Satterlee Heights Plan

This promotional illustration captures the landscape on the cusp of rapid change. In the left foreground is a group of houses built in 1860 and designed by Samuel Sloan, whose influence was waning. In the background there are large old estates, like Twaddel's, who were selling land; and fancy new estates (front right) like Clarence Clark's, a buyer and financier of real estate development. From right to left runs the remains of Mill Creek which just 10 years earlier had been a major source of power. By 1869, it has been partially filled in and redirected into a giant sewer. Dominating the illustration's center is the former site of the Saterlee Army Hospital. The land has been divided into plots by a real estate syndicate that purchased the land and printed this lithograph. Clearly the syndicate hoped to impress buyers with the existing neighborhood. If the visual presentation was not sufficient, the named residents were an impressive list of who's who of West Philadelphia. These residents included: Samuel Sloan (architect), N.B. Browne (one of the speculators behind the houses Sloan designed), and John MacArthur (who became architect for City Hall). Ironically, this real estate venture did not succeed and many plots remained empty until the 1890s. Herline & Co. Lithographers [1869-70]