Fondly known as the “Sugar House” due to the Pennsylvania Sugar Refining Company (1881-) and later Jack Frost (1947-84), those buildings were demolished in 1997.
The documentary history of the Sugar House site dates back over 350 years to the mid-seventeenth century — 25 years before the founding of Pennsylvania (in 1681).
Note: the 1,800 acre Shackamaxon lands stretched from the Cohocksink Creek to the Frankford Creek. Except where noted for contextual reference, everything mentioned below happened on the 22.6 acre Sugar House site. This brief history is organized by time. More information is available upon request.
1656 “Kackamensi” — “the old or large tree.”
The first recorded European name for this area was given by Peter Lindström in Geographia Americae with An Account of the Delaware Indians, based on Surveys and Notes Made in 1654-1656.
1664 Peter Larsson Cock (1610-97) & six Swedish families settle in Shackamaxon.
“Alexander D’Hinoyosos, Governor at New York, the 5th day of [June] Anno 1664 grants unto Peter Cock all that tract of land on Delaware called ‘Shackamaxon’ without any quit rent for the same.” (warrant/deed)
1678 Elizabeth Kinsey buys 300 acres from Lars Petersson “Lasse” Cock (1646-99)
In 1677, the ship Kent brought John Kinsey, one of the commissioners, sent by the Proprietors of West Jersey, “to buy the lands of the natives, to inspect the rights of such as claimed property, and to order the lands laid out, and in general to administer the government… They arrived at Newcastle on the 15th of the Sixth Month [August]. John Kinsey was, according to tradition, at that time ill, and being landed at Shackamaxon, where the Swedes had a settlement, a few days afterwards, he there died.”
While in Shackamaxon, John’s daughter Elizabeth met Martha Ashman (1650-1724?), the English wife of Lasse Cock (they married in 1669). After burying her father in Burlington, NJ, and settling his estate, Elizabeth returned and bought “300 acres ay Shackamaxon, with a house or houses apparently built on it” from Lasse & Martha Cock (Upland Court Records, 30 March 1678). Lasse and Martha Cock moved to her parents’ estate in Passyunk.
1680 Elizabeth Kinsey marries Thomas Fairman
Thomas Fairman becomes Deputy Surveyor for Pennsylvania.
1682 William Penn arrives in Pennsylvania
And rents Elizabeth Kinsey’s and Thomas Fairman’s house — just a few hundred feet north of the Sugar House site — for six months. That house appears to have been one of the Swedish- built log cabins since the famed Fairman’s Mansion was not built until 1702.
1715 Masters’ Tide Mill
Thomas Masters (?-1724), a Quaker carpenter and merchant who settled in Philadelphia in 1684, became one of that city’s wealthiest and most important political figures, serving as alderman for twenty-three years and as mayor for two terms. Masters was the first signer of the controversial 1701 petition to the proprietor from Philadelphia inhabitants demanding crucial changes in land policy, the regulation of drinking houses, and a new frame of government. Earlier that year, Penn had named him one of the commissioners in the city to regulate streets and watercourses and to clear docks and repair landing places and bridges.
Masters was also an inventor. In 1714, Masters purchased the Governor’s Mill (built by William Penn in 1701) which stood on the southwest corner of Germantown Road and Girard Avenue. English Patent No 401, the first to any person in the American colonies, was granted November 25th, 1715, “to Thomas Masters, of Pensilvania, Planter, his Exectrs, Admrs, and Assignes, of the sole Use and Benefit of A New Invencon found out by Sybilla, his wife, for Cleaning and Curing the Indian Corn Growing in the severall Colonies in America within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the Colonies in America.”
After Thomas Fairman’s death (1714), Masters bought the southern section of Kinsey/Fairman lands along the north side of the Cohocksink Creek (including the Sugar House site). Two manuscript maps (ca. 1715 & 1729) show Master’s Tide Mill and the race (to carry water) from where the bridge crossed the Cohocksink Creek (now Laurel & Canal Streets), in a southerly line parallel to Frankford Avenue. The race appears to have travelled through the southwestern portion of the Sugar House site, the mill itself might be farther south. To function, the bottom of the race must have been close to low tide, or almost eighteen feet (five meters) below current grade level.
1728 Batchelors’ Hall.
One of Philadelphia’s first learned societies, predating both the American Philosophical Society and the Library Company of Philadelphia. It’s membership included a number of the same men, as well as Franklin’s “Junto Club,” which was only founded in 1727. Batchelor’s Hall included Philadelphia’s first botanic garden for growing medicinal plants, it was visited by the famed horticulturist John Bartram, and it was celebrated in George Webb’s poem, printed by Benjamin Franklin.
“Close to the dome a garden shall be join’d—
A fit employment for a studious mind.
In our vast woods whatever simples grow.
Whose virtues none, or none but Indians, know,
Within the confines of this garden brought,
To rise with added lustre shall be taught;
Then culled with judgment each shall yield its juice
Saliferous balsam to the sick man’s use;
A longer date of life mankind shall boast,
And Death shall mourn her ancient empire lost.”
“‘To mend the heart and cultivate the mind’ were the Bachelors’ goals. Philosophy and natural science were discussed and a botanical garden was to be maintained for the study of the medical properties of various plants ‘whose virtues none, or none but Indians know.’” (Philadelphia, Three Centuries of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1976, republished 1990, p. 36).
1777 British Army Redoubt No. 1
In September 1777, the British Army under General Howe occupied Philadelphia. Captain John Montrésor, the “Chief Engineer in America,” designed a series of ten redoubts (forts) just to the north of Philadelphia.
General George Washington wrote to Horatio Gates on 2 December 1777:
“Genl. Howe has withdrawn himself close within his lines, which extend from the upper Ferry upon Schuylkill [#10, where the Art Museum stands] to Kensington upon Delaware [#1, on the Sugar House site]. They consist of a Chain of strong Redoubts, connected by Abattis. We have reconnoitered them well, but find it impossible to attack them while defended by a force fully equal to our own in Continental Troops.”
Washington took his Continental Army to Valley Forge.
John Fanning Watson wrote in “Annals of Philadelphia” (1830), p. 418: ”The British redoubts remained til lately — one on the Delaware bank in a line with the stone-bridge street [Laurel Street] …”
Redoubt No. 1 protected the causeway (now Laurel Street) across the Cohocksink Creek (flooded by the British as a defensive measure in Nov. 1777), and the ferry to Cooper’s Point, NJ. That ferry was one of the two routes by which the British Army left Philadelphia in June 1778.
1789 Samuel Bower shipwright
A member of the Master Ship Wrights’ Society, Bowers’ built his first shipyard just south of Laurel Street. During his shipbuilding career, Samuel Bower constructed 56 new vessels (27 Ships, 18 Brigs, 5 Schooners, 2 Gunboats, 3 Steamboats, and 1 Sloop), while repairing 323 vessels (149 Ships, 101 Brigs, 62 Schooners, 4 Gunboats, 1 Steamboat, and 6 Sloops). A total of 379 vessels were built or repaired at both of Bower’s Point Pleasant shipyards.
Around 1800, Bower was solicited by the Spanish Government to become its Chief Naval Constructor, however after talking with friends and family, he declined the position. On a number of occasions, Bower became both merchant and shipper and he owned a part of one or more vessels. This same year (1801) Bower was appointed by the Secretary of the Navy of the United States to be one of the Committee of Survey, to examine and report on the condition of the Frigate Constellation.
In April of 1809, to start a second shipyard, Bowers purchased “the ground, known in Revolutionary times and afterwards as ‘The Battery.’ This favorite spot was the result of many citizens on Sundays, during the Summer season, where they sat beneath the boughs of a large, spreading willow which cast its shade far and wide, while with anxious stare they gazed upon the unruffled waters of the Delaware, as they passed by, with its eastern boundary the Jersey shore.”
On May 4, 1809: “Permission having been thus granted, as soon after this rising eminence gave way to the action of the shovel, spade and pick, whose constant inroads brought to light many Indian implements which no doubt, to the rising race, be curious to behold, while its crumbled form was carried by the barrow and cast into the water below.”
1809 Point Pleasant Foundry
Founded by “Charles B. Parke, Brass Founder,” and joined by Arundius Tiers in 1824, the list of items manufactured in 1825 incudes: “Spur Wheels, Spur Segments, Straight Spur Segments, Small Spur Wheel Patterns, Spur Wheels for Patent Rope Machinery, Mortice Wheel, Small Mitre and Bevel Wheels, Bevel Geer [sic], Worm Wheels and Worms, Mitre Wheels, Rail Road Wheels and Chills, also an assortment of patterns of all kinds, for Cotton and Woolen Machinery, and many others too tedious to enumerate.” (List of Patterns at the Foundry of Parke & Tiers, Point Pleasant, Kensington, Philadelphia, date unknown, signed note suggests 1835).
James T. Bradshaw became the sole-proprietor in 1869. By 1875, the Point Pleasant Iron and Brass Foundry “employ an average of fifty hands, and manufacture general castings, principally for rolling mills and vessels. A large portion of the business is the making of gear wheels, for which they have the largest assortment. They produce about 1000 tons of castings per annum, in which they consume about 1500 tons of iron and 500 tons of coal.” (Charles Robson, Manufactories and Manufacturers of Pennsylvania (1875), p. 108).
1832 Kensington Screw Dock & Spermaceti Works
Returning from extended voyages at sea and offloading their cargo of spermaceti whale oil, ships “up to 600 tons burthen” could be lifted out of the water in the “screw dock” for repairs.
“Buildings, Spermaceti Works, Oil Factory, Blacksmith Shop, Stable Coach House, Tool House, Carpenter’s Workshop, and Wharf, Screw Dock, & Lot…together with all machinery, fixtures, tools, utensils, implements of the said Spermaciti & Oil factory, and 40 Screws & Fixtures & apparatus to the Screw Dock, & other buildings, wharves, docks, landings, landing places, streets, & ways.” (Deed AM, Book 22, 209, December 14, 1831)
“That James Mott, Western C. Donaldson, Samuel C. Bunting, Thomas W. Morgan, Jacob T. Bunting, William Fennel Jr., Thomas S. Richards, Thomas M. Coffin, and Jonathan Palmer, are hereby appointed commissioners of the Kensington Screw Dock Company.” ( Joseph Blunt, editor of the American Register)
James Mott and Thomas M. Coffin are the husband and brother of famed abolitionist and womens’ rights advocate Lucretia Mott (buried nearby at the Friends Fairhill Burial Grounds, 9th & Cambria Streets). The Coffins (including Lucretia, Thomas and their father) moved from Nantucket, MA, to Philadelphia, originally as commission merchants. James Mott was a teacher at Nine Partners, New York, where he met Lucretia Coffin. James Mott joined the Coffins in Philadelphia and later, married Lucretia.
1860 John Kille Hammit (ca. 1795-1880), shipbuilder
“Launch of the Shackamaxon. The event took place yesterday, about a quarter before 12 o’clock, from the shipyard of John E. Hammitt, Kensington. She glided from the ways in beautiful style, amid the cheers of the spectators, and as she gracefully swept out into the stream, the beauty of her lines and exquisite model challenged the admiration of all. … The Shackamaxon is built of good seasoned Delaware white oak, with the principal pieces, such as the apron, knightheads, corner timbers, deck breast hooks and main transons [sic] of live oak; her top timbers and stanchions are cedar and locust; her keel is 15 inches, and 3 feet thick in two tiers; her garboard streaks are 8 by 16 inches and two of 10 inches each, dowelled together with locust dowels every five feet, and bolted horizontally and perpendicularly with one inch copper bolts through every timber; her three decks are secured together with 1-1/2 inch iron bolts through every stanchion, with iron knees at the kelson; her bottom planks are four inches thick, thoroughly copper fastened, with 16 streaks of bends, 7 inches wide, and 6 inches thick, bolted edgeways on every streak, with 3/4 iron. The plank sheer is five inches, fastened through every stanchion with 3/4 inch copper, besides being trunneled and spiked in every timber, from her keel to the upper plank sheer. In every particular she is finished with neatness and strength… The bow of of the Shackamaxon is appropriately ornamented with a full length figure of King Tamanend, and on the stern is a carving of William Penn and an Indian Prince and Princess. This carving has all been performed by Mr. Fox, in his usual style of excellence…” (Philadelphia Public Ledger, July 11, 1851, p. 2).
1881 Pennsylvania Sugar Refining Co.
