3515 Powelton Avenue
3515 Powelton Ave., c1960
3515
Powelton Ave., View from the Northeast, c1900
The
History of the Building
The house is shown on the 1886 Baist
Map. It was demolished in 1960 to make room for the Powel Elementary School.
Previous Residents of
3515 Powelton Avenue
1878: The
Scott Atlas shows the vacant lot owned by A.L. Massey. This is probably
Alexander L. Massey who lived at 41st and Walnut in the mid-1860s. In
the 1866 Directory, he was listed as secretary of the Pennsylvania Gas Coal Co.
1880, Jan.
28: Deed transfer from Alexander L. Massey to Sarah Scattergood (L. 79, W.
172).
In the 1880 census, they were
enumerated at 502 Marshall St., Philadelphia.
1881 Directory (compiled in Fall, 1880):
Scattergood, Thomas (John M. Sharpless & Co.), h N 36th corner
Powelton Ave.
Thomas Scattergood (1841-1907)
1889 Blue Book: Thomas Scattergood, 3515
Powelton
1889 Graduates of Westtown School: Joseph
Scattergood 3515 Powelton Ave., Phila.
1888, June 27: Thomas Scattergood purchased 3622-3624
Pearl St. which the family continued to own until 1947. Their coachman and
his family lived there.
1889 Notice of deaths: “Scattergood.—[November] 26th. At
3515 Powelton Avenue, Philadelphia, Sarah G., wife of Thomas Scattergood, in
her 49th year.” (The British Friend,
Volume 48.)
1890 Passport application: Miss Anna Scattergood, teacher, 5'3½”,
address: 307 Walnut St.
1892: Thomas Scattergood married his second wife, Maria Chase.
Joseph Henry Scattergood at
Haverford College
1900:
Thomas Scattergood 58 Dye goods merchant; owned free of a
mortgage
Maria Chase Scattergood 43 Married
8 years, 2 children; parents born in Mass.
Joseph Henry Scattergood 23 Clerk
in a dry goods store
Alfred G. Scattergood 21 Clerk
[rest illegible]
Margaret
Scattergood 5
Arnold Chase
Scattergood 2
Deborah H. Roberts 50 Housekeeper;
born in N.J.
Mary Rodden 33 Servant;
born in Ireland, immigrated 14 years previously
Maria Peyton 32 Servant;
born in Ireland, immigrated 18 years previously
Mary Mc Avoy 23 Nurse; born in Ireland, immigrated 4
years previously
1906, February: J. Henry Scattergood became engaged to Anna
Theodore Morris, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Morris. (Phila. Inquirer)
J. Henry Scattergood (c1919)
1907, April 18: Death of Thomas Scattergood
“THOMAS SCATTERGOOD DEAD
“Well-known Member of Society of
Friends Passes Away in Italy
“News from Naples, Italy, yesterday
announced the death of Thomas Scattergood. He was a prominent member of the
Society of Friends, attending the Twelfth street meeting. It was reported that
he was taken suddenly with pneumonia while traveling, and his illness was so
brief that it was not generally known until the news of his death came at the
same time. It was passed from ear to ear at the yearly meeting yesterday
afternoon and caused a general sorrow. He leaves a family of grown sons and
daughters who are active in all the affairs of the Society of Friends.
“One is in the treasury department
of the Provident Life and Trust Company. Another is Registration Commissioner
J. Henry Scattergood. His daughter is teacher of the
Infant School of the Twelfth street meeting. Deceased was president of the
Sharpless Dyewood Extract Company, director of Provident Life and Trust Co. and
connected with Bryn Mawr College, Friends’ Asylum for
Insane and other business and charitable institutions.” (Phila.
Inquirer, April 19, 1907)
1910:
Maria Scattergood 54 Widowed, 2 children; owned free of a
mortgage
Margery Scattergood 15
Arnold Scattergood 12
J[oseph] Henry
Scattergood 33 Step-son; President of life insurance
co.; married
Anna T. Scattergood 35 Daughter-in-law
Thomas Scattergood 1 Grandson
Mary M. Scattergood 2 Granddaughter
Mary McDevitt 48 Servant;
single; born in Ireland, immigrated in 1880
Mary Radden 44 Servant; single; born in Ireland,
immigrated in 1886
Cecelia McMenamin 25 Servant;
single; born in Ireland, immigrated in 1903
Matilda Darrough
34 Servant; widowed, 2 children; born in
Ireland, immigrated in 1906
Francis Powell 39 Servant;
single; born in Ireland
Deborah H. Roberts 60 Housekeeper;
single
1911 Catalogue, University of Pennsylvania: Helen L. Cope from
Mount Pleasant, Ohio
1917: Margery Scattergood graduates from Bryn Mawr.
In 1921-’22 she was a student at the
University of Edinburgh.
1920:
Mrs. Thomas [Maria] Scattergood 60 Widowed; parents born in Mass.; owned
free of a mortgage
Margret Scattergood 33
Miss D. H. Roberts 70 Housekeeper;
single; born in N.J.
Mary Ann Rodden 54 Servant; single; born in Ireland,
immigrated in 1880
Catherine Rodden 60 Servant;
single; born in Ireland, immigrated in 1880
_ 2nd Hh.
Joseph Henry Scattergood 42 Manufacturer
of dry stuffs
Anne Teena Scattergood 45
Mary Morris Scattergood 12
Thomas Scattergood 10
Alfred G. Scattergood 8
Ellen Morris Scattergood 5
Evelyn Scattergood 3 yrs. 11 mons
Francis Powell 50 Servant; born in England, immigrated in 1908
Ella Dorsey 60 Servant; single; parents born in Ireland
In 1930, Joseph H. Scattergood and
his family lived in Radnor, Pa.
Dorothy H. Roberts retired as
housekeeper and moved to 3609 Baring St. where she
lived with her sister.
Digby
Baltzell described the Scattergood family in Philadelphia
Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class. He wrote:
“The Scattlergoods have been leaders within the Society of
Friends, and in the Phi1adelphia business community, since the eighteenth
century. Thomas Scattergood, born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1748, was an
active Quaker minister in Philadelphia and vicinity. In the 1860's the firm of
Carter and Scattergood were probably the largest manufacturer in this country
of Yellow and Red Prussiates of Potash. At the same time, good Quaker Henry
Sharpless was engaged in the manufacture of dye stuffs and chemicals. His
father, Townsend Sharpless had founded the family in 1835. In 1895 the
Sharpless Dyewood Extracts Company was incorporated; Thomas Scattergood was
president. His two sons J. Henry Scattergood and Alfred Garrett Scattergood
were listed in Who's Who in 1940.
“J. Henry Scattergood was with the
American Pulley Company (1897-1900), the Sharpless Dyewood Extracts Company (1900-1904),
and secretary of the newly formed American Dyewood Company between 1904 and
1906, when he became a ‘trustee of estates.’ Since 1916 he has been treasurer
of Haverford College and, since 1927, treasurer of Bryn Mawr
College. He was born in Philadelphia and educated at Haverford and Harvard. His
directorships in the business world included the American Dyewood Company, the
United Dyewood Corporation, First National Bank, Provident Mutual Life
Insurance Company, American Pulley Company, Philadelphia Transportation
Company, Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and the Vicksburg Bridge Company.
Among his many good works, Mr. Scattergood was chairman of the board of
trustees of the Hampton Institute, an original member of both the Committee of
70 (Philadelphia's prestige committee fostering good government in a variety of
ways) and the American Friends Service Committee, and a member of the original
Red Cross commission sent to France in World War I. He belonged to the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Academy of Natura1 Sciences, Pennsylvania
Genealogical Society, American Philosophical Society, Numismatic and
Antiquarian Society, American Alpine Club, and the Republican Party. His five grown
children were all married and he lived with his second
wife (first wife, nee Morris, deceased) on the large Morris tract of
land in Villanova, on the Main Line. His club memberships included the Union
League, University, and Merion Cricket, in Philadelphia. and
the Cosmos, in Washington.
“Alfred Garret Scattergood,
vice-president of the Provident Trust Company, was educated at Haverford and
Harvard. He was director of the Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven Railroad
Company, the Saving Fund Society of Germantown, Friends Hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital, and
chairman of the board of directors of Penn Charter School. Alfred Scattergood
belonged to the University Club and lived with his wife (Emlen)
at ‘Awbury’ in Germantown. ‘Awbury,’
a kind of Quaker plantation in the heart of Germantown, is the home of the many
descendants of George Emlen, brewer, merchant, and
leading Friend in eighteenth-century Philadelphia. In many ways, the Emlens are in the Quaker world what the Biddies or Cadwaladers are to Proper Philadelphia.....
“When, at the invitation of Herbert
Hoover, the American Friends Service Committee took charge of the feeding of
German children after the first war, Alfred G. Scattergood was chief of that
unit.”
(Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a
National Upper Class. Edward Digby Baltzell.
1958. pp 268-269.)
For a brief
autobiographical sketch by Joseph H. Scattergood, see: Fourth report. By Harvard College. Class of
1897. 1912, p 360.
Genealogy:
Thomas Scattergood,
birth: 1841 in Philadelphia death: 1907 in Naples, Italy
married in 1868, Sarah Garrett,
born: 1840, Upper Darby, Pa.
Children: Edward Scattergood, 1870-1870
Anna
Scattergood, 1873-
Joseph Henry
Scattergood, 1877-1953
Married
Anna Thoedora Morris, 1906 in Villanova, Pa.
Alfred G.
Scattergood, c1879-
(http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/4263177/person/-1176665350)
1930:
Elizabeth [sic.] Scattergood 70 Parents
born in Mass.; owner, house valued at $65,000
Margaret Scattergood 35 Clerical
worker for U.S. Gov. [illegible]
Rebecca B. Wister 35 Secretary
for private family; single; born in N.J.
Clare Trueblood 23 Lodger;
born in Iowa, parents in Indiana
– 2nd
household:
Clarence G. Hoag 57 Born in Mass., father in N.H., mother in
Mass.; renting for $50 per month
Anna A. Hoag 56
John H. Hoag 24
Josephine Hebda 27 Servant;
born in Vienna, Austria, father also born in Vienna, mother born in Poland but
spoke German
Margaret Dempsey 45 Servant;
born in Ireland
In 1940, the Hoag family lived at
619 Walnut Ln., Haverford. He listed his occupation as “writer.” They owned
their house which they valued at $21,000.
1940:
Maria Scattergood 83 Widowed;
4 years of high school; owner, house valued at $25,000
Rebecca Wistar 50 Secretary,
earned $1,100 in 1939; 4 years of high school; born in N. J.; worked 44 hours
during the previous week
Margaret Dempsey 55 Cook;
8 years of education; worked 40 hours during the previous week
Josephine Hedda 37 Maid;
born in Austria; 8 years of education; worked 40 hours during the previous week
1946: “Mrs. Thomas Scattergood
“Mrs. Maria Chase Scattergood, widow of
Thomas Scattergood, dyestuffs manufacturer, died Sunday at her home, 3515
Powelton Avenue, Philadelphia, at the age of 90. She was a daughter of Pliny
Earle Chase, former Professor of Philosophy at Haverford College. Before her
marriage in 1892, Mrs. Scattergood taught languages in the Friends Select School.
Long active in the Society of Friends, she was a member and a minister of the
Twelfth Street Meeting, Philadelphia. She leaves a daughter, Margaret
Scattergood of Washington, D.C., and three step-children.” (New York Times, Nov. 13, 1946.) [Note: in
the death notice, the Times lists her
age as 91.]
1950: “SARAH PARKER remembers MRS. SCATTERGOOD who lived with a
companion, MISS WISTER, in the lovely old Scattergood House with the
magnificent garden, until she died in 1950 [sic.]…. Father Divine made an offer for the house before he
bought the Hotel Tracy, but it became a Blind Home until the house was torn
down and the Powel School was built….”
(“The Fence
Post,” by Maggie Funderburg, Powelton Post, Jan., 1964, p 4)
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