Call Number:

02

Repository:

Germantown Historical Society

Extent:

12.5 linear feet

Language:

English

Date:

1688-1952 (inclusive)

Creator:

Germantown Historical Society.

Abstract:

Germantown, a section of northwest Philadelphia, was settled in the late 1600s. It is well known as the site of the first American anti-slavery protest, the Revolutionary War Battle of Germantown, and the seat of the National government during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. The Germantown Historical Society deed collection, 1688-1952, contains original deeds and land titles for properties in the region of Germantown, Philadelphia.

Germantown, a neighborhood in the northwest section of Philadelphia, was the site of several nationally significant events. It was settled in the late 1600s by Mennonite and Quaker German-speaking emigrants and incorporated as a borough in 1689. Germantown is sometimes called the home of the American anti-slavery movement, because the first organized protest against slavery in the Americas was begun by four members of the Germantown Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1688. In 1777, the courage displayed by American troops at the Battle of Germantown helped to spur the French to assist the United States in the Revolutionary War. During the yellow fever outbreak of 1793, government officials escaping the epidemic in Philadelphia relocated to Germantown, and it served as the temporary home of George Washington and the First Bank of the United States.

Germantown was incorporated into the City of Philadelphia in 1854.

The Germantown Historical Society deed collection, 1688-1952, is composed primarily of original deeds and land titles for properties in the region of Germantown, Philadelphia. The collection is roughly sorted by name. Of special interest are items related to the Edgar H. Butler properties, now the site of Germantown High School; the Gowen estate, now the site of the Mt. Airy Lutheran Seminary; the Coulter estate, mostly on Coulter Street; and Mount Airy Mansion, the estate of loyalist Chief Justice William Allen (1704-1780), now the Lutheran Theological Seminary.

The collection also includes handwritten or typed briefs of title for properties--mostly 18th century buildings--in the book Historic Germantown, from the Founding to the Early Part of the Nineteenth Century: A Survey of the German Township by Harry M. Tinkcom (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1955).