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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