University City Boarding Houses in the Late 19th Century

The following sanborn maps from the Free Library show what the footprints of boarding houses looked like at known addresses in the periods before and after the Centennial, in the late 19th century.  The highlighted buildings in each photograph represent structures that operated boarding houses during the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876. The 1872 Hopkins and 1892 Bromley maps are displayed because they were the available University City sanborn maps that were created nearest to the year of the Centennial. If the footprint is the same in both the 1872 and 1892 sanborn maps, then it is very likely that the boarding houses existed in the same structure during the Centennial, and possibly before and/or after. In most cases, the footprints are the same, providing us the probable material, as given by the 1892 color key, shape and context of an average University City boarding houses during that time period.

In general, the university city boarding houses during this time period were small, brick row-houses that belonged to a traditional row-house block, but there were some duplexes and free-standing examples found as well. These examples typically had a wooden porch attached to the back of a brick house.

3200 Block Chestnut Street

3226 Market Street

3425 Walnut Street

3440-44 Chestnut Street

3705 Walnut Street

3707 Spruce Street

3733 Market Street

4105 Chestnut Street

4110 Walnut Street

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