These people were the backbone of colonial Philadelphia.
Photo credit:Celine/Flickr
Elfreth’s Alley didnt originally appear in William Penns blueprints for Philadelphia.
Penn wanted to build Philadelphia more like an English rural town with wide streets, gardens and orchards.
But the demand for land in proximity to the Delaware River erased Penns dream of a bucolic country town.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Industrial Revolution transformed the Alley and surrounding neighborhood.
Perhaps the first was a stove factory that in 1868 took its place in a row of residential houses.
Eventually, factories surrounded Elfreth’s Alley.
Over the decades, Elfreth’s Alley lost its importance and the houses became derelict.
Today, Elfreth’s Alley, referred to as the nations oldest residential street is a National Historic Landmark.
