1854
John McCrea sells the newly completed townhouse at 1822 Pine Street to John Roset.
Built 1854 · 1822 Pine Street
A 170-year witness on Pine Street.
The house begins in the record on April 1, 1854, when John McCrea sold the newly completed townhouse to John Roset. From there the paper trail runs through Drexel family connections, the Spencer era, turn-of-century alterations, and the Davis women whose parlors became part of Philadelphia's suffrage movement.
The Record
The house is not a legend. It is a stack of receipts.
The archive fixes the address to names, dates, and printed evidence: Roset, Spencer, Davis; a $14,000 sale; an 1899 architectural commission; a 1905 fireplace job; a 1915 suffrage notice. The best part of the house is that its claims can be checked.
Archive Line
“The threshold remembers everything and judges nothing.”
From the house history archive
Reading Room
Four ways into the evidence.
Start with the narrative, check the timeline, open the documents, or follow the ownership record. Each path points back to the same address.
14 chapters
The Story
A narrative house history drawn from deeds, newspapers, architectural notes, and the rooms themselves.
47 entries
Verified Timeline
The documentary chronology, from the 1854 McCrea-to-Roset deed through the later life of the house.
63+ documents
Document Archive
Primary-source deeds, clippings, notices, and research files behind the public history.
Chain of title
Provenance
Ownership, transfers, and the paper trail that fixes 1822 Pine Street to specific people and dates.
Proof Points
The dates that hold the story in place.
1893
The property is reported sold for $14,000, then transferred from the Roset estate to Howard Spencer.
1899
Agnes M. Spencer commissions Duhring, Okie & Ziegler for alterations and additions.
1915
Miss Martha Davis of 1822 Pine Street sells Equal Franchise Society luncheon tickets.
Documents
Sleep somewhere with a paper trail.
Read the deed abstracts, newspaper notices, and supporting files, then come back to the rooms they describe. The archive is not decoration; it is the reason the house can speak so specifically.