Peter Woll & Sons Feather Co., circa 1891.
Newer "PAPER" sign above, numerous older fainter "FEATHER" signs below.
From 1880 until the present, this family firm has been engaged in the Curled Hair business and its offshoots, such as feathers.
The Woll name is associated from 1891 with the five story brick building with corner towers on the north side of Berks Street. Architectural details on the building appear to make it a twentieth century structure, yet the building outlines and the office on the corner of Berks and Hancock conformed with the 1891 Hexamer insurance map and an advertisement of the firm from circa 1895. By 1891 the firm had expanded, taking over a four story building across Berks Street at the corner of Hancock. Woll structures on both sides of Berks Street carry clearly visible painted signs of the family name and occupation.
In 1916 Peter Woll and Son were joined by Woll and Sons, Feather Company at 169 Berks. In 1922, an atlas showed the firm had moved to the corner of Berks and Mascher, half a block east, and by 1945 their former buildings were occupied by other industries. The larger building became a paper warehouse and today is the Globe Paper Company (hence the vertical "PAPER" sign).
More information here.
Shots from 2008:
"Peter Woll & Sons Mfg. Co. Curled Hair"
The building across the street may have had one or more stories removed; there are signs on the Mascher Street side for the Rapid Electric and Penn Scale manufacturing companies; both were listed in the 1944 industrial directory.
Berks between Hancock and Mutter Streets [map]
McCaulley Steen & Co.
"COKE COAL FUEL OIL"
Port Richmond, by the river.
Penn Fruit Co.
20th and Oregon Ave.
Signage since covered with CVS lettering.
Sign removed for rotating Hard Rock Cafe guitar.
Refurbished and relocated at street level one block away.
12th & Market.
"National Licorice Company"
Also Wanamaker Shirt Factory.
Broad & Washington. Demolished.
"FRANKLIN S.& R. corp."
Bust logo lettering:
"EFFICIENT SAMPLING
• CAREFUL ASSAY
• GOOD RETURNS"
The Franklin sign is painted over a much older, larger sign. You can make out "...MBER CO" whitewashed along the bottom of the white sign.
At some point the Franklin changed to a corporation, necessitating the whitewashing of the old lettering of "CO." which is still visible. A less polished, lowercase "corp." covers the space. Looks as if the bust logo may have changed or added later as well, since it's background also seems to have been whitewashed.
Castor at Balfour, Port Richmond.
Barely visible "...GLER..."
Thompson and Howard Streets [map]
"JOSIA'S"
Probably multi-layered, this newer sign over older signs beneath.
Along Hancock [map
"...Paper Boxes"
Hancock and Turner Streets [map]
Barely legible "STEEL CO. OFFI..."
Hancock Street between Jefferson and Oxford.
"Parke's" as seen on Hope Street
Listed in early atlases as a distillery, "whiskey brewery" and warehouse. Later maps have no record of what is happening at the location.
L. H. Parke Company started in 1889 as a partnership of Louis H. Parke and William P. M. Irwin. The partnership took over the small provision-pushcart business of Samuel Irwin, a civil war veteran who had lost his arm in the Battle of Winchester, Virginia. Parke started as a seller of coffee, tea and spices. The company grew to be a major institutional wholesale seller of canned goods, and was famous for its coffee (Parke's Unmatchable Dry Roast Coffees), tea, spices and "Packed to Order" canned goods. In 1961 the company was sold to Consolidated Foods and was merged in 1962 into Monarch Foods. At the time of the sale the company was headquartered in Philadelphia with offices and warehouses in Pittsburgh, Washington DC, Richmond, Virginia and Albany, New York.
Donald Irwin Jr., President of Parke became the first president of Monarch Institutional Foods at that time. In 1946, Consolidated Foods Corp., the precursor of Sara Lee Corporation, acquired Monarch Foods and eventually "US Foodservice" or United Signature Foods, Inc., a broadline distributor based in Wilkes-Barre, PA, acquired former sister company PYA/Monarch for $1.57 billion on December 5, 2000.
Rudolph Fruchter Industries, Inc.
Wholesale Distributors of kitchens, Vanities & Appliances
Building has had a later life as a distributor for kitchen furniture and appliances. Garish purple and white street level paint scheme, which reads:
"Fruchter Industries, Inc. Wholesale Distributors of kitchens, Vanities & Appliances"
This explains some of the other signage found around the complex. For example:
"TAPPAN" with an image of a home cooking range, and...
"Appliances, Cabinets, Vanities" opposite.
Both clearly visible from the elevated train platform hovering over Front Street a few yards away.
There are numerous overlapping signs on the sides of the building, illustrations of vanities and home cooking ranges, and multiple versions of the FRUCTER company name, all visible from the elevated train. Peeking out beneath all of them you can make out a large "PARKE'S COFFEE".
Front Street just below Girard [map]
"15¢." Seems to have been part of a larger sign, long since weathered away.
Visible up close on the outdoor deck at The Standard Tap.
2nd and Poplar [map]
"TAP ROOM and BAR EQUIPMENT (black)
Fire escapes, railings, cellar doors, grilles (yellow)
RESTAURANT EQUIPMENT (black)"
This area seems to have been a hub for restaurant supply facilities. See also Ace a block away.
3rd and Brown [map]
Typical South Philly house number, one of many styles.
Not a painted sign, but a fixture that is slowly disappearing.
Will try to find a painted example.
Modern, partially stuccoed over.
Chestnut near 8th [map]
