Our parents 1st
home - from 1932 to1935 808 Harper Street - between Susquehanna Ave. & Fletcher St. (picture taken 1959) |
Their lst
Home - 808 Harper Street.
(Note: 808 is gone; the 3 houses on the right are 806, 804 & 802) Mom and Dad lived in an apartment at Emerald & Hazard Streets until Rosemary was born on May 5,1932. They then moved to this house at 808 Harper Street. Jack & Betty were born here. Rosemary has her one-year-old birthday card from Big Daddy & Grandmom (dated May 4, 1933) addressed to her at this house. Mom became good friends
with Gert Herkensteiner, who lived right
around the corner on Susquehanna Ave.
Mom shopped at Novak's grocery
store on the corner of Susquehanna &
Girard Aves. and would go right by
Gert's house.
The picture above is
looking down Harper St. towards Fletcher
St. The building along the end
of the street used to
be Fruehauf's Trailer Co. They
assembled truck trailers in this
building. (I used to pickup lunches for
the Fruehauf workers from a diner at Fletcher
& Richmond Sts.). Before this company,
there was a large lumber yard here that burned
down during the great Cramps Shipyard
fire on May 15, 1941.
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Their 2nd home - 1935 to Nov. 1947  1212 E. Fletcher St. (between Girard Ave & Moyer St) |
Their 2nd home -
1212 E. Fletcher Street
They moved here in 1935 -
prior to Pat's birth in April 1936 but
after Betty's birth in Nov. 1934. In
addition, Jerry, Elaine, & Kathleen were
born here. Dad had various jobs during
this time - I know he was a parole officer
operating out of the 26th District on Girard
Ave. and when WWII came, he got a job at Cramp's
Ship Yard and became a union shop steward.
After the war, he got a job at Disston Saw Mills
in Tacony.
THEIR 3RD
HOME: 2530 E. Webb Street --
from Nov. 1947 to July 1952
In 1947, the owner of the
Fletcher St. house put it up for sale. Our
parents got up the money for a down payment but
when they presented it to the realtor, the owner
had sold the house 'from under them'. They
had only a short time to do something and
were able to move into the house at
2530 E. Webb St., rent free --
thanks to its owner, our Great Aunt
Katherine Kane, one of Grandmom Duffy's
sisters. This house had been condemned -
no heat, only cold running water, no toilet
facilities, no front wall, etc..
It required a lot of basic repairs before
we moved in - done mostly by Big Daddy and our
McDevitt uncles (who also chipped in each
weekend to pay for the materials). So,
both sides of our parents' families helped us in
this crisis!
The twins, Jim and Joe, were
born in this home in 1948.
Dad went from working at
Disston Saw Mills to The DoAll Company, where he
was the Shipper.
Note: This house no
longer exists. A row of new homes (below)
has replaced this area.
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Site of their 3rd home - 2530 E. Webb St.  |
THEIR 3RD HOME: 2530 E. Webb Street -- from Nov. 1947 to July 1952 In 1947, the owner of the
Fletcher St. house put it up for sale.
Our parents got up the money for a down
payment but when they presented it to the
realtor, the owner had sold the house 'from
under them'. They had only a short
time to do something and were able to
move into the house at
2530 E. Webb St., rent
free -- thanks to its
owner, our Great Aunt Katherine Kane,
one of Grandmom Duffy's sisters. This
house had been condemned - no heat, only
cold running water, no toilet facilities, no
front wall, etc.. It required a
lot of basic repairs before we moved in -
done mostly by Big Daddy and our McDevitt
uncles (who also chipped in each weekend to
pay for the materials). So, both sides
of our parents' families helped us in this
crisis!
The twins, Jim and Joe,
were born in this home in 1948.
Dad went from working at
Disston Saw Mills to The DoAll Company,
where he was the Shipper.
Note: This house no
longer exists. A row of new homes
(left) has replaced this area.
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Their 4th house - July 1952 to 1979
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Their 4th & last home - 2651 E. Agate Street We moved to this house in
July 1952. It was Big Daddy's home, and
when he became too ill to take care of the
house, he and Chester Marie moved into Aunt
Marie & Uncle Bill's home. He had been
renting this house but when he decided to move,
the owner decided to sell and we bought
it. Mom finally got her own house --
the home she had dreamed of!
She also eventually, in a few
years, saved up and had gas hot air heating
installed -- no more shoveling coal in
the furnace in the basement! It was a
high moment in her life.
Big Daddy and Chester Marie
subsequently moved to a house at 125 E.
22nd Street in Chester, where Marie's family was
from. This is where he died in July
1956. He was laid out in Aunt Marie's home
and his funeral mass was at St. Anne's.
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