Visiting the Alley

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DID YOU KNOW?
Elfreth's Alley is only 16 feet wide, and is typical of the side streets and alleyways developed throughout Philadelphia in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Alley is still an active street and cars can and do drive down the street on a regular basis.
 
 

 

  


Elfreth's Alley is a living, breathing historic neighborhood in the heart of Historic Philadelphia.  The Alley was opened in 1702 and has been home to thousands of ordinary Philadelphians for more than 300 years.  The Alley is a place where you can learn about what life was like for the working people that built and maintained this city during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.  Unlike many historic sites, these 32 houses are still privately owned and occupied, making this one of the oldest continuously inhabited residential streets in America.
 
The Elfreth's Alley Museum is located in House 126 and is the only building accessible to the public. Click here for more information about visiting Elfreth's Alley. 

Chairmaking Demonstrations on Elfreth's Alley  

Tony Passarelli, our Windsor Chairmaker, will be in House 124 on select Saturdays and Sundays throughout the Spring and Summer.  Each year Tony makes a beautiful chair that he donates to the Alley for us to raffle off at Deck the Alley, our annual winter open house each December. Click here for dates and times.

 

 

 

Roof restoration on 124 and 126 is complete!  

In Spring 2007 we restored the historic cedar shingle roofs of 124 and 126 Elfreth's Alley. These two c.1755 buildings are owned by the Elfreth's Alley Association and are the only two open to the public on a regular basis.  Click here to learn more about this exciting project!

 

The Irish and Elfreth's Alley in 1900 

Elfreth's Alley was home to thousands of immigrants from around the world throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.  Visit our online exhibit (or come visit the Alley) to learn about how Irish families lived and worked on Elfreth's Alley at the turn of the 20th century.

 

Elfreth's Alley Scrapbook conserved  

When the Elfreth's Alley Association was founded in 1934 one of the early members, Ms. Eliza Newkirk Rodgers, started keeping a scrapbook.  She cut out newspaper articles, collected photographs, stories from magazines, pamphlets, and other ephemera from the early years of the Association's history.  She kept adding to the book for more than 30 years, and now it contains more than a hundred pages of information about EAA, the second historic preservation organization in the City of Philadelphia.  The book has been cleaned and stabilized by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia with a $3,000.00 grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. 
 
 
 
 
Thank you to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, and the generous corporations and individuals who  support our mission with general operating support. 
 
The Elfreth's Alley is a 501(c)3 nonprofit educational organization that uses the Alley as a lens to interpret the lives, lifestyles, and livelihoods of ordinary Philadelphians from the time of the City's founding through to the present day.  The Association preserves the Elfreth's Alley National Historic Landmark District as a rare example of a once commonplace working class community from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.