UNIVERSITY HISTORY

A Brief History of the "Carriage House" at the Rear of 3905 Spruce Street:
Introduction

by Mark Frazier Lloyd, August 2000

 

The mansion house at 3905 Spruce Street now occupied by WXPN has been associated with the University of Pennsylvania since its purchase by transportation baron Joseph D. Potts in 1875. For more than forty years the "Carriage House" at the rear of the property served as a support facility for many of the functions of the International House of Philadelphia, which purchased the Potts mansion in 1917 and continued on that site until 1959. The collections of the University Archives and Records Center at the University of Pennsylvania, augmented by information found in the collections of the Philadelphia City Archives and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, provide the factual basis for the account which follows below in seven sections:

Part I: The Family of Joseph D. Potts, its Connection with the University, and the Property at 3905 Spruce Street, 1875 - 1917

Part II: The Early Years of the International House of Philadelphia and its Purchase of 3905 Spruce Street, 1911 - 1922

Part III: The Carriage House "Doubles" in Size, 1922 - 1943

Part IV: The Franklin Chapter of Acacia Fraternity, 1906 - ca. 1965

Part V: The International House of Philadelphia Becomes Independent of the Christian Association and Develops its own Programs, 1943 - 1960

Part VI: The Carriage House Takes a Life of its Own, 1959 - 1960

Part VII: The Carriage House in Insurance Surveys, 1925 - 1960