Property History
1018 Palmer St
The Cramp/Bumm Site was located at the former 1018 Palmer Street property, now part of the PennDOT right-of-way along the southbound side of the roadway. At the time of the initial excavation, the site was situated on a 10-foot-wide, flat, grassy tract of land that abruptly transitioned into a steeply sloped embankment to the east, adjacent to southbound I-95. The site was bounded by 1020 Palmer Street to the west, I-95 to the east, and Ross/Earl Street to the south. The roadway embankment limited the initial excavation to the area located along the west edge of the property. Later, during archaeological monitoring, the area expanded to the full backyard of 1018 Palmer Street.
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Mickle/Bispham Ownership
Pre-Development, 1845–1849
In 1845, sisters Ann (Commott) Bispham and Maria (Commott) Mickle inherited a 105.5-x-155-foot lot located between what are now the 1000 blocks of Earl and East Palmer Streets, from their cousin, Mary E. Brown-Whitehead. Ann and Maria, along with their husbands Daniel Bispham—a tailor—and James L. Mickle—a cooper turned ship caulker—owned a significant amount of land in Kensington that they had inherited from their father, George Commott, and other relatives. This inheritance, however, came with a catch: the sisters received a bill for $105.50—their share of the cost of laying cast-iron water pipes in Ross Street (now Earl Street) alongside their property line. They did not pay the debt, prompting the District of Kensington to sue them. The court issued a judgment in favor of the district, and when the Bisphams and Mickles failed to comply, the sheriff auctioned off the Palmer Street property on August 4, 1847. 1
The Bisphams’ 22-year-old son-in-law, house carpenter William Davis, purchased the parcel at auction for $1,375 and was presented with a deed for the property three weeks later. At the time of the auction, the most notable structure on the block of Palmer Street between Queen and Bedford Streets was the First Presbyterian Church of Kensington, built on the east side of the street in 1814 and one of only two churches (along with Kensington Methodist Episcopal Church) to serve the religious needs of the 5,000 to 6,000 inhabitants of Kensington. 2
In pursuit of social and economic advancement, the Davis, Bispham, and Mickle families embarked on a series of real-estate deals that included land speculation, residential development, and leasing. Successful speculators among the middling and laboring classes might achieve financial independence, retire from commercial life, and live off their rents and investment returns. 3 To these ends, William Davis laid out six 60-foot-deep residential lots fronting on Ross Street, all of which found a ready market among his fellow Kensington tradesmen. 4 In contrast, the remaining property—95 feet deep and fronting on Palmer Street (a through street between two important Kensington thoroughfares, Queen Street and Frankford Road)—commanded prime rates. In September 1848, Davis sold off the Palmer Street lot in three pieces. Charles B. Dungan, a wealthy real-estate investor, bought 46 feet 8 inches of frontage that would eventually become 1012, 1014, and 1016 Palmer Street. Davis sold the remaining lots—equally divided into adjacent 26.25-foot frontages—to his wife’s aunt, Maria Mickle, and his mother-in-law, Ann Bispham. 5
Ann and Maria consolidated their adjoining properties to create three 17.5-foot-wide lots numbered 52, 54, and 56 Palmer Street (the future 1018, 1020, and 1022 Palmer Street). By this arrangement, Ann and Maria became the full owners of 56 and 52 Palmer, respectively, and the sisters shared ownership of 54. On March 14, 1849, the Bisphams sold the vacant lot at 56 Palmer Street to a Kensington widow, Rebecca Z. Mason. On the same day, the Bisphams and the Mickles deeded their jointly owned lot at 54 Palmer to James Mason, a neighborhood painter and glazier.6
The Cramp Family moves to Palmer Street, 1845–1852
In 1845, 21-year-old Elizabeth W. Mickle, the eldest of the Mickle children, married 23-year-old William G. Cramp. 7 Although times were tough, the national economy was improving; the high unemployment, low wages, and currency devaluation touched off by the Panic of 1837 were all gradually fading from memory and the ambitious young couple appears to have established a grocery business at the corner of Queen and Palmer Streets. 8 As late as the 1880s, the term “grocer” still connoted a dealer in luxury commodities like “tea, sugar, spices, coffee, liquors, fruits, [etc.],” consumed primarily by urban elites and affluent members of the middling classes. 9
In 1846—around the time William and Elizabeth welcomed their first child, Jacob C. Cramp, to the family—William left the grocery business and went to work for his uncle, William Cramp, a Kensington shipbuilder under whom the younger man had apprenticed as a ship carpenter. It was at the Cramp shipyard that William began using the middle initial “G” to distinguish himself from his uncle. With a steady income assured, on March 19, 1849, William purchased the vacant lot at 1018 Palmer Street from his in-laws, Maria and James Mickle. Elizabeth’s parents charged a $30 annual ground rent to be paid in semiannual instalments to Maria Mickle. The deed specified that William could extinguish the ground rent agreement by paying his mother-in-law a lump sum of $500. As a point of reference, in mid-nineteenth-century Philadelphia, a family of modest means needed an income of $500 to $600 annually to maintain their household, but the average income for skilled tradesmen was only $300. 10 As part of the terms of their arrangement, William agreed to build a brick house on the property within one year—common in many such deeds. 11 Despite this agreement, it appears that the Cramp family may not have moved into their new home until 1851 or 1852, as they were still living in a house on Bedford Street when their infant son James M. Cramp died in April 1851. 12
By 1852, William, Elizabeth, their son Jacob, and his newborn brother Edward W.G. Cramp were ensconced in their three-story brick row house at 52 Palmer Street. Their neighborhood was largely occupied by skilled artisans, tradesmen, and craftsmen employed in Kensington’s maritime industries, pottery manufactories, and glassworks, but this block of Palmer Street was a de facto Cramp-family enclave. In addition to William’s eponymous uncle (and employer), who lived across the street at 65 (later 1033) Palmer Street, at midcentury dozens of Cramp cousins, aunts, and uncles called the block between Bedford Street and Queen Street home, including ship joiner Jacob S. Cramp, ship carpenter Peter Cramp, and fisherman George C. Cramp. 13
Property History
1018 Palmer St
The Cramp/Bumm Site was located at the former 1018 Palmer Street property, now part of the PennDOT right-of-way along the southbound side of the roadway. At the time of the initial excavation, the site was situated on a 10-foot-wide, flat, grassy tract of land that abruptly transitioned into a steeply sloped embankment to the east, adjacent to southbound I-95. The site was bounded by 1020 Palmer Street to the west, I-95 to the east, and Ross/Earl Street to the south. The roadway embankment limited the initial excavation to the area located along the west edge of the property. Later, during archaeological monitoring, the area expanded to the full backyard of 1018 Palmer Street.
Mickle/Bispham Ownership
Pre-Development, 1845–1849
In 1845, sisters Ann (Commott) Bispham and Maria (Commott) Mickle inherited a 105.5-x-155-foot lot located between what are now the 1000 blocks of Earl and East Palmer Streets, from their cousin, Mary E. Brown-Whitehead. Ann and Maria, along with their husbands Daniel Bispham—a tailor—and James L. Mickle—a cooper turned ship caulker—owned a significant amount of land in Kensington that they had inherited from their father, George Commott, and other relatives. This inheritance, however, came with a catch: the sisters received a bill for $105.50—their share of the cost of laying cast-iron water pipes in Ross Street (now Earl Street) alongside their property line. They did not pay the debt, prompting the District of Kensington to sue them. The court issued a judgment in favor of the district, and when the Bisphams and Mickles failed to comply, the sheriff auctioned off the Palmer Street property on August 4, 1847. 1
The Bisphams’ 22-year-old son-in-law, house carpenter William Davis, purchased the parcel at auction for $1,375 and was presented with a deed for the property three weeks later. At the time of the auction, the most notable structure on the block of Palmer Street between Queen and Bedford Streets was the First Presbyterian Church of Kensington, built on the east side of the street in 1814 and one of only two churches (along with Kensington Methodist Episcopal Church) to serve the religious needs of the 5,000 to 6,000 inhabitants of Kensington. 2
In pursuit of social and economic advancement, the Davis, Bispham, and Mickle families embarked on a series of real-estate deals that included land speculation, residential development, and leasing. Successful speculators among the middling and laboring classes might achieve financial independence, retire from commercial life, and live off their rents and investment returns. 3 To these ends, William Davis laid out six 60-foot-deep residential lots fronting on Ross Street, all of which found a ready market among his fellow Kensington tradesmen. 4 In contrast, the remaining property—95 feet deep and fronting on Palmer Street (a through street between two important Kensington thoroughfares, Queen Street and Frankford Road)—commanded prime rates. In September 1848, Davis sold off the Palmer Street lot in three pieces. Charles B. Dungan, a wealthy real-estate investor, bought 46 feet 8 inches of frontage that would eventually become 1012, 1014, and 1016 Palmer Street. Davis sold the remaining lots—equally divided into adjacent 26.25-foot frontages—to his wife’s aunt, Maria Mickle, and his mother-in-law, Ann Bispham. 5
Ann and Maria consolidated their adjoining properties to create three 17.5-foot-wide lots numbered 52, 54, and 56 Palmer Street (the future 1018, 1020, and 1022 Palmer Street). By this arrangement, Ann and Maria became the full owners of 56 and 52 Palmer, respectively, and the sisters shared ownership of 54. On March 14, 1849, the Bisphams sold the vacant lot at 56 Palmer Street to a Kensington widow, Rebecca Z. Mason. On the same day, the Bisphams and the Mickles deeded their jointly owned lot at 54 Palmer to James Mason, a neighborhood painter and glazier.6
The Cramp Family moves to Palmer Street, 1845–1852
In 1845, 21-year-old Elizabeth W. Mickle, the eldest of the Mickle children, married 23-year-old William G. Cramp. 7 Although times were tough, the national economy was improving; the high unemployment, low wages, and currency devaluation touched off by the Panic of 1837 were all gradually fading from memory and the ambitious young couple appears to have established a grocery business at the corner of Queen and Palmer Streets. 8 As late as the 1880s, the term “grocer” still connoted a dealer in luxury commodities like “tea, sugar, spices, coffee, liquors, fruits, [etc.],” consumed primarily by urban elites and affluent members of the middling classes. 9
In 1846—around the time William and Elizabeth welcomed their first child, Jacob C. Cramp, to the family—William left the grocery business and went to work for his uncle, William Cramp, a Kensington shipbuilder under whom the younger man had apprenticed as a ship carpenter. It was at the Cramp shipyard that William began using the middle initial “G” to distinguish himself from his uncle. With a steady income assured, on March 19, 1849, William purchased the vacant lot at 1018 Palmer Street from his in-laws, Maria and James Mickle. Elizabeth’s parents charged a $30 annual ground rent to be paid in semiannual instalments to Maria Mickle. The deed specified that William could extinguish the ground rent agreement by paying his mother-in-law a lump sum of $500. As a point of reference, in mid-nineteenth-century Philadelphia, a family of modest means needed an income of $500 to $600 annually to maintain their household, but the average income for skilled tradesmen was only $300. 10 As part of the terms of their arrangement, William agreed to build a brick house on the property within one year—common in many such deeds. 11 Despite this agreement, it appears that the Cramp family may not have moved into their new home until 1851 or 1852, as they were still living in a house on Bedford Street when their infant son James M. Cramp died in April 1851. 12
By 1852, William, Elizabeth, their son Jacob, and his newborn brother Edward W.G. Cramp were ensconced in their three-story brick row house at 52 Palmer Street. Their neighborhood was largely occupied by skilled artisans, tradesmen, and craftsmen employed in Kensington’s maritime industries, pottery manufactories, and glassworks, but this block of Palmer Street was a de facto Cramp-family enclave. In addition to William’s eponymous uncle (and employer), who lived across the street at 65 (later 1033) Palmer Street, at midcentury dozens of Cramp cousins, aunts, and uncles called the block between Bedford Street and Queen Street home, including ship joiner Jacob S. Cramp, ship carpenter Peter Cramp, and fisherman George C. Cramp. 13