Fallsers often use the term “mansion” to describe the Hohenadel place, which seems kind of a stretch. The property is grand, but hardly sprawling: 6 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3900 square feet. Grace Kelly's childhood home on Henry is 56 square feet bigger, yet locals rarely call that a mansion. No, the Italianate villa once occupied by our area's most illustrious brewer was a "mansion" only relatively -- in comparison to the Middle class community...
This story has a happy ending, even though it starts off in frustration: Where are all our East Falls photos from the last 40 years? You'd think history blogging would be easy because everything's already been written but unfortunately almost none of it has been saved. At least, not the interesting stuff. Oh, you'll find major city newspaper collections online (and you'll likely pay for them) but when you're digging around for neat local...
We've walked a lot of people through Hohenadel House, and one of the first questions out of everyone's mouth is always: How old is this place?! A simple question, but a frustrating one. The land has been settled since colonial times so historical associations are tantalizing and plentiful. Unfortunately, Philadelphia's record-keeping has been maddeningly shoddy from the get-go. But then, it's not like the the area's first settlers arrived...
Indian Queen Lane and Krail -- right up the road from Hohenadel House. You'd hardly know the difference 53 years makes. What's up with that, East Falls? Last week, we stumbled on a cache of East Falls photos from all the way back to the early 1900's; this week, we took comparison pics. You'd think over a hundred years would've radically changed our streets and parks but, well.... See for yourself. EAST FALLS, PHILADELPHIA Then & Now The...
We've tracked down photos of the original chandelier that once hung in Hohenadel House's dining room. KIDDING! Ha! That antler one is NOT it -- this crystal one (above) is. An interesting development in the house's decorating options, for sure. What a coincidence, too, the same weekend they discovered the house's original window furnishings (more on that below). And yet another piece of Hohenadel House's history has turned up recently -- more...
Following up on our conversation with Lawrence Ponzek (our real live "Hohenadeler"), here's a list of cool stuff that didn't make it into the first installment, including: blue velvet, Grace Kelly, and a scary passage to... somewhere. Randomness from our Conversation with Lawrence Ponzek 1. Lawrence has no memory of the Dutch murals in the basement. He doesn't think they were there when he lived here. 7-16 UPDATE: He didn't know what we...
We recently caught up with Lawrence Ponzek, who had NO IDEA that listing an old family heirloom on eBay would launch him on a spontaneous little adventure back to his East Falls roots. We're delighted he reached out to us, and shared his memories of the house and neighborhood in the 70's. Lawrence Ponzek lived in Hohenadel House from 1960 to 1976. He was the oldest son of four boys who all eventually wound up working for the family business,...
So Mike and his team were busy little bees this past Holiday weekend... While Felicte and crew went road trippin down I-95, a small army of floor refinishers tackled Hohenadel's House's poor abused hardwood floors in the steamy heat of Philadelphia in July. Once the first story was cleared out and sanded, we sneaked in for some "Before" pics and then waited for Sean's OK last night to grab the "After"s before they move furniture in and...
Howzabout 100 new high-definition Hohenadel House photos at Felicte's Flickr?! (compliments of the not-so-sunny Florida skies this weekend) A picture might be worth a thousand words, but a whole bunch of 'em together is like busy chat room history. So much to absorb! And so addicting! Old houses like Hohenadel House are ridiculously photogenic -- it's part of the fun of owning a house with so much history and character. But even the most...
There's a little place just out of town, Where, if you go to lunch, They'll make you forget your mother-in-law With a drink called Fish-House Punch. -- The Cook (1885) Forgive us, John Hohenadel, but in honor of our founding fathers today, we're stepping away from beer (an every day sustenance in colonial America) to punch -- a treat of the upper classes, a social drink meant to be shared communally along with debate and conversation. The...
