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Octavia Hill Association (Philadelphia, Pa.) Records
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Held at: Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Octavia Hill Association was incorporated in 1896 to improve working class housing conditions through the sympathetic management of dwellings which it purchased and renovated. The Association's activities were modeled after the work in London of Octavia Hill, with whom one of its founders, Helen Parrish, had studied. The founders wished to demonstrate that the housing business and charitable works could be combined. They wanted to manage clean, sanitary, safe houses for their African American and immigrant tenants and make a profit at the same time, their motto being "Philanthropy and Four Per Cent."
The Association bought rundown properties, usually row houses, improved them and rented them to persons they thought could maintain them. It also rented houses for other owners, and eventually built a limited number of houses under the aegis of the Model Homes Company. By 1916 the Association owned or managed over 400 houses. This amount remained relatively stable for several decades and then began a long decline after World War II. The Octavia Hill Association's major period as a growing and pioneering reform organization ended in the 1920s, largely as a result of financial pressures (the stockholders wanted their 4% return) and changes in the housing market.
A key feature of the Association's work from the beginning was the "Friendly Rent Collector" who was to insure regular payments, inspect the premises, and instruct the tenants in cleanliness, sanitation and good housekeeping. In its early years the Association's efforts led to block cleanups, new kindergartens and new playgrounds in the area of its most intensive work, the old Southwark black and immigrant neighborhood stretching from Lombard Street to Washington Avenue, and 7th Street to Front Street. It also held properties in Germantown, Kensington and Manayunk. The Association worked with neighborhood agencies, lobbied in Harrisburg for various housing bills, and participated in the drafting of the Philadelphia Housing Code (passed in 1913). In 1909 it took the initiative in organizing the Philadelphia Housing Association.
These records contain the personal diaries, correspondence, and notes of Helen Parrish (1888-1943), as well as reports, legislative files, correspondence, publications, and clippings of the Octavia Hill Association (1880-1970). Also included are glass lantern slides, negatives, and photographic reprints relating to the Association's properties and community activities, and depicting housing interiors and exteriors before and after renovations, court yards, and street scenes around Philadelphia.
The collection is arranged into 5 series as follows:
- Series 1: Helen Parrish Papers, 1888-1943 (URB 46)
- Series 2: Octavia Hill Association Records, 1880-1970 (URB 46)
- Series 3: Lantern Slide Images, circa 1903-1917 (PC-10)
- Subseries 3.1: Lantern Slides, circa 1903-1917
- Subseries 3.2: Prints and Negatives from Lantern Slides, circa 1903-1917
- Series 4: Glass Negatives, undated (PC-13)
- Series 5: Prints from Glass Negatives, undated (PC-12)
Placed on deposit through the Octavia Hill Association, by William Jeanes, Executive Director, January 9, 1975, Accession 203.
A selection of photographs from this collection have been digitized and are available online on the Temple University Digital Collections website.
The diaries of Helen Parrish and some printed materials have also been digitized and are available online.
Original audiovisual materials, as well as preservation and duplicating masters, may not be played. Researchers must consult use copies, or if none exist must pay for a use copy. Certain digital files may also be inaccessible. Please contact the Special Collections Research Center for more information.
Finding aid revised according to contemporary archival standards in April 2013, and updated in July 2019, by Katy Rawdon, Coordinator of Technical Services.
People
Organization
- Housing Association of Delaware Valley
- Model Homes Company (Philadelphia, Pa.)
- National Housing Association (New York, N.Y.)
Subject
- African Americans--Housing--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia
- Housing rehabilitation--Pennsylvania—Philadelphia
- Immigrants--Housing--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia
- Public housing--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia
- Social settlements
- Slums
- Tenement houses--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia
- Working class--Dwellings
- Labor movement--Dwellings
- Labor--Dwellings
Place
- Publisher
- Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center
- Finding Aid Author
- Machine-readable finding aid created by: Rajkumar Natarajan, Sky Global Services India (P) Ltd.
- Finding Aid Date
- October 2024
- Access Restrictions
-
Collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
-
The Octavia Hill Association (Philadelphia, Pa.) Records are on deposit with the Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. Temple University holds literary rights only for material created by university employees and to material given to the university with such rights specifically assigned. For all other material, literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. Researchers are responsible for determining the identity of rights holders and obtaining their permission for publication and for other purposes where stated.
Collection Inventory
1 box. No inventory available.
2 boxes. No inventory available.
1 box. No inventory available.