Historic houses contain layered stories from the people who have lived in them over decades and centuries. Historic house museums often also have additional layers of meaning and mystery created by the process of preservation and restoration. Recently, Board Member Emily Taggart Schricker looked back over Elfreth’s Alley Association minutes and the logbook of the restoration of house #126 to learn more about the layers in our museum today.
What follows is an excerpt from an essay which appears in full on our Patreon page for $10/month backers.
Figure 1: Image of 124 & part of 126 Elfreth's Alley before 126 was restored. EAA Archives.
Historic wood windows can be repaired, but archival images show us that the windows found on 124 and 126 Elfreth’s Alley, in the mid-20th century, included a variety of replacements sashes. For example, as seen in the image above, one large pane of glass or 2 rectangles in a sash, versus 6 or 9 divided panes of glass (or lights) are present. During this period, salvaging historic materials from similar buildings being demolished in the city was an option. Further research into the board minutes of 1959, provides confirmation that:
“From #202 St. James Street, to be demolished by the Redevelopment Authority for the Unit 1 area of Washington Square East Redevelopment Project, the Association hired a carpenter to remove, for re-use of #126, 17 window sash with old glass lights in most of them; 2 closet doors and 4 stairway doors. The doors may not be usable, but we obtained them for the price of our labor. It was therefore felt to be worthwhile to take them.” (emphasis/ bolding added)
The EAA archive also includes a sequence of letters regarding the salvage of these, and other, historic features from the St. James Street property. It seems that a couple from New Jersey had reserved some interior items from the property and the Philadelphia residents were adamant that these historic details remain in the city. Perhaps more research could tell us where these items finally ended up, but using the board minutes and the 1959 correspondence, we can confirm that some of the windows used at House #126 were taken from 202 St. James Street. The letters in the archive are between the City of Philadelphia, Penelope Hartshorne Batcheler (EAA Board member, National Park Service Preservation Architect, and the only woman on the team of historic preservationists who restored Independence Hall in the 1960s), and various other interested parties that were willing to put their name and funds down to ensure these historic materials found a suitable home.
The specifications from Oskar Stonorov’s office (Stonorov was a famous modernist architect initially hired to oversee the museum project) include details about the methods and the work to be performed, including the windows, within the “Woodwork” section. The documents specify the need for new exterior “show sills” and gives a clue that not ALL of the historic sashes were removed. The text identifies the one sash that was salvageable from the north façade. It specifies that the workers should remove all sash, except “keeping first floor window upper sash which is historic”. Perhaps the one shown below? In the image it is the lower sash, but there’s only one window on the first floor and perhaps evidence showed it was originally an upper sash? The specifications outlined that this existing sash did need repairs to the muntins and adjustments made to install a lock. Later discussions in 1960 led to the opinion that the window preserved on the north façade may not have been original to the construction of the building due to the size of its muntins. (The dimensions of a window’s muntins is one aspect used to date historic windows.)
Figure 2: 126 Elfreth's Alley, 1959. EAA Archives.
Become a member of our Patreon and you can read the rest of Schricker’s research into the restoration project (and many other topics on Elfreth’s Alley’s history!).
Last year we had the windows in the rear of the museum repainted to ensure they survive for another generation. You can support maintenance work and learn more about the window-repainting project at: https://pages.donately.com/elfrethsalleyassociation/campaign/save-our-sills