2813 East Cambria Street Property History

Development and John C. Ludlam, 1843 – 1854

In February 1845, Philadelphia attorney Eli K. Price sold a 100-x-100-foot lot at the north corner of William and Larch Streets (now East Cambria and Melvale Streets) to contractor Charles Smith on a yearly ground rent of $110 and the stipulation that Smith should within a year complete a building of sufficient value to secure the ground rent. ¹

Smith was forced into a sheriff sale in March 1849. Grocer Thomas Fey purchased the 1,000-square-foot lot and another property between Richmond and Larch Streets for $8,075 in March 1849. ² It seems that Smith had either neglected to develop the property or was unable to, as the deed noted that the one-story frame schoolhouse was still located on the property. Fey, though not bound by the same stipulation that he complete a building within a year, began to make changes to the property almost immediately. He redrew the property lines so that buildings would front on the more heavily traversed William Street, and sold the corner of the lot that contained the schoolhouse in July 1849. ³ Over the next several years, Fey constructed five 16-foot-wide, three-story brick row homes on the remaining property. These houses, numbered 79 through 87 William Street, may have been completed as early as 1851. ⁴ Fey divested himself of the William Street property in April 1853, when he sold it to Philadelphia merchants Patrick Levy and Andrew McBride for $18,000. ⁵ Levy became the sole owner just over two years later when McBride sold him his half share of the lot, as well as other properties in the neighborhood, for $1,500. ⁶

By late 1853, John C. Ludlam’s tailor shop was located in the structure then numbered 85 William Street. ⁷ The 38-year-old tailor was a native of New Jersey, but had resided in Philadelphia since before his marriage to Julia A. Morris in October 1844. ⁸ John, Julia, and their children Henry, Julia, and Emma lived with Julia’s family in the Northern Liberties District in the early 1850s, before moving to the Richmond District in 1853. ⁹ Ludlams’ time at the residence was brief, however, and before August 1854, they had moved from William Street, eventually settling in the former Kensington District. ¹⁰

The Houseman Family, 1854 – 1874

Following the Ludlam family was the family of Jacob B. Houseman, a German Jew who had immigrated to the United States by 1844, when he married Clara Myers (original spelling likely “Maier” or “Mayers”) at the Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia.¹¹ The Housemans presumably lived in Philadelphia for the next several years, as their eldest child, Benjamin F. Houseman, was born there in about 1846. Prior to 1850, the family moved to Galloway Township in Atlantic County, New Jersey, where they lived next door to the family of German-born merchant Mark Myers, possibly a brother or cousin of Clara’s. In addition to their sons Benjamin and Martin, Jacob and Clara shared their house with 27-year-old German-born tailor David Myers, who, like Mark, was probably Clara’s brother.¹²

In the early 1850s, the Housemans left Atlantic County, and by the summer of 1854, Jacob had opened a clothing store at 85 William Street.¹³ On the night of August 16 of that year, disaster nearly struck the family when a servant girl lighting a lamp accidentally set the store on fire. Though Jacob and the unnamed servant were successful in extinguishing the fire, they were both badly burned, according to an article in the Public Ledger.¹⁴

Houseman and his store seem to have recovered from the fire, and over the next several years, the household grew in size with the addition of Clara’s brother Abram Myers in 1855 and the birth of another son, Maurice, in 1857.¹⁵ Four years after Jacob Houseman was burned, his son Martin was involved in an accident with much more tragic results.  In the late afternoon or early evening of November 26, 1858, a horsecar of the Second and Third Street Passenger Railway struck eight-year-old Martin on Richmond Street at the Reading Railroad crossing. The accident, which the North American and United States Gazette claimed was due to his own carelessness, crushed his leg and led to his death two days later, probably from an infection.¹⁶

David Myers appears to have rejoined the family in 1859, which seems to have been a chaotic year at 85 William Street, according to the directories. Houseman may have become briefly involved with the partnership of Samuel Blum and Henry Rau, who ran a large clothing store at 202 Market Street, as they and their partnership (misspelled as “S. Plum & Rau”) were listed in the city directory at 85 William along with their Market Street location. In addition, the business location for Solomon Blum, an otherwise unlisted clothing dealer, is given as William Street near Richmond Street. ¹⁷ As well as this possible joint business concern, it appears that Ann Irwin, a widow who ran a dry goods store next door at 83 William Street, may have been residing at 85 William with the Houseman family. ¹⁸ By 1860, however, any association Blum and Rau may have had with 85 William Street seems to have ended, and Irwin was subsequently listed at 83 William along with her sister’s family until she moved in 1866. As it is only listed in the directories for one year, it may be tempting to dismiss the possibility of a business partnership between Blum, Rau, and Houseman, but it is not out of the question. Directory records seem to indicate that Blum and the three Rau brothers—Henry, John, and Joseph—were frequently forming new partnerships between themselves and others; making it not unlikely Houseman was involved in such an affair.

Explorations in History
The Curious Case of Benjamin F. Houseman

Benjamin F. Houseman worked as a paymaster for the Reading Railroad for a number of years before becoming resident manager of the Washington Life Insurance Company in the late 1880s. In 1893, he moved with his wife and son into a three-story brick row home at 1820 Diamond Street. In May 1900, Houseman’s life came to a sudden end there. On the morning of May 10, Houseman’s son Arthur called his father for breakfast, as Benjamin usually arose early and worked for some time before eating. When no response came from his father’s study, Arthur investigated, and found the elder Houseman half-reclining in a chair at his desk, with a stream of blood emanating from a wound above his left ear and a revolver by his side. Benjamin had apparently purchased the revolver two years before, seemingly for his protection, when his son and wife were away from home. According to his son, he would load the pistol when they departed and unload it when they returned. As they had been away in April, the Houseman family conjectured that he had accidentally discharged the weapon while cleaning or unloading it, steadfastly disputing the coroner’s initial verdict of suicide. Their theory seems to have eventually been accepted, as his official cause of death was eventually declared to be from a “gunshot wound, accidentally received.” ¹⁹

Houseman continued to run his clothing store at the location throughout the 1860s, with his elder son Benjamin working for him as a clerk in the first half of the decade. ²⁰ Around 1865, Benjamin became a paymaster for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad—a job he held for the next 20 years—but continued to reside with his parents at the house, which due to the renumbering of the street around that time was now known as 1212 William Street. ²¹ In addition to their address, the Housemans’ landlord changed twice during this period—first when George S. Geyer purchased the property, and then a month and a half later when James Loughney bought it. In April 1864, Patrick Levy sold the five houses he owned on William Street to Geyer for $10,000. ²² Though he only owned the properties for a month or so, Geyer made a lasting change to them when he opened a four-foot-wide alley along their rear that emptied into Melvale Street. Geyer began to sell off the properties in May 1864, and on June 4, he sold 1210 and 1212 William Street to James Loughney, a liquor merchant from the eighth ward, for $5,300. ²³ Loughney sold 1210 William the following January, but retained 1212 William as a rental property until his death in 1897. ²⁴

It seems that the Houseman family left 1212 William Street in two waves. In 1872, Jacob Houseman moved his store to 1402 Richmond Street and Benjamin, who would marry later that year, moved to a house at 1110 Ann Street. ²⁵ Abram Myers, now employed as an expressman, may have continued to reside at 1212 William for at least a year after the others left, as he was listed at the address in the 1874 directory, but soon he too was gone, ending nearly 20 years of the extended Houseman family’s residency. ²⁶

Various Tenants and Businesses, 1874–1888

The next known tenant of the address was George Smith, a 40-year-old New Yorker who had previously run a cigar shop at 1210 William Street, and in about 1877 began keeping a notions store at 1212 William. ²⁷ Smith’s tenancy was short-lived, however, as he died of a stroke in his shop on September 5, 1879. ²⁸ It is possible that Smith did not reside on the premises, as his wife Mary ran a boardinghouse around the corner at 1606 Melvale—and then 1612 Melvale—before moving to 1246 William Street in 1880. ²⁹ The couple may have first become acquainted through the boardinghouse, as Smith began boarding with the recently widowed or separated Mary in the 1860s. ³⁰

After Smith’s death, 28-year-old Patrick J. Rodgers ran a cigar shop at the address. An Irish immigrant, Rodgers lived at 1212 William with his widowed mother Mary and Margaret Dunn, a 40-year-old single woman. Dunn is listed in the 1880 census as a boarder, but it’s likely that she was related in some way to the Rodgers—perhaps she was Mary’s sister. Rodgers and his family remained at the house only until late 1880 or early 1881, when the Junk family followed them. One member of the Junk family may have purchased the cigar store from Rodgers. ³¹

The Junk family, headed by canal boatman James Junk, had been fairly itinerant over the previous two decades, owing to James’ profession. They lived in various locations along the Schuylkill Navigation’s canal, such as Conshohocken, Douglassville, and the 15th Ward of Philadelphia. ³² The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad formally acquired the canal company in 1871 and began using its boats to ship coal from Port Richmond to New York. ³³ It is not known if the Junk family moved to Port Richmond at that time, but they were living in the neighborhood by late 1877. ³⁴ In about 1881, James Junk moved his household from a house at 1628 East Thompson Street to the property at 1212 William. Junk’s household consisted of his wife Lucy; children Ellen, William, Cecelia, Daniel, Elizabeth, Alice, and Addie; Ellen’s husband Frank Callray; their daughter Lucy; two boarders (confectioner William Bower and waterman Michael Gallagher); and possibly the family servant, Mary Carton. ³⁵ William Junk, who like his father worked as a boatman, seems to have briefly run a cigar shop at the address before returning to his original profession, an occupation he held when he died of typhoid or malaria at age 25 in August 1882. ³⁶ The remaining members of the family did not take over the cigar business, but rather continued to work as boatmen—perhaps on the Lehigh and Delaware Canals—and in a local hosiery mill until they moved to a location on the 1800 block of Richmond Street in 1883. ³⁷

The years immediately following the Junk family’s departure saw a rapid succession of businesses and tenants at the property (which was renumbered 2813 William in 1885), including a cigar store in 1883, a shoemaker who also served as a pole tax collector in 1884, and a dressmaker and glassmaker in 1885. ³⁸

In 1886, John C. and Margaret Fitzgerald moved into the dwelling at 2813 William with their young children Catherine and Edward, as well as Margaret’s brother Robert J. Deegan. ³⁹ In addition, the Fitzgeralds took on presumed mother and son Mary and John Irvin as boarders. ⁴⁰ Deegan, who had been hired by the Philadelphia Fire Department and assigned to the recently formed Engine Company 33 in Bridesburg, seems to have been let go from the department in late August 1887. ⁴¹ Around that time, he went on a violent, perhaps alcohol-fueled, crime spree, assaulting and possibly robbing at least four people—three of them saloon keepers. When he was finally arrested on Sunday, August 28, 1887 for public drunkenness, his multiple victims came forward and he was held on $2,400 bail. ⁴² Any prison time he served seems to have been short, as he was free and living with his parents by late 1888. ⁴³

The Fitzgerald family continued to reside at 2813 William until sometime after August 1888, when their youngest daughter, Mamie, died. ⁴⁴ Another resident of 2813 William, who boarded with the Fitzpatrick family and/or briefly followed them as a tenant, was John Samuelson, a seaman on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad’s collier S.S. Allentown. Samuelson’s tenancy was cut tragically short in late November 1888 when the Allentown, on a voyage from Philadelphia to Boston, foundered in a storm and sank with her entire crew off of Cohasset, Massachusetts. ⁴⁵

Shoe Stores, 1889–1903

By late 1889, a shoe store run by a John Fitzpatrick had opened at 2813 William. Not much is known about Fitzpatrick or his store, and after about five years, his shop was replaced by Mary A. McMenamin’s cigar store, which was in turn replaced after a year by another shoe store. ⁴⁶ Forty-two-year-old Irish immigrant Francis Carr, who had previously run a store around the corner at 2848 Richmond, ran this second shoe store. ⁴⁷ Carr moved his family—including his wife Margaret and children Hugh, Agnes, Genevieve, Joseph, Catharine, and Elizabeth—to the address, where they lived for the next seven years. Around 1902, Carr seems to have left the shoemaking business for an unknown reason and found work as a salesman. The next year, he moved his family to 2824 Ann Street and continued to work as a salesman/clerk, while also working as a bartender, perhaps at the bar of his future in-law Robert Curran at 2821 William Street. ⁴⁸

The Murphy-Knox and Pawlowski-Weigner Families, 1903–1967

After the Carr family’s departure, Rebecca E. Murphy and her daughters Clara May and Ida occupied the dwelling and store. Murphy, a 55-year-old widow, had previously resided in a small house on Front Street below Girard Avenue, where she had operated a cigar store. ⁴⁹ She now continued her business on East William Street, which in 1908 became known as East Cambria. The Murphy family took in at least one boarder during this time—John H. Clarkson, the driver of wealthy Port Richmond resident Alexander McCoy, who resided around the corner at 2917 Richmond Street. ⁵⁰ In 1909, Murphy purchased the property for $2,500 from the executors of long-time owner James Loughney, who had died in 1897. ⁵¹ In the same year, Clarkson moved out of 2813, perhaps aided by the $500 bequeathed to him in his employer’s will. ⁵²

Shortly after Murphy purchased 2813 East Cambria, her daughter Ida died at age 27 of a pulmonary edema brought on by an epileptic seizure. ⁵³ Within a year, three individuals were again residing in the house after Clara May Murphy married 36-year-old ironworker John J. Knox. ⁵⁴ The small family lived relatively uneventfully until April 1922, when Rebecca died. ⁵⁵ Knox took over the store, which he ran for the next two years until Clara May died in March 1924 of heart disease, with psychosis apparently being a contributing factor. ⁵⁶ Clara May, who had been left the house in her mother’s will, in turn left it to her husband in her will, along with her entire estate. ⁵⁷ It was reported in the press to be worth $57,080—which had the rough buying power of $780,000 in 2015—though it is possible that it may have merely been $5,708, given the sloppy handwriting on the probate record. ⁵⁸ A little over a month after his wife’s death, Knox sold the property to himself through a conveyancer, likely to create a definite chain of title for legal purposes. ⁵⁹

Soon after Knox took possession of 2813 East Cambria, Adam Pawlowski (also spelled Pawloski), a 35-year-old immigrant from Russian Poland, moved his wife Hedwig and sons Edward, Stanley, Anthony, and Vincent to the address from a home he and Hedwig had jointly owned with his mother at 2817 Salmon Street. ⁶⁰ Though he had previously been employed in a leather factory, Pawlowski either took over the varieties and cigar store at 2813 or joined Knox as a partner in the business. ⁶¹ It is possible by this time that the store was serving as a front for a speakeasy being operated at the address. In August 1925, Knox sold the property to Hedwig Pawlowski, but he apparently continued to operate the speakeasy with Adam at the address until at least November 1925, when police cracked down on the illicit operation. ⁶² After this, Knox disappears from the historic record. Less than two years later in August 1927, Adam Pawlowski died at age 38 of stomach and liver cancer. ⁶³

In the late 1920s, possibly after Adam’s death, Joseph “Joe” Bentley took up residence at 2813. Very little is known about Bentley, though he appears to have had some prior relationship with Adam and Hedwig Pawlowski, as he served as a witness to their sale of 2817 Salmon Street in November 1925. ⁶⁴ In August 1929, the 38-year-old Bentley and 28-year-old Raymond Gillespie of 2547 Monmouth Street paid a visit to 56-year-old Jeremiah Altmore of 2857 Salmon Street, described in a newspaper account as their friend. After quarreling over money, Altmore produced a razor and slashed Bentley on the face and neck, and Gillespie on the face and arms. The two men were rushed to Northeast General Hospital, where Bentley was in critical condition due to blood loss. ⁶⁵ After this incident, Joe Bentley, like many individuals involved with the property at this time, disappears from the historic record.

By the time of the 1930 census, only Hedwig and her sons were residing at 2813, with the 32-year-old Hedwig running the cigar store at the location. ⁶⁶ Oddly, Hedwig was not listed in the 1930 directory. Instead, Adam Pawlowski, who had died around three years before, was still listed as a cigar dealer at the address. ⁶⁷ Later in 1930, Hedwig married 42-year-old widower and father of three, Walter Weigner. ⁶⁸ A detective for the Reading Railroad, Weigner had just recently been cleared in connection with the death of Hugh Devers, a former employee of the Reading who had turned up dead in his jail cell after Weigner and three other detectives removed him from railroad property. ⁶⁹ Weigner himself would die young about a year later, apparently of myocarditis, leaving Hedwig a widow for a second time in less than four years. ⁷⁰

Though upon her marriage to Weigner, Hedwig had moved (along with her sons, presumably) into his house at 1824 Airdrie Street in the Juniata Park section of Philadelphia, by 1935 she was once again listed as residing at 2813 East Cambria. ⁷¹ Interestingly, Adam Pawlowski was still listed as running the cigar shop at the address—nearly eight years after his death. ⁷² Hedwig, who inherited the 1824 Airdrie Street house as Walter Weigner’s widow, sold the property in September 1939, though it is unknown if she had been renting it out before this point. ⁷³ It is also not entirely certain what happened to Walter Weigner’s children in the years immediately following his death, though his two daughters may have been taken in relatively quickly by the family of their uncle, Robert Clark, who resided at 2508 Clearfield Street. ⁷⁴

It appears that 2813 East Cambria (along with much of the block) was accidentally skipped in the 1940 census, but the 1950 telephone book and a building permit filed in June 1950 to rebuild the front façade of the dwelling indicate that Hedwig Weigner was still in residence at the address. ⁷⁵ The directory and building permit also seem to imply that if a business remained on the property, she was unaffiliated with it.  The postwar era saw one more criminal act associated with the property when one of Hedwig’s sons was beaten and robbed. In September 1953, Vincent Pawlowski—at this time a 30-year-old truck driver—was attacked by three men after exiting a taxi or a truck around one in the morning near Richmond and East Cambria. After they knocked him to the ground, Pawlowski’s assailants kick him in the head and chest until he lost consciousness and then robbed him of his money and wristwatch. They left him bloodied and lying on the pavement as they fled in a car, while an eyewitness took down the car’s license number. Later the same day, police arrested a young resident of the Tacony section of Philadelphia, who confessed to the crime and named his associates.  When police went to arrest a second suspect at a house on Wildey Street in Fishtown, he escaped out the window and onto the roof, leading to an inconclusive rooftop search assisted by the fire department. Pawlowski was rushed to Northeastern hospital, where he was initially reported to be in serious condition, but later said to have been merely treated for cuts to his ear and a sprained wrist. ⁷⁶

Hedwig continued to own the property until January 1966, when 2813 East Cambria Street was condemned and deeded to the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority for demolition before the construction of Interstate 95. ⁷⁷