia in 1793, Willis as one of a large committee delegated to present an address to Genet from the Citizens of Philadelphia. The committee marched from the State House with "an immense body of citizens" to the City Tavern, where the ceremony took place. At the close of the address, "the house and the street again resounded with congratulations and applause." Willis responded to this high-spirited time in America's founding years by participating. [135]

Because Willis had the last Arch Street address on this block, the 45-foot lot at the corner of Arch and Sixth Streets evidently had buildings oriented with addresses towards Sixth Street. The 1785 Francis White Directory compared to the John MacPherson directory of the same year indicates that John Grace, blacksmith, occupied the corner lot. White located him at the corner of Arch and Sixth, whereas MacPherson gave him a numbered address, 134 Sixth Street. Likely his operation did not face onto Arch Street, but continued to have a street address on Sixth. The 1787 tax assessment notes that John Graves, smith, leased a property owned by Peter DeHaven's estate and that it included a dwelling, shop and lot adjoining, all valued at 250. [136]

Development along Arch Street seemed to move from the corners gradually towards the center of the block. In mid-block a painter, coachmaker, [137] brush and black ball manufacturer, blacksmith, soapboiler and turner were typical listings at the addresses between 187 and 203 Arch in the 1791, 1795, 1801 city directories featured in this research. Perhaps the earliest resident in this section was painter John Clawges. The census of 1790 shows that he lived with a family of eight other free white men and women on the north side of Arch Street, numbered 187 Arch by the 1791 Directory. Francis White's Philadelphia Directory in 1785 listed John Clauges, painter, on Arch between Fifth and Sixth, and in 1793 the directory listed him as painter and glazier at 187 Arch Street. A city survey drawn in 1785 shows that John Clawges had a 175-foot-deep lot regulated on Arch Street that backed up to Nathan Smith's lot facing Cherry Street. Clawges' lot stood 199 feet from Fifth Street, which when measured off, put it just west of the 49 1/2-foot lot originally identified on the Parsons map of 1747 as William Oxley's. Oxley's 491/2 foot lot bordered the burial ground's west side. John Clawges also leased the next lot to the west from a man named Morris. This Morris likely was an heir of Anthony Morris, as another city survey showed that Anthony Morris' heirs owned a lot on Arch Street east of the Fox lot at 201 Arch. [138] By 1787, John Clawge's lot and brick kitchen together were valued at 200, indicating a better than average property value on this block. Business may have flagged, though, because the tax assessment for 1791 shows that Thomas Mason owned the lot and John Clauges, painter, rented, suggesting a property sale or mortgage. [139]

In 1794, Daniel Clawges, presumably a son or brother, continued the same business at 187 Arch Street, the first number address west of the Presbyterian Burial Ground. The 1795 tax assessment added to the slim portfolio by recording that Clawges (then spelled Glauges) still rented from Thomas Mason, and that the property included a dwelling, painter shop and lot adjoining (to the north) with a brick stable on Cherry Street. In 1799 another painter and glazier, Alexander Thomson, had taken over the property. Thompson listed himself at 187 Mulberry until 1804, when he disappeared from the record. [140] Thus for nearly fifteen years a painter and glazier occupied this 23-1/2-foot lot.

Three new street addresses, 189, 195 and 197 Arch Street, appear in Hogan's 1795 Prospect. This might indicate that these properties had changed hands and were subsequently developed. [141] Jacob Gideon listed himself at 189 Arch as a "Brush and Blackball Manufacturer, and blower of the horn for the City Light-Horse." [142] While Gideon gave an interesting set of titles, little more could be found to flesh out his life, except that he advertised in August 1795 while living in Northern Liberties, that he would not pay any debts accrued by his wife, Polly. The tax assessment record for 1795 indicates that Richard Moore's estate owned the property that Gideon leased, but unfortunately no pre-1814 city survey showed Richard Moore as an owner of an Arch Street lot on this block. [143]

Thomas Hardy, soapboiler, listed himself in 1795 at two of the new street addresses, 195 and 197 Arch Street, mid-way in the block. The process of soap making traditionally has been recognized for its noxious odors, which may have influenced Hardy to build the business at the back end of the lots, away from the residences. [144] The tax list that year only assessed him for a dwelling and lot, however, which suggests he ran his business in the house. Hardy rented the property from Richard Moore's estate. [145] This property evidently changed hands and Hardy took a partner by early 1797, as Kennedy and Hardy, soap boilers, that year operated on a 24 foot 8 inch by 306-foot deep lot in the estate of Benjamin Shoemaker at this location. [146] By 1801 Abraham Phillips had taken over at this address (only at 197 Arch) as a tallow chandler and soap boiler. [147]

The nearest neighbor to the west in 1795 was a blacksmith, John Mingle, who evidently took over the business from Christopher Schreiner. Mingle's blacksmith shop in 1795 came between 197 and 201, but without a number, which may support the conjecture that the shop did not stand right along Arch Street. The tax assessor valued his frame shop at 40 and also taxed him another 100 for a dwelling and lot owned by the Thomas Cope estate. The Cope family had patented a large 49 _-foot lot 49 1/2 feet from Sixth Street in 1716 and continued to hold Arch Street lots on this block for most of the century. [148]

Presbyterian Burial Ground

Seven years after its founding in December 1743, the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia purchased a 52 by 306-foot lot on Arch Street fifty feet west from Fifth Street for their burial ground. Early in 1752 the church officially set aside the parcel for that purpose on a city block otherwise vacant. [149]

The burial ground was laid out to extend the complete lot depth of 306 feet prior to the opening of Cherry Street. As maps later indicated, Cherry Street was laid out 288 feet north of Arch Street, so that the back 18 feet of the burial ground obstructed Cherry Street's right-of-way. By 1790 numerous houses lined both sides of Cherry Street and the intrusion of the burial ground interfered with the street's improvement. Edward Lynch, speaking in behalf of several "respectable Inhabitants and Free holders in that Square," raised the issue in a letter to Dr. John Redman, then president of the Second Presbyterian Church corporation. He requested that the church sell the back end of the burial ground, explaining that this intrusion presented "a bar to getting that street paved" between Fifth and Sixth Streets. Lynch hoped that the Trustees would offer terms "as moderate as possible," since the ground had "little value" and the sale would be a public service. [150]

Nearly a decade passed before the church elders agreed to sell. Finally in May 1799, after rejecting several overtures, they sold the piece of ground. Prior to the deed transfer, however, the church had to remove the burials in that section and re-inter them further to the south. That same year the Trustees voted to set aside funds to purchase ground for another burial ground. In the fall of 1804 the Church Corporation decided that as soon as the new ground opened on Noble Street, they would close the Arch Street lot to further burials, except for relatives of people already laid to rest there. Thus at the turn of the eighteenth century the Arch Street burial ground had begun to be phased out of use. It appeared as an open space, likely enclosed with a fence or wall with some light landscaping around the headstones and vaults. [151]

Surviving burial records dating from 1783 to 1799 provide a stark reminder of the high death rate, particularly among children in the eighteenth century. The list of burials reads "A child of…" for the Bayard, Westcot, Taylor, Mathews, Caruther, Magee, Esprey, Skags, Kennedy, Butler, Fosset, Trimble, Eastburn, Thompson, Ralston, Smith, Dickenson, Nicholson, Du Ponceau, Hazzard, Blanchard and Rush families. Benjamin Rush, the foremost physician of his era, and his wife Julia Stockton, buried two children in 1782 and 1783 and erected a stone in their memory. In 1785 Joseph Reed, patriot and President (or governor) of Pennsylvania from 1778 to 1781, was buried at the same time as his daughter Mary in 1785. Reed's wife, Esther De Berdt, preceded him in death only five years earlier. On September 18^th, 1780, graveside services for her, a 33-year-old mother of five small children, were attended by "the Members of Congress and of their principal Boards, the General Assembly and Supreme Executive Council, officers of the Army and of the State and a great concourse of numerous friends and acquaintance." Her broken-hearted husband gave way to tears. [152]

Several other notable burials took place at this cemetery. The first two pastors for the Second Presbyterian Church, Dr. Gilbert Tennent and Dr. James Sproat, were buried here. The Rev. Sproat, his wife, his eldest son, William, and youngest daughter all died together during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. Because many in the city had fled to the countryside, only about fifty people and "some pious negroes" attended the procession from the church to the burial. [153] Dr. William Shippen, arch-enemy of Dr. Rush during the Revolution, was laid to rest here in 1808. The inscription on his grave read that "He was a teacher and Founder of the Medical School in this City, in which he presided with honor near 40 years." Another prominent man of medicine, Dr. John Redman, president of the College of Physicians when yellow fever struck in 1793, received burial the same year as Shippen. He followed his wife to the grave by less than a year, having shared fifty-seven years together. Col. Francis Johnston and Christian Febiger were among the patriots and officers of the Pennsylvania government buried at the Arch Street cemetery. [154]

In the spring of 1792, during an official visit to Philadelphia by forty-seven chiefs of the Six Iroquois Nations, Peter Jacquette, one of the Oneida chiefs, died. The First City Troop escorted the funeral march from Oellers Hotel on Chestnut above Sixth Street to the Fifth and Arch Street burial ground. So many Pennsylvania Assembly members attended that a quorum for business could not be reached. The newspaper account claimed that a crowd of 10,000 witnessed the cortege, likely because six of the chiefs, all the visiting warriors, all the city clergy, and officers of the Army and War Department walked in the funeral parade. [155] Likely no such display occurred at the burial for William Knox, 38, from Boston, who died in 1795 while working under his brother, Secretary of War Henry Knox. John Nicholson, Jr., once comptroller general of Pennsylvania and a high-profile real estate tycoon with partner Robert Morris, died in 1800 at forty while under emotional duress. Nicholson struggled against public censure and debt in his final years. The family made public their grief and anger by way of his gravestone inscription. "The widowed mother and orphan child may drop a tear to his memory but many whom chance or idle curiosity may lead to this tomb will sink with shame and confusion when they reflect upon their sordid ingratitude." [156]

George Bryan, who more than any other Pennsylvania legislator deserves credit for the passage of the 1780 Gradual Emancipation Act in Pennsylvania, was laid to rest in the Second Presbyterian burial ground. Bryan recognized the significance of the abolition legislation when he wrote to Samuel Adams "Our bill … astonishes and pleases the Quakers. They looked for no such benevolent issue of our new government, exercised by Presbyterians." [157] For his lifetime promotion of human rights Bryan received a tombstone inscription that sang his praise:

In memory of George Bryan, who died 27^th January, 1791, aged sixty years. Mr. Bryan was among the earliest and most active and uniform friends of the rights of man before the Revolutionary war. As a member of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and of the Congress of New York in 1765, and as a citizen, he was conspicuous in opposition to the Stamp Act and other acts of British tyranny. He was equally an opponent of domestic slavery. The emancipation of the people of color engaged the feelings of his heart and the energies of his mind, and the Act of abolition [which] laid the foundation of their liberation issued from his pen. He filled several important offices during the Revolutionary contest, and for the last eleven years of his life was one of the judges of the Supreme Court. In this private deportment he was exemplary, a Christian in principle and practice. [158]

Although this study focuses on the 18^th Century, for purposes of understanding possible archeological resources and because the record was well preserved by the Presbyterian Historical Society, the nineteenth century record will also be outlined here.

Around 1835 the church elders decided to move their place of worship to Seventh Street to secure a quieter location. [159] While the new church was under construction, the congregation worshipped in a brick building they called the session room that the church had already built on Cherry Street at the north end of the burial ground. [160] That year also, the church prepared a plan of the burial ground that showed all the existing family vaults under a central 9-foot wide walkway the length of the burial ground to the "Session Room, etc." The plan marked the Session room measurements as 52 feet 9 inches wide-- three feet more than the full width of the 49 _ foot lot -- by 40 feet 7 inches. [161] This brick building (with 19 feet of ground) was sold from the Arch Street burial ground in 1852, after many years in use as a schoolhouse and meeting hall for societies. Prior to the sale, the remains of the dead within that property were relocated, most to the front yard further south in the burial ground, and a few to Monument Cemetery or Laurel Hill Cemetery. [162] The church records indicate that the graves were "much more numerous than previously anticipated." Based on remaining stones, they dated them as late as 1834, and many 50 to 70 years earlier. A plot plan of gravesites within the walls of the session building in 1852 survives. The plan also provides grave inscriptions, which sometimes indicated that more than one person had been interred in that grave. [163]

The pace of burials slowed considerably after the turn of the 18^th century, but the ground remained open until 1867. In February of that year the congregation voted to sell the burial ground. The Trustees appointed a committee to supervise the removals "to a more suitable and permanent location." [164] Church records showed that as of 1851, about 3,650 persons "of all ages" had been interred in their Arch Street lot, which then measured 52 feet on Arch by about 245 feet in depth. [165] That year prominent families began moving their loved ones to fashionable rural cemeteries outside the city, among them the heirs of John Strawbridge and Dandridge Tucker. The remains of explorer Elisha Kane and his family and John Kintzing Kane were removed from the Thomas Leiper vault, while the body of Rev. Gilbert Tennant, the first pastor for the Second Presbyterian Church, was taken from the Chauncey vault to be reburied at the Lemon Hill Cemetery. Other families chose to relocate their family dead to Woodlands and to New Brunswick, New Jersey. [166] For the rest, the Trustees in August 1867 purchased a 5,121 square-foot plot of ground in Mount Vernon Cemetery along Ridge Road just outside Philadelphia. [167] The project, however, was immense. Family members of the deceased needed to be notified and then agree to the removal. The committee arranged for 1,479 removals. They built six new vaults, one monument, fifty tombs, one tablet, and 253 head and footstones in the new burial ground at Mount Vernon. They also arranged for five new vaults to be built at Laurel Hill Cemetery and saw to the removal of the remains there from the five original vaults in the Arch Street ground. At the close of the year the Trustees reported that all bodies had been relocated. [168]

In 1869 the Trustees began selling the Arch Street burial ground in parcels. An undertaker, William Hill Moore, purchased an 18-foot-wide lot in July. Another 24-foot lot was sold to Richard J. Dobbins in 1874, leaving 7 feet which appears to have been made into an alleyway to the back of the eastern lot. Certainly neither party knew that at least 98 burials had been left behind in the first relocation project when the church sold off the Cherry Street end in 1852, nor whether that would suggest other internments were left behind in the burial ground during the final removal of burials. The General State Authority's "Plan of Buildings to be Demolished" completed in 1958 for Block 3 showed the two Arch Street lots filled with buildings, but a large area under the backbuildings had no basements. As no archeology was necessary for this area (since the National Constitution Center did not plan construction there), it is not known whether a similar incident of burial ground vestiges remain behind under ground. Very likely there are, based on the findings at the north and east sides of the burial plot. [169]

Fifth Street

As documented earlier in this report (see pp. 12-13), the easternmost Arch Street lot began to be subdivided prior to the Revolution. Thomas Bartholomew, Andrew Edge and Plananigh Pugh purchased lots along the west side of Fifth Street in the 1760s and then built several two and three-story houses. Bartholomew lived near the corner of Arch in a house he insured in 1763, and advertised others along Fifth for sale. Edge insured two two-story and two three-story houses in a row on Fifth Street just above Arch Street, which he advertised for sale or exchange for a country farm. Edge was tied in with other real estate developers on this section of the block, one being Richard Hall, his uncle. Closer to Cherry Street Pugh owned a two-story house, which he rented, and a three-story house, his residence in 1763, both of which he soon after sold.

By the decade of the 1780s this section of Fifth Street had a diverse mix of people, mostly small shopkeepers and tradesmen, but an occasional clerk or gentleman. The White directory of 1785 lists two dozen or more people on Fifth between Arch and Race streets, but few can be identified as living on the west side of Fifth Street and south of Cherry Street on this block. With a cross-check with the numbering system from MacPherson's directory the same year, Thomas Randall, gentleman, can be located south of Cherry on the west side of Fifth. The one piece of interest about him is that his children showed up in Samuel Emlen's will of November 1783. S. Emlen owned the Cresson section according to the Parson's survey of 1747, which suggests that Randall may have leased at this location to be in the neighborhood of friends or family. Typically, Randall's stay at this site must have been brief, however, as he did not appear in the 1785 tax assessment for this block. [170]

The tax assessments give other particulars about the residents and physical growth along Fifth Street south of Cherry. William Ralston's estate adjoining Cherry in 1787, for instance, included two lots, one where George Ralston (a son, presumably), lived, and according to the 1791 directory, ran a customs house office at 70 N. Fifth Street. James Cunningham, cordwainer, Johnson McCown, shopkeeper, Oliver Ross, combmaker, and Thomas Darrock, saddler, shared the property, which included two houses and "sundry framed." The other adjoining Ralston property had only one dwelling valued at 125 and was leased to Captain Clam (sp?) of the Invalids. [171] Next door to the south Christian Keen, a joiner, rented a dwelling valued at 250 from the Jabez Busby estate. Judging from his occupation and the property valuation, this lot likely had a three-story house. John Davis, upholsterer and Samuel Wainwright, hatter, shared a dwelling rented from the David Miller estate. Thomas Hannaberry, a fishmonger, later listed at 62 North Fifth Street, occupied his own dwelling and lot next door, valued at 250. His household included Charles Woelpert, fishmonger, and James Parker, staymaker. Henbury, as spelled in 1791, or Hennelry in 1795, remained at this location selling fish for close to a decade, likely because he owned the property. [172]

Next door Robert Parrish, plainmaker, rented the dwelling of William Thomas' estate. Parrish was a Quaker, like so many others living on this block, and was named among many Friends in John Pemberton's will of 1795. The Thomas estate also owned the adjoining house where James Carter, merchant, rented. Both houses were valued at 300. The last two houses before the corner property on Arch were occupied by widow Cooper who owned her dwelling valued at 225, and Lewis Busay, clerk, in a house valued at 200, rented from the John Williams estate. John Williams, it turns out, was a brother-in-law to Margaret and Thomas Bartholomew. In her will of 1777, Margaret left Williams and his wife her Philadelphia house, which might explain this lot being in his estate in 1787. [173]

Eight years later the tax assessor found a new roster of residents (with the exception of the fishmonger, Thomas Hanneberry) along this section of Fifth Street. The property owners remained in the Ralston, Busby, Pugh, Thomas and Williams families. The city directory that year made evident that the typical resident continued to be in the trades (shoemaker, bandbox maker, cabinetmaker and joiner and French hairdresser). The French hairdressers may well have been among the refugees from Santo Domingo who arrived in the city the summer of 1793, fleeing a bloody slave revolt on the island. A rise in the number of clerks or scriveners perhaps reflected the federal government's presence in the city during the decade. "Charles Thompson," scrivener, at 54 North Fifth Street (listed as "Charles Thomkins" in the 1795 tax record) is of possible interest if he is the famous patriot Charles Thomson, who served nearly fifteen years as secretary to the Continental Congress. While it is an intriguing coincidence of name and occupation, the sixty-six year old Thomson evidently had retired from public and private service, but may have had a son or other relative who followed in his profession. [174]

Besides change in residents, the tax assessor also made note of physical improvements that apparently had been made in the interim at the Ralston property. In 1787 a Ralston lot supported "sundry frame," and in 1795, there were no frame, only three brick dwellings. The 1795 tax record also suggests that the Ralston lot at the corner of Cherry stood empty, perhaps having been cleared of its frame buildings. Such an improvement would have been timely, considering that the city outlawed the construction of frame buildings within the city limits east of Tenth Street in the spring of 1795 to cut down on real estate loss from fire. [175] This indication of an empty lot at the southwest corner of Fifth and Cherry is implied, as well, by the addresses, which stop at 72 below Cherry and pick up north of Cherry with Ebenezer Robinson at 82 North Fifth. Throughout the decade four addresses are missing, 74, 76, 78 and 80, which suggests a large double lot yet to be developed. [176]

A comparison of the directories for 1791, 1795 and 1801 also indicates that while the residents changed locations, the business or trade at that address sometimes remained the same. At 68 North Fifth Street a joiner or cabinetmaker occupied the property for the national capital decade, as recorded in all three directories. At 64 N. Fifth a variety of small manufacturers took the lease, in 1791 a cardmaker, in 1795 a band box maker and in 1801 a bonnet box maker. Likely they all used similar equipment and had little to do to alter the shop for their different products. Finally, the listings for the residents from 52 to 72 North Fifth Street in these directories show a clear progression in social rank. By 1801, after the national capital moved to Washington, D.C., the neighborhood at Fifth had become more gentrified. The city was moving steadily westward. Thus while the 1795 directory listed one gentlewoman, Mary Thomas, in this section of Fifth Street, the 1801 directory listed four gentlewomen near Arch Street. Other residents included a wine merchant, two carpenters and a cabinetmaker, a lawyer, tobacconist and a China store operator, providing luxury commodities for a wealthier clientele in the neighborhood. [177]

Sixth Street

Sixth Street between Arch and Cherry Streets experienced a burst of development in the post-Revolution period. As mentioned earlier (see p. 23 above), Peter De Haven's property during the Revolution supported a gun factory. A city survey in 1782 measured his lot as 99 feet on Arch and 107 feet on Sixth Street. The 1787 tax listed two tenants on De Haven property, John Graves, a blacksmith, who leased a dwelling, shop and adjoining lot valued at 250, and William Bruner, a carter. Bruner rented a dwelling valued at 175 and was taxed for one horse and four cows, which suggests that the property included a stable. Possibly some of the structures remained from the gun factory. [178]

The tax assessment for 1791 had two tenants sharing a Peter De Haven dwelling, George Carlisle, coachmaker, and William Brunner, the carter who was listed in the 1787 tax. This dwelling was valued at 210. Brunner appeared in the census on North Sixth Street as William Branger, laborer, with a household of 7 others, five of them women, and in the 1791 city directory at 41 North Sixth Street, next to George Brinner, tailor, at 47 North Sixth Street. The tax record spelled Brinner as Brunner, suggesting that George and William shared a family connection. George Carlisle's name did not turn up in the 1791 directory. That year De Haven constructed two new two-story brick tenement houses on Sixth Street. The insurance described them as square, each 16 by 16-foot, with kitchens in the cellar. These were built on a 32 by 45-foot lot on Sixth Street, some 49 feet north of Arch Street. [179]

In 1795 De Haven asked for a survey of his large lot at the corner (45 by 48 feet 7 along Sixth Street) in preparation for the construction of two more houses. That year the Hogan's directory listed two carpenters and a cabinetmaker living at 61 and 63 North Sixth Street, the first addresses above Arch. Likely they were busy putting up his new houses. In November De Haven insured one on Arch Street and the other adjoining on the corner of Sixth Street. The tax assessment that year listed William Brunger (variant of the William Brunner in 1791?) on a Peter De Haven lot with 3 brick dwellings and one frame structure. Jacob Phimple, a tailor, also leased a dwelling and lot valued at 125 from De Haven. How these four brick buildings and frame actually were situated is not clear. Oddly neither Brunger nor Phimple appear in Hogan's Prospect that year. Finally De Haven had surveyed a 23 -foot lot on Sixth Street at the north end of his property for his son Hugh De Haven, leaving a 3-foot alley between the father and son lots. [180]

A composite city survey of the lots along the east side of Sixth Street from Mulberry to Cherry dated 1782-1788 shed light on some of the other properties on this section. De Haven's portion of Sixth Street extended north from Arch Street 107 feet in two lots, one 90 feet and the other 17 feet. To the north stood four 17-foot lots and one 16-foot lot. Two of these were owned by Cristler, one by Edward Jones, and two by Captain Daniel Joy (deeded by Richard Jones). The last 80 feet to Cherry Street contained a lot Ludwick Karacher had purchased in 1771. (An insurance policy in 1775 recorded that Karacher built two two-story houses on this property). North of Karacher was a 32-foot lot set aside for Amy & E. Humphreys. Two shallow 19-1/2-foot lots facing Cherry Street right on the corner appeared to make up the last Sixth Street lot. [181]

The two Christler lots just north of De Haven had unassuming dwellings by 1787 each assessed at 125. The tenants were two butchers and a widow. The 1791 tax marked Widow Christler's estate with tenants George Brunner, taylor and Jacob Grier, butcher, in two adjoining properties valued each at 100. According to the census and 1791 directory, Jacob Greer, butcher, lived at 49 North Sixth Street in a household of five. Two tenants continued to occupy the houses in 1795, but it is impossible to be sure whether they are numbered because only one tenant, Stephen Sheremuth, hostler, appeared in Hogan's Prospect that year, and without an address number. In fact Hogan's gave few street addresses for this section of Sixth, making it difficult to check it against the 1791 directory. Even more confusing, the 1801 directory listed a different numbering sequence and all new tenants, with the exception of Joseph Gray. [182]

Godfrey Minig, baker, was taxed in 1787 for a dwelling and bake house that neighbored Widow Christler's two lots. Godfrey Minick had a Sixth Street lot surveyed on March 17, 1785. According to an explanatory annotation, it was the (17-foot) lot labeled for Edward Jones in the plan. The 1790 census, as well as the 1791 and 1795 directories listed Godfrey Miney (1790 and 1791), Meeny (1795), baker, on North Sixth. In 1791 his address was 53 North Sixth, and his tax listed a house adjoining, which likely was occupied by Martha Walker at 51 North Sixth. In February that year Minnick insured a "nearly new" three-story house on north Sixth street that measured 18 feet, 6 inches, including a 3-foot alley, by 28 feet deep, with a small shop in the lower front room, which possibly was his own residence and bakery outlet. Each floor had two rooms and the policy noted that the back parlor and front chamber were finished. In 1795 Godfrey Meeny was listed on Sixth above Arch with no number. That year he was taxed for two properties adjoining the widow Christler's estate, one where he lived, valued at 425, and a rental (to a shoemaker) that merely was valued at 125. Minick by 1801 was gone, but at "51 next" North Sixth in the directory, another baker, John Dankwerth, continued the business. [183]

Capt. Daniel Joy also had developed his property next door to the north. In 1787 Leonard Rust, innkeeper, paid rent for a dwelling and vacant lot adjoining valued at 200. The 1791 tax listed Leonard Rust, innkeeper, still in residence, but he then only leased a dwelling valued at 170. The 1791 directory placed Leonard Rust at 55 North Sixth Street as a meal seller. Evidently Capt. Joy sold off this lot to Capt. Stiles by 1795, when a wheelwright occupied the dwelling. Joy evidently sold his other lot to Joseph Gray, brewer, who was listed as 61 North Sixth in the 1791, 1795 and 1801 directories. In 1801 Gray identified himself as a gentleman, indicating his financial success and retirement. [184]

The 1787 tax assessment listed Ludwick Kerger's (Karacher in the survey record) two lots with dwellings after Daniel Joy's entry. The Kerger tenants were Mrs. Pomorada and George Keely, merchant. Keely's listing noted that the Kerger estate was assessed for a dwelling and two vacant lots at the corner. Those vacant lots at Cherry Street were sold the following year to Tobias King who in turn sold them to two single women, sisters, Elizababeth and Amy Humphreys. The 1791 tax assessment listed Elizabeth Humphreys living next door to Joseph Gray with a vacant lot adjoining. The 1791 directory, however, named Amy Humphreys, spinster, at this location, giving the address as 63 North Sixth. Amy died in 1794 naming Elizabeth as one of her executors. The 1795 tax assessment noted that the Elizabeth Humphreys estate had "Negroes" in residence. The Humphreys dwelling and adjoining lot were valued at 250. The directory that year, however, listed two carpenters in residence at 63 North Sixth Street. Likely some building was under construction nearby, perhaps in the vacant lot adjoining. A carpenter occupied 63 North Sixth in 1801, but it's not definite whether that address still was for the Humphreys property. [185]

Cherry Street

The corner property at Cherry Street owned by Tobias King as of 1788 became a Cherry Street address in the 1791 directory when "Tobey King" was listed at 66 Cherry Street, the last address on the south side of the street going west. The tax that year recorded Tobias King as a laborer, whereas the census and directory named him a brick maker. He didn't remain long at this address. The 1795 directory listed Richard Sands, a carter, at 66 Cherry, although Tobias King remains at a Cherry location according to the tax record for that year. In 1801 Casper Trimble, a shopkeeper, occupied the address. The directory that year added that Cato Collins, brush maker, lived at the corner of Sixth Street, but did not give a street number. [186]

Jacob Shippack, baker, (Sheppack in the tax) occupied and owned the next dwelling to the east, 64 Cherry in 1791. The census listed 8 others in his household, mostly adults. He remained at this address as a baker in 1795 (spelled Jacob Skipbeck in the directory and Sheppack in the tax), but by 1801 George Ohle had taken over the bakery at that street number and Jacob Scheipeck ran a bakery next door, at 62 Cherry. Likely the Jacob Scappack, baker, at 62 Cherry in 1811 is the same man. The spelling variations very possibly indicate that he had a very thick accent. [187]

John Baugh, shoemaker, lived at 62 Cherry in 1790-1791, with a household of eight. By 1795 Mary Swoop, a widow and seamstress, lived at the address (but she was not listed in the tax record) and in 1801, as mentioned, Scheipeck had opened up his bakery there.

Jacob Umpchant, butcher, (Umbehend in the tax record), occupied 60 Cherry in 1790-91, with five others in the household. He did not appear again, nor did the address in the 1795 and 1801 directories. Umbehend lived on Cherry in 1787, as recorded by the tax assessor, who listed him as a laborer in a dwelling valued only at 40, evidently his own property. The 1795 tax listed a butcher, George Sonleiter, as having a dwelling and lot valued at 75, at approximately the same location near Jacob Sheppack. The directory, however, listed George Sunlighter, laborer, after 58 Cherry Street, but assigned him no number, perhaps suggesting that the 60 Cherry was slated to be abandoned. The 1801 directory not only listed no 60 Cherry Street but had no butchers as residents on this side of Cherry Street. [188]

In 1790-1791 another butcher, John Greer, lived next door to Umpchant, at 58 Cherry, with 8 others and was still there in the 1795 directory and tax record. Greer may have been on Cherry Street as early as 1787, when the tax assessment listed a butcher next door to Umbehend, in a dwelling valued at 130, but his name was John Greiner, perhaps another spelling fluctuation. By 1801 Michael Pepper, laborer, was in residence at 58 Cherry. [189]

A weaver, James Esprey, lived at 56 Cherry in 1790-91 with five others. The tax assessor listed him as Ashbey, and identified the property as Thomas Oliver's estate, with a dwelling valued only at 75. This likely is the same property assessed to Oliver in 1787 when Bernard Mayer, tallow chandler, rented and was also taxed for a horse. Esprey continued there in 1795 (with spelling as James Esby), but a shingle shaver, William Cornelly, occupied the property in 1801. [190]

Nathan Smith's property next door, numbered 54 Cherry in 1790-1791, had occupants by 1787, when (old) Ralph Smith occupied one dwelling valued at 75 and Jacob Hitz, brewer, lived in a dwelling valued at 115. In 1789 Hitz was still in residence, while Nathan Smith, carpenter, lived on his own property. His tax included a dwelling and two small houses valued at 125, a carpenter shop, a horse, cow, and his occupation, worth 35. The census taker found David Smith, carpenter, in residence with no other people, but another carpenter, Thomas Isdel, took over the house sometime in 1791, as given in the tax record. He and John Mornington are both listed in 1795 as house carpenters after 52 Cherry, which Susanna Wiggins, "tayloress," occupied. The 1795 tax indicates that Wiggins also lived on Nathan Smith's lot. Other directories from 1794 to 1797 listed Thomas Esdall, house carpenter, as "back 52 Cherry." The 1801 directory reverses the order, placing John Mornington, house carpenter, at 52 Cherry and Susanna Wiggins, "tayloress," back of 52, along with a bricklayer, two blacksmiths, a laborer and possibly a turner. It was a crowded property and the last one listed on Cherry Street's south side before the Presbyterian Burial ground and the William Ralston lots at Fifth at Cherry. [191]

Summary

The Arch Street lots as originally laid out extended 306 feet north from Arch Street but the creation of Cherry Alley (or Street) reduced the depth eighteen feet, to make the lots 288 feet in length. Arch Street developed slowly, from the corners toward the middle of the block. Three brick houses stood at the corner of Fifth Street by 1770. Including an alley, they filled the frontage (491/2 feet) of the easternmost Arch Street lot. Prior to the Revolution this larger lot was subdivided and lots sold. Fifth Street witnessed a flurry of construction mid-century, mostly two-story brick houses put to use as shops for tradesmen and residences. During and after the Revolution development continued. Most of the construction was brick, but several outbuildings were listed as frame.

The Presbyterian Church set aside the next 99-feet of Arch Street the full length of 306 feet for a burial ground. Late in the century the church agreed to sell 18 feet of ground at the north end so that Cherry Street could be widened and paved. This sale caused the Church to relocate several interments further south. By the 1830s the Church had erected a Sessions house at the Cherry Street side of the burial ground. In 1852 The Second Presbyterian sold the Session building and once again bodies had to be relocated. Some went into the same burial ground further to the south, while others were moved outside the city. The burial ground closed in 1867, after the church had spent several years working on relocating the remains to cemeteries of family choice. Those that remained went to a special church plot in the Mount Vernon cemetery on Ridge Pike, Philadelphia. Modern archeologists recently discovered that all the burials had not been removed, and those located were reinterred at a special service at Mount Vernon Cemetery in 2002.

Tradesmen leased property in mid-block and set up business towards the end of the century. In some cases the 288-foot lots were divided to develop the south side of Cherry Street. Only in one case did one of the Arch Street owners actually live on the street; that was lumber merchant Robert McGee who passed his three-story brick dwelling to widow Fox in the late 1780s. After he departed a series of tenants of a more middle class nature–a clerk-- occupied the house.

The Sixth and Arch Street lots with 99 feet on Arch Street and 288 feet to Cherry began to be sold off prior to the Revolution, but few buildings were completed before the war. During the Revolution a gun factory was established on the Peter Dehaven lot, likely near the corner. In the late 1780s and 1790s further development with two and three-story houses gradually filled most of the lots.

Cherry Street's south side would have been the logical location for stables and coach houses to accommodate wealthy residents living on Arch Street. This pattern occurred more regularly on the south side of Arch and on either side of Market Streets, but only one carriage house and stable was recorded on Thomas Mason's lot just west of the burial ground. Except for a few short-term wealthy tenants on this block of Arch Street, there was little sign of prominent residents, with the exception of Peter Muhlenberg, who leased the westernmost of the houses at the Fifth And Arch Street location in 1787, when he was serving on the Council.

The property and ground rent owners, however, represented leading Quakers and Presbyterians who had made real estate investments on this section of the block. Morris, Shoemaker, Smith, Wister, Cope, Savery, De Haven and Ralston are some of the prominent names with large Arch Street lot landholdings. After the Revolution more modest investors purchased small properties on the Fifth, Sixth and Cherry Street sides and erected or occupied brick dwellings, shops and "sundry frames."

Even as the early settlers on the Arch Street section predominantly favored tradesmen, many of whom lived at the lower end of the social spectrum, by the close of the 18^th century the residents increasingly showed a rise in status. By 1801 the several butchers had departed, replaced with a greater frequency of gentlemen and gentlewomen, merchants and upper-end tradesmen, like turners and graziers. Finally, the frequency of house carpenters, bricklayers and shingle shavers resident in this section speak to their contribution to the city during the burst of construction that marked the coming of the federal government to Philadelphia in 1790.

The 1810 Census

A website [192] has been posted out of the University of Delaware that lists findings in the 1810 United States census. An appendix in this report shows a sample of how that source, which gives the street address and structure style, interfaced with the city directory for that year. The Arch Street addresses from 177 to 205/207 (note that two addresses have been added since 1800) matched up in the two sources in all but five cases. The dwellings (except one) were 3-story brick houses. The occupations of the residents had changed to reflect a more prosperous community, with only two artisans still working on Arch Street, both continuations from the pre-1800 period. A painter/glazier had been occupying 187 Arch Street from before the 1790 census, perhaps as long as a quarter century. That address happened to be the only two-story brick house, a more typical style for the mid-eighteenth century construction on the block. The coachmaker's address at 199 Arch had earlier been a blacksmith shop, but adjoining the coachmaker James Simmons property in 1790. Another point of interest concerned the large and diverse households for some of these properties. Ten to nineteen people lived under one roof in seven of the fourteen households, and a total of sixteen free black people lived in a different set of seven houses, but none of the fourteen households included enslaved people. Without further study, it is not clear whether or not this free black presence on Arch Street in 1810 represents continuity with the pre-1800 presence of free black people in the Cresson section of the block.