Metadata
Title
The Neighborhood House of Christ Church, Philadelphia, with a Social Survey of its district
Alternative Title
Neighborhood House with Social Survey
Date
1915
Digital Identifier
ChristChurch.SocialSurvey1915
Description
A 1915 published report and social survey conducted by Christ Church in Philadelphia, detailing the community outreach of its Neighborhood House. The report provides a comprehensive house-to-house canvass of the district bounded by Seventh Street, the Delaware River, Vine Street, and Walnut Street.
The document serves as a valuable historical record of early 20th-century urban life in Philadelphia, capturing detailed statistics on population demographics, immigration, religious affiliations, and housing conditions. It highlights significant public health and moral concerns of the era, such as the prevalence of unsanitary privy wells, overcrowded tenements, and the dense concentration of saloons and sweatshops in the neighborhood.
The document serves as a valuable historical record of early 20th-century urban life in Philadelphia, capturing detailed statistics on population demographics, immigration, religious affiliations, and housing conditions. It highlights significant public health and moral concerns of the era, such as the prevalence of unsanitary privy wells, overcrowded tenements, and the dense concentration of saloons and sweatshops in the neighborhood.
Subject
Place
Pennsylvania--Philadelphia
Extent
42 pages
Format (Digital)
tiff
Rights
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/
Language
eng
Type
Text
Abstract
This 1915 publication combines a rector's report with a social survey of the Christ Church parish district in Philadelphia, an area bounded by Seventh Street, the Delaware River, Vine Street, and Walnut Street. Rector Louis C. Washburn opens by defending the Church's contribution to social welfare and outlines four guiding "Key Words": Appreciation, Inspiration, Application, and Co-operation [p.3]. Observing the parish's 220th anniversary, he describes the partly built Neighborhood House at 20 North American Street, constructed at a cost of about $70,000, and its many agencies: a Lunch Room serving nearly 200 working women daily with an associated Vacation Fund, an Emergency Aid branch employing 25 unemployed women in supervised sewing, a Vacation Bible School, a modified milk distribution branch maintained by the Philadelphia Press, recreation opportunities, and a Boys' Club with a summer camp [p.4]. He recounts that the last dollar of building debt was paid in April 1915 and that a donor offered $3,000 toward the $10,000 needed to complete the third floor [p.7]. He also notes plans for a Day Nursery, then in abeyance because of the war [p.6].
The survey by assistant Francis M. Wetherill describes a door-to-door canvass conducted in the winter of 1914 by young women of the congregation, using cards with five questions on dwelling type, occupants and nationality, religion, children of school age, and remarks [p.9]. The methodology drew on the outline of the Social Service Commission of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America and the Trinity Church Social Survey of New York [p.9]. Detailed tables tabulate population, race, religion, children, and industries across thirty-four blocks [p.10-11], reporting a total of 62,457 working and living in the parish, with 58,935 working there, 3,522 residents, and 1,321 persons under fifteen [p.12]. The Sixth Ward's federal census population is shown declining from 10,004 in 1880 to 6,374 in 1910 [p.12].
Subsequent sections cover church activities [p.16-21], education [p.21-23], recreation [p.23], health [p.23-27], and housing [p.28-33]. The report documents vital statistics showing a Sixth Ward death rate above the city average, lists tubercular patients' addresses supplied by dispensaries and hospitals [p.25-27], and details unsanitary housing including condemned properties within 75 yards of Old Christ Church, hotels, lodging houses, tenements, and 124 privy wells [p.28-31]. Industrial conditions note about 60,000 daily workers, Jewish clothing sweat-shops along Market Street, and figures for the shoe, clothing, tobacco, wool, and office trades [p.33-34]. Centres of social uplift and public morals sections list charitable agencies, 65 saloons and 7 wholesale liquor dealers, pool rooms, and problems such as excursion steamer "speak-easies" on the Delaware River [p.34-39]. Wetherill concludes with seven constructive criticisms urging greater local awareness and responsibility, reduction of saloon licenses, improved sewer and drainage systems, a model tenement, a social center and playground, and expanded use of the Neighborhood House and the burial ground at Fifth and Arch Streets [p.40-42].
The survey by assistant Francis M. Wetherill describes a door-to-door canvass conducted in the winter of 1914 by young women of the congregation, using cards with five questions on dwelling type, occupants and nationality, religion, children of school age, and remarks [p.9]. The methodology drew on the outline of the Social Service Commission of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America and the Trinity Church Social Survey of New York [p.9]. Detailed tables tabulate population, race, religion, children, and industries across thirty-four blocks [p.10-11], reporting a total of 62,457 working and living in the parish, with 58,935 working there, 3,522 residents, and 1,321 persons under fifteen [p.12]. The Sixth Ward's federal census population is shown declining from 10,004 in 1880 to 6,374 in 1910 [p.12].
Subsequent sections cover church activities [p.16-21], education [p.21-23], recreation [p.23], health [p.23-27], and housing [p.28-33]. The report documents vital statistics showing a Sixth Ward death rate above the city average, lists tubercular patients' addresses supplied by dispensaries and hospitals [p.25-27], and details unsanitary housing including condemned properties within 75 yards of Old Christ Church, hotels, lodging houses, tenements, and 124 privy wells [p.28-31]. Industrial conditions note about 60,000 daily workers, Jewish clothing sweat-shops along Market Street, and figures for the shoe, clothing, tobacco, wool, and office trades [p.33-34]. Centres of social uplift and public morals sections list charitable agencies, 65 saloons and 7 wholesale liquor dealers, pool rooms, and problems such as excursion steamer "speak-easies" on the Delaware River [p.34-39]. Wetherill concludes with seven constructive criticisms urging greater local awareness and responsibility, reduction of saloon licenses, improved sewer and drainage systems, a model tenement, a social center and playground, and expanded use of the Neighborhood House and the burial ground at Fifth and Arch Streets [p.40-42].
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