742-746 S Front St (Workman Place)

Excerpted from Stephen Sitarski:

“By the 20th century, Philadelphia had become one of the world’s largest industrial centers. But pollution, disease, and inadequate housing alarmed city officials. Unlike the high-rise tenements of New York, Southwark’s alleys and courtyards of ramshackle, three-story bandbox houses (or "trinities") were often hidden from street view. Local government was slow to react, so philanthropic groups like the Octavia Hill Association, founded in 1896 and named for a British social reformer, provided the poor and working-class immigrants and African Americans with clean and affordable housing. The association still maintains rental properties in South Philadelphia, including Workman Place, and several homes on the 200 block of Beck and Queen Streets.”

Sitarski, Stephen M. “From Weccacoe to South Philadelphia: The Changing Face of a Neighborhood.” Pennsylvania Legacies 7, no. 2 (November 2007): 6-13. https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.upenn.edu/stable/27765101.