Elfreth's Alley United States

Legendary

Wander this historic street with 32 homes dated between 1703 and 1836.

Photo by Céline Harrand

Look up at the second-floor windows here and you'll spot small angled mirrors sticking out from some of them. They're called busybodies.

Residents used them to see who was knocking at the front door without walking downstairs. If it was someone they didn't want to talk to, they simply didn't answer.

The alley dates back to 1703, when two neighbors agreed to give up strips of their land. Arthur Wells gave five feet and John Gilbert gave ten, creating a cart path from the river to Second Street.

Philadelphia was booming, and workers needed a shortcut to the docks. The alley wasn't in the city's original plans at all.

For a while people called it Gilbert's Alley. By around 1750 the name had changed to Elfreth's Alley, after Jeremiah Elfreth, a blacksmith who owned land at one end.

Thirty-two houses line the street today, built between 1703 and 1836. Many are Philadelphia "Trinity" houses, just three stories tall with a single room on each floor.

The people who lived here were working families. Shipbuilders, glassblowers, silversmiths, and furniture makers all had homes on this street.

In the 1770s, women ran about a third of the households on the alley. That was unusual for the time.

Everything changed in the 19th century as industry moved in. Factories and warehouses grew up around the alley, and families packed into the small houses.

At the crowded peak, eight families totaling 27 people shared just two of these homes. By 1880, more than 300 people were living on the alley.

In the 1930s, the city renamed the street and planned to tear it down. Residents fought back, formed an association in 1934, saved the houses, and won the old name back.

Walk the cobblestones and count the busybody mirrors as you go. Stop at the museum at numbers 124 and 126, once home to two dressmakers. Visit on the first Saturday in December, when residents open their front doors and let visitors see inside the decorated houses.