Item Info

Historic Street Address: 20th & Oregon Avenue
Historic Street Address: 20th & Shunk Streets, NE corner
Media Type: Scrapbooks
Source: Print and Picture Collection
Notes:

The wealthy philanthropist Stephen Girard bequeathed his South Philadelphia estate to City of Philadelphia in 1831, with the stipulation that it not be sold. The Board of City Trusts, trustee of the Girard Estate, developed 481 rental homes, most of which were built between 1906 and 1916, in a range of architectural styles. The city of Philadelphia then rented these homes to the middle-class population. With its own power plant, local Free Library, and proprietary trash collecting system, the Estate was truly a planned community. The homes were rented until 1950, when the city received permission to sell them.

This image shows pages 34-35 of a ca. 1912 advertising pamphlet for the Girard Estate homes, containing 36 pages of photographs, floorplans, and detailed information about the rental properties.  The images show the boiler room in the central power plant, at 20^th & Oregon Streets, and the under-construction Passyunk Branch of the Free Library (today, the Thomas F. Donatucci, Sr. branch), at 20^th & Shunk Streets.

**NOTE**:  To view the entire pamphlet described above, please link to item #pdcp01105, and click the "View PDF" button.

Creation Year: ca. 1912
Geocode Latitude: Geocode Longitude:-75.180576
Geocode Latitude:39.919377

Call Number: A728.3 G44
Creator Name: Girard Estate
Herbert M. Morris Advertising Agency - Compiler