3515 Powelton Avenue

The History of the Building

The house is shown on the 1886 Baist Map. It was demolished in 1960 to make room for the Powel Elementary School

Previous Residents of 3515 Powelton Avenue

1878: The Scott Atlas shows the vacant lot owned by A.L. Massey. This is probably Alexander L. Massey who lived at 41^st and Walnut in the mid-1860s. In the 1866 Directory, he was listed as secretary of the Pennsylvania Gas Coal Co.

1880, Jan. 28: Deed transfer from Alexander L. Massey to Sarah Scattergood (L. 79, W. 172).

In the 1880 census, they were enumerated at 502 Marshall St., Philadelphia.

1881 Directory (compiled in Fall, 1880): Scattergood, Thomas (John M. Sharpless & Co.), h N 36^th corner Powelton Ave.

Thomas Scattergood (1841-1907)

1889 Blue Book: Thomas Scattergood, 3515 Powelton

1889 Graduates of Westtown School: Joseph Scattergood 3515 Powelton Ave., Phila.

1889 Notice of deaths: “Scattergood.—[November] 26th. At 3515 Powelton Avenue, Philadelphia, Sarah G., wife of Thomas Scattergood, in her 49th year.” (The British Friend, Volume 48.)

1890 Passport application: Miss Anna Scattergood, teacher, 5'3½”, address: 307 Walnut St.

1892: Thomas Scattergood married his second wife, Maria Chase.

1900:

Thomas Scattergood 58 Dye goods merchant; owned free of a mortgage

Maria Chase Scattergood 43 Married 8 years, 2 children; parents born in Mass.

Joseph Henry Scattergood 23 Clerk in a dry goods store

Alfred G. Scattergood 21 Clerk [rest illegible]

Margaret Scattergood 5

Arnold Chase Scattergood 2

Deborah H. Roberts 50 Housekeeper; born in N.J.

Mary Rodden 33 Servant; born in Ireland, immigrated 14 years previously

Maria Peyton 32 Servant; born in Ireland, immigrated 18 years previously

Mary Mc Avoy 23 Nurse; born in Ireland, immigrated 4 years previously

(ED 543, 12B)

1906, February: J. Henry Scattergood became engaged to Anna Theodore Morris, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Morris. (Phila. Inquirer)

J. Henry Scattergood (c1919)

1907, April 18: Death of Thomas Scattergood

“THOMAS SCATTERGOOD DEAD

“Well-known Member of Society of Friends Passes Away in Italy

“News from Naples, Italy, yesterday announced the death of Thomas Scattergood. He was a prominent member of the Society of Friends, attending the Twelfth street meeting. It was reported that he was taken suddenly with pneumonia while traveling, and his illness was so brief that it was not generally known until the news of his death came at the same time. It was passed from ear to ear at the yearly meeting yesterday afternoon and caused a general sorrow. He leaves a family of grown sons and daughters who are active in all the affairs of the Society of Friends.

“One is in the treasury department of the Provident Life and Trust Company. Another is Registration Commissioner J. Henry Scattergood. His daughter is teacher of the Infant School of the Twelfth street meeting. Deceased was president of the Sharpless Dyewood Extract Company, director of Provident Life and Trust Co. and connected with Bryn Mawr College, Friends’ Asylum for Insane and other business and charitable institutions.” (Phila. Inquirer, April 19, 1907)

1910:

Maria Scattergood 54 Widowed, 2 children; owned free of a mortgage

Margery Scattergood 15

Arnold Scattergood 12

J[oseph] Henry Scattergood 33 Step-son; President of life insurance co.; married

Anna T. Scattergood 35 Daughter-in-law

Thomas Scattergood 1 Grandson

Mary M. Scattergood 2 Granddaughter

Mary McDevitt 48 Servant; single; born in Ireland, immigrated in 1880

Mary Radden 44 Servant; single; born in Ireland, immigrated in 1886

Cecelia McMenamin 25 Servant; single; born in Ireland, immigrated in 1903

Matilda Darrough 34 Servant; widowed, 2 children; born in Ireland, immigrated in 1906

Francis Powell 39 Servant; single; born in Ireland

Deborah H. Roberts 60 Housekeeper; single

(ED 492, 4B-5A)

1920:

Mrs. Thomas [Maria] Scattergood 60 Widowed; parents born in Mass.; owned free of a mortgage

Margret Scattergood 33

Miss D. H. Roberts 70 Housekeeper; single; born in N.J.

Mary Ann Rodden 54 Servant; single; born in Ireland, immigrated in 1880

Catherine Rodden 60 Servant; single; born in Ireland, immigrated in 1880

Joseph Henry Scattergood 42 Manufacturer of dry stuffs

Anne Teena Scattergood 45

Mary Morris Scattergood 12

Thomas Scattergood 10

Alfred G. Scattergood 8

Ellen Morrie Scattergood 5

Evelyn Scattergood 3 yrs. 11 mons

Frances Powell 50 Servant; born in England, immigrated in 1908

Ella Dorsey 60 Servant; single; parents born in Ireland

Elanor L. Richey 46

(ED 687, 1A & 2A)

In 1930, Joseph H. Scattergood and his family lived in Radnor, Pa.

Digby Baltzell described the Scattergood family in Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class. He wrote:

“The Scattlergoods have been leaders within the Society of Friends, and in the Phi1adelphia business community, since the eighteenth century. Thomas Scattergood, born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1748, was an active Quaker minister in Philadelphia and vicinity. In the 1860's the firm of Carter and Scattergood were probably the largest manufacturer in this country of Yellow and Red Prussiates of Potash. At the same time, good Quaker Henry Sharpless was engaged in the manufacture of dye stuffs and chemicals. His father, Townsend Sharpless had founded the family in 1835. In 1895 the Sharpless Dyewood Extracts Company was incorporated; Thomas Scattergood was president. His two sons J. Henry Scattergood and Alfred Garrett Scattergood were listed in Who's Who in 1940.

“J. Henry Scattergood was with the American Pulley Company (1897-1900), the Sharpless Dyewood Extracts Company (1900-1904), and secretary of the newly formed American Dyewood Company between 1904 and 1906, when he became a ‘trustee of estates.’ Since 1916 he has been treasurer of Haverford College and, since 1927, treasurer of Bryn Mawr College. He was born in Philadelphia and educated at Haverford and Harvard. His directorships in the business world included the American Dyewood Company, the United Dyewood Corporation, First National Bank, Provident Mutual Life Insurance Company, American Pulley Company, Philadelphia Transportation Company, Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and the Vicksburg Bridge Company. Among his many good works, Mr. Scattergood was chairman of the board of trustees of the Hampton Institute, an original member of both the Committee of 70 (Philadelphia's prestige committee fostering good government in a variety of ways) and the American Friends Service Committee, and a member of the original Red Cross commission sent to France in World War I. He belonged to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Academy of Natura1 Sciences, Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, American Philosophical Society, Numismatic and Antiquarian Society, American Alpine Club, and the Republican Party. His five grown children were all married and he lived with his second wife (first wife, nee Morris, deceased) on the large Morris tract of land in Villanova, on the Main Line. His club memberships included the Union League, University, and Merion Cricket, in Philadelphia. and the Cosmos, in Washington.

“Alfred Garret Scattergood, vice-president of the Provident Trust Company, was educated at Haverford and Harvard. He was director of the Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven Railroad Company, the Saving Fund Society of Germantown, Friends Hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital, and chairman of the board of directors of Penn Charter School. Alfred Scattergood belonged to the University Club and lived with his wife (Emlen) at ‘Awbury’ in Germantown. ‘Awbury,’ a kind of Quaker plantation in the heart of Germantown, is the home of the many descendants of George Emlen, brewer, merchant, and leading Friend in eighteenth-century Philadelphia. In many ways, the Emlens are in the Quaker world what the Biddies or Cadwaladers are to Proper Philadelphia.....

“When, at the invitation of Herbert Hoover, the American Friends Service Committee took charge of the feeding of German children after the first war, Alfred G. Scattergood was chief of that unit.”

(Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class. Edward Digby Baltzell. 1958. pp 268-269.)

For a brief autobiographical sketch by Joseph H. Scattergood, see: Fourth report. By Harvard College. Class of 1897. 1912, p 360.

Genealogy:

Thomas Scattergood, birth: 1841 in Philadelphia death: 1907 in Naples, Italy

married in 1868, Sarah Garrett, born: 1840, Upper Darby, Pa.

Children: Edward Scattergood, 1870-1870

Anna Scattergood, 1873-

Joseph Henry Scattergood, 1877-1953

Married Anna Thoedora Morris, 1906 in Villanova, Pa.

Alfred G. Scattergood, c1879-

(http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/4263177/person/-1176665350)

1930:

Elizabeth [sic.] Scattergood 70 Parents born in Mass.; owner, house valued at $65,000

Margaret Scattergood 35 Clerical worker for U.S. Gov. [illegible]

Rebecca B. Wister 55 Secretary for private family; single; born in N.J.

Clare Trueblood 23 Lodger; born in Iowa, parents in Indiana

– 2^nd household:

Clarence G. Hoag 57 Born in Mass., father in N.H., mother in Mass.; renting for $50 per month

Anna A. Hoag 56

John H. Hoag 24

Josephine Hebda 27 Servant; born in Vienna, Austria, father also born in Vienna, mother born in Poland but spoke German

Margaret Dempsey 45 Servant; born in Ireland

(ED 398, 17A)

1946: “Mrs. Thomas Scattergood

“Mrs. Maria Chase Scattergood, widow of Thomas Scattergood, dyestuffs manufacturer, died Sunday at her home, 3515 Powelton Avenue, Philadelphia, at the age of 90. She was a daughter of Pliny Earle Chase, former Professor of Philosophy at Haverford College. Before her marriage in 1892, Mrs. Scattergood taught languages in the Friends Select School. Long active in the Society of Friends, she was a member and a minister of the Twelfth Street Meeting , Philadelphia. She leaves a daughter, Margaret Scattergood of Washington, D.C., and three step-children.” (New York Times, Nov. 13, 1946.) [Note: in the death notice, the Times lists her age as 91.]

1950: “SARAH PARKER remembers MRS. SCATTERGOOD who lived with a companion, MISS WISTER, in the lovely old Scattergood House with the magnificent garden, until she died in 1950 [sic.]…. Father Divine made an offer for the house before he bought the Hotel Tracy, but it became a Blind Home until the house was torn down and the Powel School was built….”

(“The Fence Post,” by Maggie Funderburg, Powelton Post, Jan., 1964, p 4)

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Revised 10/11/2011