The North Meeting House (at Sixth and Noble Streets) and the Immediate Neighborhood in Philadelphia's Spring Garden and Northern Liberties Region

THE NORTH MEETING HOUSE (AT SIXTH AND NOBLE STREETS) AND THE IMMEDIATE NEIGHBORHOOD IN PHILADELPHIA'S

SPRING GARDEN AND NORTHERN LIBERTIES REGION

By Harry Kyriakodis

This paper began as a very quick look at the history of a long-forgotten Quaker meeting house that had once been located at Sixth and Noble Streets in what today is a fairly uninviting part of Philadelphia. The research into this unassuming place of worship—its founding, its various religious and educational activities, its subsequent community and commercial uses, and its ultimate fate—raised many questions about the former Northern Liberties and Spring Garden sections of the city in which the meeting house was centered.

The inquiry thus expanded into a much broader examination of the entire neighborhood surrounding the long gone intersection of Sixth and Noble Streets. The story of the North Meeting House can be considered a metaphor for what happened in (and to) the southern portions of the Spring Garden and Northern Liberties regions, from Vine to Spring Garden Streets, over some 200 years of local history. Below, the stories of this Quaker house and the overall neighborhood are told, intertwined as they are.

* * * The Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends of Philadelphia for the Northern District was first held on November 24, 1772. The Friends first met at the Bank Meeting House, which was located on west side of Front Street (by the Delaware River), between Arch (then Mulberry) and Race (then Sassafras) Streets. In 1790, the meeting moved to a new meeting house on the south side of Key's Alley (now New Street) between Race (Sassafras) and Vine Streets, and

between Front and Second Streets. The shortened name for the Friends Meeting for the Northern District was "North Meeting," so the house on Key's Alley became known as the "North Meeting House." The first assemblage there took place on September 21, 1790.

The number of Quakers attending this meeting increased so much that another place of worship was erected at the southwest corner of Fourth and Green Streets in 1814. This was the "Green Street Monthly Meeting," which was very prominent at the time of the Hicksite-Orthodox Separation of 1827-1828. As a result of this great Quaker schism, Green Street Meeting House passed to Hicksite Friends, who were based at a house they had quickly constructed on Cherry Street between Fourth and Fifth Streets. Philadelphia's Orthodox Friends remained headquartered at the Arch Street Meeting House, built in 1804 at Fourth and Arch Streets.

The North Meeting House on Key's Alley was an Orthodox house. Overcrowding conditions there continued into the 1830s, so the meeting's members sought a new site in which to assemble. In 1835, they purchased a piece of property on the southwest corner of Sixth and Noble Streets for a new house of worship. The following is from "A Brief Account of North Meeting," appearing in The Friend (March 1, 1909), p. 414:

By 1835, we find North Meeting again considering a larger Meeting House. In the Fifth Month of that year a Minute reads:

"The location of our present Meeting House being brought into consideration and the minds of Friends freely expressed, it appeared to be the prevailing sense that it was seasonable to appoint a Committee to look out for, and report to a future Meeting, a site which may be procured, on which to erect a house that would better accommodate the members of this district."

At the next Monthly Meeting, this Committee brought in a report that "They had the offer of a lot bounded by Sixth, John (now Marshall) and Noble Streets, which may he procured for about $28,000, and they are united in judgment that it is the most eligible situation that has or is likely to present for the accomplishment of the object."

The meeting accepting this report, it was left with a Committee of four Friends: John Paul, Joseph Snowden, Isaac Davis, and Joseph Rakestraw to devise a means to raise the purchase money, and bring in a plan for the new house."

In the Sixth Month, 1837, a well prepared report was presented to the Meeting, proposing to erect, on this same lot, "an edifice of 118 feet by 65 feet and 30 feet perpendicular clear height to the square; to comprise a main meeting-room, 65 feet by 70 feet, with side and end galleries for youth, and calculated to accommodate about 1200 persons."

Then follows a detailed plan of the proposed building as we see it to-day; "the whole cost of which is estimated at a little rising $30,000." The Monthly Meeting accepted this report, and at the same time directed that the house and lot on Key's Alley, which they then occupied, should be sold.

The new North Meeting House was constructed of brick and must have been an immediate local landmark when it was completed in the summer of 1838. As mentioned above, the two-story building's dimensions were 118 by 65 feet and the main room was large enough for some 1200 people. The house, surrounding grounds, and enclosing brick wall cost $70,194.53 in total, as noted in a meeting minute dated February 1, 1839. The western part of the property faced what came to be known as Marshall Street, but which no longer exists.

c. 1794 MAP, SHOWING AREA TO BECOME THE SOUTHERN PARTS OF THE NORTHERN LIBERTIES

AND SPRING GARDEN NEIGHBORHOODS; ALSO SHOWING THE COURSE OF PEGG'S RUN

The Northern District Meeting held its first monthly assemblage at the new house on August 12, 1838. Continuing from "A Brief Account of North Meeting," p. 414:

The new Meeting House was ready for occupancy by the Eighth Month, 1838, and on First-day, Eighth Month 12th, Friends met here for the first time. As we look at the large Meeting House with its little handful of Friends who are in the way of meeting here now, one would like to picture the Meeting as it was on that First-day Morning.

As a little child I remember hearing our Meeting House often spoken of as "St. Isaac's," and I am told that the name was given it by the young people, because of the very active interest Isaac Davis had in its building.

The rapid increase in the membership of North Meeting at this time was largely due to the trend of the residential district to the north and northwest, and North Meeting was very soon the centre of the best Friendly population of the city.

* * * As indicated above, the North House's location merely followed local population trends of the early 19th century. When it was built, that part of what is now Philadelphia was not yet incorporated into the city. The new meeting house was situated two blocks north of the original northern city limit of Philadelphia (i.e., Vine Street) and right on the boundary line (i.e., Sixth Street) between the Northern Liberties District and the Spring Garden District, within Philadelphia County. A small town called Spring Garden was in that vicinity, but the area was then mainly open space.

This region was settled primarily by Quakers, who had populated neighborhoods north of Market Street ever since Philadelphia's founding. As the original "Quaker City" grew increasingly congested, these people moved out of the city, usually heading northward to undeveloped areas that were quiet and peaceful. The more wealthy of these Friends built large townhouses in what came to be a favorite residential section and early suburb of Philadelphia. This is from "The Passing of North Meeting-House, Philadelphia," appearing in the Bulletin of the Friends Historical Association, Vol. 8, no. 3 (November 1918), pp. 106:

This section of the city was formerly one of the best residence quarters in Philadelphia. The appearance of the dwellings on Sixth Street and Marshall Street to-day, for the most part spacious four-story houses with large lots, indicates plainly the character of the section when they were built.

c. 1810 MAP, SHOWING THE EARLY TOWN OF SPRING GARDEN AND PEGG'S RUN PARTIALLY COVERED OVER AS WILLOW STREET

* * * It is somewhat curious that the locale became as popular as it did, given the number of tanneries located not far from the area. These malodorous industries had been established throughout the 1700s along the banks of Pegg's Run, a partially-navigable creek that flowed towards the Delaware River between Callowhill and Noble Streets. Originally called Cohoquinoque Creek by the Lenni-Lenape, this stream became exceedingly polluted by the end of the 18th century because the leather and morocco makers flanking it discharged their offal right into the creek. As a result, Pegg's Run was covered over and turned into a sewer in the 1810s and 1820s. But the offending industries did not move away; they merely discharged their waste into the new culvert.

Willow Street was built on top of the sewer by 1829 and today is a rare curvilinear street in the older part of Philadelphia, as it follows the course of Pegg's Run. Around 1834, tracks were laid on the street by the Northern Liberties and Penn Township Railroad. These tracks ran from the Delaware River to Broad Street and connected to the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad tracks on Pennsylvania Avenue, west of Broad Street. In the 1850s, the entire line became part of the Reading Railroad.

Also worth mentioning is that Noble Street itself had its own particular stigma. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, it was known as "Bloody Lane" from the Delaware River to Ridge Avenue. This stems from a murder that had once been committed somewhere along its length, probably not far from the river.

* * * The Northern Liberties and Spring Garden Districts were consolidated into the City of Philadelphia in 1854, as were all surrounding districts, townships and towns within Philadelphia County.

* * * Like its predecessor at Key's Alley, the new North Meeting was a conservative Orthodox Friends meeting. It served as a significant place for Quaker worship for over seven decades, with many influential Philadelphians as members of this meeting. Continuing from "The Passing of North Meeting-House, Philadelphia," p. 108:

Among the prominent Friends who at some time or other attended at this, the latest "North Meeting-house," during its existence, were William Scattergood, George M. Elkinton, Samuel F. Balderston (ministers), Elizabeth Pittfield, Sarah Hillman, Hannah Whitehall (ministers), Joseph Rakestraw, Uriah Hunt, Nathan Trotter, Joel Cadbury (the elder), John M. Whitall, Dr. Joseph Whitall, Benjamin Warder, Horatio C. Wood, David Scull, John S. Stokes, Jacob R. Elfreth, Elihu Pickering, Henry Pemberton, Pliny E. Chase, Mary Hillman, Sarah Lippincott, Sarah Rakestraw, Margaret Justice, Rebecca Richardson.

The North Meeting House was also used for educational and community functions through the years. Philadelphia's Friend's Select School, founded in 1833 for the elementary instruction of younger children of both sexes, did not have a schoolhouse of its own until 1886. During the interim, Friend's Select established adjunct schools in several rented facilities and meeting houses around the city. The North House had such a school on its second floor in the 1850s and 1860s, if not earlier and later.

In 1888, the Aimwell School for Girls moved from its old quarters to the upper floor rooms of the meeting house, remaining there for many years. (The Aimwell School was started about 1796 by Anne Parrish, a benevolent Quaker, for the free instruction of girls.) The Philadelphia Adult School also met at the house and in 1906 sponsored a lecture on the topic of "Pioneer Life in Western Kansas."

1875 MAP, SHOWING THE NORTH MEETING HOUSE AND PROPERTY LINES OF SCORES OF SURROUND-ING HOMES

No Quaker burial ground was ever located at or near the meeting house at Sixth and Noble. However, the North Meeting did manage a small community house at 451 North Marshall Street for some time beginning in 1907. The "North House Settlement" helped those of any faith who lived in the vicinity and were in need. Classes in music, carpentry, cooking, homemaking, hammock making, gymnastics, and so on were offered, as was a men's Bible class and a First-day (Sunday) school.

The North House Settlement was probably instituted to meet the changing needs of the community, for the once-tranquil region had began to lose its appeal after the Civil War. The neighborhood had also started becoming more commercial and less residential around that time.

* * *

As a result of this transformation, membership in the North Meeting began to dwindle. Quakers had started moving from Spring Garden and Northern Liberties to other sections of Philadelphia and out of the city entirely even before the Civil War. By the 1870s, Friends meeting attendance was greater in the local suburbs and countryside than in the Quaker City itself.

The neighborhood around Sixth and Noble began to decline rapidly in the late 1880s. Many dwellings were turned into tenements that soon became crowded by Irish Catholics, German Jews, Russian Jews, Poles, and other immigrant families. Moreover, the environs between Race and Spring Garden Streets, from east of about Tenth Street to the Delaware River, became Philadelphia's tenderloin/skid row district, replete with cheap flop houses, grubby bars, dilapidated warehouses, and so on. The North Meeting House was squarely in the center of this zone. Continuing from "A Brief Account of North Meeting," p. 414-415:

It is hard to realize now, as we walk up Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Streets from Vine to Green, that many of these houses which are now tenement houses, teeming with a foreign population, forty years ago were the homes of culture and refinement of Friends whose names and memories are dear to many of us.

But the tide turned, and by 1870 one notices in the records of the Monthly Meeting that more certificates of removal are being granted than are being received; though I remember in my childhood that on First day mornings the Meeting House was so well filled that there were always some sitting in the youth's gallery

* * *

That the neighborhood is one which calls loudly for such effort must be apparent to any who walk its streets. And while it does not seem likely in any human probability that the meeting at

Sixth and Noble Streets will be revived as a Meeting there, yet if work for the Master can be done along other lines, the old Meeting House, dear to many of us, may still have a place.

* * *

We feel that "North Meeting" has had a past. Be it ours, who still love the old Meeting, for the sake of those who brought us to worship there in our childhood, and because we can recall precious times when the Father has met with us even when it has been almost literally "with the two or the three."—be it our duty and privilege to take up the mantle which the fathers and the mothers have laid down."

Obtrusive industrial facilities also began appearing in the neighborhood. The Philadelphia Electric Company constructed an electrical substation on the north side of Noble Street around 1910. A few houses were torn down to make room for this modest brick building directly across from the meeting house, with its front facing Marshall Street. Miraculously, this structure still lingers on, having been operated as a substation for many decades and later converted into a nightclub before being shuttered recently.

FRONT OF ABANDONED PHILADELPHIA ELECTRIC COMPANY SUBSTATION AT NOBLE AND MARSHALL STREETS; LOOKING EAST

Furthermore, the General Electric Company purchased the entire block bounded by Noble, Marshall, Willow and Seventh Streets—formerly the site of several dozen townhomes. In 1917, GE occupied a 6-story-high factory on southern part of this property, complete with access to the Reading Railroad's right-of-way on Willow Street. GE later built an annex that was much closer to the old North House. The plant made electrical components (switchgears) and employed over 1000 people at its peak. This complex survives, with the tall building serving as

office and warehousing space and the annex being home to Electric Factory Concerts, a musical performance venue.

FORMER GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY FACTORY AT SEVENTH AND WILLOW STREETS (BOTH THE SHORT AND THE TALL STRUCTURES); LOOKING SOUTHEAST

Adding to the unsavory atmosphere was the increasing railroad activity along Willow Street. Throughout the day and night, the Reading ran freight trains—pulled by noisy coal-burning locomotives—to and from its sprawling Delaware River facilities at the foot of Willow Street. The Reading even built a railroad yard on Sixth Street across from the old meeting house.

* * *

So by the start of the 20th century, the besieged Quaker house at Sixth and Noble Streets was hardly a suitable place for quiet Quaker contemplation. Like many churches in the older sections of Philadelphia, it had outlived its usefulness as a place of worship. Some 90 Friends were still listed on the North Meeting's books in 1914, but most lived outside of the city and only about a dozen were still active. The Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia for the Northern District was thus "laid down" (discontinued) that year and its remaining members joined the Arch Street Meeting.

The North Meeting House was sold in 1918 for $75,000 to the Richard Smith Estate for use as a children's playground. The Smith Estate in the early 1900s managed the Smith Memorial playground in East Fairmount Park, as well as other playgrounds in the city. This was all part of the American Playground Movement, developed in the mid-1890s by social workers, child psychologists and child-saving reformers. They were concerned about the health and welfare of urban children and urged local governments to construct playgrounds where children could play safely.

What came to be known as the "Northern Liberties Playground" opened to the public on August 5, 1918. The recreational activities occurred in the open space around the old house, which itself was transformed into a community center (sometimes called "Noble House"). The grounds were expanded south to Willow Street through the purchase and removal of dwellings immediately south of the meeting house. The following is from Phoebe Hall Valentine, A Review of Two Charitable Trusts: Smith Memorial Playgrounds and Playhouses and the Martin School Recreation Center (Philadelphia, PA: Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Co., 1936), p. 21:

The old North Meeting House on this site is so admirably suited to the purposes of recreation that original plans for a new building were abandoned, modern plumbing and heating were installed, and such changes made as were needed to meet the new use. Additional houses were purchased and razed to increase the outdoor play space.

Children were closely monitored by a full staff as they played around the old building. The average monthly attendance for 1926 was 4,184 boys and 3,364 girls! As such, the house's sale and repurposing proved to be a great benefit for that part of Philadelphia and its residents.

This was not to last. During the Great Depression, the Smith Estate ran into difficulties and the Northern Liberties Playground was closed in 1934 to cut expenses. Continuing from A Review of Two Charitable Trusts, p. 38-39:

After much consideration and a survey of recreational opportunities in all four neighborhoods, it was decided to close temporarily Northern Liberties Play Center, at Sixth and Noble Streets. We believed that the children in that neighborhood could most readily be absorbed by other nearby social-recreational agencies.

The area has been for some time one of receding population, especially since the demolition of buildings required by the broadening of Spring Garden Street and the approach to the Delaware River Bridge. The population is rapidly changing, real estate has deteriorated, many white families have moved away, and the houses have been tenanted by the new colored immigration from the South.

The situation was explained at a meeting of the East-central Council of Social Agencies, of which Northern Liberties was a member, at the M. E. Deaconess Home, Sixth and Vine Streets. Other member agencies represented were St. John's House, Beth Eden House, and Friends' Neighborhood Guild. They agreed to do their best to take the children referred to them by Northern Liberties.

Preparatory to closing an attempt was made to reduce the membership by transfer to these agencies, but they were already overcrowded and operating with reduced personnel, so that when its doors were closed Northern Liberties still had an active membership of 500 children. Over fifty per cent of this membership was colored.

* * * In 1935, the former place of worship and community center was converted into a sewing room under the WPA Sewing Project—a Works Progress Administration work relief effort. The Smith

c. 1936: THIS APPEARS TO BE A RARE PICTURE OF THE INSIDE OF THE NORTH MEETING HOUSE, WHILE BEING USED AS A SEWING ROOM

Estate rented the

building to the Federal Government for a dollar a year. There, poor white and African-American women from the Northern Liberties and Spring Garden areas operated 150 power sewing machines installed in the main meeting room. The women were taken from relief rolls and given jobs ranging from $61 to $71 per month. The clothing they made was distributed to hospitals, orphanages, charitable organizations, and the like.

* * * The WPA Sewing Project ended in 1941. The playground may have reopened during or after World War II, but for sure, the neighborhood center had closed by 1963, by which time the property's use had changed to that of warehousing. The Colonial Lumber Company had taken over the site by then and covered the building's surrounding grounds—which had previously served as a popular playground—with corrugated metal canopies, apparently for lumber storage. Except for its distinctive roof, the venerable meeting house became nearly invisible.

1942: LAND USE MAP SHOWING THE CHANGING ENVIRONS

MID-1960s: LOOKING NORTH ON (NOW-OBLITERATED) MARSHALL STREET, FROM CALLOWHILL STREET, ON THE WEST SIDE OF MARSHALL STREET, SHOWING ROOF OF THE OLD NORTH MEETING HOUSE DURING ITS TIME AS A WAREHOUSE

* * * The southern portions of the Spring Garden and Northern Liberties areas, from Vine to Spring Garden Streets, were inhabited primarily by low-income African-American families by the 1950s. Most had moved to Philadelphia from the South within only the prior two or three decades. They came looking for steady work and a better life, but soon found that factory jobs were quickly disappearing in the City of Brotherly Love.

The neighborhood had also entered the peak of its skid row despair. Unemployed men walked the streets searching for work. Some found day-labor jobs and were routinely picked up and transported to agricultural sites outside of Philadelphia. Other men lounged in flop houses and like places, often inebriated. Franklin Square, three blocks to the south, was a favorite spot for them to wile away the day—and the days, weeks, months and years.

1961: SIXTH AND NOBLE STREETS, LOOKING SOUTH ON SIXTH STREET, WITH THE OLD NORTH MEETING HOUSE ON THE RIGHT TOP

1961: SIXTH AND NOBLE STREETS, LOOKING WEST ON NOBLE STREET, WITH THE OLD NORTH MEETING HOUSE ON THE EXTREME LEFT TOP

The district was run down and city planners in the 1960s considered it very blighted. Yet unlike Society Hill about a mile south, the shabby but still-functioning neighborhood was not considered for rehabilitation. This is so even though it was more or less the same as Society Hill at that time, in terms of neglected 19th century properties and so on. All that was missing was a pedigree—and proximity to Independence National Historical Park.

And so, apparently with little if any protest, almost all of the surrounding structures were condemned and torn down in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of the Franklin-Callowhill East Urban Renewal Area project. This was actually a joint and concurrent program consisting of the Callowhill East Urban Renewal Area and the Franklin Urban Renewal Area. (The "Franklin" probably refers to Franklin Street, which once ran through that locale.) Managed by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, this federally-funded project encompassed a rectangular zone from Second to Ninth Streets between Callowhill and Spring Garden Streets, comparable to a square mile. Some twenty city blocks were included in this giant undertaking.

LEFT: 1940, THE HOUSE WHILE BEING USED AS A WPA SEWING ROOM RIGHT: 1963, THE HOUSE AS A WAREHOUSE

Hundreds of 19th century dwellings and commercial buildings were demolished and numerous streets—including Noble Street—were removed from the Philadelphia street grid in that vicinity. Countless residents were displaced, as were many businesses, some of which chose to relocate outside of Philadelphia and others winding up out of business altogether. The goal of this redevelopment project was to create large tracts of open land for use as an inner-city industrial park. The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation offered the cleared ground to manufacturing concerns and even helped construct some low-rise industrial facilities.

But this plan was ultimately unsuccessful, as the city's deindustrialization was fully underway by the 1970s. What is left now is an urban wasteland of expansive parking lots and isolated buildings with no architectural appeal—or windows for that matter. The large unfriendly structures are used for various purposes during the day, but the area is deserted and rather frightening at night.

1970, SHOWING JUST PART OF THE DEVASTATION CAUSED BY THE FRANKLIN-CALLOWHILL EAST URBAN RENEWAL PROJECT, INCLUDING REMOVAL OF THE NORTH MEETING HOUSE

c. 1970, THE FRANKLIN-CALLOWHILL EAST URBAN RENEWAL PROJECT, LOOKING WEST FROM ATOP THE DELAWARE RIVER

Subsequent construction of Interstate 95 and the Vine Street Expressway made this part of town even more bleak. In particular, the Vine Expressway separated this district from the rest of Center City Philadelphia, besides eliminating every building between Vine and Callowhill Streets for several blocks. (Such is the result of city planning that favors and encourages an automobile-dominated society.) The opening of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge a few blocks away had similarly cast a pall over this very region as far back as the 1920s.

While this desolate portion of Philadelphia is still technically part of both the nearby Northern Liberties and Spring Garden neighborhoods, most people in those quarters do not regard it as such. Those places, interestingly enough, are doing quite well today.

ULTIMATE RESULTS OF THE FRANKLIN-CALLOWHILL EAST URBAN RENEWAL PROJECT: PARKING LOT AFTER PARKING LOT,

AND BIG, BORING, BOXY BUILDINGS

* * * So ends the story of the old North Meeting House. It was just about 130 years old when it was razed as part of an urban renewal effort that was misguided from the start. Standing in its place today is a drab windowless office facility of some sort and its adjacent parking lot. A meager unmarked fragment of Noble Street remains as the only vestige of earlier, now forgotten, days. What is gone is gone forever.

NOV. 1967: IN THE MEETING HOUSE'S LAST DAYS, THE LUMBER COMPANY'S STORAGE STRUCTURES MUST HAVE BEEN REMOVED,

ALLOWING THE WELL-WORN BUILDING TO BE SEEN ONE LAST TIME.

TODAY: SIXTH AND NOBLE STREETS, LOOKING WEST AT A SHORT UNDESIGNATED SEGMENT OF NOBLE STREET;

SITE OF NORTH MEETING HOUSE IS ON THE LEFT; FORMER GENERAL ELECTRIC FACTORY IS IN THE BACKGROUND;

BACK OF FORMER PECO SUBSTATION IS ON THE RIGHT