Item Info

Historic Street Address: 25 South Van Pelt Street
Media Type: Albumen Prints
Source: Print and Picture Collection
Notes:

In 1884, James A. McDevett was disturbed by the presence of unsupervised, homeless, and uneducated young men throughout the city.  He formed the Evening Home for Boys, with the goal of providing a safe haven with mature guidance, fostering  upward mobility for these young people through its Night School.   The Evening Home Association building, located in an alley then called Albion Street, above 21^st & Chestnut Streets, was designed by local architect Westray Ladd; the cornerstone was laid on November 8, 1884.  

A year later, on October 29, 1885, the Evening Home Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia opened in the three-story clubhouse, providing 2400 books.  This is a ca. 1900 interior view of librarians in the branch.  Sometime around McDevett’s death in early 1918, the branch closed.

While occasionally changing to keep up with the times, the old Evening Home for Boys survives since 1972 as De La Salle in Towne, doing the same type of hard work it was designed for all those decades ago.

Creation Year: ca. 1901
Geocode Latitude: Geocode Longitude:-75.175882
Geocode Latitude:39.953108