As Philadelphia industrialized and newcomers filled mills and machine shops in the nineteenth century, new housing designs pulled the common row house onto the street and out to the yard. Andrew Jackson Downing, the grand suburban promoter and designer, philosophically infiltrated urban locales like Philadelphia long after his death in 1852. His focus on the importance of the individual home and its value to people and places was accepted as gospel. In heavy labor districts porches even fulfilled a significant purpose: the receptacle of dirty work clothes, leaving one’s home reasonably clean.
Connected to homes, porches serve as platforms for play, neighborly interactions, dinner, concerts, yard sales, cooling zones and private open space (unlike piazzas or public squares) where one may be seen and observed from the confines of their own property. Perhaps nothing in America links regions (north and south for example) like her porches. As ubiquitous zones on independent lots they stand out as informal places of entry, a public sphere where encounters occur.
While followers of new urbanism are trying to bring back the front porch, the space was long ago replaced by backyards, garages and patios. Contractors and builders view porches as nuisances that do not fit the footprint of modern construction practices.
Philadelphia is unique because much of her seminal architecture and building rose between 1880 and 1930, the prime porch-building era in North America. This paper will examine the diversity and uses of the city’s porches and capture (via pictures, interviews, poetry and prose) the impact of the porch on the city and her citizens.
About the presenterJake Sudderth
Jake Sudderth is the Research Director of CTC (City Town County) Urban Studies. He develops plans and surveys predicting future growth in urban neighborhoods. He is the author of one book and numerous articles specific to urban history. Previous work included teaching American History and American Studies