Stonehouse Lane and the Neck

[CHIOSSO]

These sketches were all written for the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, which has kindly given permission for their reissue. They were put down under necessary conditions of haste, and I fear that scrupulous and better informed lovers of the city may find much to censure.



Philly H2O: Christopher Morley on "The Neck"


You take the Fourth street car to Fifth and Ritner. The wide space of Mifflin Square is full of playing children. Here you halt to light a pipe. This is advisable, as you will see in a moment. A couple of blocks south brings you to one of the most noxious areas of dump heaps and waste litters in the world. An expanse of evil-smelling junk smokes with a thin haze of burning. Queer little wooden shacks, stables, pig-pens, sit comfortably in a desert of tin cans and sour rubbish. You will need your tobacco if you are squeamish. In the shadow of mountains of outcast scrap are tiny homes under dusty shade, where a patient old lady was sitting in a wheel-chair reading a book

[CHIOSSO]

A Day in the Ma'sh
By Maurice F. Egan
Scribner's Monthly
Volume 22, Issue 3, July 1881

An interesting portrait of a section of South Philadelphia, called The Neck, once an area of marshland, canals, pig-farms, and wide-open vistas.

Every city holds out-of-the-way places unknown to the mere sojourner within its gates, and full of local oddities and delights which the stranger, however experienced, can never share with the citizen. To the casual visitor in Philadelphia the cabalistic word "The Neck," and the piquant phrase "Down in the Ma'sh," convey no meaning. To the native Philadelphian who can recall days when the lore of "Watson's Annals" was oral tradition, not vulgar written words, the Neck contains unspeakable associations. "The Old Point House," a half-forgotten structure on the Delaware, figures in many stories still told by the small boy as he fishes from the dilapidated wharf near its site. The Philadelphia urchin has a strange affection for his uncle, by the way: if you threaten him, it is always his uncle who is a policeman and will avenge him, his uncle who owns the tightest gunning-skiff in the Ma'sh, his uncle who shot a fabulous number of reed-birds last year. He will tell you how his uncle stopped overnight at this inn, the Old Point House, and, being attacked by some vile Jerseymen or Hessians, frightened them off with an account-book which they took for a horse-pistol; how his uncle saw the headless horseman who used to ride down into the Ma'sh from the old coach-factory, which, tradition has it,-no doubt untruthfully,-was the house in which part of the festivities attending the famous Meschianza were held. The Old Point House was in the Neck, Eleven-Gun Battery is in the Neck, the Ma'sh is part of the Neck, and Martinsville, or Frogtown, is in the Neck.

http://www.phillyh2o.org/backpages/neck1881.htm



http://genforum.genealogy.com/philad...sages/610.html

Re: MAGAZINE LANE ,STONE HOUSE LANE PHILADELPHIA
Date: October 15, 2004 at 14:12:22
In Reply to: MAGAZINE LANE ,STONE HOUSE LANE PHILADELPHIA by GERALD MALLEY of 958


Stonehouse Lane existed until August 1953. It was at the base of the now Walt Whitman Bridge in Phila. It was not always clear where the Neck was... Stonehouse Lane was between Oregon Avenue and Pattison Avenue. It is between Second and Third, south of Oregon Avenue. It had always been described as a "farm" area. In 1900 some of the people living there were raising pigs. By the 1940 the residents were poor squatters who were still raising chickens, goats and rabbits. Many of the neighbors were Slovak but there were Irish families as well.... Around 1942 the footings for the Walt Whitman Bridge was being built. Some of the neckers started to move out but the squatters continued. Most went to the 2600 block of South Third Street, nearly all the Neckers settled there. By August 1953 when actual construction of the bridge began - Stonehouse Lane was gone.

[CHIOSSO]

South Philadelphia: mummers, memories, and the Melrose Diner By Murray Dubin

South Philadelphia: mummers ... - Google Books

[CHIOSSO]

Photograph shows a waterway that runs through South Philadelphia's Stonehouse Lane neighborhood



Louis Ferduski is shown fishing in one of the many ditch-canals that crisscross the village of Stonehouse Lane.



Looking west along Stonehouse Lane
Date 1927, May 16.



The Village Church at Stonehouse Lane 1927, May 16.



Image shows a shack on the south side of Stonehouse Lane near Pattison Avenue. A new Ford sits in the garage, and a television antenna can be seen on the roof. All of the houses on Stonehouse Lane share the same address, which is simply "3500 block of Stonehouse Lane".









A resident of the Stonehouse Lane section of Philadelphia is shown feeding goats.1953, Mar. 5



Officers search shacks at the dumps south of Oregon Ave. and east of 7th St. in search for Albert Nicholas Gnatz who is believed to have killed Patrolman James J. Donohoe.1950, MAy 5.



A southerly view of the 3500 block of South Seventh Street. The homes pictured have no water or electricity



Image of shacks located in the Stonehouse Lane section of South Philadelphia

[Burnt Cheese]

Interesting read and pictures. Thanks for sharing!

[CHIOSSO]

LOW TIDE

[CHIOSSO]

100 OREGON AV PHILA PA 19148 - Google Maps

CHURCH ON FRONT AND OREGON LOOKS KINDA LIKE The Village Church at Stonehouse Lane

[CHIOSSO]

Stonehouse Lane across the Swanson Canal ca. 1895

[CHIOSSO]

Strange Philadelphia: stories from the City of Brotherly Love By Lou Harry

Strange Philadelphia: stories from ... - Google Books

[CHIOSSO]

Map of Stonehouse Lane from the Philadelphia Bulletin including plans for the expressway that eventually replaced it.



Shacks and Squatters

The largest settlement of squatters in Philadelphia during this time period was located in South Philadelphia. Commonly called "The Neck" or simply "The Village", the settlement dated back to the 18th century with one lone stone house that gave it its namesake. People began moving into the settlement that allowed them to live free of landlords, rent and taxes. The houses ranged from extremely crude shacks to rather modern looking bungalows, all ironically constructed from wood. "The Village" had its own church, general store, mail delivery, school buses and electricity. The only discernable difference was the lack proper drainage and running water. Its waterways, farm animals and remote location all gave it a rural feel. At its peak it housed over 500 inhabitants with 125 families in over 100 houses, who by many accounts were extremely content with their living arrangements.
After decades of threats and speculation, in 1955 developers began focusing on the area to build an expressway and freight yard for the Pennsylvania Railroad. City officials also came knocking with the city's new housing code. They found over 809 violations ranging from animal raising, to cesspools, to ramshackle electrical conditions. Although the city was met by some resistance, the last of the Stonehouse residents moved out December of 1956 and the last of the houses burned down



Online Exhibitions: The Way We Lived -- Images of Philadelphia Housing and Reform, 1890 - 1955

[thoth]

The last description reminds me of what I´ve read about Old Eastwick.

[CHIOSSO]

Stephen Girard, The Man, His College and Estate
By Thomas J. DiFilippo

CHAPTER 10
GIRARD ESTATE
Stephen Girard, The Man, His College and Estate
This list was attached to the 1882 Board Report and strangely “Girard’s Farmhouse” is not listed. The 587 acres of land in the 1st and 26th Wards is mentioned but not the farmhouse(s) on that land. Also, attached to this report is a list of the Estate’s 14 farms in the 1st and 26th Wards. The location of the farmhouse would have been in what the report calls “Farm No. 4--Between Porter and Johnston, and Twentieth and Twenty-fifth Sts. containing 65 acres.” Could it be that the farmhouse, if there, was considered so insignificant that it was not mentioned? Perhaps it is not mentioned because it was not revenue producing. What makes this more puzzling is the fact that a 1909 newspaper article reads “Old stonehouse in the Neck razed for improvements and to make way for new buildings. Famous landmark was once the house of Stephen Girard. The Stonehouse was built in 1756 by Thomas Willing. A short time later he sold the place to Stephen Girard. According to tradition in the neighborhood, it was one time used by the great merchant as a residence and is still owned by the Girard Estate. They are directing the work of razing the building.” The article indicates that the house was vacant for the last fifteen years and that in the past it was used at various times as a residence, a factory, storehouse, blacksmith and during the Civil War it was a prison for Confederate prisoners-of war. The house stood on Stonehouse Lane, near Front Street and Packer Avenue and would have been in Farm No.13.

Stephen Girard, The Man, His College and Estate - Chapter 10 - Girard Estate

[Mr Morley]

CHURCH ON FRONT AND OREGON LOOKS KINDA LIKE The Village Church at Stonehouse Lane

The church at Front and Oregon is stone rather than wood. I would be willing to bet -given the extremely unusual diamond-shaped openings in both bell towers- that it was the replacement for the wooden church.

It's the oldest thing in that area by 50 years, and it would have been about a block and a half from the mouth of the Neck.

Interestingly, if you look at Google, the Oregon Diner's west wall follows the path of the original Stone House Lane.

I don't think -though I'd have to double-check that Giraud had holdings east of about Broad, in part because the eastern part was all swamp. Most of his farmland was centered around the mouth of the Schuylkill at Point Breeze. The 1909 article is probably referring to all of lowest part of South Philly as "The Neck".

From a sociological/anthropological point of view, the Neck fits into normal urban development: it was an edge city, squatters living at the outskirts of the established developed city but before the wealthy suburban estates or profitible farmland. Areas like this are the slums of every major third-world metropolis, you can still find squatter at the urban bordered in European cities like Rome and the US is slowly returning to this structure as the pre-WWII inner suburbs start to decay.

One thing I've always wondered: what was the ethnic/religious makeup of the occupants of the Neck?

[CHIOSSO]

You should check out the 1895 Philadelphia Atlas by G. W. Bromley, Giraud estate owned several large parcels of land along stone house lane.

PhilaGeoHistory Maps Viewer

[Mr Morley]

Ah. But those parcels aren't really that large compared to the holdings of the Estate along W Passyunk, or even compared to other land-owners in the area.

According to the 1895 map, there are several buildings at Front & Packer along Stone House Lane, but none of them stand on Girard property. Several do stand just off Girard property, and its possible that The Girard Estate owned those tracts, too (at some point in the past).

I still say there was some confusion/mistake on the part of the 1909 newspaper writer; not all reporters were that much better or more diligent a century ago.

[CHIOSSO]

But those parcels were there, owned by Girard, and on Stonehouse lane.

[Mr Morley]

But those parcels were there, owned by Girard, and on Stonehouse lane.

I meant the relative smallness as an explanation of why they weren't specifically mentioned in the report (it's also how I'd missed them in the past).

[CHIOSSO]

The church on Oregon Av. is not stone. its a wood structure covered in stucco.

[SP45]

Great thread! Thank you so much for sharing. Part of my family settled in Stone House Lane (late 1800s-mid 1900s). I have 100's of photographs, articles, an orginal lease, maps, original church documents, etc. (Many German settlers attended the German church located at 10th & Snyder and my GG Grandfather owned a wagon shop at 7th & Snyder). If anyone is interested, I can scan some photos and post them here.

[CHIOSSO]

Welcome SP45, I am interested. Post everything you have related to The Neck, I would love to see it.