Isaac Ashmead
170 Fernbrook Avenue, Wyncote, PA
1888 | Residence | Extant
Minerva Parker as designer / apprentice for Edwin W. Thorne
Manager for the Old City branch of the Spring Garden National Bank, Isaac Ashmead (1841-1902) served as a cavalry soldier in the Civil War and speculated in real estate ventures including the Oak Lane Land Company (thorough which Parker’s mother had acquired real estate holdings – see Catalogue #9).
In February 1888, Ashmead commissioned the office of Edwin W. Thorne, to design a “…stone and shingled house with slate roof.” The house was to be built in Wyncote, a newly developing residential enclave just south of the Reading Railroad’s Jenkintown Station. Containing ten rooms, a front and side porch and a closed rear porch, the house was characterized as a “model of convenience, light, and cheerful in appearance.” The two-story open stair at the entrance hall was expanded soon after the house’s completion by the addition of a bay window and a corner fireplace. Parker’s signature on a rendering for the project confirms her early involvement in the design.
Ashmead’s fortunes took a turn when the Spring Garden National Bank failed. By 1897 the house had been sold and Ashmead relocated to Connecticut.
— Researched and written by Bill Whitaker
Ashmead residence, delineated by Minerva Parker (see her signature in the lower right corner) and published in "Builder and Decorator" in 1888
Photograph by Elizabeth Felicella, for "Minerva Parker Nichols: The Search for a Forgotten Architect" exhibit at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. Photograph has been submitted to the Historic American Buildings Survey, a collection the Library of Congress.
Photograph by Elizabeth Felicella, for "Minerva Parker Nichols: The Search for a Forgotten Architect" exhibit at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. Photograph has been submitted to the Historic American Buildings Survey, a collection the Library of Congress.
Photograph by Elizabeth Felicella, for "Minerva Parker Nichols: The Search for a Forgotten Architect" exhibit at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. Photograph has been submitted to the Historic American Buildings Survey, a collection the Library of Congress.
Photograph by Elizabeth Felicella, for "Minerva Parker Nichols: The Search for a Forgotten Architect" exhibit at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. Photograph has been submitted to the Historic American Buildings Survey, a collection the Library of Congress.
Photograph by Elizabeth Felicella, for "Minerva Parker Nichols: The Search for a Forgotten Architect" exhibit at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. Photograph has been submitted to the Historic American Buildings Survey, a collection the Library of Congress.
Photograph by Elizabeth Felicella, for "Minerva Parker Nichols: The Search for a Forgotten Architect" exhibit at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. Photograph has been submitted to the Historic American Buildings Survey, a collection the Library of Congress.
Photo by Bill Whitaker