Self

7212-7214 Chestnut Avenue, Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania

1890 | Residence | Not Built

“Minerva Parker architect, 14 South Broad street, is engaged on plans for a fine little suburban house at Oak Lane Station, N.P.R.R., of which she will be the owner. To be stone and pebbled ash, two story, inside, hard wood finish, wood mantels, and all accommodations modern.” (September 10, 1890)

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In 1890, Minerva advertised this on-the-boards project among the wave of homes she designed that year. Although Minerva listed this project as a home for herself (after years of living with her mother, sister, brother, and a home full of boarding students), it is unclear if it was ever built. The first confirmed example of Minerva designing a house for herself did not take shape until three decades later, when she built a home for herself —as a widow—in the 1920s in Connecticut.

It is unclear how this published project relates to the 1889 notice about a home for “Mrs. Maxwell”—which we assume refers to her mother, Amanda Parker Maxwell—since that house has not been confirmed or located either. If built, and if they were associated with Minerva and her mother as we theorize, then the two projects were likely located near each other.