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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

Call Number:
SCRC 29
Repository:
Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center
Extent:
8.25 linear feet (12 boxes)
Language:
English
Preferred Citation:
[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Octavia Hill Association (Philadelphia, Pa.) Records, SCRC 29, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Date:
1880-1970 (inclusive)
Creator:
Octavia Hill Association (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Form:
Clippings, Correspondence, Diaries, Manuscripts, Photographs, and Reports
Abstract:

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.

Housing Association of Delaware Valley Records, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries.

People
Organization
Subject
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

Helen Parrish Diaries, 1888.
Box 1 Folder 1A-D
Helen Parrish Correspondence with England, 1889-1931.
Box 1 Folder 2A-F
Helen Parrish General Correspondence, 1896-1913.
Box 1 Folder 3A-C
Helen Parrish Notes and Speeches, 1899-1942, undated.
Box 1 Folder 7
Helen Parrish Notes and Speeches, 1899-1942.
Box 1 Folder 14

Annual Reports, 1897-1970.
Box 2A Folder 1-4
Legislative File - Tenement House Legislation, 1902-1905.
Box 2A Folder 5
Legislative File - Tenement House Law, 1907.
Box 2A Folder 6
Legislative File - Water Supply Bill, 1911.
Box 2A Folder 7
Legislative File - Fight Against Tenement Law Repeal, 1914-1915.
Box 2A Folder 8
Pamphlets, 1902-1917.
Box 2A Folder 9
Properties, 1897-1924.
Box 2B Folder 10
Publications and Publicity, 1898-1938.
Box 2B Folder 11
Report by Carol Arnovici, 1917.
Box 2B Folder 12
Speeches, Conferences, Reports, etc., undated.
Box 2B Folder 13-14
Octavia Hill Biographical Material, 1880-1939.
Box 2B Folder 15
Clippings, 1911-1927 and undated.
Box 2B Folder 16

Ms. Octavia Hill [Portrait], undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 1
613 Lombard Street, office, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 2
613-15 Lombard Street, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 3
Front and League Streets, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 4
League and Water Streets, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 5-6
Court Rear, 235 Queen Street, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 7
Court Rear, 234 Monroe Street, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 8
1326-28 N. Front Street, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 9
Rear, 1328 N. Front, Hamilton Court, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 10
948 N. 3rd Street, plan, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 11
Court in rear of 948-52 N. 3rd Street, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 12
Court, N. 3rd Street after improvements, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 13
Court, other side - before alterations, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 14
Court, other side - after alterations, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 15
Rear, 427 Montrose Street, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 16
Front, 429 Montrose Street, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 17
Plan of Kensington houses, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 18
Gaul Street houses, corner Cambria Street, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 19
2423-29 Cambria Street, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 20
Rear, 2900 Gaul Street, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 21
Kitchen or living room, 2900 Gaul, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 22
Rear of Kensington houses, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 23
Germantown Yard before improvements, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 24
Germantown before improvements (various views), undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 25-28
Germantown yard before improvements, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 29
Germantown wooden toilets before improvements, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 30
Germantown after improvements, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 31
Germantown after improvements. No. 545-47, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 32
Germantown play shed, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 33
Rear, Front and Pemberton Streets, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 34-36
Old Houses, Pemberton Street 1746, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 37
Yard houses, Workman Place, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 38-39
Delegates to National Convention in 1912, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 40
Playshed at Workman Place, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 41
Goncher Place, Rodman below 6th, 1906, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 42
Room with quilt over window. 508 S. 7th Street, 1903.
Box 1A Photos Folder 43
Lot on which Kensington houses built, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 44
702-06 Lombard Street, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 45
Casa Ravello - 7th and Catherine, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 46
Rear, 1632 Naudain Street, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 47
17th and Shunk Streets, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 48
18th and Shunk Streets, undated.
Box 1A Photos Folder 49
701-21 N. Marshall Street. [NOT IN SET] 50A Cellar. 508 S. 7th Street, 1903.
Box 1A Photos Folder 50
Subseries 3.2: Prints and Negatives from Lantern Slides, circa 1903-1917.
Scope and Contents

1 box. No inventory available.

Series 4: Glass Negatives (PC-13), undated.
Box 1-2 photos
Scope and Contents

2 boxes. No inventory available.

Series 5: Prints from Glass Negatives, (PC-12), undated.
Box 1A Photos
Scope and Contents

1 box. No inventory available.

Print, Suggest