134 Elfreth's Alley

Built in the middle of the 18th century, Clampfer’s store sold items like New England rum, molasses, and West Indian hogsheads.  The shop was located in between his rental properties, Houses 132 and 134, and the Clampfer family home on Second Street.  When Clampfer’s son William had the property insured in 1761, he described it as a “tavern.” This original building was demolished sometime before 1785.

The three-story building that you see today looks different from the other Alley houses – only nine feet wide, it is affectionately called the “half house.”  House 134 was first the home to hatters, tailors, and mantua makers.  (Mantua makers, named after the large-hooded, flowing cloaks of the 16th century, were fine seamstresses.)  Even as late as 1870, Mary McGinley, an Irish immigrant renting a room in House 134 from her cousin, was working as a dressmaker.