Then and Now: The Intersection of Hall and Dean

We have a winner. Reader Gerry Fox correctly identified the location of as the corner of Hall and Dean Streets.

Brad Gubanich and Mark Chester were also correct, though not quite as quick to the draw as Gerry.

Below, per the Phoenixville Historical Society, is the full explanation:

The funeral photo was taken by J. William Sigman at the corner of Hall and Dean Streets. The building in theupper right is the old Borough Hall (now the parking lot for the current Borough Hall). The grassy area in theforeground was the entrance to the old Union Field.

Starting in 1847 The Phoenix Iron Company built company housing for its workers. The 26 units on Hall Street,named Cottage Row was the third of such developments (Nailers and Puddlers Rows were the first). The IronCompany collected rent and maintained control over all of these homes. During the Civil War, those peoplewho resided in the tenant houses were not obligated to pay rent if the head of the household was fighting forhis county. In the late 1920s, the Phoenix Iron Company began to sell their company-owned homes to privateinvestors. On the first of July, 1930, Solomon Ladov and wife from Norristown, Montgomery County paid$26,000 for houses #1 – 26 on Cottage Row.

The source of the above information is a research paper written by Daniel G. Cleary. Titled ’Immigrant Laborand the Phoenix Iron Company: 1840 – 1940’, this is an interesting and readable essay about the lives ofimmigrants in Phoenixville, particularly Hungarians and Slovaks. The paper is in the files at the HisoticalSociety of the Phoenixville Area, and visitors are invited to stop by to read it.