{"id":9724,"date":"2015-12-09T15:57:46","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T20:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=9724"},"modified":"2015-12-09T22:25:32","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T03:25:32","slug":"the-ginko-tree-of-chestnutwold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2015\/12\/the-ginko-tree-of-chestnutwold\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ginkgo Tree of Chestnutwold"},"content":{"rendered":"

The present day Penn Alexander School was once the site of one of West Philadelphia’s great estates: Chestnutwold, built by Clarence H. Clark.<\/p>\n

In its time, Clark’s banking concern was one of the most powerful in the nation. And like many businesses in Philadelphia, it was a family affair.\u00a0Clarence Clark was the son of banker Enoch White Clark, founder of the firm. Enoch Clark was a New England transplant to Philadelphia, a native of Providence, Rhode Island who had made his first fortune underwriting and distributing government securities. In the absence of a national bank–the Second Bank of the United States imploded in 1836 after the machinations of President Andrew Jackson and Nicholas Biddle– opportunists like Clark stepped in to fill the gap. The senior Clark was similar to the Austrian immigrant and former portrait painter Francis Martin Drexel, in that he established an American investment house on par with the mighty banks of Europe, such as Rothschild & Company and Baring Brothers. Clark, like Drexel, also put Philadelphia on the map as a center of American finance.<\/p>\n

\"4337-39<\/a>
Twin houses fronting Clark Park at 4337-4339 Baltimore Avenue, most likely built by the Clark Estate in the 1890s. Photo dated August 24, 1951.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The house of E.W. Clark & Company thrived in the mid-19th century, establishing branches in other American cities.\u00a0After Enoch Clark’s death in 1854 due to complications from nicotine poisoning (heavy smoking was a stress relief for financiers then as now), his son Clarence took the reins of E.W. Clark & Company and expanded its financial activities into railroads and real estate. \u00a0He also was one of the principal backers of the 1876 Centennial Exposition. \u00a0Naturally, he established the Centennial National Bank (in a handsome Frank Furness designed building) near the railroad station at 30th and Market Street, where millions of fairgoers arrived over the course of several months. \u00a0 According to a January 22, 1876 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, the bank’s purpose was to be the “financial agent of the board at the [Centennial] Exhibition, receiving and accounting for daily receipts, changing foreign moneys into current funds, etc.\u201d\u00a0In this era before ATMs and electronic bank transfers, it was the perfect place for tourists to deposit their cash during their stay in the Quaker City. \u00a0The building survives as the Paul Peck Student Center at Drexel University.<\/p>\n

\"Centennial<\/a>
Centennial National Bank, designed by Frank Furness and commissioned by Clarence H. Clark in 1876. 32nd and Market Street, May 17, 1931.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like his fellow second generation banking heir Anthony Drexel, Clark eschewed Rittenhouse Square for pastoral but not especially fashionable West Philadelphia. \u00a0And like Drexel, Clark decided to shape the area around his house by investing in it. \u00a0He purchased tracts of empty farmland, filling with middle and upper-middle class row houses as the trolley lines expanded westward from Center City. \u00a0These developments included the distinctive “professors’ \u00a0row” \u00a0on St. Mark’s Square and the flamboyant set of Queen Anne houses on the 4200 block of Spruce.<\/p>\n

\"Chestnutwold,<\/a>
“Chestnutwold,” the estate of Clarence H. Clark at 4200 Locust Street, Philadelphia, c.1900. Source: King’s Views of Philadelphia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the 1860s, Clarence Clark built his dream house, Chestnutwold, \u00a0on a \u00a0walled lot bounded by 42nd, 43rd, Locust, and Spruce streets. \u00a0 The \u00a0main house, a 34 room brownstone Italianate palace, cost a staggering $300,000, or between $5-7 million in today’s money. \u00a0Its interior boasted six foot high mahogany paneling in its principal rooms, stained glass windows, and hand-painted Japanese wall paper that was perhaps inspired by what Clark saw at the Japanese Bazaar<\/a> at the 1876 Centennial. \u00a0A stained glass window in the 125 foot long library bore a quote by Goethe: “Like a star that maketh not haste, that taketh not rest; be each one fulfilling his God-given hest.”<\/p>\n

\"Clarence-Clark-photo-from-King-1902\"<\/a>
Clarence H. Clark (1833-1906). Source: King’s Views of Philadelphia, 1902.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An inveterate collector, Clark imported the estate’s iron gates from France, and planted a rare Chinese ginkgo biloba<\/a> tree on the grounds. \u00a0As an added bonus, Clark opened a portion of his estate to the public for strolling…and admiration. To provide additional green space for his neighbors, Clark donated the land formerly occupied by the Civil War era Satterlee Hospital to the City of Philadelphia as a public park, as well as a bronze statue of author Charles Dickens. A representation of Little Nell from The Old Curiosity Shop<\/em>\u00a0sat by his knee.<\/p>\n

\"4200<\/a>
The Clarence H. Clark Jr. house at 4200 Spruce, c.1980.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chestnutwold proved as fleeting as it was magnificent. \u00a0Clarence Clark died in 1906, leaving the huge house vacant. \u00a0 Although his son Clarence Clark Jr. built a fine house at 4200 Spruce just outside the gates of the compound in the early 1880s, the Clark heirs \u00a0decamped from West Philadelphia to the more fashionable suburbs of Germantown and Chestnut Hill. Ten years later, wreckers tore the Chestnutwold mansion down. \u00a0 The grounds, however, remained intact. \u00a0The neo-Gothic structures of the Philadelphia Divinity School, designed by\u00a0Zantzinger, Borie and Medary, rose on the site in the mid-1920s. \u00a0 After the divinity school closed in the 1970s, the old Clark estate sat mostly vacant until the completion of the\u00a0Sadie Tanner Mossell\u00a0Alexander\u00a0University of\u00a0Pennsylvania\u00a0Partnership\u00a0School in 2001. The school thrives to this day, educating a diverse group of children from the neighborhood Clarence Clark developed a over a century ago.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Philadelphia Divinity School, constructed in the 1920s. 4201-4245 Spruce Street, 1978.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of the original Chestnutwold, only the pair of French iron gates at the northeast corner of the four square block lot remain today. \u00a0It is unknown if the original ginkgo tree survives on the grounds of the Penn Alexander School, but this species of tree is now ubiquitous on Philadelphia’s streets, as are its stinky fruits.<\/p>\n

\"f694afe8dae59c1a7172536572b2fd50\"<\/a>
Engraving of the ginkgo tree. Source: Pinterest.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Note: for more on the Clark Park\/Spruce Hill neighborhood on Philadelphia, click here for “West Philadelphia: A Suburb in a City,”<\/a> dated June 28, 2010.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Sources: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Arnold Lewis, James Turner, and Steven McQuillin, The Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age<\/em> (New York: Dover Publications, 1987), p.46.<\/p>\n

“Magnificent \u00a0Structure in West Philadelphia Undergoing Demolition by Wrecking Crew,” The Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger,<\/em> April 7, 1916.\u00a0http:\/\/chroniclingamerica.loc.gov\/lccn\/sn83045211\/1916-04-07\/ed-1\/seq-9\/#date1=1836&index=19&rows=20&words=Clark+Park&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=Pennsylvania&date2=1922&proxtext=%22clark+park%22&y=-221&x=-932&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1<\/a>, accessed December 9, 2015.<\/p>\n

“Centennial National Bank,”\u00a0http:\/\/www.brynmawr.edu\/iconog\/uphp\/AABN\/centbank\/centbank.html<\/a>, accessed December 9, 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The present day Penn Alexander School was once the site of one of West Philadelphia’s great estates: Chestnutwold, built by Clarence H. Clark. In its time, Clark’s banking concern was one of the most powerful in the nation. And like many businesses in Philadelphia, it was a family affair.\u00a0Clarence Clark was the son of banker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events-and-people","category-historic-sites","category-neighborhoods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9724","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=9724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}