Insurance Records & Ownership Data

Insurance records from Mutual Assurance and the Franklin Fire Insurance Company provide extensive, if occasionally illegible record of historic structures built in 18th and 19th Century Philadelphia. In addition, the Philadelphia Historical Commission's records for Almond / Kenilworth Street often contain record of ownership and miscellaneous notes. What follows below is an excerpt from several surveys and ownership records of Almond Street properties. Together, this information provides a view to the kinds of structures built and a sense of their age and history and can provide a starting point for further research.

Click on a property along the south side of Almond / Kenilworth Street to view detail.

DATA SOURCE: Mutual Assurance and Franklin Fire Insurance Company records for homes along Almond / Kenilworth Street.

108 Almond (image center) - 2-20-1743 John Palmer (bricklayer for St. Paul’s Church) lot

Photo by author.

1796 deed for 110 cites property to the East (e.g., 108) as Geo. Hutton
1840 Mutual Assurance (5633) Samuel Carhart

108 Almond - Mutual Assurance Policy #5633
Samuel Carhart’s house. South Side Almond

Front building
3 Story brick, 16x18

1st Level – 1 room
- Neat mantle
- Surbase
- Washboards
- Windows cased
- Square head front door
- Plain jambs
- Neat transom sash
- Neat flat top pediment and beaded pilasters
2nd Story – 1 room
- Breast across
- Neat mantle
- Surbase
- Washboards
- Closets
- Windows cased
- Marble to the chimney
3rd Story – 1 room
- Plain mantle
- Washboards
- Closets
- Windows cased
- Winding stairs - 1 flight common
Garret in 1 room
- Plastered
- Trap doors
- Cedar shingle roof
- Copper gutters
- Tin conductors
- Wood cornices
- 1 square head dormer window Front - 12 lights
- 1 square head dormer in back – 9 lights 8x10 glass

Back Building – 11x18 3 Stories

1st level – 1 room
- Plain mantle
- Washboards
- Windows cased
2nd story – 1 room
- Washboards
- Closets
- Windows cased
3rd story – 1 room
- Washboards
- Closets
- Windows cased
- Winding stairs - 1 flight common
- Cedar shingle roof
- Tin gutters & conductors
- Wood fatia
- 2nd floor heart pine, other floors narrow white pine

Kitchen – 11x14, 1 story

- Plain mantle
- Dresser
- Washboards
- Windows cased
- Roof same as back building
- Floor heart pine
- Glass all 8x10
- Party walls 9”
- Board partitions
- East and West = 3 story brick houses