Castner Scrapbook v.18, Chestnut Street – Residences 1, page 21

Historical Images of Philadelphia Castner Scrapbook Collection
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Castner Scrapbook v.18, Chestnut Street – Residences 1, page 21

Item Info

Item No: pdcc03106
Title: Castner Scrapbook v.18, Chestnut Street – Residences 1, page 21
Historic Street Address: 1810 Rittenhouse Square
Historic Street Address: 201 S. 18th Street
Historic Street Address: 5442 Germantown Avenue
Historic Street Address: 6043 Germantown Avenue
Media Type: Scrapbooks
Source: Print and Picture Collection
Notes:

Item 1, top left:  1949 Evening Bulletin article titled, "Old Haunted House Held a Mystic," about the residence at 6043 Germantown Avenue.  It was built in 1750 by Christopher Witt, who was a physician, botanist, and mystic.  The residence was sold to physician William Shippen in 1775, and came to be known as the Shippen-Blair House, upon the marriage of Susan Blair to Dr. Shippen.  It was later occupied by actress Charlotte Cushman in the 1850s, and became a boarding house for a while.  According to tradition, the house was haunted by a spell cast by Dr. Witt. Evening Bulletin article, 10 x 13 cm (irregular cropping), 12/12/1949.

Item 2, center right: 1951 Evening Bulletin article, titled, "New Rittenhouse Square Apartments Replace Homes Which Played Big Roles in City's Life."  The article details the in-progress construction of the Rittenhouse Claridge (at 201 S. 18th Street)  and the Rittenhouse Savoy (at 1806-1818 S. Rittenhouse Square) apartment buildings. Evening Bulletin article, 14.5 x 16.5 cm, 2/3/1951.

Item 3, bottom left:  Newspaper article titled, "Morris House Changed Hands Four Times."  Although no address is given in the article, the historic residence is located at 5442 Germantown Avenue.  It was known as the Deschler-Morris House (not to be confused with the historic Reynolds-Morris House, today a boutique hotel in Germantown).   The article details the numerous owners and tenants who lived there, between its construction by owner/architect David Deschler in 1752 (who greatly added to it twenty years later), and its final owner in 1834, Samuel Morris, whose families lived there over the next 100 years.  The Morris family donated the property to the National Park Service in 1948.  At one time, it served as the White House, occupied twice (in 1793 and 1794) by George Washington and his family, giving it also the name "The Germantown White House."  Article in an unidentified newspaper, 15 x 12 cm, undated. 


Creation Year: 1845
Geocode Latitude: Geocode Longitude:-75.172263
Geocode Latitude:40.033876

Call Number: A917.481 P536 v.18
Creator Name: Castner, Samuel, Jr., 1843-1929 - Compiler
David Deschler - Architect

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