Bryn Mawr College

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Housing in Philadelphia, 1890-1920: apartment houses for a "city of homes"
(2006-11-01T20:51:09Z) Wisniewski, Linda
"The dominance of the "morally desirable" single-family dwelling in Philadelphia in the late nineteenth century distinguished the city from other urban areas where multi-family dwellings were an economic necessity for residents...Residential and business directories as well as census data from 1900 and 1920 demonstrate that Philadelphia's reputation as a "city of homes" was partly a perception that overshadowed an increasing population of hotels and apartment houses...The development of apartment housing in Philadelphia, especially in the neighborhoods, depended upon the same segregating forces that enabled the development of the single-family dwelling. In the end, residents of these multi-family dwellings were in transitional phases of their lives where the single-family dwelling would not have been suitable."