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.
114 Almond St. (image left) - Built 1747
Photo by author.
1747 Samuel Griscom (house carpenter) sells “New” brick messuage
1761 Ellis Price (carpenter)
1762 Philadelphia Contributorship 718 to Ellis Price (shingling 15 yrs a covered pent eave front
1764 John Fuller (lawyer)
1822 Mutual Assurance 4187, 4241 to John B Palmer
114 Almond St. - Mutual Assurance Policy #4241 (1822)
Front building
John B Palmer's house - 3 story brick house
16ft front includes ‡ of 3' alley x 20'deep
1st level - 1 room
- Marble mantle
- Neat washboards
- Windows cased
- Arched head front door
- Neat jambs
- Brick arch
2nd story - 1 room
- Plain mantle
- Closets
- Windows cased
3rd story - 2 rooms
- Plain mantle
- Washboards
- Closets
- Windows cased
- 1 flight common winding stairs
Garret in one room not plastered
- Trap door
- New roof
Piazza - 7'6"x8'6" , 3 Stories high
- New with 2 flights common winding stairsKitchen - 11x18, 2 Story
- New 1st story finished as customary
2nd story
- Plain mantle
- Washboards
- Closets
- Windows cased
- Loft floored with rough boards 2 floors narrow heart pine, others heart pine boards
- Party walls 9"
- Board partitions3 story brick houses to the East and West
water plenty