Wendell & Smith (developers)

St. Davids, Pennsylvania

1891 | Speculative Residence | Not Built

“…The buildings erected at Wayne and St. David’s by Wendell & Smith, up to a recent date, number 170, valued at $1,182,220. In preparing the plans for this work, the buildings have had the assistance of the following architects, all of Philadelphia: F.L. & W.L. Price, Brown & Day, J.C. Worthington, Miss Minerva Parker, William L. Baily, and Horace Trumbauer.” (Carpentry and Building, September 1, 1891)

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Among the most prolific and successful real estate developers in Philadelphia at the turn of the 20th century were Herman Wendell and Walter Smith. Wendell received training at the Franklin Institute Drawing School (1869/70 term), and for the first decade of his career worked as a carpenter/builder in the Frankford section of the city. He joined Walter B. Smith, one of his classmates from the Franklin Institute, in establishing a model for development that harnessed the skills of young architects who were on the rise professionally. Wendell and Smith were responsible for the development of Overbrook Farm and Pelham in Philadelphia, and the communities of Wayne and St. Davids along the Main Line.

While Minerva was included in important publicity related to the firm’s St Davids project, the developers’ ledger book of expenses reveals her more limited role. On June 6, 1891, Parker received $23.00 under the heading of “sundry plans.” By comparison, her contemporaries, William L Price and Walter Price received $192.50, while William L. Bailey received $125. Pay disparity might account for most of this difference though (the purse for the Women’s Building architect at the World’s Fair was 1/10 of the men’s purse—a proportion that is comparable here). The latter three architects—whose names appear dozens of times throughout the ledger—built extensively for the developers and expenses for their individual designs fill many of the subsequent ledger pages. Minerva’s name, however, only appears once, suggesting that her designs did not advance beyond a preliminary stage.

— Researched and written by Bill Whitaker