Documentation & verification
Provenance
Claims about the home are backed by primary sources (deeds, newspapers, and official records). This page highlights OCR-backed facts and links to the underlying documents.
Verified Facts (OCR-Backed)
Each item below links to a source document in the archive.
Note: the property certificate is intentionally excluded from the public archive and fact list.
Legal description states the property is situate on the south side of Pine Street.
Source: 1822 Pine - 2013 Deed.pdf
Legal description begins 230 feet westward from the west side of Eighteenth Street.
Source: 1822 Pine - 2013 Deed.pdf
Legal description lists a front/breadth on Pine Street of 22 feet.
Source: 1822 Pine - 2013 Deed.pdf
Legal description lists depth southward 90 feet to Waverly Street.
Source: 1822 Pine - 2013 Deed.pdf
Legal description identifies the property as 1822 Pine Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Source: 1822 Pine - 2013 Deed.pdf
2013 deed references prior owners Stephen A. Mione and Tralan Muntean.
Source: 1822 Pine - 2013 Deed.pdf
2002 deed form lists the house number and street name as 1822 Pine Street.
Source: 1822 Pine - 2002 Deed.pdf
2002 deed lists Roland K. Bullard II and Sally S. Bullard as parties.
Source: 1822 Pine - 2002 Deed.pdf
1985 deed includes the parties Michael Kosmin and Rod Goodwin, and Pine Associates.
Source: 1822 Pine - 1985 Deed.pdf
1979 deed references Mary G. Sharpe Wilkes (widow) as prior owner in the chain of title.
Source: 1822 Pine - 1979 Deed.pdf
Newspaper clipping titled "1822 Sold for $14,000" is dated May 11, 1893 (Philadelphia Inquirer).
Source: 1822_Sold_for_14_000.pdf
Death notice reports Spencer Jr. died at 1822 Pine Street of scarlet fever (age listed as 7 years).
Rolin-Plumb wedding breakfast was served at the residence of the bride's parents on Pine Street (OCR reads "IS22 Pine street").
Equal Franchise Society luncheon tickets were available from treasurer Miss Martha Davis, 1822 Pine Street (price $1.50).
Mrs. Graham Spencer closed her country house at Kaolin, Chester County, and returned to 1822 Pine Street for the winter.
Duhring, Okie & Ziegler finished plans for alterations and additions to Mrs. Graham Spencer's residence at 1822 Pine Street.
Okie, Duhring & Ziegler awarded contract for alterations and additions to the residence of Mrs. Agnes Spencer at 1822 Pine Street; cost about $6,000.
Notice lists a fireplace job at 1822 Pine Street with a cost of $130.
Society listing notes an "At home" for Mrs. Henry C. Davis and the Misses Davis at 1822 Pine Street.
1854 deed abstract: PRESENT OWNER "Jno Roset"; FORMER OWNER "Jno McCrea"; DATE OF DEED April 1854. This is the document tying builder John McCrea to this house.
Source: 1854 Deed abstract (2).jpg
1854 deed abstract describes the lot as the south side of Pine Street, 230 feet west of 18th Street, 22 feet front, 90 feet deep to Waverly Street — the same dimensions recited in the 2013 deed.
Source: 1854 Deed abstract (2).jpg
1893 deed abstract records the chain of title in red ink: "John Roset by Will to Mary Ann Roset by Will to The Penna Co for Ins on Lives &c et al in Trust" — documenting continuous Roset family ownership from 1854 until the 1893 sale.
Source: 1893 Deed abstract.jpg
1893 deed abstract: PRESENT OWNER "Howard Spencer"; FORMER OWNER "The Penna Co for Ins on Lives &c et al"; DATE OF DEED 29 June 1893. The 1893 purchaser was HOWARD Spencer, not Graham.
Source: 1893 Deed abstract.jpg
1899 deed abstract: PRESENT OWNER "Agnes M. Spencer"; FORMER OWNER "William McLean, Henry Pleasants, Executors & Trustees under the will of Howard Spencer"; DATE OF DEED 3 April 1899. The 1899 conveyance came out of HOWARD Spencer's estate.
Source: 1899 Deed abstract - 1.jpg
1899 deed abstract, reverse: Registry Office entered 6 April 1899; Lot No. 76, Plan Book 3S page 21, Pine Street, 7th Ward, Division 21 — matching the city registry number 003S210076. The house number is written as 1822.
Source: 1899 Deed abstract - 2.jpg
1854 deed abstract, DATE OF DEED column, read from the image: "Ap. 21. 1854" — April 21, not April 1.
Source: 1854 Deed abstract (2).jpg
Methodological caveat for directory evidence: a city-directory listing establishes the LATEST date by which a household was at an address, not the date it arrived. Canvassers compiled volumes months before publication, so the 1855 volume reflects 1854 fieldwork, and absence from an earlier volume is not evidence the house was empty.
Source: 08-census-directories.md
1854 deed abstract describes “all that certain lot or piece of ground” with the measurements. That phrase is PRE-PRINTED on the form — the 1893 abstract, for a house that indisputably stood, recites it identically — so the absence of a “buildings and improvements” clause is NOT evidence the lot was vacant. The abstract does not establish whether a house stood on 21 April 1854.
Source: 1893 Deed abstract.jpg
BUILD DATE, DIRECT TEST. Highest occupied Pine Street house number by directory volume (pre-1858 numbering): 1849=399, 1850=514, 1851=486, 1852=534, 1853=708, 1854=793, 1855=795. Through 1852 the occupied end of Pine Street stops in the 300s-500s. The 700s do not appear until 1853. 1822 Pine (old 756) sits mid-1800-block.
Source: mcelroysphiladel<YEAR>amce_djvu.txt (counted 2026-08-27 by regex over every '<nnn> Pine' entry in each volume)
BUILD DATE, DIRECT TEST. Distinct occupied house numbers in the future 1800 block (old 734-780 Pine): 0 in 1849, 1850, 1851, 1852 and 1853; 9 in 1854; 19 in 1855; 20 in 1856. The adjacent 1700 block (old 700-732) runs 0,0,0,0,6,15,21,25 across the same volumes — so the development front reached the 1700 block in 1853 and the 1800 block in 1854, about one block per year.
Source: mcelroysphiladel<YEAR>amce_djvu.txt (counted 2026-08-27 by regex over every '<nnn> Pine' entry in each volume)
BUILD DATE, CONFOUND CLOSED. Early directories often located people descriptively ('Pine ab 18th') rather than by number, which would hide an occupied house from a number-based count. Entries matching Pine near 16th/17th/18th/19th number ZERO in the 1849, 1850, 1851, 1852 and 1853 volumes, despite 120-180 descriptive Pine entries per volume further east. The first such entries -- including 'Pine ab 18th' and 'Pine ab 19th' -- appear in 1854 (17) and 1855 (18). Both listing conventions are empty through 1853 and both fill in 1854.
Source: mcelroysphiladel<YEAR>amce_djvu.txt (counted 2026-08-27 by regex over every '<nnn> Pine' entry in each volume)
BUILD DATE, CONCLUSION. The widely repeated 'c. 1845' for 1822 Pine cannot be sustained: in 1845-1852 no one was listed anywhere on Pine west of roughly 15th Street, by number or by description. Sustaining c.1845 would require nineteen finished houses standing empty for eight years, two to four blocks beyond the last occupied house on the street. What the records establish directly is occupancy, not the day the masons finished; the defensible statement is that the house was first conveyed on 21 April 1854 (McCrea to Roset) and that its block went from no listed households to fully occupied between the 1853 and 1855 volumes.
Source: mcelroysphiladel<YEAR>amce_djvu.txt (counted 2026-08-27 by regex over every '<nnn> Pine' entry in each volume)
The 1854 document in the archive is a Philadelphia registry 'DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY' form, not the deed itself: it is printed with 'Bring Deed with this, that it may be endorsed.' and 'Signature of Owner or Agent', and records Jno Roset as PRESENT OWNER and Jno McCrea as FORMER OWNER with DATE OF DEED 'Ap. 21. 1854'. It registers the 1854 conveyance as the source of title; it is not evidence of a construction date.
Source: 1854 Deed abstract (2).jpg
The 1983 National Register nomination contains 'c. 1845' exactly four times, and the only Pine Street instance is the block to the EAST, verbatim: "1700-38 4-story, late Greek Revival townhouses, marble trim and door surrounds, modillioned wood cornice, c.1845. Contributing." The nomination assigns no c.1845 date to 1800-1836 Pine.
Source: 1983 National Register nomination, Rittenhouse-Fitler Historic District (OCR text, read 2026-08-27)
The 1995 city inventory's 'c. 1845' occurrences are 1622 Pine (a Notman double cityhouse, dated 'c. 1845-1855'), a Greek Revival rowhouse, 2300 Spruce, 254-260 and 411 — none of them 1800-1836 Pine, which the inventory dates not at all.
Source: 1995 Philadelphia city inventory, Rittenhouse-Fitler (OCR text, read 2026-08-27)
The City's OPA record for 1822 Pine carries year_built '1800' with the estimate flag set to 'Y' — an explicit placeholder rather than a finding.
Source: Philadelphia OPA property record, read 2026-08-27
PHMC applies the same 'c. 1845' to 1905-1913 Pine, a row the National Register describes as vernacular/Italianate — a later style. A single date applied across rows of visibly different periods is a default value, not an independent dating.
Source: Philadelphia Architects and Buildings database (philadelphiabuildings.org), read 2026-08-27; compare 1983 National Register nomination, Rittenhouse-Fitler Historic District (OCR text, read 2026-08-27)
Cross-check on survey dates: the National Register dates 1700-38 Pine 'c.1845', but the directories show the 1700 block first occupied in 1853 (six houses) and filling through 1855. Even where a survey date genuinely concerns a block, it runs about eight years early here.
Source: 1983 National Register nomination, Rittenhouse-Fitler Historic District (OCR text, read 2026-08-27); McElroy's Philadelphia city directories 1849-1856
Sources & Bibliography
Download the reference files used during historical research.