New York is olde but Philly is older,
and Elfreth’s Alley is the oldest of all.
Still largely intact since the early 1700’s, Elfreth’s is billed as the oldest continuously occupied residential street in all of America.
It looks it, too.
Jeremiah Elfreth was a blacksmith and one of the more significant artisans who lived on this little stretch.
He built his house in 1741, adding to it in 1762, and today you can go inside and look around.
The St. Regis it ain’t.
They lived small in those days because large volumes were harder to heat.
But the architecture is important and the Library of Congress has a large collection of stills for documentation.
It’s quaint and fun to walk around imagining life without electricity, never mind being constantly connected.
I felt a kinship with the basic survival of living in colonial times.
The period still hangs in the air here.
I was born 300 years too late.
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