127 Elfreth's Alley

Built later than most of its neighbors, in the years after 1810, House 127 is an excellent example of the Federal style that replaced in popularity the Georgian facades of early Alley houses.  The delicate fanlight (arched window) above the front door can be contrasted against the sculptural pediments over Houses 129 and 131 to the west.  The façade is flatter than its Georgian counterparts, lacking a pent eave or even a brick beltcourse; in addition, details like the window muntins are more slender and delicate than in earlier Alley houses.  At three-and-a-half stories, House 127 is one of the tallest houses on the street.

This house was probably built by turner Barney Schumo, who purchased the lot and its frame carpentry shop from the estate of his former employer, cabinetmaker Daniel Trotter.  Trotter, who with his son-in-law operated a cabinetmaking business under the name Trotter and Haines, had several shops along the north side of the Alley; two had recently been demolished to the west to construct Houses 129 and 131. House 127 has distinctive decorative elements, including an unusual bulls-eye motif on the fireplaces, which indicate someone associated with carpentry, like Schumo, commissioned the house.  

Harman Baugh, also a turner, purchased House 127 in 1836 and owned it for the next sixty years, living in the house for most of that time.  Baugh also built House 125 to the east.  Later residents of the house included Irish-born John Boland, whose daughter was a private nurse and whose son-in-law, also living in the house, served on the police force; Augustus Delange, a first-generation of French descent who also had a police officer son; and William Veasey, a World War One veteran and stevedore on the waterfront who in 1930 had five children under the age of six!