2015 In Review: Home Scribe History's First 4 Months

As we head into the New Year, it is my intention here at Home Scribe History to continue offering tips and suggestions for all those who wish to conduct research on their own house in the future. Many of these posts will continue to star my own house, built in the 1920's, as the backdrop and primary case study. As many of you have found, some of the record types and methods offered here can be helpful in other types of historical research as well, namely in researching your genealogy and family history. You might have discovered some record types you may not have considered or thought of previously. In 2016, in addition to offering new posts of this type and continuing to report on my own house history research, I intend to expand into new types of posts as well; with some guest posts from other researchers here and there, and some interviews with professionals dealing with some of these document types.

It's been enjoyable to see the readership here expand, and I wish to take a moment to thank all those who have followed this blog, and especially those who have actively spread the word by sharing on Facebook or on their own websites. I do very humbly thank you.

Looking to close the book on 2015, I've published 40 posts prior to this one over the course of 4-1/2 months. Depending on when you began following Home Scribe History, you may have missed some of my earlier posts which you may find relevant or of interest to you. Below I present links to some of my favorite posts dating back to August 2015. The intent of this is not to ask you to go back and make sure you've read every single post (although that would be great! haha) but to put some of the topic headers in front of you so you can peruse some of the older posts if you like. As always, my archive of posts is always available in the left sidebar of the Home Scribe History website.

So take a look below, stay tuned in the future, and many thanks again. Happy New Year!

Let The House Blog Begin!

Using Maps to (More Closely) Date the House

Census Records- An Essential Building Block For Your House History

Browsing On-Line County Databases for House History Information

Examining a 20-Year-Old Photograph of the House

Finding Physical Evidence: Old Kitchen?!?

This Single-Family Was Once a Duplex

Are There Permits or Drawings For Your House? Visit the Local Building Department

Learning About the Home's Expansion By Looking at the Building Permit

Finding Physical Evidence: The 1946 Addition

Piecing Together a Chain of Title For a House's Land

Extracting Clues From Property Deeds

Fire Decimates 1927 Tudor-Style Clubhouse at LuLu Country Club

The Origins of Ferguson's North Glenside

A Walk Through the Ardsley Neighborhood (Ferguson's North Glenside)

Past Ownership and the House's Chain of Title - Part 1 (Pre-Construction)

Past Ownership and the House's Chain of Title - Part 2 (Post-Construction)

Past Ownership and the House's Chain of Title - Part 3 (Adding Mortgages to the Mix)

Finding Physical Evidence: Original German Siding

"Husealogy": Genealogy For the House

How Obituaries (Both Old and New) Can Be a Boon to Your House History

Is There a Ghost in the House?!? What Death Certificates Could Reveal

Previous Owners: Frederick & Bertha Brandes (1920-1922)

Perusing Your Municipality's Archive of Annual Reports for Neighborhood History

The Importance of Contacting Your House's "Descendants"


...and much more to come in 2016!

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The Importance of Contacting Your House's "Descendants"

In some of my other posts here, I have championed the importance of learning the personal histories of those who have lived in your home in the past. Doing so will bring life to the facts which you are compiling about your house's history. This exploration, of course, extends beyond the legal owners of your property-- to their children and their parents who may have also lived in the house. The "FAN Club" Principle, as explained by well-known genealogist and historical researcher Elizabeth Shown Mills, describes how the seeking out of documents for your subject person's Friends, Associates, and Neighbors can lead you past sticky "brick wall" type problems to take it a step further.

All of this is to say that you must go beyond those property owners whom you find in your title chaining. In most cases, especially if your house has some age to it, those past owners are no longer with us. However, those past owners have children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and in-laws who just may have spent significant time in your home or even lived there. If you can locate these living "descendants" of your house's ownership history, you just may find yourself on the track to gaining first-hand knowledge about the way your house was several decades ago. I can almost guarantee that you will NOT find much of this information in any other way. This is also the single most likely way in which you might find older photographs of your house.

Note: This is a photo of my grandmother Virginia Gillooly when she was a toddler in the early 1930's, held by her great-aunt Emilie Louden, who raised her. In the background you can see not only their home at the time, but the neighboring house in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. The present-day owners of these homes might be interested in them! 

Locating Living "House Descendants"

Excusing the continuation of the pun, you should "fan" out starting with one of your house's previous owners. You might find it easy enough to build a small family tree or pedigree chart for them on Ancestry.com or on another genealogical website or software. Instead of going backwards in time, you will be looking to move forwards in time towards present-day.

The most useful documents for heading in this direction might just be census records and obituaries. Census records (currently available up to 1940) will help you build the makeup of the household in question. For my home's longtime owners, John and Catherine Cantlin, I know from both the 1930 and 1940 census schedules that they had three children: Jean (aka Claire, born c. 1927), John Jr. (born c. 1929), and Robert (born c. 1934), all of whom lived in this home during their childhood.

1930 Census schedule enumerating John and Katherine (Catherine) Cantlin in Philadelphia, with daughter Clarie (Claire) and son John.

1940 Census schedule enumerating John and Catherine Cantlin on Central Avenue in Ardsley, with daughter Jean C (Claire), son John, and youngest son Robert.

Using some simple logic and pretending I know nothing else, head of household John Cantlin would be 114 years old if living today, while Catherine would be 108-- not very likely that they would still be with us, and in fact they are not. Extending to the children, they would potentially range from ages 81 to 88 if living today, which is much more realistic. All three children could be sought out to see if they might still be with us. Search more recent public records and Google to find out. As crazy (and perhaps unsettling to some) as it may seem, nearly every person living today in this internet-age has unwittingly or not created some form of online footprint. You may be able to find out relatively easily if they are living or deceased. I will spare you further suspense in this example and inform you that all three of the Cantlin children have passed away previously.

Although you may not find living descendants in this first portion of the search, remember that you must expand out further beyond the immediate family. Your first searches may lead you to recent obituaries online, or you may need to seek older obituaries out in other repositories. See my previous article on obituaries for the types of information you will find within them. The most important portion of the obituary for locating living persons is where the decedent's survivors are listed. In this case, I located an obituary for John Cantlin's grandson who passed away within the past decade, and in it were listed two living daughters-in-law as well as four now-adult living grandchildren of John and Catherine Cantlin. (Note: I wish not to reproduce this obituary here, bearing in mind privacy concerns for the living persons listed in it). After locating the obituary, I now had as many as six living persons I could consider contacting to see if they were willing to share any memories of not only the house, but of John and Catherine themselves.

Making Contact

Once you've got some names, you might again turn to Google to seek out their current mailing address and/or telephone number. You might also consult current telephone directories. Further, in this digital age, Facebook might yield a current profile for living descendants. In my case with the Cantlins and the six living family members, I initially was able to find Facebook profiles for several of the grandchildren still living in the area, and did reach out to one of them several months ago, with no response as of yet. I may delicately try again to reach out, or may try to contact one of the other grandchildren.

The most successful result, however, was with one of the daughters-in-law, who by chance has lived within my same neighborhood for decades. I found contact information including the telephone number and address in a phone directory, and started off by writing a simple letter and including some current photographs of the interior and exterior of the house. I did not receive a response, so after a couple of months I made a simple phone call. On the receiving end was the daughter-in-law, who was delightful to talk to, who HAD received my letter (but had not responded only because she assumed she had no useful information for me), and who proceeded to have a very nice conversation with me about what I've found to date and about what she recalled.

I'll remind you to approach living persons respectfully, of course. After all, they are not at all expecting it. I find that most people are receptive to reconnecting with the past and to sharing with you, but it's worth reminding that some may not. The ideal scenario, of course, is that the descendants you contact are as excited to share what they know as you are to hear it. In these cases you will likely need to do little to spur the floodgates to open. If they are less enthusiastic or responsive, I find it worth giving folks some space if they are not immediately forthcoming with a ton of information. Make it clear that you are willing to bear the cost of reproducing any documents or photographs they are willing to share. Whether you initially make contact via telephone, snail mail, or email, send them a gentle reminder letter/email, perhaps with a single new question. Asking 20 different questions all at once may be too overwhelming. If you write, include a self-address stamped envelope for them to write you back (this may have been helpful for me to include on my first letter)-- make it as simple as possible for those you are corresponding with to write you back. Be patient, and you will likely be rewarded. You MAY even be rewarded with some old photographs of your home!

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Perusing Your Municipality's Archive of Annual Reports for Neighborhood History

This tip may take some digging or some asking around at your local municipality government office, historical society, or library. However, it might be a source you did not previously consider, and can provide you with local historical information which can further enrich your house history. I'm speaking of Annual Reports for your local government entity. Yay! Sound dry? Well, they certainly can be, but if you look past the blocks of financial stats and scan for relevant information, you just may find very useful details about the origins and development of your neighborhood or even your particular street.

As with a corporation or any other organized entity, the Annual Report is created to apprise shareholders, residents, or other interested parties of the finances and major efforts of the organization from the previous calendar or fiscal year. While it may be relatively easy to find recent Annual Reports, what you will find most useful for your historical research are those reports from the time period within a decade or two of when your house was built, or when your subdivision was created. There is no one consistent place to find such reports across all types of municipalities, but you should start off by contacting the Town Clerk office, or the staff for the local Board of Commissioners or Supervisors. In larger cities, you might seek out the Annual Report for the city's Planning agency or commission. These older reports might also be housed at a local historical society or the public library.

What Abington Township Annual Reports Told Me

My local municipality is the Township of Abington, a first class township (in Pennsylvania, a township is either a first-class or second-class township). And wow! The Township's official website includes a "History" page which includes every single Annual Report prepared by the Board of Commissioner from the years 1917-1962, plus 1914. Call me lucky.

You should be looking for any information related to your street or your subdivision. Of course, if you are like me, you will probably find most of the information on your entire locality interesting as well. Going back to, say, the 1920's when my house was built, you will be able to learn of how Township leaders dealt with rapid growth. street expansion and repair; grappled with funding police and fire departments properly; and you will likely also see the names of leaders whose legacy may continue on in the form of street or park names.

In Abington Township, by the time the "Roaring 20's" hit town, the exploding use of the automobile in combination with the growth of the suburb made street conditions the topic du jour, and it remained so for several years thereafter. Macadam streets were clearly incredibly worn down, and township leaders had immense trouble keeping up with the costs of repairs. Much effort is made in the reports of the years from 1918 to the early 1920's to convince residents that their tax dollars simply were not sufficient to keep up with the exponentially increasing costs of road work.

A clip from the 1918 report expresses the need to create an ongoing budget for more permanent road reconstruction. Note that auto traffic has doubled in the Township since the year 1916.

A clip from the 1920 report conveys that by this time, auto traffic has now tripled since 1914. Real estate investors are subdividing the township land at an alarming rate, laying out new streets without paving them in any permanent way.

A clip from 1922. Now, although the Township has the power to approve new subdivisions before they can legally be recorded at the County Recorder of Deeds, most development is still occurring without sufficient permanent roads. The Township Commissioners make clear to the newer lot owners that this work will need to be done at their own expense.

Speaking specifically about the immediate area where my house is located, Reginald Ferguson's North Glenside subdivision was filed with the county in 1919, before the Township had the oversight it established in 1921. A significant amount of maintenance and improvements appear to have been performed on Central Avenue in the years 1924, 1925, and 1928. Although it is possible that some work was done to the 400 block (and, if you'll remember from my deed analysis, the house may have been constructed in 1922-1923), I believe it more likely that most or all of this work occurred just to the south, in the stretch from Spruce Street to Limekiln Pike, an older subdivision. During this time period, this block of Central Avenue only housed a handful of homes, and according to the 1927 map, no water service existed on this part of the street. Also by 1927, we are starting to see some road improvements on the north side of Jenkintown Road, in Ardsley proper, the area subdivided by Ferguson.

Description from the 1924 report of road surface treatment on Central Avenue.

A breakdown of 1924 streets spending in the North Glenside section.

A breakdown of 1925 streets spending in the North Glenside section. Notice it has quadrupled from spending there the year before. Most or all of this likely occurred between Spruce St and Limeklin Pike, south of our house.

By 1927, new road construction is beginning to occur in Ardsley just to the north of my house.

As you can see, much of the reports from the decade deal with road construction and improvement. However, as the Township continued to grow, it began to create new regulations and flex more oversight over the increasing construction and development. A building code was adopted in the early 1920's, along with plumbing regulation, increased police forces, and the expansion of public amenities such as the creation of a Parks department.

This clip from 1924 is a testament to how much the Township has grown in such a short time.

By 1922, township leaders sought to preserve some land for public use. As described in this clipping, the southwestern part of the Township, where my house is located, had been nearly completely subdivided.

Yet, by 1930, the Great Depression had hit, and in combination with the fact that not many large tracts of land were left, development had slowed down to a near halt...

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Saturday Spotlight- Circa 1928 French Eclectic in Wyndmoor

This week's Saturday Spotlight is a stately Depression-era French Eclectic style house in Wyndmoor, PA:

On a scallop-shaped lot tucked onto a quiet, curving side street, this home measures about 3,400 square feet. It is a formal, yet relatively simple example of the French Eclectic style which gained some popularity in the years between World War I and II. Like the many Colonial Revival variants, this is an interpretive style. However, rather than being based on earlier American colonial types, this style is an amalgamation of characteristics found in more recent French manors. As posited in A Field Guide to American Houses, Americans serving in France during WWI may have become familiar with the features, later adapting them into their homes built thereafter. This is not to say that the person who built this house served in WWI, but rather that this is what contributed to the popularity of the style.

The roof is steeply pitched and hipped, as is seen in nearly all examples of this type. The symmetrical arrangement of casement window fenestration on the stucco facade is common, and in this case, with lush landscaping folding away to a sloping lawn, produces a grand presentation of the house as one rounds the bend on the street. Symmetry is reinforced with a larger scale center entrance, embellished with stone decorative surround detailing, and a Juliet balcony with arched French doors over the front door. The windows are casements on the primary two stories, with three arched roof dormers containing double-hing windows projecting from the tall hipped roof. The one story wing on the left side is also hipped, and appears to have been incorporated into the house since its inception.

Origins (The brief version)

The French-inspired house dates to the later 1920's and sits on the former land of Philadelphia lithographer Walter Hahn Jarden. Jarden's family had owned this land as part of a larger tract off of Mermaid Lane for decades, and several former structures from the Jarden estate remain to this day. Jarden subdivided this portion of his land earlier in the 1920's, creating 18 individual home-size lots. For a much more extensive history of Walter Jarden and this Wyndmoor land, see my article from last Saturday here.

1930s to Present

The earliest occupants found at this address are the family of Lewis C. Dick, an investment banker. He lived there in the 1930s and 1940s with his wife, Florine, their only son, Lewis, three younger daughters (Alice, Florine, and Mary Jane), and a maid. It is quite possible that the Dick family were the original owners of the house, but that is unproven at this time. A bit curiously, the house's value is reported at $30,000 in 1930, but only $12,000 in 1940. Lewis Dick passed away in 1957, with his residence listed as the corner of Jarden Rd & Pine St, our subject house.

The 1960s and 1970s are a bit foggy, but a Tyson family may have lived here at one point. Although there do not appear to be any additions put onto this house over the years (there is a rear attached garage which shows up on a 1938 map), according to the county public records, a remodel was performed in 1990, during the ownership of Charles & Mary Sweet. This couple owned the home from 1984 up to 1999. Since 1999, the current owners have maintained ownership for the last 16 years through today.

Photo of the home, likely from the 1990's. Courtesy of Montgomery County.

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Previous Owners: Frederick & Bertha Brandes (1920-1922)

This is one part of an ongoing series which examines the biographies of previous owners of either the house or land plot at 502 Central Ave, Glenside. If you are examining your own house's history, you will do well to take some time to focus specifically on each person-- you will learn more about them once you give them individual attention. But before that, you need to gather your land's ownership history by completing your chain of title (see how here). See posts on the chain of title research at my house for the broader context: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Frederick A. Brandes et ux, Bertha C. Brandes (June 4, 1920 to May 31, 1922)

Context:  Frederick Brandes and his wife, Bertha, were the first owners of this specific land plot after its creation as part of a larger land subdivision by Reginald Ferguson in 1919, taking ownership on June 4, 1920. They held title to the property for nearly two years until May 31, 1922 when they conveyed title to Jayson Stover and his wife. Their transactions on both the grantee and grantor ends of their ownership were for a consideration of $1 "and other good and valuable consideration." It is believed that no house existed on the property during this time period.

Frederick Brandes: Early Years

Frederick Adolph Brandes was born in Philadelphia, PA on November 6, 1892 as the youngest of at least three children to German-born naturalized U.S. citizens Adolph and Minnie Brandes (Note: Minnie reported in both the 1900 and 1910 censuses having 4 living children, I've only accounted for 3 to date). The family rented a unit in a multi-family apartment building at 916 North 3rd St in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia. Most of their neighbors were first-generation German, Austrian, or Hungarian immigrants, as many from this region of Eastern Europe took up a new life here in the years leading up to World War I.

916 N. 3rd St in Northern Liberties, today as part of a dog park called Orianna Hill Park. Image via Google Street View.

The Brandes men gravitated towards the skilled trades-- patriarch Adolph was a cabinet maker, while his older sons William and John became a goldsmith and a blacksmith, respectively. Frederick, much younger, had just celebrated his 11th birthday when his father died after complications from a stroke in late November 1903. By 1910, his mother Minnie had taken in a boarder and had taken on some work as a washwoman in the Northern Liberties apartment. Frederick remained with her there and worked as a brass shiner, perhaps having earned an apprenticeship in the metal trade with one of his father's or brother's associates.

Minnie Brandes passed away in 1914 from stomach cancer, and by 1917 Frederick had moved further north to the Hunting Park section of North Philadelphia, living at 3620 North 5th St. According to his WWI draft registration, he was employed by German-immigrant Henry Hauptfuhrer, a milk dealer at the corner of Lawrence St & Cambria St in the nearby Fairhill section. He did not serve in the Great War, likely due to "fallen arches" and a "fractured ankle" reported at the time of his registration.

Bertha "Carrie" Winkler: Early Years

Bertha Caroline Winkler was born in Philadelphia on December 31, 1888. She was the oldest of four surviving children of Emil and Elizabeth Winkler, The parents were, like the Brandes family, naturalized German immigrants and lived at 2522 North Howard Street at the border between Kensington and West Kensington, not all that far from where Frederick Brandes grew up. With the neighborhood being strongly anchored by the textile industry, father Emil Winkler was a button maker as of the 1900 census. He passed away sometime between that and the 1910 census, leaving his wife and four children at the Howard Street home they owned.

2522 North Howard St today as part of a group of vacant lots. At least there's a tree and picnic bench where the apartment building once stood... Image via Google Street View. 

Bertha during this time appears to have gone by her middle name Caroline, or "Carrie", as evidenced by census records, and in 1910 she also joined the textile industry as a "pairer" at a hosiery mill-- I imagine this job involved sorting and pairing socks and stockings after production. Her sister, Mamie, likewise worked at a hosiery factory (presumably the same one, although not certain) as a looper.

Frederick and Bertha Marry, Buy Property in North Glenside

Although the circumstances of Frederick and Bertha's meeting are unknown, Frederick's place of employment in 1917 was only a bit over 1/2 mile from Bertha's home, and they married in that year in Philadelphia. By 1920, Frederick Brandes had moved into the longtime Winkler household on Howard Street with Bertha and her mother and two sisters. 27-year-old Frederick had developed enough skill as a metalworker to develop a career in that trade, while Bertha tended to the couple's 1-year-old son, Emil, named after Bertha's father.

Also by 1920, Fred and Bertha had gotten their hands on a piece of land at the northern edge of the burgeoning suburb of Glenside. The land was an individual home lot, recently subdivided by North Philadelphia jeweler Reginald Ferguson, measuring roughly 56 feet wide and 175 feet deep. Although the subdivision established the street pattern serving the individual lots, most of these streets would not be paved for years, and no water service existed yet at the lot.

What brought them to Glenside? Did they have an eye on settling their young family outside of the city? The land is 11 miles from the Winkler home in West Kensington, but would have been reasonably accessible by rail stations which ran through (and still do) North Philadelphia to the northern suburbs. The spread of automobile use perhaps played a role as well, as Americans began to "spread out" a bit. How they came to own this particular building lot, I can only speculate, but I do have some leads where seemingly there might be none. First, Reginald Ferguson, who conveyed the land to them, was a 50-year-old jeweler who lived in North Philadelphia in area of the Fairhill and Hunting Park neighborhoods. Fred Brandes' older brother William was also a jeweler and goldsmith, was 43 years old in 1920, and also lived in the same area of North Philly. Fred, of course, lived in the same area until moving in with Bertha. Also, Bertha's younger 19-year-old sister Ida was listed in the 1920 census as a bookkeeper in a jewelry store (although this strikes me as the chicken after the egg). No matter how you slice it, there appears to have been enough of an affiliation through his brother to Ferguson. The land was conveyed for a consideration of $1 "and other good and valuable consideration." There are no mortgages associated with this transaction on record, so as of yet, I do not know what the deal was. Hopefully, researching further all of Ferguson's North Glenside transactions will give me a more holistic picture to analyze.

Two years later, in 1922, Fred appears to have swapped this land with carpenter Jayson Stover in exchange for a property 1/2 mile away on Locust Road, a block from the Ardsley train station. This plot appears to have been a portion of one which Stover acquired a few months after receiving the Central Ave land from Brandes, perhaps repaying the debt with this land on Locust Road. Perhaps this lot was more appealing to the Brandes' than the one on Central Ave, being very close to the train station and on a street with some utilities already in place. I've yet to learn the full extent of this arrangement between Brandes and Stover, or whether the Brandes' actually built a home there or not, but there must be more to the story to come.

Frederick as a Widower

As of the 1930 census, Fred and Bertha Brandes had finally settled into a home they owned in Warminster, PA-- another 7 miles further from Philadelphia beyond Glenside. Fred was employed at a stove foundry, and the couple now had two sons, Emil (11) and Robert (4). Unfortunately, Fred Brandes would soon become a 38-year-old widower. Bertha Caroline Brandes passed away in Warminster on October 26, 1931 at the age of 42 due to a form of heart failure (chronic myocarditis).

By 1940, Fred had remarried to a woman named Margaret and had apparently moved back to Philadelphia as of 1935, bringing his sons with him. Older son Emil married and moved to Northern Liberties. Now renting an apartment at 735 West Russell Street, Frederick had returned to his old stomping grounds at the nexus of the Fairhill and Hunting Park neighborhoods and still worked manufacturing stoves at a factory. By the time of his WWII registration in 1942, he worked at a Sears Roebuck warehouse at the corner of W. Allegheny Ave and Fox Street-- perhaps this is where he worked with stoves all those year, or perhaps this was a different employer entirely.

The former Sears warehouse today, at 3201 W. Fox Street; Photo courtesy of LoopNet.

1942 ad from the Philadelphia Inquirer for Sears boilers and furnaces, listing the Fox St warehouse address. Fred Brandes may have worked manufacturing these exact products.

Frederick Adolph Brandes moved one more time back out to Bucks County, this time perhaps without his new bride. He passed away at his home on Excelsior Avenue in Croydon, PA on June 24, 1952. He is buried at North Cedar Hills Cemetery in the Frankford neighborhood of Philadelphia.

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Saturday Spotlight (Rabbit Hole Edition)- The Jarden Family in Wyndmoor

This week's Saturday Spotlight house was supposed to be a Depression-era French Colonial in Wyndmoor, PA:

A charming French Colonial on Jarden Road in Wyndmoor. We will need to come back to this one...

It is a very nice house, with its own history, which will need to get back to in due time. However, once I started researching the development of the land upon which this house sits, I was led so far "down the rabbit hole", so to speak, that the history I unlocked deserved its own post. Thus, I present this Rabbit Hole edition of the Saturday Spotlight. Now, allow me to explain...

I suppose I could have expected this: I was looking to feature an architectural style which I have not yet discussed, and I often drive down Willow Grove Avenue through Wyndmoor and this French Colonial on a side street fit the bill. For those unfamiliar, Wyndmoor is a small and quaint suburb bordering the Philadelphia city limits, with a plethora of old housing stock. I personally am only dipping my toes into the local history of Wyndmoor here, but many of these houses are large, stately former mansions. This is, after all, the location where Edward T. Stotesbury, a very, very, very, very wealthy banker from the turn-of-the 20th century, commissioned prominent Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer to design Whitemarsh Hall, a mansion which was larger than the White House but sadly demolished in 1980. While Wyndmoor may not be the Main Line, the village remains one of the Philadelphia area's gems, and there is plenty of old money here. And with old money often comes old stories. The following is what I have been able to piece together, based on a few hours in the rabbit hole...

The Jarden Subdivision

So... The French Colonial home exists on Jarden Road, a winding side street which intertwines with Pine Road, off of the main road Mermaid Lane which heads into the city. The subdivision of land which created Jarden and Pine Roads is shown on a 1938 map, and based on County tax assessment records, appears to have occurred sometime in the 1920's. Here we have that 1938 map, labeling the subdivision as "Walter H Jarden Plan".

Clip from a 1938 map; overall map courtesy Franklin Maps

Directly below it in the image, to the east (north is roughly to the right), is the remainder of Jarden's land, labeled "Walter H Jarden Est.", the implication being that Walter Jarden passed away prior to the creation of this 1938 map. Back to that shortly. As an aside, Jarden's land is wedged between that of Randal Morgan, a gas utility executive who also owned land across Stenton Ave in Chestnut Hill, and the Winoga Farm, where the aforementioned Edward Stotesbury bred his horses. At the end of East Lane was a now-defunct rail station, reportedly built largely for the convenience of Stotesbury. The Winoga Stock Farm, in 1939, became the site for the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's Eastern Regional Research Center, where apparently chemists developed technology which we can thank for the existence of Pringles and other convenience snack foods.

The Jarden Family

I will now revert back to about 1880, with Samuel H. Jarden, a retired Philadelphia brick manufacturer. Samuel, his wife Amanda, and their two sons Fred and Walter had lived in the city most of the previous decades, including in the Fairmount neighborhood on Green Street in 1880. Older son Fred, born in 1857, had by this time become a civil engineer. Younger son Walter, born in 1859, graduated as a chemist. Both sons graduated from the University of Pennsylvania the previous year, in 1879, as their father Samuel had done in 1843. While I'm unsure of when Samuel Jarden acquired the farm in what was then known as Spring Village (now Wyndmoor), he did own it at least as early as 1893. Having retired from the brick industry and gained some significant wealth, this may have been the property used by the family as a retreat from the city.

Amanda passed away in 1898, with Samuel following a few years later in 1901. Ownership of the farm in Wyndmoor fell to Walter Jarden. After spending a few years as a chemist upon graduation, Walter's career had taken a bit of a winding turn, with a brief stint in fruit preserving, before establishing a lithography and printing firm at 1215 Race Street, Philadelphia, in 1889. Walter married Gertrude Finley in 1898, and the couple had their first of 3 daughters, named Ellen, on June 12, 1901. Despite the availability of the Wyndmoor grounds, it appears that the Jardens may have maintained their primary residence in the Green St townhouse in Fairmount for at least a few years after marriage.

By 1910, however, Walter and Gertrude are listed in the census at Wyndmoor. By this time, Walter was 50-years-old, had owned his own business for 20+ years, and continued to live well with inheritance from his father Samuel's brick manufacturing career. A 1909 map shows that some of Jarden's land (it previously extended all the way to Stenton Avenue) had since been sold (or otherwise conveyed) to Randal Morgan, however Walter Jarden had also apparently recently built a new mansion on his property which he christened "Cherry Knoll". Thus, it appears that the family had moved permanently to Wyndmoor. They lived there with their daughters Ellen, Roberta, and Mary; they also housed multiple maids.

Clip from a 1909 map; overall map courtesy of Franklin Maps

Now, the dates on record with the county tax assessor office for nearly all of the homes in the future Jarden subdivision range from 1920-1928, yet the name of the subdivision bears Walter Jarden's name, suggesting that he created the subdivision himself. By 1930, Walter, Gertrude, and younger daughter Mary were listed in the census back in the city, in the Mount Airy neighborhood on Germantown Avenue. So what happened? Did he grow bored of the suburb? He reported the value of his home at a handsome $35,000, and although he subdivided his Wyndmoor land, he did not split some of it, and even built a home for his daughter Ellen and son-in-law Otto Frederick Nolde (who later became a nationally-prominent ecumenical diplomat) on the remaining land. An account of Nolde's life mentions that the Jardens also maintained a shore house at Mantoloking, NJ. So Walter Jarden had certainly not squandered his fortune. Perhaps he missed being closer to the action in the city, although Mount Airy is nearly as suburban as Wyndmoor despite its location within the city limits. One theory: Walter's middle daughter, Roberta, passed away in 1922 of influenza, at the age of 16. Perhaps the heartbreak caused by the sudden loss spurred Walter to sell off most of his Wyndmoor land, including the house where Roberta died.

Walter Hahn Jarden, lithographer and printer, passed away at Chestnut Hill Hospital on December 28, 1934 at the age of 75, of chronic myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. His wife, Gertrude, lived to the age of 94, passing away in 1970. Oldest daughter Ellen passed away in 1961 at the East Lane home that Walter had built for her. Finally, youngest daughter Mary passed on in 2000, in Arizona.

Jarden's Wyndmoor Land Today

As we know, most of Jarden's land in Wyndmoor was subdivided in the 1920's and was filled in with a number of well-size houses in the following decade. Here, again, is the map from 1938, this time with a few of the houses numbered:

House #5 is the French Colonial which we will re-visit next week, just for reference. The others, #1 through #4 are all structures related to the history of the Jarden family just presented herein. The 1909 map shown again, now labeled with the same structures numbered #1, #2, and #3 as in 1938:

And here is a recent aerial view of the former Jarden land, from Bing Maps, noting the same five structures still standing today. If you look closely, you can see the ghost of the former tennis courts shown in the 1938 map, near #3:

House #1 is Cherry Knoll, the mansion erected circa 1909 by Walter Jarden to serve as his family's permanent private residence, which it apparently only did for about 10-15 years before they moved on. Today it fronts on Pine Road:

Photo courtesy of Montgomery County.

House #2 is what may be the original farmhouse on the Jarden property, or at least original in the sense that it may have been the house used by Samuel H. Jarden as a suburban retreat when he originally acquired the property. Current property records date the house to 1830-- further research would be required to confirm the date. It survives today on East Lane, and was sold relatively recently, in 2013. Zillow still has some photos from that listing here:

Looks to be in fantastic condition; In the back, you can see House #3, a former barn. Not in such great shape. Photo courtesy of 2013 real estate listing via Zillow.

View towards 1990's addition. Photo courtesy of 2013 real estate listing via Zillow.

Parlor Room. Photo courtesy of 2013 real estate listing via Zillow.

House #3, may have been the former main barn on the property, converted at some point to a residential home. It is listed as such (converted barn, dated to circa 1880) in county records, and appears to have been passed down through multiple members of the Nolde family, until earlier this year when it was sold out-of-family to a Wyndmoor Court LLC. The expired listing, still available via Zillow, touted development opportunities via possible subdivision of the currently 2-acre property. While the listing also suggested restoration of the existing house, it appears that Wyndmoor Court LLC is planning to subdivide the land into 4 individual lots surrounding a cul-de-sac (presumably extending Pine Rd). The developer's plans, as of November 11, 2015 (video of presentation by the developer begins at 07:50 mark at this link), had not yet been approved due to a requested zoning variance being sought, but was on the agenda for a November 23, 2015 zoning board hearing. If anyone knows more about this or the result of the zoning hearing, let me know! It is quite clear that there are no plans to save the existing historic house. According to the developer, it is "dilapidated". It certainly is quirky and would take quite a bit to bring it up to snuff. I'd prefer to see the stone barn portion remain and incorporated, with the later additions torn down, but that is not happening.

Photo via Redfin.

Photo via Redfin.

Photo via Redfin.

Photo via Redfin.

House #4 is the home commissioned circa 1927 by Walter Jarden for his daughter Ellen and her new husband, Otto Frederick Nolde, upon their marriage. As mentioned, Ellen passed away in 1961. Fred Nolde remarried in 1966 and passed away in 1972. His second wife, Nancy Lawrence Nolde, continued to own the house until 2007:

Photo via Google Street View.

Okay. I think that's enough of that rabbit hole. It was fun. Next week-- the French Colonial (House #5).

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Links: House History Guides By City/State

UPDATE 12/19/2015: If you are seeing this, you are reading an outdated post which is no longer updated. For the most up-to-date list of links, visit:
http://www.homescribehistory.com/p/links-area-specific-resources.html

Here on Home Scribe History, I promote and encourage ways which one can research the history of any residential home, however admittedly there is a bias towards record sets as they are commonly available in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Thus, to aid more potential researchers, I have gathered a list of location-specific Research Guides, which have been published by libraries, historical societies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations alike on the exact topic of House Histories. This list of links has been added as one of the main pages for this site, so you can come back to consult it often.

The hyperlinks shared below, in general, have been written by their authors with their local audience in mind-- they very often include links to local or state repositories and point out many helpful record types which you might not have even thought about searching. Even checking a research guide intended for outside of your immediate area may be helpful by giving you some ideas for your research.

If you do not see your area listed here, check back in the near future, as I will continue to build this list and will maintain it to ensure all hyperlinks are current. At this time, the list is limited to the United States, however I may expand to other countries in the future. If you know of a location-specific Research Guide which is not listed here, please feel free to let me know at nikmasteed@gmail.com, or in the comments section of this post.

Cover Page of "How to Research the History of a House" by George Chidley, for the New Jersey State Historic Preservation Office. Available at http://www.state.nj.us/dep/hpo/4sustain/houseresearch.pdf

CALIFORNIA
Oakland -- Oakland Heritage Alliance (a non-profit organization)
San Diego -- Save Our Heritage Organisation (a non-profit organization)
San Francisco -- SF Heritage (a non-profit organization)
San Jose -- San Jose Public Library

CONNECTICUT
State-wide -- Connecticut State Library

INDIANA
Indianapolis -- Historic Preservation Commission

ILLINOIS
Chicago -- Art Institute of Chicago (Download pdf by Commission on Chicago Landmarks)
              -- Chicago History Museum (Download pdf by Commission on Chicago Landmarks)
Elgin -- Elgin History Museum
Evanston -- Evanston History Center (Download pdf)
Oak Park -- Historical Society of Oak Park & River Forest

LOUISIANA
New Orleans -- New Orleans Public Library

MARYLAND
Baltimore -- Baltimore Heritage (a non-profit organization)

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston -- Boston Public Library (Download pdf)

MINNESOTA
State-wide -- Minnesota Historical Society
St. Louis Park / Hennepin County -- St Louis Park Historical Society

MISSOURI
St. Louis -- Preservation Resource Office (a for-profit business)

NEW JERSEY
State-wide -- Historic Preservation Office (Download pdf)
Caldwell -- Caldwell Public Library (Download pdf)

NEW YORK
Buffalo -- BuffaloResearch.com (run by Director of Buffalo History Museum)
Ithaca / Cayuga Heights -- Cayuga Heights History Project
New York City -- New York Public Library
                          -- New York Society Library
Rochester / Monroe County -- Monroe County Library System (Download pdf)

OHIO
Cleveland Heights -- City of Cleveland Heights

OKLAHOMA
State-wide -- Oklahoma Historical Society (Download pdf)

OREGON
Portland / Multnomah County -- Multnomah County Library

PENNSYLVANIA
Bethlehem -- Bethlehem Area Public Library (Download pdf)
Lancaster County -- Lancaster History (a non-profit organization)
Philadelphia -- Free Library of Philadelphia (Download pdf)
Pittsburgh -- Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

RHODE ISLAND
State-wide -- Rhode Island Historical Society

TEXAS
Austin -- City of Austin Historic Preservation Office (Download pdf)

UTAH
State-wide -- Utah Division of State History

VIRGINIA
Alexandria -- Alexandria Library

WASHINGTON
Seattle -- City of Seattle Municipal Archives
            -- Queen Anne Historical Society
Spokane -- Spokane Public Library
Tacoma -- Tacoma Public Library

WISCONSIN
Green Bay -- University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

Good luck with your house history research!

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Is There a Ghost in the House?!? What Death Certificates Could Reveal

If you're reading this, my dear wife, don't worry-- I didn't see any sort of odd spectre in the basement or anything.

People die in houses all the time. Over the course of time for a 90-year-old house such as ours, it stands to reason that there is a chance that someone passed away in the house. If your house is a 18th or 19th century house, then the likelihood is even greater, and this thought might have even crossed your mind. But, like I said, people die in residential houses every day. I don't think it's such a big deal. Maybe that's easy for me to say since we haven't experienced any odd occurrences or weird, unexplained noises or sights, aside from our crazy cats galloping back and forth from the front foyer to the rear living room at all hours of the night. Still, I know for a fact that someone died in our house, and I can essentially "prove" it with historical records-- chiefly, a death certificate.

Death Certificates for House History Research

Among the basic tools of genealogical research are vital records: Birth, Marriage, and Death records. As they provide elaboration on three of the major events of most people's lives, they are highly treasured. Speaking specifically of death certificates, they are primary sources of information (in regards to the death event at least), since they were created at or very close to the time of occurence, with information provided by someone who either witnessed or had very close knowledge of it. The informant on an official death certificate is often a close family member, and a medical professional often provides additional information as to the cause of death.

As discussed in my article on obituaries for house research, one should seek out the personal history of the home's occupants to gain a richer sense of the house's overall history. This endeavor can be supported by death certificate research, if obtaining the death record is accessible within reason. Official death records (meaning by a government entity) were very spotty, if they were kept at all, prior to 1900. Around the early years after the turn of the century, states began enacting legislation requiring the creation of death certificates upon each death in the state. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania did so in 1906.

Nowadays, finding a death certificate for your research is not always easy, but is generally much easier than obtaining a birth certificate, due to privacy restrictions in place in most states. Each state has its own laws governing when vital records can become public information. Speaking further of Pennsylvania, death records are public 50 years after the death itself, whereas birth records only become public 105 years after the birth. Further, the availability of viewing a death record may involve a formal request to a state vital records office, which would usually involve a fee. Ordering death certificates for each person associated with your house could certainly prove costly, but you can narrow down your inquests to those who either likely still owned the house upon their passing, or were residents there when passing. Unless the house was conveyed within the same family through inheritance or other means, or unless the house was sold during a settlement of one's estate, most of your home's past owners probably sold the house sometime during their lifetime and thus can be eliminated from your death certificate orders, if you wish, if a fee is involved. See here and here for more information on death records and where you can find vital records in your state.

Fortunately, for my state, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has formed a partnership with Ancestry.com to provide free access for PA residents to images of all PA death certificates on record for the years 1906 to 1963 (access is also available to paying Ancestry subscribers anywhere; also, this is not just limited to death certificates, but also includes a number of other document collections of the PA State Archives). This has become an invaluable resource for me in both my genealogical research as well as my house history research.

So Who Died Here?

As described in my article on obituaries, longtime owner and resident of the house Catherine Cantlin did not pass away in the home, but rather in a nearby nursing home, in 2002. Her husband, John Cantlin, passed away in 1961. His death certificate indicates that this occurred at Abington Memorial Hospital a few miles away. So it was not one of these longtime owners who died here.

Remember in the obituary post when I discovered that funeral services for John Cantlin's Irish-born mother, Sarah Cantlin, were held in my house? Well, the story doesn't quite end there. Here is her death certificate:

The place of death is listed as 402 Central Ave, Abington-- my house (its former address). She passed away here on the afternoon of July 23, 1944 at the age of 73. The cause of death reported by Dr. Robert Grace, if I am reading and interpretting the handwriting correctly, was "Malignancy- G.I. Tract" otherwise known as gastrointestinal cancer. She appears to have been attended to by the doctor for this affliction for at least 2-1/2 months. She is buried at a cemetery named "Holy Cross" (most likely the Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Delaware County PA just outside West Philadelphia, where there are several Cantlins listed on Find A Grave, although no virtual memorial created for Sarah yet). John Cantlin's signature is included on the death certificate, indicating that he was the source for his mother's biographical information provided.

Sarah Cantlin's husband, James, passed away in 1924. Yet, she continued living on N. 22nd St in Philadelphia with her youngest son Daniel in the shadows of Shibe Park, home of the Philadelphia A's major league baseball team. Although her neighbors two blocks east, on 20th St, famously had great views of stadium play and a series of spats with team ownership, Sarah's quality of life in her late 60's was likely affected by the addition of light stanchions at the stadium in 1939 and the introduction of night games. This, perhaps, contributed to her desire, or need, to move in with her son John in Glenside in the early 1940's.

Left to right:1. Prominent entrance to Shibe Park at 21st & Lehigh (image via Lib. of Congress) 2. Rooftop "bleachers" at Sarah Cantlin's luckier neighbors on 20th St across from the stadium (image via Lib. of Congress) 3. Mrs. Cantlin's former home at 2734 N. 22nd St in major disrepair, 2009 (image via Google Street View) 4. The vacant lot in 2012 after the row house was demolished in 2010 (image via Google Street View)

So, is the spirit of old Sarah Cantlin still hanging around our house? I think not-- this home was only her place of residence for a relatively short time, and as I've said, we haven't seen anything strange. Unfortunately, her own long-time home in North Philly became dilapidated as the neighborhood around the former Shibe Park fell into disrepair in recent decades. So dilapidated, in fact, that it was demolished in 2010.

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How Obituaries (Both Old and Recent) Can Be a Boon to Your House History

As I have posited previously, the people who have owned, occupied, or even rented your house as tenants in the past are collectively what comprise the soul of your house's historical story. Aside from tracking down and investigating the physical history of your house as an object, it is the historical lives of the home's people who will really enrich your research beyond a mere statement of facts. Thus, we will seek out information about their lives as best we can. Once you have completed your house's (land's) chain of title, you are left with a list of previous owners to research further. There are many genealogical sources upon which you can draw to reconstruct the lives of these owners and other occupants, and one important one is published obituaries or death notices of previous occupants. While obituaries are a common source for genealogy research, there is also a very specific way these articles can aid a house history research by leading you to living people who can possibly act as further sources of information.

What Will You Find?

The long and the short of it is that you just don't know what exact information you might find until you locate the obituary. You may find alot or you may find not much at all described in the obit-- but that's the reason to look! There is one important clarification of terminology here. Although often grouped collectively under the term "obituary", death notices and obituaries are two different types of articles. A death notice is a usually somewhat brief formal announcement of a person's death, stating the primary facts as provided by the deceased's family. They often state such things as when the person died, potentially where he/she passed away (such as at his home), when and where he was born and/or raised, who his survivors are, perhaps a brief statement of his previous occupation(s), funeral specifics, and often interment location. A true obituary, on the other hand, is a more lengthy article written as a profile piece, often by a newspaper writer using information provided by the family. A true obituary is not paid for, as a death notice is, and is published at the discretion of the publishing entity (i.e. newspaper). For fairly obvious reasons, they can be a wealth of information, providing you a detailed account of the subject person's life in narrative form. Most past persons which you are researching will be documented in death notices; not in a true obituary which are in much, much fewer number. Please note that for the duration of this article, I will use the term "obituary" to also mean a death notice, as is commonly done.

Looking to the Past - Information on Former Occupants

For your house history research, you should now have a list of previous owners obtained in your title searches (if not, read here). I have gathered a list of 7 married couples who held ownership of my home or it's land since this home lot was created in a land subdivision (earlier owners of the larger land tract, of course, should ideally also be researched). Obituaris should be sought for all 14 persons. The 2002 death notice of Catherine Cantlin (the longtime matriarch of the home from c. 1932 to 2001) tells me that she was born in the city of Philadelphia, lived her life primarily as a homemaker, and passed away at a nursing home not far from the home she loved. I've also learned here that her maiden name was Stearn, that she is buried at the large Catholic cemetery a few miles away, and that her husband John and two of their children preceded her in passing.

Death notice of Catherine Cantlin, published 2002 in The Times-Chronicle.

Don't forget to search for obituaries for other relatives who may have also occupied the home, such as the owner's children. From census records, I've learned that John and Catherine had three children: Jean (aka Claire, born c. 1927), John Jr. (born c. 1929), and Robert (born c. 1934), all of whom lived in the home during their childhood. To date, I have located the death notices for one of these three children. While you will not always find staggeringly interesting or noteworthy information, these bits of information will help you reconstruct the lives of these people along with other sources. They lived in your house after all!

Before we leave the "Ghost of Cantlins Past", a note that extended family should not be dismissed. Again, through census records, it was not difficult to determine the parents of John Cantlin as James and Sarah Cantlin, Irish immigrants. Locating the death notice of Sarah Cantlin from 1944 yielded that a remembrance service for her was conducted at my house! The discovery of events such as this which took place at the house can really bring to life to your house's story.

Death notice of Sarah Cantlin, published July 26, 1944 in The Philadelphia Inquirer. This informs me that a portion of her funeral services were conducted in my house.

Looking in the Present - Finding Living House History Sources

Allow me to stress that the greatest value you might get from a thorough obituary search is by locating living descendants of those associated with your house. Obituaries, in combination with current public records, phone books, and maybe even Facebook, can lead you to people who are alive and who just might be able to tell you something of interest about your house.

Consider again the Cantlin family. The long-time owners of my house, John and Catherine, passed away in 1961 and 2002, respectively. Their three children have all also passed away, the last of which in 2008. Through searching for other obituaries within this family, I came upon one for another family member who passed away in 2007. It turns out that this obit was in reference to John Jr's son (John Sr's grandson). Examining this obituary reveals names of several living descendants of John and Catherine, including two daughters-in-law and four now-adult grandchildren. These are all potentially persons whom I can respectfully contact and ask if they are willing to share any memories, either of the house itself or of these folks John and Catherine, whom I have thus far only come to know on paper. This single obituary is the key to a potential bonanza for the house history.

Sources for Obituaries and Death Notices

There are many potential sources for finding obituaries. I preface this by saying that aside from doing a "blind" name search somewhere, it is generally most helpful to track down the date of death of the person first. This can admittedly take some time and further research, especially for those who passed prior to the information age resulted in an online footprint of virtually everybody. This is where using Ancestry or another online or offline genealogy family tree will come in handy, as many of these put clues and source documents right in front of you. I will get into this topic more another time.

The first and most logical place to start searching for obituaries is in newspaper archives. One can usually pretty easily search many newspapers online for obituaries which are only a few years old. A daily-increasing amount of historical newspapers are being digitized and placed on websites such as Genealogy Bank, Google Newspaper Archives, and Newspapers.com.  However, still, most often you will need to head to a local library to view past issues of newspapers on microfilm (I personally, even as a Millennial, am incredibly thankful that my research has forced me to use such great resources as the local library).

Other sources might include less-obvious places such as social clubs or fraternal organizations. However, unless you knew the person, you likely do not know of their involvement in such an organization until you find, ahem, their obituary. Still, even if you learn of it after the fact, sometimes you can find old meeting minutes or newsletters of such organizations which might include a brief biographical sketch around the time of death of a member, yielding more information than a standard death notice.

Funeral homes are another source, as they often even assist with the obituary publishing process. Nowadays, many funeral homes include current and recent obituaries on their website. For older obituaries, you might consider contacting local funeral homes in the area where the person lived to see if they handled that person's funeral and if they have an obituary on file.

Lastly (and this list is not meant to be exhaustive), there is www.findagrave.com. This is an online search catalog of virtual "memorials" which correspond to real gravesites in real cemeteries. The information is entirely comprised of user-submitted contributions, but it has a tremendous following and, to date, over 138 million grave records, growing daily. Some of these virtual memorials include the text of the deceased person's published obituary, with the source listed. The percentage which include obituary information is small, and one must fact check a source like this, but I have come across it enough to cause me to check the site when looking for an obituary.

Good luck finding all those obituaries!

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