3409 Powelton Avenue

The History of the Building

“three-story residential building; has retained its stone and brick sides, shingled projecting bays and wood porch. The front has been altered to a brick facade with paired windows with aluminum shutters set in aluminum siding.”

(Inventory of Buildings in Powelton from the application submitted to the national register of Historic Places, 1985)

Previous Residents of 3409 Powelton Avenue

Note: Some sources list this as 3407 Powelton Ave.

“Another fine example of the High Queen Anne style with its hung-shingle exterior is the Sabin W. Colton house at 3407 Powelton Avenue, designed by New York architect Bruce Price circa 1885.

(Powelton Village Plan.. Chapt. 2)

Building permits and contracts granted for alterations:

8/13/1890 (v. 5, n. 32, p. 481) Colton, Mr.

10/22/1890 (v. 5, n. 42, p. 642) Coulton, Mr. completed plans

10/4/1899 (v. 14, n. 40, p. 638) C.W. Colton/Jas. A. Bradin

(http://www.philadelphiabuildings.org)

1889-‘90 Blue Book: Mr & Mrs S.W. Colton, Jr.

1900:

Sabin Colton 53 Banker; father born in Mass., mother in N.Y.; owned free of a mortgage

Jessie S Colton 45 Married 20 years, 5 children, 4 surviving; born in Ohio, father in Pa., mother in Ohio

Harold S Colton 18

Mildred Colton 16

Ralph Colton 8

Susannah Colton 5

Blanch M Dilley 34 Governess; single; born in N.Y., parents in Vt.

Lizzie McClelland 27 Servant; born in Ireland, immigrated in 1890

Ellen Norton 28 Servant; born in Ireland

(ED 539, 10A)

Jessie Sellers was the daughter of Coleman Sellers. She grew up at 3301 Baring. When she and her brother married in 1880, Coleman Sellers built twin houses for them at 410 and 412 N. 33rd, directly behind his house. The Coltons lived at 410 N 33rd for only five years before moving to Powelton Ave.

For their genealogy: http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/8610132/person/-731815945

“Sabin W. Colton was born in 1853 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended the University of Pennsylvania shortly after he graduated from high school. He is most famous for enduring a rifle shot to the back of his skull, which supposedly did no harm whatsoever to his brain.”

(http://enc.slider.com/Enc/Sabin_W_Colton,_VI,_PhD, July, 16, 2009)

“Sabin Woolworth Colton, Jr. (March 18, 1847, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – January 29, 1925, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania) was an American investor. He was the only private individual to ever own a chair on both the Philadelphia and New York Stock Exchanges.

He became an office boy in 1862 at a stock brokerage, later became a clerk there. While a clerk there bought his own chair on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. His expertise was in underwriting the establishment of utility companies in exchange for stock in those companies.

He retired in 1910, having built a spacious family house, Longmeadow, in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, and an elegant Arts & Crafts-style summer house, Faraway, on Eastern Point of Greening Island, Maine.”

(Wikipedia, July, 16, 2009)

“‘I never finished anything.’ Thus did Harold Sellers Colton C[lass of]1904 Gr[aduate dgree]1908 [Univ. of Pennsylvania] describe the first 20 years of his life, including the front end of his undergraduate career at Penn. For a man who would go on to publish some 260 scientific papers, monographs, and books—becoming a charter member of the Ecological Society of America along the way—that verdict would hardly do as an epitaph. Yet there’s something apt about it. The man started even more projects than his busy 89 years allowed him to complete. And this past March, several of his successors in Penn’s biology department brought one of Colton’s earliest endeavors to a new and unexpected conclusion, nearly a century after it began in 1915.”

(see full article in PDF from the Penn Gazette, July/Aug 2009.)

“Through architecture, the late Ralph L. Colton, of Philadelphia, PA, gave to this world the benefits of his ability and training. Comparatively young in his skilled profession, he accomplished much that is noteworthy and he was held in high regard by his contemporaries. A member of an early American family, prominent since early Colonial days he was the fourth of five children born to Sabin W. Colton (#1818) and Jessie (Sellars) at Wallingford, PA on 19 September, 1891. This made him a younger brother of Harold Sellers Colton, who later built and owned the historic Colton House Retreat Center outside Flagstaff, AZ (CFN, Vol. 1, Issue 3).

1904: Colton, S.W., Jr. (yacht Owners. Blue Book of American Shipping)

1906: Colton, S. W., Jr

("Transactions of the Sixth International Congress on Tuberculosis v. 8" 1906. Google Books)

1909: Colton, Mr. Harold Sellers, 3409 Powelton Ave.

(The Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia. Geographical Society of Philadelphia, Geographical Club of Philadelphia. 1909. Google books.)

1910: Colton, Harold Sellers, Ph.D., 3409 Powelton

(Summarized proceedings ... and a directory of members. By American Association for the Advancement of Science. 1910. Google books.)

1910:

Sabin W Colton Jr 63 Father born in Mass., mother in N.Y.; owned free of a mortgage

Jessie S Colton 54 Married 30 years; born in Ohio, father in Pa., mother in Ohio

Susanna Colton 14

Harold S Colton 28 University lecturer

Ralph L Colton 18

Gertrude F Palmer 34 Boarder; single; parents born in England

Amanda Johnson 23 Servant; born in Sweden

Mary Cagan 38 Servant; born in Ireland

Elvira Davis 57 Servant; born in Ireland

(ED 488, 1A)

1912: Colton, Harold Sellers, Ph.D., 3409 Powelton

(Summarized proceedings ... and a directory of members. By American Association for the Advancement of Science. 1912. Google books.)

1920:

Morris Wolf 36 Lawyer, general practice

Rose Wolf 24 Mother born in Kentucky

Edwin Wolf 8

Robert Wolf 5 & 4/12

Anna Ruth 19 Chambermaid

Mary R Kelly 35 Cook; born in Ireland; immigrated 1902

Anny Henne 27 Governess; born in Switzerland; immigrated 1916

(ED 682, 5B)

Note: Rose is his 2nd wife. they married in 1918, therefore, these are not her children.

“Morris Wolf (1883--1978) founded the firm that is now Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen in 1903 by boldly asking his law professor, Horace Stern, to become his law partner. Wolf was independently wealthy and practiced law only because he had a passion for using his first-rate legal mind to solve his clients' problems, to whom he was fiercely loyal. He never lost this consuming zest for the practice of law, which he imbued into his law firm through his commanding intellect, his intense scholarly interest in the law, his force of will, and his legendary ability to win the confidence of clients. Wolf was a major force in the Philadelphia legal, business and Jewish communities for three-quarters of a century.”

(Philly Lawyers Begin Third Century with First-Ever 'Hall of Fame.' Philadelphia Bar Association. News release 1/8/2002).

The firm began opened in 1903 with Wolf and Stern They got their 1904 big case, Bamett v. Philadelphia Market Company. “In this case, Stern & Wolf represented a dissenting shareholder in a corporation that was party to a merger. Stern & Wolf won the case in the lower court, after which the defendant hired John G. Johnson to appeal to the state Supreme Court. At that time Johnson was widely regarded as the greatest lawyer in the English-speaking world. Despite his presence in the case, the state's highest court ruled in favor of Stern & Wolf's client.”

(From the history of the firm, given on their website. The firm has now disbanded, and the site is no longer available.)

Morris Wolf was the fir president of the Allied Jewish Appeal and later became the president of the Federation of Jewish Charities.

(The History of the Philadelphia Jewish Federation. by Kathryn Levy Feldman. accessed Mar 29, 2009)

1930:

Burgh Johnson 24 Cashier, ???; born in S.C.; father in Tenn., mother in S.C.

Lida Johnson 21 Born in S.C.

Burgh Johnson 2 yrs. and 1 mon.

(ED 396, 23A)

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