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Four 19th-Century Houses

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c. 1873–1884. S. 21st and Spruce sts.
  • (Photo by Andrew Hope)
  • (Photo by Andrew Hope)
  • (Photo by Andrew Hope)
  • (Photo by Andrew Hope)

The intersection of S. 21st and Spruce streets is marked by four of the city's premier Victorian city houses. That at the southeast corner, built c. 1873 for banker George C. Thomas and variously attributed to Theophilus Parsons Chandler and Henry A. Sims, fairly quivers with centennial-era fervor. The more stately Renaissance brownstone at the northwest corner was built for stove manufacturer James Spear (1884, Addison Hutton). George Hewitt designed the remaining two; that at 2100 Spruce Street, built in 1880 for Lucien Moss, a founder of the Jewish Hospital, retains its Germanic carriage house, while 2047 Spruce marks the Hewitts’ shift toward the English Queen Anne in the early 1880s.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
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Data

What's Nearby

Rudolf Ellis House
William West Frazier Jr. and George Lieb Harrison Double House
Maurice Speiser House
Rosenbach Museum
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Citation

George E. Thomas, "Four 19th-Century Houses", [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-PH90.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 2

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence M. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 102-102.

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