Historical Context: Port Richmond

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Though it did not truly begin to develop until the mid-nineteenth century, the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia has roots that stretch back to less than 50 years after Pennsylvania was founded. After more than a century of slow growth, the construction of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad’s terminal facilities spurred Port Richmond’s development. The neighborhood transformed into an industrial and transportation center, and over the next 75 years saw waves of different immigrant groups—including Irish, Germans, Jews, Poles, and Italians—settle in Port Richmond’s blocks of houses seeking work and a new life.

In 1728, merchant William Ball purchased a 676-acre estate called Hope Farm from fellow merchant Anthony Palmer. Ball constructed a large home on this property, which he named Richmond Hall, perhaps after the royal preserve near London. Just twelve years after purchasing this property, Ball died. In his will, he directed that once the youngest of his children reached an age of majority, his land was to be divided equally among them. By the first decade of the nineteenth century, Ball’s land was divided among various grandchildren and great-grandchildren in addition to several small property owners that some land had been sold to.

This large area, known in general as the Richmond precinct, was bounded to the north by the towns of Frankford and Bridesburg and to the south by Kensington, but remained largely undeveloped itself. Despite this, there were several small settlements, including Balltown by the mouth of Gunner’s Run and the village of Richmond at the intersection of Point-no-Point Road and Richmond Lane (now Richmond and East Ann Streets respectively).

The elder William Ball died in 1740, ten years after purchasing Hope Farm. He left behind his wife Mary and their six young children: William (the Younger), eleven; Joseph, nine; Anna, four; Samuel, two; and the infant Mary. The elder Ball’s will divided his 485-acre estate among his children according to a plan of partition, which would take effect when the youngest child was of age to take legal responsibility.  His wife was to receive “two rooms of her own choice in my dwelling house, with all my household goods, plate, chaise and horse, pasture and fodder free.” His will also ordered that “the other rooms, buildings, utensils, stock and negroes, and all my upland and meadows be valued and accordingly divided into equal parts among all my children.” ¹

Ultimately, Joseph and Mary died intestate and without children, leaving William the Younger to inherit their shares of land in addition to his own (which included Richmond Hall). William the Younger married but died without children, Samuel had one surviving son, and Ann married John Gibson and had four children. ² The land Ball left to his family provided them with some challenges, in that it was usually submerged under river tides. ³ In February 1744, the family advertised for rent William Ball’s

“…Plantation he formerly dwelt on, in the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia, within two Miles of the City, fronting on the River Delaware, containing about five hundred Acres, and a Quantity of that good drained Meadow.  There is also a Quantity of Meadow, some cleared and some not, to be let in Lots.” ⁴

By the late 1750s, the area around the Ball Estate had become known as the Richmond Precinct and was surveyed in about 1758 and formally defined. For the most part, the precinct was bounded by the Delaware River, Frankford Creek, and Gunner’s Run, with these three watercourses essentially forming its eastern, northern and western boundaries. Just before Gunner’s Run emptied into the Delaware though, the precinct’s boundaries turned south and ran along Queen Street (now Richmond Street) in Kensington to the Frankford Road (now Frankford Avenue), at which point it followed Frankford almost to the Delaware before running in a straight line back to the former tide mill. ⁵

In June 1760, a new act was announced “to enable the Owners and Possessors of the Meadow at Point no Point, in the Precinct of Richmond, in the County of Philadelphia, to keep the Bank, Dams, Sluices and Floodgates in Repair, and to raise a Fund to defray the Expence thereof.” ⁶  The Richmond Meadow Company was established with the purpose of repairing tide-damaged banks, digging ditches, and otherwise maintaining the meadows fronting the Delaware. Its members—including William Ball the Younger, John Gibson, Joseph Fox, William Callender, and several others—gave money to the company to repair the meadows. The company also repaired damage caused to the meadows during the British occupation from September 26, 1777 to June 17, 1778. ⁷ As a defensive measure, the British had dammed Cohocksink Creek in Kensington and flooded the marshlands. ⁸

It appears that by the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, a small settlement known as Balltown arose along the banks of the Delaware River between Richmond Hall and the northeast bank of Gunner’s Run. This settlement is depicted on John Hills’ Plan of the City of Philadelphia and Environs from 1808. Balltown is shown as an area with several widely spaced streets and a few structures, through which Point-no-Point Road forms a bisecting line.  Kensington is west of Gunner’s Run and extends to the Frankford Road. To the north of Kensington and northwest of Balltown are shown the 640 acres the Norris family owned. While not specifically labeled, this would include the 155-acre Sepviva Plantation along the west bank of Gunner’s Run. ⁹ Balltown likely congealed around several early industrial sites at the mouth of Gunner’s Run, namely a glasshouse that Robert Towars and Joseph Leacock established in the 1770s, and a calico printing works that Revolutionary War veteran John Hewson established in about 1788 or 1789. ¹⁰

Further north along Point-no-Point Road the village of Richmond arose in the early nineteenth century, centered around the Point Road’s intersection with Richmond Lane (now East Ann Street), which led to the village of Hartsville on the Frankford Road. ¹¹ Near this intersection was the Richmond Hotel—well known for its catfish dinners—which may have been established by William Trotter in 1820. ¹² The hotel attracted a large number of sportsmen in its heyday. Charles J. Wolbert, who is said to have occupied it in 1821, publicized his large stock of catfish joined by “about fourteen hundred others from the cove opposite Richmond.” As it was a relatively rural into the mid-nineteenth century, the location offered “the fowler and fisher… no better gunning or fishing grounds than those adjoining the above hotel.” ¹³

A lumberyard and wharf were located in the village as early as 1814, with building lots advertised for sale. ¹⁴ In 1831, Nicholas Lennig and Co. constructed the Tacony Chemical Works on the north corner of the Point Road and Richmond Lane, providing further stimulus to the area’s growth. The plant remained at this location until 1848, when the entire operation moved north to a plant that had been opened in 1842 at the mouth of the Frankford Creek in Bridesburg. ¹⁵

As Hills’ Plan of the City of Philadelphia and Charles Ellet Jr.’s 1843 A Map of the County of Philadelphia from Actual Survey show, neither Balltown nor the village of Richmond were well developed in the early nineteenth centuries. The dwelling in Balltown and Richmond were probably like most residences during this era—relatively small and serving multiple functions, such as commercial spaces and workshops. Work was seasonal and irregular. ¹⁶  Open land within the area was used for family farming and sustenance. This way of life in the former Richmond precinct was not to last, with the arrival of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in 1842 heralding the start of a radical change.