I'm doing a little family history, trying to learn something about my wife's great-grandfather who was living at 1511 Sober Street when he died in 1891. According to a directory of street names at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the name of Sober Street was changed to South Capitol after that date.

South Capitol is a one-block street that runs from Dickinson to Tasker, with Lambert and Woodstock paralleling it on either side.

Does anyone know the current condition of South Capitol? Is the house that was standing at 1511 in 1891 likely to still be there?

Thanks for your help!

The house may be from that time, if not, just a little later. That is right near 21st and Tasker, not a good place to be.

Thanks, hr. Sounds like it might be worth coming by in the daytime to check out and take a photo.

Hello,

I live not too far from Capital.....near Dickenson side. If you come in the daytime you should be fine.....The house might be still standing.

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By chance, I was in Philly today and tried to find this place. Unfortunately, I didn't have all my information with me and, therefore, never found it.

I had remembered South Capitol running between Dickinson and Tasker, but turned east off of Broad, rather than west. Asked a mail carrier who was walking down Dickinson, but he said he'd never heard of South Capitol. Guess it's just outside of his route.

I'll try again later.

Capital Street runs N and S.

If you go to 20th and Dickenson and walk West you will hit woodstock street, then capital street.

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Don't talk to the monkey; speak to the organ grinder.

Have you tried to search for photos here? http://www.phillyhistory.org/PhotoArchive/

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"We painted the town red in our 1979 winnobego, ( PURPLE ) with maggie hanging her wooden leg out the window." OLD 4 SQ

Good idea, Kristian, but the site doesn't seem to include any images of South Capitol Street -- or Sober Street, the old name.

I did, however, Google the address to get one of those satellite images, which showed a street with lots of little rowhouses. I'm betting that the house that was there in 1891 is still there.

Funny. I'm guessing this is very much a working class neighborhood now. The people who lived at this address 110 years ago are supposed to have had very "Main Line" pretensions. My wife's aunt says that her mother -- the daughter of the man who died in 1891 -- was once scolded for picking up her own suitcase. ("We don't do that, Gertrude," he supposedly said. "We have people for that.") Later, Gertrude married a Delaware County farmer with whom she spent the rest of her life working with her hands.

I was in the city again today and found the street and the house. Tough neighborhood, and a very modest little rowhouse. I'm not an architectural historian, but I suspect the house dates to before 1891. If anyone reading this does know about such things, I could email a photo I took. I never have understood how to post photos to PhillyBlog.