{"id":7104,"date":"2014-04-16T14:27:29","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T18:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=7104"},"modified":"2014-05-01T10:46:34","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T14:46:34","slug":"parkside-revisited-again-a-look-inside-4230-parkside-avenue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2014\/04\/parkside-revisited-again-a-look-inside-4230-parkside-avenue\/","title":{"rendered":"Parkside Revisited (Again): A Look Inside 4230 Parkside Avenue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: the author has previously covered Parkside in “After the Fair”<\/a> and “The Slifkin Family.”<\/a>\u00a0 A walk-through of the house with the author and University of Pennsylvania lecturer Hanley Bodek will be featured on an upcoming segment of WHYY’s Friday Arts<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The 4200 block of Parkside Avenue, May 27, 1954.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the outside, the houses on the 4200 block of Parkside Avenue are grand indeed, a brick parade that marches proudly along West Fairmount Park. Their roofs are a jumble of scalloped and stepped gables topped by terra cotta urns and copper cornices. Their yellow Roman brick facades boast bow-front windows, latticed dormers, and terra cotta angel faces. \u00a0Alleyways are secured with high scrolled iron gates, possibly made by the workshop of Samuel Yellin.<\/p>\n

Built in the 1880s and 1890s by brewer\/developer Frederick August Poth, they were pitched towards\u00a0Gilded Ages executives and factory managers, as well as prosperous business owners and professionals. \u00a0Some were probably occupied by the top leadership of F.A. Poth & Sons, who could commute to the brewery by taking the eastbound trolley across the Girard Avenue bridge.\u00a0These homes were meant to impress and dazzle passers-by on foot, trolley, or coach. \u00a0Less was not more in those days. \u00a0And why not? \u00a0 Philadelphia was one of the richest cities in the world in the 1890s, and many of the architectural, mechanical, and decorative features were made right here, in the self-proclaimed workshop of the world. \u00a0And these homes were located across the street from the site of the 1876 Centennial Expositions, one of the crowning events in Philadelphia’s history.<\/p>\n

Poth must have taken a special interest in his Parkside development. \u00a0He sold his freestanding mansion at 33rd and Powelton to his daughter Mathilde and son-in-law Joseph Roesch, and moved with his wife into a brand-new mansion at\u00a04130-40 Parkside Avenue. \u00a0He died there in 1905.<\/p>\n

During the early 20th century, Parkside changed from an upper-class German-American neighborhood to a middle class Eastern European Jewish one. During the Depression, most of these big twin homes were divided into efficiency apartments and rooming houses, and lost most of their interior fixtures. \u00a0Yet at least one of these homes survives with its original floor plate and some of its interior detailing intact: 4230 Parkside Avenue, situated directly across from the Centennial Exposition’s<\/a> Memorial Hall (now the Please Touch Museum<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The 4200 block of Parkside Avenue, May 27, 1954.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG_1122\"<\/a>
4230 Parkside Avenue. Note the polished granite columns. Photograph by Steven Ujifusa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I recently got a look inside the house, thanks to the current owner. \u00a0It has been vacant for over a decade. The inside of the house is cavernous and musty, with soaring ten foot ceilings. \u00a0The walls, once wainscoted with dark stained paneling, are painted white or gray. \u00a0 After passing through the front hallway, I marveled at the massive grand staircase, which rose three stories up through the center of the house. \u00a0The newel post was probably once topped with a finial, or even a bronze statue light fixture. The dining room, filled with wood scraps and other debris, can easily hold a table set for a dozen. \u00a0 The second floor library, which faces the park, \u00a0still has its original shelves topped by carved cornices. \u00a0The bay window once had curved glass panes and sashes, now replaced by standard flat ones. Almost all of the massive wood mantelpieces, save the one in the basement butler’s pantry, had been yanked out years ago, leaving their outlines behind. \u00a0The brass fireplace grates and polychrome tiles remain, giving a hint of the fine craftsmanship that once graced these Parkside homes. \u00a0 A pencil diagram, probably drawn by the carpenters who built the house 120 years ago, is still extant in the dining room.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The main staircase of 4230 Parkside Avenue. It rises three stories. There are two other service staircases in the house, one of which has been floored over. Photograph by Steven Ujifusa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/a>
Pencil sketches once hidden by a mantelpiece (now stolen probably left by the construction crew that built this house in the late 1880s or early 1890s. Photograph by Steven Ujifusa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The dining room. Photograph by Steven Ujifusa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The house’s layout is not completely intact. A previous owner had attempted to convert the mansion into a boarding house, adding shoddily-built bathrooms and partitions. \u00a0A piece of plywood covers over the archway between the foyer and the parlor, which originally was separated by sliding pocket doors. \u00a0A large, twisted chunk of pressed copper lies in the kitchen. \u00a0It originally came from the rear window bay, torn off by thieves scavenging the vacant house for scrap metal. \u00a0Squatters once stored drugs underneath floorboards and behind radiators.<\/p>\n

\"Tile<\/a>
Tile fireplace surround and brass grate in the dining room. Photograph by Steven Ujifusa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At 5,300 square feet, this was a house built for a very large family. There are six bedrooms, located on the second and third floors. The built-in armoires remain in place, as is some of the decorative plasterwork. \u00a0The window of the third floor front bedroom perfectly frames the Please Touch Museum. \u00a0A large cedar closet, located off the master bedroom, could have stored many wool suits with room to spare.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>
View from the third floor front bedroom, towards Memorial Hall, once the main building of the 1876 Centennial Exposition, later the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and now the Please Touch Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Built-in<\/a>
Built-in armoire in the master bedroom. Photograph by Steven Ujifusa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Frederick Augustus Poth built 4320 Parkside Avenue, it was\u00a0at the cutting edge of Victorian domestic technology. \u00a0One expert who has renovated many large homes in Fairmount described the house as equivalent to today’s Toll Brothers mansions, built for an aspirational and demanding clientele. \u00a0Although equipped with several gas fireplaces, the house was originally heated by steam radiators, powered by a hand-stoked coal boiler in the basement. \u00a0The house may have originally been piped for gas lighting, as electricity did not become widespread in American homes until the early 1900s. \u00a0With its flickering pale glow, gas lighting was an improvement over pre-Civil War whale oil candles. But houses such as 4230 Parkside were almost invariably dark and gloomy, with their stained paneling, overstuffed furniture, heavy drapery, and piles of curios and knick-knacks. Dust must have been a problem, especially for anyone with allergies.<\/p>\n

\"Plaster<\/a>
Plaster molding in the second floor library. Photograph by Steven Ujifusa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The front parlor, full of debris. The window looks out on Parkside Avenue. Note the Delft-style tiles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In their fleeting glory days, these Parkside Avenue homes were Downton Abbey in miniature. \u00a0In Victorian Philadelphia, immigrant servant labor, usually Irish, was inexpensive and plentiful.\u00a0\u00a0A house like 4230 Parkside would have a staff consisting of a cook, laundress, maid, governess, maybe even a butler.\u00a0\u00a0They worked long hours, received only one weekday\u00a0evening\u00a0plus every other\u00a0Sunday off, and received an average\u00a0salary\u00a0of $3.50 per week (about $45.00 today), well below\u00a0the modern minimum wage.*\u00a0They were quartered downstairs.\u00a0\u00a0The butler’s pantry, accessed by a separate back staircase that is now floored over by a later bathroom addition, survives almost intact. \u00a0The kitchen, located at the rear of the first story, has lost all of its original fixtures except for the china cabinet and the lower half of its wall tiles. \u00a0The cook toiled over a mammoth coal fired iron range, which lacked the temperature controls we take for granted today. \u00a0The iceman would make frequent deliveries to restock the icebox.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The butler’s pantry\/servants’ dining room, located in the basement. Photograph by Steven Ujifusa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"China<\/a>
China cabinets in the kitchen, located in the rear of the house on the first floor. Photograph by Steven Ujifusa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The future of the house remains in question. \u00a0Two doors down, however, the owner of a nearly-identical house <\/a>has recently completed a total restoration. The copper trim has all been renewed, the brick scrubbed, a new balastrade added to the front porch. He has even replaced the curved sashes and panes in the second floor bay windows. \u00a0The view of the park and the newly-restored Please Touch Museum from the new roofdeck must be spectacular.<\/p>\n

Is this a harbinger of things to come?<\/p>\n

*Glessner House Museum: http:\/\/www.glessnerhouse.org\/Servants.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Roof<\/a>
Roof details. Note the stepped Dutch gables and the terra cotta corbel. Photograph by Steven Ujifusa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Memorial<\/a>
Memorial Hall, built for the 1876 Centennial Exposition and now the Please Touch Museum. Photographed on March 22, 1924, when it housed the Philadelphia Museum of Art.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: the author has previously covered Parkside in “After the Fair” and “The Slifkin Family.”\u00a0 A walk-through of the house with the author and University of Pennsylvania lecturer Hanley Bodek will be featured on an upcoming segment of WHYY’s Friday Arts.\u00a0 On the outside, the houses on the 4200 block of Parkside Avenue are grand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes","category-historic-sites","category-neighborhoods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}