1901 Spring Garden Street
The Society of the Sons of St. George
This article will examine the beautiful building at the northwest corner of Spring Garden and 19th Streets and its connection to the St. George statue on Martin Luther King Drive. First, let’s look at the early days of the house itself.
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In 1875 builder Edwin Randolph built a beautiful residence at 1901 Spring Garden Street on spec and put it up for sale as “an elegant double marble residence, in thorough order and beautifully frescoed.” It was purchased by Abraham R. Cox who owned a brewery in Norristown since 1870. He lived at 1901 Spring Garden with his wife Caroline and son Abram until Abraham’s death in 1890. He was buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery from his home. He left an estate of $300,000 (equivalent to $10 million today). In 1894 Abram Cox, his son, died and was also buried from the home at 1901 Spring Garden Street. The 35-year-old son left an estate of “upwards of $100,000,” and specified funding, besides other beneficiaries, for his horse Fanny and his carriages. In January 1896, the son’s widow also dies leaving two children, ages 8 and 1.
AR Cox blob-top beer bottle from here
Portion of Bromley map from the year 1901. North is at the top.
Spring Garden Street runs horizontally on the bottom of the image, Brandywine Street at the top, and 19th Street on the right vertically.
Pink represents brick buildings; yellow represents wood-frame structures (here privies). The buildings marked with an “X” are stables. As discussed in our article on horses in the neighborhoods, the alleys behind the Spring Garden Street and Vine Street mansions were often used solely for stables for the inhabitants of those mansions.
1901 Spring Garden Street is the double-wide residence in the lower right.
Architect Carl Berger put on a marble façade for Penrose Fleisher (1844-1931) in 1901. At that time Fleisher, his wife and three teenagers had been living across the street at 1910 Spring Garden Street. Fleisher had been a member of the Fleisher brothers clothing manufactory until he became a banker. The satellite yarn factory of the Fleishers was at 25th and Hamilton Streets, and at least eight Fleisher households lived in the Spring Garden neighborhood circa 1900. Penrose Fleisher sold the home at 1901 Spring Garden Street to the firm of Mastbaum & Fleisher for a nominal fee in 1911, when the assessed value was $20,000. The Mastbaum in the firm’s name is Jules Mastbaum (1872-1926), an 1889 graduate of our neighborhood’s Central Manual Training School and benefactor of the Rodin Museum. The Fleisher name in the firm is that of Alfred W. Fleisher (1878-1928), real estate tycoon, philanthropist, and grandfather of current Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. The Alfred W. Fleisher Memorial Synagogue at nearby Eastern State Penitentiary is named in his honor.
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The next owner of 1901 Spring Garden Street was the St. George Society.
The Society of the Sons of St. George
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The Society of the Sons of St George, Established at Philadelphia, for the Advice and Assistance of Englishmen in Distress was founded in 1772 as one of many support groups for new immigrants. This group was a successor to a group called the St. George Society that met in Tun Tavern starting in 1729. United States founding father Robert Morris, familiar to our neighborhood, was the Vice-President of the Society after its incorporation in 1791. It originally held its meetings at various taverns and hotels in the city. In 1875 the society bought the former mansion of Matthew Newkirk at the southwest corner of 13th and Arch Streets and named the building St. George’s Hall. It served as their headquarters, concert hall, and assembly venue.
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The building was designed as a home for railroader Matthew Newkirk (1794-1868) by architect Thomas Ustick Walter and built in 1837. Newkirk died in the mansion in 1868 and the family sold it to the Society of St. George in 1875 for $70,000. The Society extended the building, southward, added a third floor under the direction of architect James H. Windrim, and placed a huge statue of St. George slaying a dragon atop the pediment. The mansion was sold by the Society for $160,000 to Henry C. Lea in 1896, who leased the building to the Society until a new buyer wished to vacate the lot to build. The Society purchased a building at 19th and Arch Street in 1901 and relocated the massive statue atop the building to the new site by 1903. The building at 13th and Arch was demolished in 1903 and replaced by a nine-story office building until that was demolished in 1987. The site is now a surface parking lot next to the extant building which formerly housed the Elks Club.
St. George’s Hall on the southwest corner of 13th and Arch from 1876 to 1902.
The St. George Society was founded in 1772. The statue of St. George slaying the dragon was cast in 1877. The tetrastyle colonnade was rescued at demolition in 1903 and set up on the Princeton (New Jersey) Battlefield State Park, where it remains today. Photo credit here.
Please allow a brief sidebar on architect Thomas Ustick Walter, since in the early 1830s Thomas Ustick Walter was busy in our near-neighborhood.
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In 1835 Thomas Ustick Walter, then age 31 and just starting out on his own, designed the home for Matthew Newkirk which was to become St. George Hall. Walter decided to build his own home across the street on the northwest corner of 13th and Arch Streets. He took occupancy in 1837 with his wife and eight children. When the Second Bank of the United States went bankrupt in 1841, investor Walter also went bankrupt and had to sell this house. From 1886 to 1923 the building was called Dental Hall owing to the dental supply company that ran out of the lower floors. For more details on Thomas Ustick Walter and this building, now the location of the Convention Center, see here.
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Around this same time Walter designed Girard College Founder’s Hall (cornerstone 1833), Wills Eye Hospital on Logan Square (1833), and the Preston Retreat (cornerstone 1837) at 20th and Hamilton Streets.
A sketch from 1889 looking west on Arch from 13th Street. St. George Hall is on the left on the southwest corner. The building labeled Dental Hall on the cornice was Walter’s home from 1837 to 1841.
The State historical plaque honoring Walter is at 1218 Arch Street on the next block west, stating that Walter lived “near here.” Photo credit with better resolution here.
In 1924 Paramount Realty bought this building at 1900 Arch Street for $70,000. The site is now occupied by an apartment building built in 2016. The statue was removed at a cost of $3,000 and put in storage, where it would stay for 52 years.
In 1922 the St. George Society bought 1901 Spring Garden Street from Morris Dannenbaum (the brother-in-law of Penrose Fleisher). The purchase price was $45,000 with immediate possession. After the deeds were transferred, Dannenbaum requested to postpone the possession because his sickly wife wanted to die in this house. He offered $20,000 for that objective. The St. George Society declined the offer, since it would otherwise be homeless for an indeterminate period. Dannenbaum then offered to lease the house for one year for $12,000, and that offer was accepted. Belongings of the St. George Society were put in storage and its meetings wandered until May 10, 1924 when the one-year lease was up and it moved into the 1901 Spring Garden Street building. Mrs. Dannenbaum died January 26, 1927.
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After the move to 1901 Spring Garden Street, monthly meetings and social events were held there, but the better attended annual meetings were held at McCallister’s at 1811 Spring Garden Street (now the Carpenters’ Union headquarters as discussed here). A women’s auxiliary organization, the Brittania Club, was formed in 1929 and also had meetings at 1901 Spring Garden Street. Coincidentally, in 1922, another fraternal organization, the Russian Brotherhood Organization, moved into 1733 Spring Garden Street as discussed in our article here. The Society of the Sons of St. George is an active organization in Philadelphia (see outside website here).
The 1900 block of Spring Garden Street in a 1908 postcard from here.
The writer is Emma Lou Hogg, the daughter of William Hogg at 1903 Spring Garden Street (the second house from the corner and the future La Milagrosa Chapel)
1901 Spring Garden Street in 1923 from the St. George Society’s history published in 1923 here.
In 1949 the St. George Society sold 1901 Spring Garden Street. Ads for townhouse apartments at 1901-1905 Spring Garden Street begin to appear in Philadelphia newspapers that same year.
Portion of 1950 Sanborn Map from the Parkway Central Library. Notice the Spanish Chapel at 1903 and Dinan Funeral Home (“Undertaker”) at 1923 Spring Garden Street on bottom. Both of these have separate articles on the website.
Like many corner buildings in Philadelphia, the building was remodeled in 1950 for commercial use, here to accommodate a restaurant that seated 90 patrons. After the wife of the owner of the restaurant attempted suicide at her home near 17th and Spring Garden Streets, the restaurant was sold and became a beauty parlor. By 1956 and through 1964 it was a restaurant again, called Central Restaurant for some of that period.
Basement restaurant at 1901 Spring Garden Street in 1958
Basement restaurant at 1901 Spring Garden 1901 Spring Garden Street in 1958, closer view.
There was a Linton's Restaurant catty-corner to this restaurant from 1950 to 1978.
For those who like architectural details, here is the passage on 1901 spring Garden Street from the 2000 nomination form to establish a Spring Garden Historic District, which was approved:
BEFORE the 1999 restoration (from Philadelphia Historical Commission file)
AFTER a beautiful 1999 renovation. Six apartments for the elderly, handicap accessible, were created.
The statue was removed from the building at 19th and Arch Streets in 1923. The plan was to reinstall the statue atop 1901 Spring Garden Street, but the one-year delay in moving forced the Society to box and store the statue. It was donated to the City in 1935 and kept in storage until being placed on Martin Luther King Drive across from Black Road on St. George’s Day, April 23, 1975.
Plaque on the statue
published July 2024