Pal, your link is broken is this it? https://www.estately.com/listings/info/122-elfreths-alley-philadelphia-pa-19106

Thank you, fixed it I think.

I love this neighborhood of the city and almost rented a place when I first moved to the Phila area for a job at the Federal Reserve (easy walk). The kitchen here is a little more scary and offputting than the bathroom (which I think has some charm) but both have potential with a little vision and budget.

We looked at a house that had a brick floored basement and I think the brick was set in sand or on gravel. The kitchen smelled like soil and was very cold even in summer.

The tile is nice.

The door next door, in fact all the doors between the front doors, where do they lead? The seem to have mail slots, too?

I think living in such a place would have been fun when I was a young, single professional with few possessions.

The door in between is the privy passage. These lead to the back yard. Originally this would have been open, because I think people on the street also had access to the privies and then it also allowed for the night soil men to come and clean the privy without having to walk through the house.

In current times they are sometimes used to bring the trash from the back yard to the curb for pickup, but sometimes the alleys are really too narrow for that and people bring it through the house.

There are some areas where there are houses accessible only through these passages, those passages are usually a little wider.

Such a charming street. It's been too many years since I've been there and I regret never attending one of their June Fete days. Guess I'll miss it again this year since it's on June 3 and coincides with the Northern Liberties Sidewalk Sale & Flea market and I volunteered to help DD man her table of homemade pottery and plants.

She attended one of the Elfreth Alley festival days before Covid and was inspired to buy a Busybody mirror for her condo. Her windows overlook the street and if someone rings her buzzer to gain admittance through the wrought iron gates into the courtyard she can check to see who it is. They have an intercom but it's not always working.

Another great Franklin invention - right up there with his glass armonica.

https://kilianhardware.com/franklin-busybody/

@maire_cate .. both events sound fun! I have obligations on the 3rd but I need to keep up with the festivals, flea markets etc. It's going to be hot (at least here) the next few days (91 deg here now) enjoy the day and stay as cool as you can!

Funky - I didn't realize that you had worked in the city. One of the jobs I applied for when I first came to Philly was as a research librarian at the Fed, they had a great pay and benefit package. It would have been my first job after grad school but I didn't think I was ready for a job so narrowly focused.

Tomorrow will be 94 here but thankfully Saturday will cool off to 72 & cloudy. Maybe you'll opt to sit by your sister's pool. I don't do well in the heat and the thought of standing on a city street wasn't very thrilling But the best part about her neighborhood's Street fair is that she can set a table up right in front of her condo so she wont have to haul all her her crafts to the main Plaza.

That street name sounds like something from A Handmaid’s Tale.

@maire_cate yes.. I worked a few places in the area. I was at the Fed for a few years and then a Pharma Consulting Company out near KoP for a couple of years. I left at the very start of 2001 to work with a startup in Lancaster ... (all in IT/software development)

I remember reading that the residents of Elfreth’s Alley would see tourists trying to peer in their windows. They said they could see head popping up above the curtains as people jumped up trying to see in.

Such a charming street but I think it would be like living in a museum, sort of, which I guess you would be.