Did you know that America’s oldest residential street, Elfreth’s Alley, is located in Philadelphia? This Saturday is the 2013 Elfreth’s Alley Fete Day. Purchase your ticket and step back in time with period characters who used to inhabit the street, and tour 12 of the homes- which are all still lived in today! I love historic houses (check out the Tenement Museum next time you are in NYC!!!!!!) so I can’t wait to check out these homes this weekend!
I often pass by huge gorgeous old brownstones in Philadelphia and wonder what it was like to live there when it was a single family home- not apartments, a museum, a library… etc that is today. I’ve walked by the Stotesbury Mansion on Rittenhouse, built in 1870 many times and wondered about its history. Did you know that it was a wedding present for Thomas McKean, a descendent of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence? In 1890, Mr. Edward T. Stotesbury purchased the home as an addition to his adjoining residence with the press calling it the largest and grandest townhouse in all of the East Coast.
Click the link for more history (including the squash court added on the 5th floor and entire Georgian ballroom imported from an English manor)!
Sam Brandolini 