Finding and Interpreting Historical Aerial Photographs to Inform the History of Your House

When attempting to determine an exact construction date for a home, we often turn to maps to aid in this effort. This is, of course, as a form of visual/graphic evidence in conjunction with other documentary evidence, such as deeds, mortgages, etc. Not to be overlooked, however, are historical aerial photographs. In the same way that maps from various years can help to narrow down a range of possible construction dates or to observe development of a neighborhood over time, aerial photographs can provide a literal and visual representation. The key, as with maps, is knowing where to look and how to interpret the images found. While the ideal scenario would be to find at least one dated image prior to the house's construction and be able to compare it to one or several images post-construction, this would not be possible if the house you are researching is older than about 1920. Still, it is likely that aerial photographs exist for your home dating back several decades and thus still extremely interesting and useful to examine for your research.

A circa 1928 aerial photograph of my neighborhood, located via PhilaGeoHistory. My house is highlighted with the purple arrow, about 5 years after its construction.

A Brief History of Aerial Photography

Aerial photography has been linked to the documentation of our built environment ever since its invention in the mid-19th century. According to the Professional Aerial Photographers Association, early aerial images were taken over Paris and Boston by pioineers in hot-air balloons in the 1850's and 60's. Over the next fifty years, photographers continued aerial experiments, strapping cameras to rockets, kites, and even pigeons. By World War I, photos were being taken from another recent invention, airplanes, and were regularly used to document battle maps during the War. Due to further technological innovation, largely by Sherman Fairchild both during and after WWI, aerial photography became adopted and popular for wide government, civilian, and commercial use starting in the 1920's. Nowadays, satellites capture the bulk of aerial imagery, but the moments in times past which we wish to view here would have been taken from airplanes.

Sources for Aerial Photographs

Places to inquire about aerial photographs throughout the past 90 or so years include libraries and historical societies, which can possibly point you to more specific repositories or quasi-governmental agencies or planning authorities. The latter may have commissioned aerial photography in your area for regional planning purposes at several points in time.

Many of these may ultimately be available to access online. Try a Google search for "historical aerial photographs (your state/city)" and you might run across a government agency or library with a stash of old aerials. Locally (to me), the PhilaGeoHistory website run by the Philadelphia Athenaeum includes a section of aerial photographs not just the City of Philadelphia but for the metropolitan area at large. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has a plethora of satellite and aerial imagery available, including an entire section of "Historical Photographs" from 1937 to the present. A link leads to the USGS Earth Explorer image search where you can search by address, then select different checkboxes under "Data Sets" to see if you can find any of those images for your area. Basic resolution images are free to download, whereas high-resolution images are available for a fee.

A number of commercial websites are available as well. Google Earth is likely the most well-known, has some historical imagery (in Google Earth 5 and later), and also has a neat "slider" feature which allows you to slide back and forth between images from different years. Most of the images in Google Earth appear to be fairly recent (1990 or later).

Screenshot of Google Earth historical imagery. The "slider" is shown at the upper left. The earliest available image for my neighborhood on Google Earth was from 1992 (and the roof of my house is washed out in the low-resolution image, rendering it difficult to see. Image quality varies from year-to-year.

Two other commercial sites worth checking out are www.historicaerials.com and www.vintageaerial.com.

The homepage of Historic Aerials displays a map of the United States covered in two shades of green-- the dark green areas have "historic" images available, whereas the remainder only have aerial photos from 1990 or later. Although the website considers anything before 1990 "historic", I've found that many of the shaded areas have available images back to the 1920's and 1930's, with several years in between available. It is quite easy to navigate from year to year at a specific location. The only difficulty is the large watermark which can make it difficult to view detail and only goes away if you purchase the image.

Screenshot at the homepage of Historic Aerials. Although images are generally available throughout the United States, the areas marked in the darker green are more likely to have earlier and older images available.

Screenshot on the image viewer at Historic Aerials. For my neighborhood, images are available to view for 13 different years, spanning from 1948 to 2013.

Vintage Aerial is a very unique website, focusing on rural areas and small townships, and their collection of images are oblique views (rather than a straight-down bird's eye view), which is a neat perspective. One can select any county in the U.S. and the results will tell you if their archive includes images from that county, as well as from which years. It appears that manually browsing images by film roll is the only way to view them at this time, but it is relatively simple to pick a film roll and scroll through the images in the roll. As for finding the right roll, many archive years are accompanied by a "flight map" of the county which includes a guide (which appears to be hand-marked by the original photographer), marking the coverage areas of each film roll. Locate the area on the map you are seeking and hopefully a flight path is marked with a film roll number. Navigate back to the list of film rolls from that year and choose the correct film roll to scroll through the images.

1964 Flight map from Vintage Aerials website in Montgomery County, PA. This map marks each film roll's coverage. The image below was found in Film Roll 88.

Although there do not appear to be any aerials from my particular neighborhood, I did find images from 1964 from the street where I grew up, but not my house's exact location. I was able to locate this image of a huge Victorian house I've always admired, about a mile from the house in which I grew up.

1964 image of a Victorian-era home, found in Film Roll 88 under Montgomery County at Vintage Aerial.

Finding Useful Information in Aerial Images

As you gather images from various years, you will find a wide range of image clarity-- even an image from as recent as the 1990's may not be as clear as an image from 1930. Within the last decade or so, however, satellite imagery has become extremely clear. The most helpful aid which a series of aerial photos could provide would be to help pinpoint the year of construction of a house. If you happen to find an image from 1948 and a house does not exist in it, but it does appear in a 1950 image, then you know that the house was constructed sometime from 1948-1950. This image below is a comparison between a circa 1928 image and a circa 1930 image. Houses which appear on the later image, but not on the earlier image we know were recently constructed as of the date of the second image.

The houses marked by the arrow in the 1930 image were recently completed as of that date, since they did not exist at all in 1928.

As mentioned previously, since aerial photography did not become common until the 1920's, if the house you are researching is older than that, then you will not be able to find images for this purpose, but viewing and examining what you can find will still be useful and interesting.

You may recall from my previous posts that I believe the construction date of my house to be between May 1922 and November 1923 based on numerous types of documentation and analysis. The earliest aerial photograph I was able to locate for my neighborhood was an image labeled circa 1928 (found via PhilaGeoHistory, as part of the collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia). There are no images from prior to my house's construction, but it is still neat to see photographic evidence of the house's existence this early, only a few years after its construction.

Portion of an image, located via PhilaGeoHistory. My house highlighted with purple arrow.

Although the resolution of the image is not extremely clear, you can see the house as one of the few existing on this portion of Central Avenue, something that further confirms evidence found in early atlas maps. The lightly-colored area is actually my entire current property, with the actual house only distinguished by a shadow line at the back of the house. The reason why the whole lot is lighter than other undeveloped lots may be that grass and other growth may have been cleared off of the property and had not yet re-grown, or had regrown in a distinctly visual way.

What you also notice here is the loose outline of a tree line running from northwest to southeast just along my property line, continuing on along multiple properties. This tree line then turns northeast a few blocks away, on either side. To see the reason, see this clip from a 1916 atlas map.

Portion of a 1916 atlas map, via Franklin Maps. My house's location highlighted in purple.

We can also zoom out on the c. 1928 aerial image.

Portion of a c. 1928 aerial image, located via PhilaGeoHistory. To the right, the Spear tract is highlighted with a purple boundary. To the left, we see how a tree line defined much of this boundary.

Although the map is oriented to align with the property, this 1916 map is the latest which depicts the land tract previously owned by Emma Spear. In 1919, she sold this land to Philadelphia jeweler Reginald Ferguson, who subdivided the land into individual home lots. The tree lines in the c. 1928 aerial image correspond to the border of Spear's former land. In the aerial image, we see that this land has only sparsely been developed in the preceding 7 or 8 years, although most of the streets have been laid out (although nearly certainly unpaved) to align with other existing roadways. The 1928 photograph also shows us the already-established residential development to the southwest (labeled "North Glenside" to the left in the 1916 map).

Jumping ahead in time to 1959, some of this tree line remains, and you can see that the neighborhood of Ardsley has now been largely filled with single-family homes throughout. Suburbia has taken hold.

Aerial image of the Ardsley neighborhood, 1959. Located via PhilaGeoHistory.

Zooming in on my house now.

Most of my neighbors' houses have now been built prior to this 1959 image, including the long row of stone-fronted Cape houses running to the southwest. The exception is the ranch house on the north side which was built in the 1970's. You can see the empty lot adjacent to my house which at the time of this image was owned by the owners of my house, the Cantlins. This image was also captured at least a decade after the Cantlins expanded the size of this house-- the purple arrow points to the rear addition constructed in the 1940's.

Have Fun!

These types of images should not be overlooked as part of the historical analysis of your house's history. They are an extremely fascinating way to gain photographic and visual evidence of the evolution of both your house and its context within the greater neighborhood. See if you can locate multiple aerial images over time for your home, and have fun taking a peek at these literal snapshots in time!

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Zeroing in on the House's Construction Date, Part 2 (Andrew F. Gutekunst)

This is Part 2 of a short series focusing in on my house's assumed construction date between 1922 and 1924. For an overview given in Part 1, see here. 
This article will focus on the real estate transactions of local North Glenside flooring contractor Andrew F. Gutekunst, one candidate out of three possibilities who had my home built. The goal of this exercise is to provide additional and specific context around my home's origin in order to hopefully narrow that construction date even further.

What I knew before this focused exercise, based on some fairly basic chain of title research for my property, is that Andrew F. Gutekunst owned the property from November 1923 to October 1924. He bought the property for $650 and sold it at the end of that short span for $5,500. However, he simultaneously leveraged the property for a $3,800 mortgage upon purchasing it, suggesting that the increase in value within a year is not as dramatic as it seems at first glance.

As described in Part 1, further searches of deed and mortgage indexes for Gutekunst related to properties in Abington Township yielded the following:

• Grantee on eight (8) deed between 1923 and 1928, plus two more in the 1940's
• Grantor on six (6) deeds in 1923 and 1924, plus three more from 1930-1947
• Mortgagor on eight (8) mortgages from 1921 to 1924

How This Information Was Analyzed

A more detailed breakdown and summary of these transactions is included in the following table:

This table organizes all of Gutekunst's recorded transactions by current address. The reason for this is simple-- the 22 recorded documents were the result of transactions involving only nine (9) current properties as they exist today. This allows me to examine when Andrew Gutekunst acquired each property, for how long he owned it, and whether or not he mortgaged each property.

Next, I ventured to specifically locate each property on three maps: a current Google Maps satellite image, a 1927 historical atlas map, and a 1937 historical atlas map. By using the legal description of each property as spelled out in the deeds, I can pinpoint the exact property as it exists today on Google Maps. Then, I can find the same property on the two atlas maps. Why did I choose these two years? If you'll notice in the table above, Gutekunst was most active in the specific years of 1923 and 1924. By locating the lots on maps in 1927 and 1937 (the two closest dates available), I can get a good sense of whether or not Gutekunst may have built houses on these properties or whether he was simply making a short-term investment as values increased in the neighborhood. Note that there is also a 1916 map for my area, but it depicts the neighborhood as it existed before it was largely subdivided around 1920, so none of these lots would have had houses on them in that year.

There are two properties on Cricket Avenue, adjacent properties no less, where Gutekunst came into ownership in the 1940's. Although I will describe them below since they do complete the picture of Gutekunst's local real estate dealings, these are less relevant to the task at hand due to the timeframe. One was actually his own residence, previously owned by his father, Frederick William Gutekunst. 

Some quick, general observations based on the table I've constructed. First, nearly all of these properties are within the block closest to the main arterial road of Jenkintown Road. The exception is very close to Limeklin Pike (at 257-263 Maple Ave), the arterial road at the south end of the neighborhood. Maps show that the earliest development occurred closest to these two roads, and Gutekunst's affinity was no exception. Second, Gutekunst appears to have purchased 3 lots directly from Reginald Ferguson, the originator of the Ferguson's North Glenside subdivision. With one exception (that same 257-263 Maple Ave), Gutekunst dealt entirely in land within this subdivision. It seems clear that this man was delving into something new to him, and perhaps he gained a greater comfort level by keeping his investments very close to home. He was age 25 in 1921 at the time of his first purchase. Now, onto the properties:

657 Jackson Avenue

This is Gutekunst's first investment, acquiring the lot directly from Ferguson in September 1921. Although the financial consideration of his purchase is not fully disclosed in the deed, Gutekunst did mortgage the property to a man named Sigurd Larsen in exchange for $2,500 within days of his land acquisition. Larsen may have been a long-time associate (it appears they may have worked at the same company as machinists as of 1917), as A.F. Gutekunst would later buy a different plot of land directly from Mr. Larsen in the 1940's. He further took out an additional $1,000 mortgage with a Building and Loan corporation a year later in 1922. There is a curious set of deed transactions on this property in June of 1923, with Gutekunst conveying the land to a Ms. Edith S. Mattson, a real estate stenographer of nearby Rockledge, then receiving it back from her one day later. Gutekunst ultimately sold the property to Frederick Locher for an undisclosed sum in July 1924.

Did Andrew Gutekunst build the home we see here today in the picture above? The amounts listed in each transaction are of little real help to us as they remain as murky as several other transactions involving $1 consideration amounts, plus with a few mortgages to boot. However, the house does exist on both the 1927 and 1937 maps. But, I was able to make a key discovery in the form of a newspaper advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer from May 7, 1922:

Bingo! This is absolutely a match for this property-- the house that exists on this land today fits well with the description given in the ad: an 8-room "semi-bungalow" (bigger than a typical bungalow, often two stories). The lot described in the property deeds is exactly 60x129, matching the ad. The use of the word "cheap" is interesting. This ad confirms to me that this house was completed by May 1922. The only reason I can't definitively peg this "new" home as having been built during Gutekunst's ownership is that he bought it only 8 months prior to taking out this ad. He easily could have bought it as a brand new house already and well within his rights continued to claim it as a new house in selling it. Given his $2,500 mortgage of the property upon his purchase, I'm guessing that's exactly what he did, taking it slow in the real estate game for his first property.

628 Maple Avenue

A.F. Gutekunst acquired this property in June 1923, right around the time when the mysterious transactions for the Jackson Ave house appear with Ms. Mattson. He acquired a separate double-wide lot on Maple Ave near Limekiln Pike this same month (see below). As for this lot at 628 Maple, Gutekunst again acquired it directly from Reginald Ferguson, and this time he had a partner. This partner was a Mr. William Brosz, a carpenter!!!

Did Gutekunst and Brosz work together to build this house in 1923? Well, they owned the lot less than 3 months. It doesn't seem like enough time even with a skilled carpenter on board. But maybe... maybe plans were in the works prior to buying from Ferguson and who knows, maybe they even had a deal worked out with Ferguson to start early (I think I'm reaching). Gutekunst obtained a mortgage on this property as well, for $2,500, and the partnership sold it in September of that year to a Nelson Mathis for an undisclosed amount. Mr. Mathis took out a $4,500 mortgage immediately, so a short-term bump in value of $2,000 may have been achieved here. The house does show up on both the 1927 and 1937 maps.

Look at the photo above of the house as it exists today. It has clearly been modified to a great extent over its life-- a second story has been added, and the front porch has been enclosed. But if you take away those two things, I see ALOT of similarities to my own house on Central Avenue-- the hipped roof over the front porch, the width of the house, and the existence of a projecting bay on the first floor left side of the house. It's just something to keep in mind... another "maybe" here.

257-263 Maple Avenue

Gutekunst and Brosz had a busy summer in 1923, as they also together acquired this double-wide lot further to the southwest on Maple Ave, near Limekiln Pike and outside of Ferguson's subdivision. This time, they bought from a Samuel Thompson, and the consideration amount is actually provided in the deed this time, for $1,550. However, another deed shows up shortly thereafter granting Brosz's half-share entirely to Gutekunst for slightly more than half the original investment-- $800. It's hard to know what happened here that caused Andrew Gutekunst to buy out his partner's half-- maybe they had a falling out, or maybe Brosz only wanted to build and not take on the risk of ownership/investment. Coupled with the previous property above, we have a partnership between Gutekunst and a carpenter that lasted, on record at least, only 3 months.

As for the houses that sit on these two now-separate lots today, I'm somewhat baffled. At first, you might imagine my excitement upon seeing nearly identical houses which I knew were owned and possibly built by the same person(s) in Gutekunst/Brosz. However, the house you see on the left, #263, appears on both the 1927 and 1937 maps, whereas #257 on the right appears only in 1937. Andrew Gutekunst mortgaged these properties heavily, in total to the amount of $25,000 through four separate mortgages over the next year, before selling the property to a local business, Glenside Lumber and Coal Company, in November 1924, for a total of $5,400.

I can't quite fathom the possibility that these two houses were built very far apart chronologically as suggested by the 1927 map-- they just look too similar. The theory I am running with, for now, is that Glenside Lumber and Coal Co. erected the houses, starting with #263 and completing it in time for the first atlas map (likely by 1926), with the neighboring house following shortly thereafter, maybe within a year or so after the map publisher finished their survey. All told, I believe that Andrew Gutekunst did not play a part in building these houses, although the incredible amount he borrowed via mortgage of the property is a huge mystery here. He must have improved the property in some way.

502 Central Avenue

My house is within walking distance of all these other Gutekunst-held properties. Andrew Gutekunst came into ownership in November 1923, and it was a sole venture after absolving his ownership ties with carpenter William Brosz. He acquired the property from local real estate broker Harry Renninger for $650 and simultaneously mortgaged it for $3,800. Owning the property for approximately one year, he unloaded it in October 1924 to Anna Coogan for the amount of $5,500.

Did Andrew F. Gutekunst, or someone working for him, build this house during his ownership? If you've been reading this blog to any extent, you know that this is among the foremost unknowns I hope to solve. As I've described previously, the house appears on both the 1927 and 1937 atlas maps, and I feel very confident that it was constructed at the very latest by the end of Gutekunst's sale to Ms. Coogan in October 1924.

647 Jackson Avenue

This property, acquired in May 1924, is located directly adjacent to A.F. Gutekunst's first investment property, which he sold a few months after acquiring this one. Again a sole venture in terms of ownership, it is another which was conveyed directly from Reginald Ferguson, the subdivision's creator.

A bit curiously, a house is shown on the 1927 map but NOT the 1937 map-- I had to check multiple times to be sure I was looking at the same property on both maps. Was an existing house demolished sometime after 1927? Maybe. Perhaps it was a mistake by the atlas map surveyor.

No matter, for now. Mr. Gutekunst, it seems clear, did not erect the house which sits on the property today. Having obtained the property for an disclosed sum, he conveyed it to Glenside Coal and Lumber for $400 on the same day he sold the company his properties at 257-263 Maple. Was November 24, 1924 a day that Andrew Gutekunst, to a large extent, gave up his dabbling in the real estate game? This day, where he offloaded three properties to the same buyer, was his final transaction recorded for several more years.

626 Penn Avenue

In July 1928, Andrew Gutekunst re-entered the marketplace, having acquired an empty lot on Penn Avenue at the west end of the neighborhood. He owned it for less than two months. The true market value is not recorded on either end of his ownership, and it appears that no house existed on this property until the 1950's.

621-631 Cricket Avenue

The house at 621 Cricket Ave (on the right in the photo below) is another outlier to the 1923-24 transactions, as it served as Andrew Gutekunst's personal residence. His father, Frederick William Gutekunst, who like Andrew was listed as a flooring contractor/finisher in several records, was the owner until he conveyed it to Andrew and his wife Olga in 1941. The father did not pass away until 1953, but he was 71 years old at the time of this transaction. It appears that this home had remained in the Gutekunst family until very recently, just last year 2015. It was built prior to 1927.

The house to the left, #631, was likely built in the 1950's, and not by Andrew Gutekunst. He acquired the land in 1946 for the amount of $390 from Sigured Larsen and sold it less than a year later for $600. Both amounts are suggestive of a vacant lot, and no house is shown on the 1927 or 1937 maps. Perhaps Andrew, although having largely given up real estate, happened upon an opportunity to purchase the lot neighboring his and took it.

Observations and Analysis

Below is a much simplified version of the table shown at the beginning of this post:

I did what I set out to do here, which was to get as full a picture as possible of Andrew F. Gutekunst's personal dealings in local real estate. Further, I would contend that I can at the very least draw a reasonable conclusion that he likely did NOT build or have my house built during his ownership of the property. Instead, I am continuing with the theory that at which I arrived after my initial mortgage document analysis-- that the house was probably already there in November 1923.

The simplified table here shows that five (5) houses had been built on properties he owned in time for the 1927 atlas map. His now-discovered business association with the carpenter William Brosz in 1923, within the midst of Gutekunst's whirlwind of the same year, leads me to believe that he did build at least one house with this partner. The apparent dissolution of that ownership partnership, coupled with the fact that I just don't see a huge jump in value over his investment on most of these properties, leads me to infer that A.F. Gutekunst intended to build more houses than he actually did. Until I see more evidence that could suggest the contrary, I believe that my house is a case of him acquiring a recently built home in the rapidly-developing neighborhood and flipping it after a short time for a profit.

Coming soon, I'll do a similar examination of properties in this neighborhood bought and sold by Philadelphia carpenter Jayson Stover in Part 3.

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The North Glenside Land Company - "500 Desirable Lots"

Early on in my home research, a familiar corporation name kept popping up-- that of the "North Glenside Land Company". It re-appeared in deed after deed, specifically in the legal description of my land, as I kept requesting the documents from the Recorder of Deeds office via mail as part of my chaining the title (at that time, I had no opportunity to physically search in-person). Every week or so I'd receive a new deed further back in time, and each one defined the property's southwestern boundary "thence along the land of North Glenside Land Company". This continued back to Reginald Ferguson's receipt of the overall land tract from Emma Spear in 1919.

Just a Neighboring Development, But Consider My Interest Piqued

My initial viewings of local atlas maps found my property within the boundaries of "North Glenside - Ferguson" in 1937, as part of Reginald Ferguson's subdivision. But although it was called Ferguson's North Glenside, the corporation called North Glenside Land Company always seemed to be clearly a separate entity. In fact, it appeared to be the owner of the majority of the vacant land directly to the southwest and even a few slivers to the north and east bordering Ferguson's. The name "North Glenside Land Co." does not appear specifically on any of the early atlas maps, although the area is labeled "North Glenside" in 1916. In earlier years, this neighborhood was instead occupied by the "William Penn Real Estate Co." in both 1891 and 1897 (it was further labeled as "Remlu Heights" in 1909", a name which re-appeared on the 1937 map. Upon first glance, NGLCo (as I'll refer to it for short) appears to have been a successor to Wm. Penn Real Estate Company in owning that land tract.

After Googling the North Glenside Land Company, I was excited to find the following photograph courtesy of Duke University:

This photo was taken less than 1/2 mile from my house in 1916, down at the Ardsley railroad stop, and captures three advertising billboards. On the far left billboard, one can just make out the words "North Glenside Land Co." In the foreground we see the rail tracks, with Jenkintown Road trailing away from the photographer to the east. This view is in the direction as if one were moving away from my house. Cutting across from left to right in front of the billboards (behind the closer sign reading "Get Off Here- Ardsley Burial Park") is Tyson Avenue, largely obscured by the sloping ground. This sign for the NGLCo alerts disembarking train passengers, as well as those remaining on the train, that great home lots are nearby. The sign reads "North Glenside Land Co.     [Hou]ses and Bungalows For Sale" and the bottom line likely reads "Build to Please" with further text not in view.

Before I knew more details about Ferguson's tract and before I pinpointed my house's construction date to about 7-8 years after this photo, I thought that this could possibly have been advertising a development which included my house's lot or even the house itself. Alas, it is the neighboring subdivision but is a fascinating find nonetheless which intrigued me further about the North Glenside Land Company.

North Glenside Land Co. in the Years 1914-1920

Documentation found to date of the NGLCo's existence and operations largely consists of newspaper advertisements and references to the company in property deeds. The corporation is included on several reports produced at the Pennsylvania State Treasurer's office for the years 1916 and 1918, and there appears to be some evidence that the company was formed in 1914. Newspaper advertisements taken out by the company, found in the Philadelphia Inquirer, are frequent in this same year, 1914, adding credibility to that assumption. The company again appears to have advertised somewhat heavily in both 1916 and 1919, with at least one ad found in 1920.

Add to this the photo of the billboard dated 1916 and we have a fair bit of evidence that the NGLCo was active primarily from 1914-1920. What occurred pre- and post- these dates I am not quite sure at this time. However, any documentation which also provides any sense of geography always refer to the general area of Ardsley station. Thus, at this time I feel reasonably certain that the area of their holdings corresponds with those of the Wm. Penn Realty Co. before it and which was labeled as North Glenside in 1916. This general area, to the southwest of Ferguson's North Glenside tract, also corresponds roughly with what is today known as the community of North Hills (between Jenkintown Rd and Mount Carmel Ave, and between North Hills Ave and Edge Hill Rd). I have to assume that NGLCo's holdings were further contracted within those boundaries (probably no further east than Hamel Ave), and subtracted from it certainly would have been any lots sold off before 1914 to individuals.

Portion of a 1916 local atlas map. The location of my house, prior to its erection, is circled in purple. "North Glenside" is directly to the southwest. Original map via Franklin Maps.

"Your Bungalow in North Glenside"

The company's 1914 advertisements in particular provide some richness to this story. Nearly all of them stood out within a dense newspaper page of text ads by including an image of a bungalow. Most are also peppered with flowery language, as many real estate ads are. NGLCo was selling much the same type of haven that many developers were at this time, offering modern amenities such as reliably clean plumbing water and electric street lights, as well as an escape from city life with attractive landscapes ("high healthful surroundings"!) while at the same time allowing easy access to Philadelphia by way of the railroads. They implore potential customers to "enjoy your summer in a bungalow". Indeed, many of the bungalows built in this era served as summer cottage retreats for city dwellers. All of the ads in this first group are from April through July of 1914, indicating a heavy advertising blitz to try to lock in customers during the first spring and summer seasons after the company's establishment:

We see here an indication of the possible number of sales during these several months, as NGLCo continually amends its total availability from "500 desirable lots" down to 450 and eventually to "over 400". We also learn that the company had built dozens of bungalows itself (at least 40), in order to offer turn-key homes to buyers seeking such. In addition, vacant lots were available (certainly!), and the company appears also to have offered ready-to-build floor plans as well as customization. But wait, there's more! Easy financing and a free automobile ride to the tract from the train station. Everything to everyone, of course! It clearly was successful to some extent, as the earlier ads indicate pricing for a bungalow home ranging from $3,000 to $3,500-- that is later amended to $3,500 to $4,000 and later further to "$3,500 and up". A buyer could grab hold of a vacant lot for $250 to $500.

The ads also indicate management of the company by a Mr. William G. Glenn, on-site customer service by a Mr. Walter Lewis, and that the NGLCo maintained three offices in Philadelphia. One of these offices was at the Land Title Building on South Broad Street, an early skyscraper designed by famed architect Daniel Burnham. Given the existence of not one, but three offices, all of which were off-site in the city, I'd wager that Mr. Glenn was part of a larger operation and that the North Glenside Land Company solely existed as a corporation to serve this new development.

By October 1914, either business had slowed or the company had completed more bungalows on the lower end of its scale. This simple ad offers a "white plastered bungalow, hardwood finish ideal for young couple, $3000" as well as 5-room (2-bedroom) homes for $3,500 and 6-room (3-bedroom) homes for $4,000. No picture in this one either:

A few advertisements return to the Inquirer newspaper in 1916, one found with a picture:

In the plainer advertisement, we also see an additional listing below it bearing the name "Renninger & Renninger" (if you've read my chain of title summaries, this name should be familiar!). It's a sign of things to come for the North Glenside Land Company, as by 1919 they no longer rely solely on their "agent on the grounds" here and instead have farmed agency representation to the prominent local realty company headed by Harry Renninger:

The NGLCo still claimed "500 desirable lots" and perhaps used this figure loosely to describe their entire development at large. The company seems to still clearly be building in the neighborhood in 1919 in order to "supply the urgent need of more houses". Also, the sizes of the homes being built have increased in size. This ad below from 1920 is difficult to read, but lists three bungalows, ranging from 7-8 rooms in size with price tags from $6,400 to $9,500:

The trail of the North Glenside Land Company dries up after that, at least without more extensive research. I'll just need to keep digging, figuratively speaking, of course.

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Confirmed: The Neighboring Lot Was Once "Part" of My Current Property

Several months ago, I was fortunate enough to interview the daughter-in-law of John J. and Catherine Cantlin, the long-time owners of my home from 1932-2001 (John Cantlin passed away in 1961 and Catherine continued living here for 40 more years). This woman was able to share several pieces of information I had not known previously, including a birth in the home (her husband, in 1934), and the fact that Mrs. Cantlin also owned the neighboring lot on the north side, which was undeveloped at the time. This was the lead upon which to build more solid information.

My 1920's home in the foreground, with an even earlier home in the background (light blue); sandwiched in between the two is land which was owned by the Cantlins for some time, now occupied by my neighbor's ranch house.

Today, that lot contains a one-story ranch style house where my neighbors, a friendly family of Italian descent, live. These being lots of modest width, their driveway defines the property line, leaving about 6-8 feet between it and my house. The daughter-in-law had relayed that Catherine owned the lot and "sold it off about 20 or 30 years ago. She sold it and then that house was built." The stucco and brick rancher could be 1980's by the looks of it, although I'd have bet somewhere in the 1950-1980 range. My neighbor has been there since 1989 (27 years ago, could fit the timeline given). The only problem was that on the county assessment office's online database, there are listed transactions back to 1973, and none of them involve the Cantlins. So, naturally, where would I look to solve the problem? A chain of title search at the county's Recorder of Deeds office, of course.

I performed the search in person at the office-- although my county does allow off-site access to historical deeds, it currently costs 30 cents per minute so this can add up (I hope new Recorder Jeanne Sorg takes cues from Mr. Schiller in Berks County!). Also, since the assessor's database lists the last three transactions for this property, I could have skipped back to 1973 if I so chose. But, since I was there in person I decided to complete the full chain from my current neighbor back to Ferguson's subdivision (Reginald T. Ferguson was the man who subdivided Emma Spear's roughly 200 acre tract into individual building lots).

The first step was to locate my current neighbor's Grantee deed from 1989. As with most deeds in this area, there is a paragraph which includes reference to the previous deed in the chain. Repeating this process took me backwards successively in time, from deed to deed, and after not too long I located the 1919 deed with Ferguson's conveyance of the lot to a Albert F. Troast.

However, it's later in the chain's chronology where I'm hoping to locate the Cantlins, and earlier within that search I found it. On May 18, 1946, John J. Cantlin and Catherine Cantlin purchased the lot from Troast, who apparently held it for 26 years, for the sum of $500. The property actually consisted of three skinny lots, numbered #2220, #2221, and #2223 on Ferguson's plan, none of which were individually large enough to build on-- I have yet to learn why most of the land was apportioned in such a way by Ferguson's surveyor.

Clip from 1946 deed conveying the neighboring lot from Albert Troast to John and Catherine Cantlin

Around this time in the 1940s, the remainder of the block was finally starting to fill in with new stone-front Cape Cod homes. Although it is mere speculation, the Cantlins may have recognized burgeoning development on their block and decided to snag the adjacent land while they had the chance, holding open the possibility of expanding to the north, or to hold onto the lot for use by one of their children or other family. As I've discovered previously, the Cantlins were in the process of enclosing their rear porch to expand the house, taking out the permit only a month prior to this! So clearly, they had expansion on their minds in some respect. If I get the chance to ask the Cantlins' daughter-in-law, I'll see if she can provide any further insight.

In any case, John Cantlin passed on in 1961, and the neighboring lot remained undeveloped by the Cantlins. Catherine held onto it until 1972-- 44 years ago. I'll certainly forgive the daughter-in-law for the inaccuracy in timing, for she provided me the clue in the first place! I wonder how Catherine used the open lot-- did she garden there? Let her teenage kids frolic there? Another question to ask. When she did unload the land on May 10, 1972, she sold it to a company called Mont-Bux, Inc. for $7,000. Mont-Bux flipped it a year later to a Sidney and Carol Mann for $29,275. It seems clear that Mont-Bux Inc. was a local residential development company; a brief search turns up a few appellate court cases from the 1970's, all involving residential developments planned by the company. This evidence that Mont-Bux was a residential developer, grouped with the sharp increase in value in 1973 plus my interviewee's recollection that a house was built shortly after Mrs. Cantlin's sale of the land, strongly suggest that the rancher house was built between May 1972 and May 1973.

Clip from 1972 deed conveying the lot from Catherine Cantlin to Mont-Bux, Inc.

The second page of the 1972 mentions John's passing in 1961, in order to clear up any potential question in the title chain. Also note in the last line of this page that the lot is subject to the same restrictions spelled out in all Ferguson's lots, as discussed here.

Another clue turns into a fun research task and a question answered, adding another component to the history of my house! And further evidence that you must reach out to actual people who may have first-hand knowledge about your house's history, even if they don't realize it.

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What Local History Has to Say About Ardsley vs North Hills

My house may have a slight bit of an identity crisis in terms of the neighborhood to which it belongs. It sits at the nexus of two communities within Greater Glenside-- Ardsley and North Hills. The larger subdivision containing my land, Reginald Ferguson's "North Glenside", eventually became known as "Ardsley". Today, Ardsley is largely considered to be bounded at its south end by the main thoroughfare of Jenkintown Road, stretching north to Susquehanna Ave between North Hills Ave and Hillside Cemetery). We, however, are located to the south of Jenkintown, part of a small 6-7 block portion of Ferguson's subdivisions, in what is now commonly known as North Hills. North Hills covers generally between Mount Carmel Ave to the south, North Hills Ave to the west (and extending even a few blocks further west into Upper Dublin Township), Jenkintown Road to the north, and Edge Hill Road to the east. By the literal definition of these boundaries, the house is located in North Hills; and, although the construction date of my home in the 1920's post-dates many earlier homes to the south more firmly in North Hills, it more closely aligns to the development of this neighborhood than Ardsley, where a majority of homes were built in the 1950's and 1960's.

Ardsley station (Wikimedia Commons)

North Hills, corner of Mount Carmel Ave & Limekiln Pike (Wikipedia)

Currently, I'm making my way through reading a comprehensive history written about Glenside, The Story of Greater Glenside by Robert S. Camburn (1977). There are several interesting nuggets of information in here on these two neighborhoods, and interestingly enough, the map included at the very end of the book allows the name of "Ardsley" to ever-so-slightly overlap Jenkintown Road at its east end:

Map of Glenside, as published in Robert S. Camburn's The Story of Greater Glenside (1977).

A few excerpts from Camburn's description of Ardsley-North Hills begins with this clarification, despite the label on the later map:

     "Because the names of Ardsley and North Glenside were used rather freely for development plans, we will state at the outset of our consideration of the North Hills area that it is regarded as lying between Jenkintown Road and Mount Carmel Avenue, while the Ardsley of today runs northward from Jenkintown Road."

In discussing North Hills further, Camburn describes various subdivision developments in the neighborhood across multiple historical maps, some of which I have seen (but some I haven't and can seek out!) spanning from before 1893 up to the late 1920's. My portion of Ferguson's subdivision is not mentioned here, but both the 1893 and 1909 atlas maps label the area directly south of my property. My house is at the absolute extreme southern boundary of Ferguson's later subdivision, and thus the area described here ends quite literally at my southern neighbor's property.

Portion of 1893 atlas map, highlighting the future location of my house, directly adjacent to the development of the Wm. Penn Real Estate Co. Map courtesy of Franklin Maps (note: map oriented with north to the right of the image)

Most of the Cape Cod-style houses on my block, however, were not actually built until the 1940's. Camburn's presentation of the several blocks directly to my south:

     "Plan maps which the author has seen for the earliest development of the North Hills community do not carry any dates. However, the 1893 local atlas map indicates a development here by the Wm. Penn Real Estate Company. (Somewhat later it has been called the Wm. Penn Realty Co.) The local atlas map of 1909 designates the same area as Remlu Heights (the developer, Ulmer, using the reverse spelling of his name). Parry says that this designation was attached only briefly to the locality."

Portion of 1927 atlas map, highlighting my house in Ferguson's North Glenside, with "Remlu Heights" directly to the south (left side of map). The name "Ardsley Estates" is also sprinkled throughout pockets of Remlu Heights. Map courtesy of Franklin Maps. (note: map oriented with north to the right of the image)

And later, more specifics of the location:
     "The earliest plan map mentioned above largely agrees with the 1893 local atlas map, boundaries being half-way above Spruce Avenue (to Jenkintown Road)... These maps all indicate Wm. Penn Real Estate Co. as owner."
     "On the 1909 local atlas index map, the area is designated Remlu Heights... but only to about halfway between Spruce Avenue and Jenkintown Road..."

This spot, halfway between Spruce Ave and Jenkintown Rd, is the location on the map where the northeast/southeast avenues take a slight curve, a product of Reginald Ferguson's layout being misaligned from the streets of Remlu Heights (now North Hills). This occurs directly in front of my house on Central Avenue, and also results in diagonal property lines at the front and back of my lot.

Camburn has another interesting footnote, speaking to his earlier allusion to the fast and loose use of the name "Ardsley" to different subdivisions:
     "An undated sales map, similar in coverage to the early maps showing the Remlu or Wm. Penn Real Estate Co. subdivision, bears the title of "Ardsley Estates." A separate plan map of 1923 shows Ardsley Estates owned by Edge Hill Realty Corp."

This name of Ardsley-- I had wondered about its origins since the early days of my research. However, rudimentary searches had only yielded the existence of another village called Ardsley, just outside of New York City which was supposedly named by a large landowner there after his ancestor's birthplace, the village of East Ardsley in England. Also, being an English placename, it supposedly means "home-lover's meadow."

Perhaps this is an image William T.B. Roberts (1850-1936) had in mind in 1905. Roberts, a business associate of the likes of Philadelphia magnates Peter Widener and William Elkins, came to rapidly develop several sizable developments in Glenside at the turn of the 20th century. According to Camburn:

     "Under plan dated March 10, 1905, Roberts prepared to develop what he called Ardsley. The area covered by this plan was within the limits of Jenkintown Road, Sylvania Avenue, Edgecomb Avenue and Tyson Avenue. Then, under plan designated Ardsley No. 2, dated June 1905, development north of Edgecomb Avenue to Bradfield Road was undertaken.
     Between these "Ardsley" areas and the area presently known as Ardsley from Jackson Avenue west, Roberts established Ardsley Burial Park in 1906 (which was bought out by Hillside Cemetery in 1953 and placed under the latter's management). The Roberts' family burial plot is located here."

This being the earliest chronological reference by Camburn of the use of the name Ardsley, it appears that the name was coined locally by Roberts, and referred to the neighborhood to the east of the current Ardsley, on the other side of the railroad tracks. This other area presently has an Ardsley Avenue where my wife and I made an offer on a house before finding the one we ultimately bought.

When Camburn finally comes to speak of the neighborhood currently known as Ardsley, we learn further of its origins, which consist primarily of the history I have learned through my independent research and presented on this blog:

     "...this area was called Tyson's Gap at the time of the Revolution and that this later became Tyson. Tyson was the name of Ardsley station on the rail line until about 1897. It is so named on the 1897 local atlas map.
     A development plan map of March 26, 1918, with later additions, is labeled "Ferguson Tract of North Glenside #1 - North Glenside Land Co.," and covers the area from Penn Avenue to Maple Avenue, north from above Spruce Avenue to Susquehanna Street. (The township line runs just west of Penn.)
     The Ferguson tract of North Glenside #2, as shown on plan map dated November 21, 1919, covers the area from Jackson Avenue to Maple, and from Jenkintown Road to Spear Avenue.
     Ardsley also includes the area west of Penn Avenue in Upper Dublin Township from Jenkintown Road to Fitzwatertown Road, north to Susquehanna Street."

Camburn was certainly right in claiming that the name Ardsley was used quite freely by developers. My own cobbling together of the timeline of the name's use locally, based on Camburn's history, is somewhat speculative in filling in the gaps as follows:

-1905: W.T.B. Roberts first uses the name Ardsley locally for his development east of the railroad tracks, north of Jenkintown Rd
-c. 1905-1909: The nearby Tyson train station adopts Ardsley as its new name.
-1918-1920: Reginald Ferguson lays out his North Glenside subdivision. I speculate that the name of the train station to its east, and the lack of common reference to the "original" Ardsley, causes residents and leaders to come to use this name for the burgeoning development close to the station in the 1920s. Thus, the name effectively jumps across the tracks.
-1923, 1927: Maps include "Ardsley Estates" amongst the area of North Hills to the south of Jenkintown Rd.
-1929: The Glenside Manor Civic Association of North Glenside, with its Civic Hall located on Hamel Avenue, changes its name to Ardsley Civic Association and Ladies Auxiliary, further cementing the name association with the neighborhood.

Current Google map aerial view, with boundary overlays indicating the migration of the name "Ardsley" from Roberts' subdivision east of the train station, to its present-day boundaries west of the station.

If it wasn't painfully clear by now, the message of this post is to SEEK OUT WRITTEN LOCAL HISTORIES. You are far from the first person to be interested in the origins of your micro-neighborhood and of your town or city at large. Even though my specific neighborhood is not the main focus of this written history by Robert Camburn, it was included by the author as a part of the larger history of Glenside as a whole.

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Anatomy of the 1920 Deed from Reginald Ferguson to Frederick Brandes

Today we take a detailed look at the June 4, 1920 property deed which conveyed the land on which my home was later built, from Reginald T. Ferguson to Frederick A. Brandes. If you'll recall from some of my previous posts, Reginald Ferguson was a jeweler by trade in North Philadelphia, and had purchased a sizable tract of land in Abington from a Mrs. Emma Spear a few years prior. He then hired a surveyor to subdivide the land into individual home-building lots, a subdivision recorded with the name "Ferguson's North Glenside". Rather than hire a builder to construct new homes in the subdivision, Ferguson instead profited by selling off the individual lots in order for owners to build their own homes.

I do not know the exact circumstances of how Frederick Brandes came to acquire this particular land parcel from Ferguson. However, in piecing together a biographical sketch on Brandes, I do know that he had an older brother in the jewel trade and perhaps came upon Ferguson's development through that connection.

 

What follows here is the transcribed text of the actual property deed which gave Brandes ownership of two lots of Ferguson's North Glenside. Sometime within the next several years, my house was erected on the property, although not by Brandes. I find this particular deed more interesting than many of the others in my property's title chain. As it is the first deed in the chain conveying the parcel out of subdivider Ferguson's possession, it specifies all of the restrictive covenants on the property which are only alluded to in future deeds (such as restricting how close houses are built to the streets, prohibiting manufacturing and tavern uses, and even specifying fences and/or trees which must be built around any outdoor latrines). Here, I will also demonstrate the various clauses and important portions of a typical deed. Thank you to Laws for filling in gaps of my own knowledge about the specific parts of a property deed.

June 4, 1920 Deed from Reginald T. Ferguson to Frederick A. Brandes

Here follows the transcription (in italics, including typos in the recorded document) of this particular deed, along with anything in particular I've learned from the deed as it relates to my property (in bold):

DEED

REGINALD T. FERGUSON

ET UX

TO

FREDERICK A. BRANDES

ET UX

The beginning of the deed is called the "premises", and it is here where the Grantors and Grantees are specified, as well as the date of execution. In this particular case, I learn that both Ferguson and Brandes were residents of Philadelphia and not of Abington or Glenside, where the land is. Ferguson's occupation as "jeweler" is also listed:

THIS INDENTURE MADE THE fourth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty (1920)

BETWEEN Reginald T. Ferguson, of the City of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, Jeweler, and katherine E., his wife, (hereinafter called the Grantors), of the one part, and Frederick A. Brandes and Bertha C., his wife, of the said City and State (hereinafter called the Grantees), of the other part:

Next is the "granting clause". Here, it is made clear that a specific parcel of land is being conveyed from one party to the other. The amount of consideration (if specified in the deed) is included in this section, followed by a legal description of the property being transferred. In this deed, we learn that the consideration is merely a nominal amount ($1) but that "other good and valuable consideration" is a part of the transaction. It is not clear what profit Ferguson gained here, as it is not specified. Further, no corresponding mortgage document was found in Brandes' name. I would imagine that unless the two men knew each other previously and that Ferguson was using the land to pay some debt owed to Brandes (a possibility), that in actuality Brandes gave Ferguson some considerable value, which was not documented here, in exchange for the building lot:

WITNESSETH, That the said grantors for and in consideration of the sum of ONE DOLLAR and other good and valuable consideration lawful money of the United States of America, unto them well and truly paid by the said Grantees at and before the sealing and delivery of these presents, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, have granted, bargained, sold, aliened, enfeoffed, released and confirmed, and by these presents do grant, bargain, sell, alien, enfeoff, release and confirm unto the said Grantees, their heirs and assigns as tenants by entireties

Part of the granting clause is the legal description of the propety being conveyed. The description can be performed in a number of ways but must make clear specifically what land is being conveyed. In this deed, Brandes is buying two of the lots that Ferguson's surveyor laid out. If I compare this description to the one in the 2014 deed conveying the land to me, it is identical. Note that one "mystery" I need to investigate further is that I've been told that my current neighbor's lot was originally owned by the Cantlins, the long-time owners of my house. I will be investigating the assumption that this neighboring lot came to be owned separately from the two lots described here, since the legal description of my current property is the same two lots described in this 1920 deed. Note that in the first paragraph here, the survey information (as well as where it can be found in the Deed books) is included, having been recorded at the County the previous year in 1919:

ALL THAT CERTAIN lot or piece of ground situate in the Township of Abington, County of Montgomery and State of Pennsylvania. Described according to a survey thereof made by William T. Muldrew, Surveyor and Regulator, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, and recorded at Norristown, Pennsylvania, on July 12th, 1919, in Deed Book 732, page 600, as follows:-

BEGINNING at a point in the center line of Avenue "C" at the distance of four hundred and fifty-five and thirteen one-hundredths feet Southwest of the intersection of the center lines of Avenue "C" (as laid out forty feet wide) and Jenkintown Road (as laid out fifty feet wide); thence along the center line of said Avenue "C" on a curve to the left radius one hundred and twenty-three and sixty-six one-hundredths feet, arc twenty-one and fifty-eight one-hundredths feet; thence by lot numbered2224 North forty-three degrees twenty-five minutes, West one hundred and eighty and thirty-three one-hundredths feet to a corner; thence by lot numbered 2206 North eighty degrees fifty-five minutes, East twenty-four and twenty-two one-hundredths feet to a corner; thence by lot numbered 2222 South forty-three degrees twenty-five minutes East one hundred and seventy-four and seventy one-hundredths feet to the place of beginning. being lot numbered 2223 on the said survey.

AND ALSO ALL THAT CERTAIN lot or piece of ground situate in the Township, County and State aforesaid, and described according to the said survey as follows:-

BEGINNING at a point in the center line of Avenue "C" at the distance of four hundred and seventy-six and seventy-one one-hundredths feet Southwest of the intersection of the center lines of Avenue "C" (as laid out forty feet wide) and jenkintown Road (as laid out fifty feet wide); thence along the center line of said Avenue "C" on a curve to the left, radius one hundred and twenty-three and sixty-six one-hundredths feet, arc thirty-five and seventy one-hundredths feet; thence by land of the North Glenside Land Company North forty-two degrees twenty-three minutes, West one hundred and and seventy-five feet to a corner; thence by lot numbered 2207, North forty-six degrees thirty-five minutes, East thirty-two and one one-hundredths feet to a corner; thence by lot numbered 2223 South forty-three degrees twenty-five minutes, East one hundred and eighty and thirty-three one-hundredths feet to the place of beginning. Being lot numbered 2224 on the said survey.

As with most deeds in my county, the granting clause includes reference to the last recorded conveyance of this land (including the Deed Book and Page information). In this case, here it is described that the land is part of the larger tract of land Ferguson purchased from Emma Spear three years prior:

BEING a part of the same premises which Emma L. Spear, by identurebearing date the fifth day of October, A.D. 1917, and recorded at Norristown, Pennsylvania, in Deed Book No. 763, page 82, &c., granted and conveyed unto the said reginald T. Ferguson in fee.

TOGETHER with all and singular the improvements, ways, streets, alleys, passages, waters, water-courses, rights, liberties, privileges, hereditaments and appurtenances whatsoever thereunto belonging, or in any wise appertaining, and the reversions and remainders, rents, issues and profits thereof, and all the estate, right, title, interest, property, claim and demand whatsoever of the said Grantors, in law, equity, or otherwise howsoever, of, in, and to the same, and every part thereof.

Next is the "habendum clause" which usually begins with the term "to have and to hold". Here it is stated the duration of the conveyance as well as any further clarification of the new owner's rights to the land. In some cases, the new owner may only be receiving rights to the land "during his/her natural life", and this clause should go on further to declare what is to happen after this point. The most straightforward and least restrictive conveyance is in "fee simple", which gives the new owner all rights to the land indefinitely. This is what has occurred here in this 1920 deed, as exhibited by the reference to "heirs and assigns" of the Grantees, as well as use of the term "forever" at the end. "Heirs and assigns" allows the Grantee to give all or some claim to whomever he wishes in the future, and allows for inheritance of these land rights in the event of the new owner's death. Of course, in many cases, this new owner will at some point transfer and relinquish the claim to the land to yet a new owner. Thus, the "forever" means forever until that person gives up the claim to someone else:

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the said lots or pieces of ground above described hereditaments and premises hereby granted, or mentioned and intended so to be, with the appurtenances, unto the said Grantees, their heirs and assigns to and for the only proper use and behoof of the said grantees, their heirs and assigns as tenants by entireties forever.

Here begins the clause which spells out any restrictive covenants on new development for the land being conveyed. This is the most interesting portion of this particular deed to me. Reginald Ferguson has now successfully subdivided the Emma Spear land tract into individual building lots, and with these deed restrictions he is laying out a standard for new development which will protect the value of the entire development at large (including lots which Ferguson has not yet sold). Several references to other pieces of land not involved in this particular conveyance, but part of the North Glenside subdivision, are included, as this entire section of restrictive covenants would have been included verbatim in all deeds involving Ferguson's North Glenside lots. The first paragraph restricts certain uses on the property-- no cemeteries, manufacturing, taverns, or any "other building for offensive occupations or business, shall be erected". Again, Ferguson is protecting the value of the entirety of his holdings as a desirable residential community. Thus, no bone-boiling and no piggeries!

UNDER AND SUBJECT to the express conditions and restrictions: That said premisesshall not be used for cemetery or burial purposes. That no bone-boiling or fat rendering establishment, soap, glue, candle, varnishing factroy, brick manufactory, or any manufacturing business, slaughter house, piggery, tannery, tavern/drinking saloon or any building for the manufacture or sale of spirituous or malt liquors or wine of any kind or description whatever, or other building for offensive occupations or business, shall be erected on any part thereof, and that sidewalks shall be eight feet wide. That all lots are conveyed to the center of the road or avenue, and that all roads or avenues are forty feet wide, except Jenkintown Road and Susquehanna Road.

The next restrictive covenant essentially amounts to an easement allowing for the creation of Township-managed roads fronting the property:

That the grantee will without consideration dedicate such portion of the above premises as now forms the bed of any road or avenue, whenver said road or avenue shall be taken by the Township or County.

Next, further regulation on outhouses: 

Any privy wall used or maintained upon the premises above described or any part thereof shall be subject to the inspection and approval of the Board of health. Any outside water closet erected on said lot or lots shall be enclosed by an arbor or fence built at least three feet distant from the said water closet on all sides, and at least the full height of same.

The following covenants amount to the equivalent of zoning setbacks and density restrictions, despite the fact that Abington Township would not have its own formalized zoning code until later in the decade. Note the reference to Ferguson's lots numbered 2062 to 2094, despite their being located elsewhere in the subdivision:

That the house or building line on all roads or avenue shall be always at least twenty feet from the front road or avenue line and no part of any building such as porches, verandas, bay-windows or property area, exclusive of steps, shall be erected more than twelve feet beyond the said building line.

That the building line of all stables, garages or our-buildings of any kind hereafter erected upon any lot, shall recede from the front road or avenue line, so that the building line of such stable, garage or out-building shall not be nearer than sevnety-five feet from the said front road or avenue line, except that stables, garages or out-buildings of any kind hereafter erected on lots 2062 to 2094 inclusive shall only be built on the rear twenty feet of said lots.

That no more than one house shall be erected on each lot of ground until the year A.D. 1930.

And finally, Ferguson places actual minimums on the construction cost of houses to be built in his subdivision, even those not being conveyed in this deed. My house is located in the area described as "on any other avenue to the Southwest of... Jenkintown Road", which is a considerably small percentage of the subdivision, bearing a minimum cost of $2,500. Thus, if this deed restriction was adhered to (and it would be difficult to prove that it was), then I have a pretty good idea that it cost at least $2,500 to construct the house a few years later. I will be interested to search deeds for properties east of Jenkintown Road, in what is more traditionally known as the Ardsley neighborhood. As described in my post exploring the larger development of Ardsley, most of those houses were built in the 1950's or later, decades after these restrictions were written. In addition to investigating what happened to all of Ferguson's unsold land upon his death in 1924, I'll be curious to see if these restrictions differed in the later phases of development:

That any house erected on lots fronting on either side of Jenkintown Road on Avenues "E" and "F" to the Southwest of Jenkintown Road shall cost not less than Three Thousand Dollars; that any house erected on lots fronting on any other avenue to the Southwest of lots fronting on Jenkintown Road shall cost not less than Twenty-five hundred dollars; and that any house erected on any other lots shown on the said plan shall cost not less than Eighteen Hundred Dollars.

This next clause is among the most important in the entire document from a legal perspective, and it is called the "warranty clause". The Grantor, Reginald Ferguson, is essentially giving Brandes, the new owner, a guarantee that this land is free of any other claims. He further agrees to defend against any other third-party claims on the property which may arise. This is the most protective form of warranty for the new owner and involves the least risk for him. Not all deeds are general warranty deeds as this one is; some warrant to a lesser degree than implied here (i.e. "special warranty" deeds). "Quitclaim deeds" carry even more risk for the buyer, as they do not carry any warranty against third-party claims on the property-- they might be more often used in conveyances within a family:

AND the said Reginald T. ferguson, for himself and his heirs, executors and administrators, doth by these presents covenant, grant and agree, to andwith the said Grantees, their heirs and assigns that he, the said Reginald T. Ferguson, and his heirs, all and singular the hereditaments and premises herein described and granted or mentioned and intended so to be, with the appurtenances, unto the said Grantees, their heirs and assigns against him the said Reginald T. Ferguson and his heirs, and against all and every other person and persons whomsoever lawfully claiming or to claim the same or any part thereof, by, fromm or under him, them, or any of them, shall and will subject as aforesaid, warrant and forever defend.

Finally is the testimonial section or "execution clause". Appropriate signatures of the Grantors are included, including those of witnesses and the notary public:

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the said parties to these presents have hereunto interchangeably set their hands and seals. Dated the day and year first above written.

   SEALED AND DELIVERED

Reginald T. Ferguson (SEAL)

Katherine E. Ferguson (SEAL)

in the presence of us:

N.H. Ritter

Chas. F. Myers (.50 cancelled stamp)

RECEIVED on the day of the date of the above indenture of the above-named Grantees the full consideration therein mentioned.

   WITNESS AT SIGNING:

A.F. Ritter Reginald T. Ferguson

Chas. F. Myers

On the fourth day of June Anno Domini 1920, before me, the subscriber, a Notary Public for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, residing in the City of Philadelphia, personally appeared the above-named Reginald T. Ferguson and katherine E., his wife, and in due form of law acknowledged the above indenture to be their and each of their act and deed, and desired the same might be recorded as such.

WITNESS my hand and official seal the day and year aforesaid.

Chas. F. Myers (N.P.)

Notary Public (SEAL)

My commission expires Jan. 21, 1923.

Recorded June 30, 1920. H.L.N.

The deed was recorded at Norristown, the county seat, on June 30, less than a month after the actual conveyance took place on June 4. I've not yet been able to locate a list of previous Recorders of Deeds for the County, but I presume that "H.L.N." were the initials of the current Recorder of Deeds in 1920.

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