108 Elfreth's Alley
House 108 and its neighbor to the east, House 106 (now demolished) were built as a pair in the mid-eighteenth century.
Thomas Wells, a shipwright and son of one of the blacksmiths who first settled the Alley, probably built the houses as rental properties.
Perhaps because of its location, House 106 was often rented by families who worked at the nearby port, like mariner Archibald Stewart, who lived in the house in the 1790s. As late as the 1880s and 90s, the German and Irish immigrants living in House 106 were employed as porters on the waterfront.
House 108 was also the home to several families associated with nearby port activity. Geah Chattwick, who rented the house between 1780 and 1783, was a sea captain employed by financier Stephen Girard. While Chattwick was living in the house, he was in command of Girard’s armed boat Recovery and took her on a privateering cruise to the Chesapeake with orders to harass the Tories in those waters. Later, in the middle of the 19th century, sail maker James Galloway lived and operated a shop out of the house.
From the 1870s to the 1890s, House 108 was a grocery store run first by Denis Kennedy and later by Ellen Addie, both Irish immigrants. Their families lived above the shop – which must have been crowded, since Kennedy had seven children under the age of twelve!
We believe that House 106 was demolished during the 1950s and hope that our ongoing research into the Alley’s history will tell us when and why the house disappeared. Your support of the Elfreth’s Alley Association helps us uncover more about our 300-year history every day.
