112 Elfreth's Alley

One way we can tell that all the houses were built at once is the beltcourse – the line of bricks between the first and second floor, typical of the Georgian style. You will notice that all three houses share the same beltcourse and roofline.

Throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, all sorts of Colonial artisans – a carver, French tailor, baker, boat builder, joiner, oak cooper, and cordwainer – rented House 112. (What is a cordwainer you ask? Originally, it was someone who worked with Cordovan – a leather from Spain – but later the term came to mean a shoemaker.) The house was also rented by Eleazer Levy, a New York merchant who held a mortgage on West Point.

In the early years of the 20th century, the Wallace family lived in this house. Like Jenny Enisohn next-door in House 110, Catharine Wallace was a widow who lived with her three children. Her oldest son, John, was a police officer for the city of Philadelphia. Between 1880 and 1920 there were about 25 police officers living on the Alley.