“Italianate
style, three story, house with smooth stuccoed brick
facade, rusticated smooth stone quoins and elaborately carved large double wood
brackets below cornice of flat roof. Circa 1900 Colonial Revival porch added
with turned balustrade, Tuscan columns and semicircular portico with dentillated and modillioned cornice.”
(Inventory of
Buildings in Powelton from the application submitted to the National Register of Historic
Places, 1985)
The current front
porch was added sometime between 1892 and 1902. Before that time, there was a
7’6” wide piazza that stretched straight across the front. (Philadelphia Contributorship insurance survey S-10666,
1862 and 1902.)
History
1863
Philadelphia Contributorship Insurance Survey:
William P. Hamm, owner, 206 N. 35th St.
It
was surveyed along with 3704, 3706, 3716 & 3718 Baring St. which he also owned.
In
1860-1862, he lived at 200 N. 35th St. He
probably never lived here. By 1863, he had moved to 1525 Arch St.
1863, Apr.
15: Title transferred to James Bateman by William P. Hamm
James
Bateman and his family previous lived at 3502
Hamilton St.
1864
Directory: James Bateman, merchant at 122 S. Front St.
1870:
James Bateman 48 Wool merchant; born in Delaware; real
estate: $12,500, personal: $40,000
[Mary] Elizabeth
Bateman 40 Born in Delaware
Mary Bateman 12
Carrie [Caroline
S.] Bateman 11
Julia Bateman 9
Hannah Bateman 6
James Bateman 4
Sarah A. Curran 20 Domestic servant; born in Ireland
Jane Curran 25 Domestic servant; born in Ireland
Bateman was a partner with William
Wirt Justice in Justice, Bateman & Co. wool merchants 122 South Front
Street. He was on the Board of directors of the Delaware Insurance Co.
1890 Directory: James Bateman and James Bateman, Jr.
1897, Feb.: James Bateman, Sr. died and was buried at West Laurel
Hill Cemetery.
1898 Blue Book: Mrs. James Bateman
James Bateman, Jr.
The Misses Bateman
1900:
Mary E. Bateman 71 Mother born in
Julia L. Bateman 39
Margaret Glynn 25 Servant;
born in
Mary E. Newell 23 Servant;
born in
1906 Blue Book: Mrs. James Bateman
Miss
Julia L. Bateman
1910:
Mary E Bateman 81 Widowed with
5 children; mother born in Del.
Julia Bateman 48
Delia Mcgovern 38 Servant;
born in Ireland
Minie Elliott 30 Servant; born in Ireland
1916, Dec.: Mary E. Bateman died and was
buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery.
1920, Feb. 2: Title transferred to Elizabeth J.
Anderson by James Bateman, Jr., et al.
1924: Elizabeth J. Anderson was in the Sophomore Class taking
college courses for teachers at the University of Pennsylvania, Women’s
College. (Yearbook, 1924)
1930:
Lillian Anderson 78 Widowed;
owner, house valued at $12,000
Harvey Anderson 56 Broker
Elizabeth J.
Anderson 48 High school teacher
Grace A. Ettinger
51 Daughter;
widow
Dorothy Ettinger 25 Granddaughter
Anna Neasley 69 [Relationship illegible]; widowed;
parents born in Germany
Mahalah Ettinger 19 Granddaughter; born in Oregon
Joel Ettinger 17 Granddaughter; born in Oregon
Lillian (Elizabeth) Anderson was the
widow of Warren H. Anderson, a railroad brakeman. In 1880, they lived with her
parents, George and Elizabeth Felix, in Harrisburg where her father ran a candy
store. In 1910, Lillian was widowed and living with Harvey and Elizabeth in
Ridley Township, Delaware Co., Pa. Harvey was a worked in real estate for a
railroad. Elizabeth was a public school teacher.
In 1950, Mahala Ettinger lived at
232 S. Quincy, Philadelphia.
1950 Directory: Elizabeth Jane Anderson
1970, Nov. 22: Deed transfer from Elizabeth J. Anderson to Walter
J. Lear.
2010: “WALTER J. LEAR was an activist whose causes ranged from health
reform to support
of revolutionaries in El Salvador and nearly every cause in
between.
“As a writer once put it, Lear ‘made
a lifetime of noise in the name of the poor and the persecuted, the sick and
the scorned.’
“The fact that Lear was probably the
first openly gay person to hold public offices in the city and state usually
dominated discussion of his career, but he was an advocate for nearly anything
he thought would make life better for Americans.
“Walter Lear, a physician who served
as deputy Philadelphia health commissioner in the '60s and later regional
health commissioner for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, died May 29 of
multiple myeloma. He was 87 and lived in Powelton Village.
“It was while serving in the state
Health Department that Lear decided to come out of the ‘closet.’ In January
1976, the first edition of the Philadelphia Gay News reported that Lear, then
52, had revealed himself to be homosexual.
“His purpose, the newspaper
reported, was ‘to emphasize the need for better medical treatment for gays.’
“In fact, he was a strong advocate
for better health care for everybody, and was an early advocate of a public
health system that would guarantee health-insurance coverage for all Americans.
“He authored books on health-care
reform in which he urged the younger generation of health activists to end
"this bureaucratic nonsense" and create a national health system.
"’It's tragic and immoral that
this, the richest country in the world, has decided to make profit-making the
central value of the health field,’ he said.
“Lear was appointed deputy city
health commissioner by Mayor James H.J. Tate in 1964, and in 1971, Gov. Milton
J. Shapp named him state regional health
commissioner. Tate later appointed him executive director of the old
Philadelphia General Hospital.
“Of course, Lear was also active in
gay and lesbian organizations and battled for better understanding of the AIDS
scourge and support for its sufferers.
“He helped found the Gay and Lesbian
Community Center, now the William Way Center, and the Philadelphia AIDS Task
Force, as well as the Maternity Care Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.
“He convened the first national
conference on AIDS in the 1980s.
“Lear was born in Brooklyn, N.Y.,
and received a bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1943. He received his medical
degree in 1948 from Long Island College of Medicine, and a master's in hospital
administration from Columbia University in 1948.
“He came to Philadelphia from New
York to accept the city Health Department job. He said he was convinced that
Tate would never have appointed him if he had been openly gay in 1964.
“As it was, Shapp
was inundated with complaints when Lear announced his sexual orientation while
serving as regional health commissioner.
“However, the uproar died down and
Lear always said that the people he worked with had no problem accepting him.
“He received strong support from
fellow physicians. ‘He showed me that physicians can do good things,’ said Dr.
Lawrence ‘Bopper’ Deyton, who ran the AIDS Service
program of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Lear was a competitive swimmer. In
April 1998, he told the Daily News' Leon Taylor that he was about to leave for
Amsterdam to participate in the 75-80 age bracket in swimming at the Gay
Olympics.
"’I'm going for the gold,’ he
said.
“And he made it. He got his gold
medal in the 200-meter freestyle.
“Lear is survived by his longtime
partner, James F. Payne; his former wife, Evelyn Lear; a son, Jon Stewart, and
a daughter, Bonnie Stewart.”
(John F. Morrison. Philadelphia Daily News. June 7, 2010)
Revised 8/14/2022