Little had changed from the 1750 map (above left) in the immediate vicinity of the house according to an 1857 engraving (Bachman 1857) (above right) which shows a more or less pastoral scene with a few larger factory-like buildings here and there, but of course these engravings were meant for aesthetic not cartographic value.¬Ý Nonetheless, the view of open spaces with industry scattered around and a few homes, dwarfed by their smoke-spewing neighbors, does foreshadow the changes to come in the remainder of the nineteenth century.

The first definite trace of a structure which can be exactly located at this intersection is a roughly triangular one built to suit the size and shape of the lot, a description which does not suit the Taylor image or the insurance survey, on an 1884 insurance map (Hopkins 1884)(above left).¬Ý An 1870 Engraving (Anonymous 1870)(above right), although potentially stylized, shows this area of the city crowded with small houses all the way up to the Falls of the Schuylkill (today known as East Falls).¬Ý However, a similar map dating from 1886 (Burk & McFetridge 1886)(below), which has more detail in the area contradicts this, showing three or four buildings on each block only.¬Ý Still, this is a marked change from the earlier open spaces depicted in 1857 by Bachman, and shows the short time span of the progression from rural to urban.¬Ý The intersection of Thirty-Second and Ridge is visible in the 1886 engraving, and appears to hold a triangular building, as depicted on the 1884 Hopkins map.

There is still a triangular structure on the lot in 1916 which is described in detail through the markings on Sanborn’Äôs map of that year: a brick building with a frame sides, it is three stories tall rising to a height of thirty-five feet.¬Ý The roof is ’Äúcomposition’Äù and the walls are a foot thick on the first two stories, eight inches on the third.¬Ý There is a store present by 1916, although no hint of the building’Äôs purpose is present in the 1884 map.

It is not unusual for urbanization to follow transit lines; such was the case for West Philadelphia when the trolley lines were laid (see Warner 1962), and this holds for Ridge Avenue as well.¬Ý According to the Hopkins 1875 map, the Ridge Avenue Rail Road owned the lot immediately across the street from the house pictured in Taylor’Äôs drawing, where it had a stable for the horses which pulled the street cars in the days before electrification and a terminal thereafter.¬Ý In fact, according to Kenneth Jackson, professor of History at Columbia University, Ridge Avenue was Philadelphia’Äôs ’Äúmost important axis of growth’Äù during the third quarter of the nineteenth century (Jackson 1987).¬Ý The ’Äúcountry’Äù aspect of Corleis’Äôs country farm would not last much longer.

The 1884 Hopkins map supports the 1886 depiction in Burk & McFetridge’Äôs engraving of an area which still has some open spaces.¬Ý But the population pressures of the rapidly growing city would not allow this to stand long: from the already sizable for its time population of 120,000 in 1850, the city became the second largest in the country by 1860 with more than half a million residents (US Census Bureau).¬Ý All those people had to go somewhere and many went north along Philadelphia’Äôs ’Äúmost important axis of growth:’Äù Ridge Avenue.¬Ý

By 1916, the property across the street had been taken over by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Authority, a precursor to SEPTA (Sanborn 1916), and was no longer home to a few horses but to a fleet of electrified rail-cars and all the noise and bustle a railroad yard must have had.¬Ý However, more fundamental changes are evident in this map: the entire area had been built up, and houses had been designed to fit virtually every scrap of ground, including the irregular lots caused by Ridge Avenue’Äôs diagonal path.¬Ý Most were single-family dwellings, with a very few larger apartment buildings catering to those unable to afford an entire house.¬Ý

The version of the 1916 map (above left) which was updated through 1951 (Sanborn 1951) (above right) shows yet a new face on this area. ¬Ý¬ÝAlthough the building at the intersection of Thirty-Second and Ridge was the same in 1951, it had been subdivided into two stores, and many of the neighboring structures had changed from single family dwellings to apartments.¬Ý Many more were abandoned.¬Ý Today the land where Taylor’Äôs building once stood is vacant, along with hundreds of others in the vicinity (Philadelphia City Planning Commission [A]).¬Ý ¬ÝIt is part of a blighted area in serious need of redevelopment, which has seen drastic depopulation (Philadelphia City Planning Commission [B]).¬Ý The property’Äôs current owner owes almost $10,000 in back taxes on the property, which is assessed as being worth only that amount (Philadelphia Board of Revision of Taxes).¬Ý Clearly the revitalization movement which has begun to reshape Adam Everly’Äôs former land in Mantua is not yet being felt here, but recent efforts on the part of City Government have at least removed some of the more dangerously decayed buildings, and reminded people that all areas of the city are important to someone.