Model City in Marcus Hook the best working man houses!! Keith Talk Monday

Above is a postcard of Maple Ave. in "Model City" from about 1925. The Viscose Co. who made artificial silk went all out to make their workers happy in their new job and houses.
 

Note: The Viscose Co. in 1912 went all out to make their workers enjoy working for them. The company hired professional architects to design houses their employees would love o live in. Modern bathrooms, 3 bedrooms etc. made people want to live there. Compared to all the other "villages" workers in the area lived in, this "Model City" was by far the best. For rent only at the beginning.

December 12, 1912

 Chester Times

NEW MODEL VILLAGE WHICH IS BEING BUILT AT MARCUS HOOK BY THE AMERICAN VISCOSE COMPANY

            Ballinger & Perot, architects and engineers, have awarded a contract to Harry Brocklehurst for the erection of one hundred and forty-nine working men’s houses, to be built at Marcus Hook, Pa., opposite the plant of the American Viscose company, manufacturers of artificial silk.  These are in addition to the sixty-six houses already begun at the same place.

            A site has been carefully chosen from a standpoint of convenience to the operatives, and the architects, Ballinger & Perot, of Philadelphia, have spent the greater part of the year investigating the construction of workingmen’s houses, not only in the United States, but also in Europe, Mr. Perot, a member of the firm, having gone abroad last fall with that end in view.  As a result, the 215 houses now under contract will form one of the best villages in America for the housing of workingmen.

            Instead of following the stereotyped two-story rows of brick houses, which are common in Philadelphia, in the mill  districts, for workingmen, the problem has been considered not from a commercial standpoint, but from the standpoint of what best suits the character of the people employed by this company.  As the houses are not going to be sold to the occupants, the entire estate being under the control of the company, the consideration of the aesthetic in planning the village entered as much into the problem as the disposition of the rooms in the houses, so that instead of having a village with rectangular plots and rows of houses, streets diverging from a central plaza with beautiful vistas, is the outcome.  Several types of houses have been designed, with a view to accommodating the working people whose wages vary.  The houses constituting the semi-circular plaza, of course, will be the more expensive from the standpoint of construction and artistic appearance.  Those in the streets diverging from the semi-circle will be less expensive, but the architectural treatment of the facades of the houses on each street will be different.

            In general, there will be two classes of houses.  As is common in England, the principle has been adopted here also that no house shall have less than three bedrooms on the second floor, together with living room, stair hall, dining room, and kitchen on the first floor.  This permits of the occupants of the house, where there is a small family, of having separate rooms for sleeping.  A modern bathroom will be provided in each house, and there will also be provided a front porch.  The customary outside wooden shed, which is so common on the rear of the Philadelphia houses is omitted, the backs of the houses being treated architecturally with the same care as the street fronts.  The customary side yard is also omitted, the houses being made purposely broad, so that in houses adjoining each other, the lighting of the rooms will be from the front and back and not from the sides, except in the case of the corner houses.  The materials of construction will be of the best.  All the walls will be of brick, the roofs will be of slate, and the porch floors will be of cement.  All the houses will have cellars, and the heating will be by individual hot air furnace systems.  There will be no fences between the rear yards, instead iron rails, three feet high, will be provided.  The fronts of the houses will be terraced above the street, and rows of trees will be planted on both sides of the streets.  Hedges will form the division between the front gardens.  Flowers of the most approved type will be provided for the entire property.  The houses will be provided with water and gas.  The streets will be macadamized, with cement curbs and gutters, and cement wake will be provided on the sidewalks, with grass plots on each side.  The large semi-circular plans will be treated in a formal way, as an open lawn hedged about with bushes.

            Sixty-six of the houses will be completed for occupancy by May 15, 1913 and the entire village of 313 houses by December 1, 1913.

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