Drexel in Philly: The Founder’s West Philadelphia

Drexel University’s founder, Anthony J. Drexel (1826–1893), lived his entire life in Philadelphia. He worked in the Drexel & Co. banks in Old City, where he was born; helped develop an iconic institution in Center City, where he lived as a teenager and young husband; presided over a groundbreaking public art organization to beautify Fairmount Park; and raised his family in West Philadelphia, where he founded the then-Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry in 1891. 

More than 130 years after his death, Anthony’s impact and legacy can still be felt across the city — and you can see it, too. This “Drexel in Philly” series explores some of the historic buildings, institutions, public art and other places that Drexel’s founder — and his large family — built and supported. 

This story explores his West Philadelphia connections, and you can also read about his ties to Old City, Center City and Fairmount Park.

Financier and philanthropist Anthony J. Drexel was one of the West Philadelphia’s earliest and most prominent residents, moving to 39^th and Walnut Streets at a time when 42^nd Street was the most western point of Philadelphia. He built properties and supported institutions there that built up the neighborhood. 

There are several places you can visit today that he left his mark on in the 19^th century:

• The “Drexel colony” of Drexel family houses
• The church Drexel attended and supported, which has honored his contributions
• The Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry (today’s Drexel University)
• The Drexel-Govett Historic District of the founder’s real estate
• The Woodlands Cemetery’s Drexel Family Mausoleum

An undated photograph of the Drexel Colony. Anthony’s 3814 Walnut St. house is on the corner. The 3812 Walnut St. house of his son Anthony J. Drexel, Jr. can be seen on the left. The 225 S. 39th St. house of his son George W. Childs Drexel can be seen in the middle, behind the trees; it’s the only one left standing today. Photo courtesy Drexel University Archives.

The Drexel Colony: Then and Now

In the mid-1850s, Anthony, his wife Ellen Rozet Drexel and three young daughters moved to West Philadelphia from the fashionable Rittenhouse Square into a three-story, 41-room Italianate mansion. There, the couple raised their eight living children, in addition to two nieces (one of whom became the first American-born saint, Saint Katharine Drexel) and two grandsons. They also hosted many Gilded Age luminaries for dinners, parties and long stays; repeat guests included John Pierpont “J.P.” Morgan, Anthony’s mentee and partner in the Drexel, Morgan & Co. bank formed in 1871, and close friend and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.

After Anthony and his wife Ellen died in 1893 and 1891, respectively, their house was sold in 1906 to Samuel Fels, a wealthy businessman who razed the building (now Penn’s Fox-Fels Hall). Some of the founder’s art and his piano can be seen on Drexel’s campus today, as he bequeathed much of his art to the Drexel Institute. Drexel University Archives has also digitized Drexel family photo albums depicting the interiors of Drexel homes.

When his children began starting their own families, Anthony built nearby houses for some of them. The Drexels were the sole occupants of the entire block between 38^th and 39^th streets and Walnut Street and Locust streets, which became known as the “Drexel Colony.”

Only two of the Drexel homes survive today, located on Penn’s Locust Walk. A volleyball court separates the two mansions, which also still share similar characteristics: dark red brick, stone pillars, porches, stained glass windows and other ornate architectural details.

Left: an undated photograph of Frances “Fannie” Drexel Paul’s house when she lived there with her husband James W. Paul, Sr. Right: as it appears today as the Sigma Chi fraternity house at the University of Pennsylvania. Archival photograph courtesy of Drexel University Archives.

This Queen Anne-style house at 3809 Locust Walk was the home of Anthony’s daughter Frances “Fannie” Katherine Drexel Paul, her husband James W. Paul, Jr. and their three children. Fannie and James were financial supporters and champions of the Drexel Institute. Fannie was a member of its first Advisory Board of Women before she died a year after its founding and bequeathed her art to it; James was the last family member to be a partner at Drexel & Co. and was the founding secretary of the Institute’s Board of Trustees, serving as president from 1894 until his death in 1908. The building has been the fraternity house of Penn’s Sigma Chi chapter in 1920. James also donated the site that is now the University's Randell Hall as well as the stained glass window honoring Fannie in the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral (more below).

Left: an undated photograph of George W. Childs Drexel’s house when he lived there with his wife Mary S. Irick Drexel, Right: as it appears today as the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house at the University of Pennsylvania. Archival photograph courtesy of Drexel University Archives.

This Italian Renaissance-style house at 225 South 39th St. was the home of George W. Childs Drexel and his wife Mary S. Irick Drexel. It was constructed by Wilson Brothers & Company, the same firm that designed the University’s Main Building, the Drexel Building in Old City and the trainshed of the Reading Terminal that Anthony helped finance. George and Mary were also Drexel Institute financial benefactors and strategic advisors; she a member of the first Advisory Board of Women and he a founding trustee, serving until his death in 1944. After Anthony’s death in 1893, they moved to Rittenhouse Square (now the home of the Curtis Institute of Music). Penn’s Alpha Tau Omega fraternity has resided in the building since 1971.

The Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral’s baptismal font donated by Anthony and Ellen can be seen in the top right of the pool. The stained-glass window dedicated to Anthony can be seen on the farthest right in the background, partially obscured by the column.

Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral: Then

Anthony was raised Catholic but joined the Episcopal Church upon his 1850 marriage to Ellen.  For almost four decades, they attended the Church of the Saviour (today’s Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral) at 38^th and Ludlow streets, about a six-minute walk from their house. 

Anthony was an active member of the church community for decades. He served as a vestryman and accounting warden — one of the few public positions the private man held unrelated to his bank, the Drexel Institute or the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art). 

When the church was rebuilt in 1889, Anthony and Ellen gifted the church’s Baptistery as a memorial for their three deceased children. The space contained a marbled mosaic floor (depicting waves and fishes) and a six-foot-wide octagon-shaped stone platform supporting a baptismal font made of translucent Mexican onyx.

Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral: Now

A fire burned down the church in 1902, but the Drexel-donated baptismal font survived and is still used today. The church reopened in 1906, 13 years after Anthony's death, and that's the church that remains to this day. It still contains two official tributes to him inside the building — and another unofficial one.

Anthony is thought to be represented by the grey-haired male figure in this mural, which can be seen behind the altar of the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral.

The biggest tribute to Drexel’s founder: a large mural dome dedicated in his honor, depicting haloed angels and cherubs sequestered around an angel holding a grail. It’s located above the altar; the mural’s lower level behind the altar depicts 11 figures representing humanity, one of whom is unofficially believed to be Anthony. The artist, noted muralist Edwin Blashfield, later painted the ceiling of George’s Rittenhouse mansion, and his Steinway piano; both are now properties of the Curtis Institute of Music. 

Four of the church’s stained-glass windows are dedicated to members of the Drexel family, including Anthony and Fannie; they were installed in the first decade of the 20th century. Livingston L. Biddle, Sr., one of Anthony’s grandsons raised by him, dedicated a Tiffany stained-glass window in Anthony’s honor, depicting the baptism of Jesus. James dedicated a stained-glass window to Fannie depicting Jacob and Judah. Photographs and more information about the Drexel family windows can be found on the church’s website.

An undated photo of the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry on top of a photo from the modern era of Drexel University. The Paul Peck Alumni Center is the brick building behind Main Building.

Drexel Institute: Then and Now

For four decades, Anthony walked to and from his mansion in West Philadelphia to work in Old City. The site of the eventual Drexel University, which started in Main Building, had been the home of Joseph S. Keen, a successful lumber merchant, from 1830 until he died in 1883; Keen’s estate sold the property to Anthony. He razed the building at today’s 3141 Chestnut St. (back then it was on the corner of 32^nd and Mansion streets) to make way for the building housing then then-Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry, which would be designed by his preferred Wilson Brothers & Company firm. Construction began in 1889. 

After construction began in 1899 and the school opened in 1891, “he always stopped at the Institute, so that hardly a day passed without an opportunity to advise with him about its affairs,” remembered Drexel’s first president, James MacAlister.

After his death in 1893, Anthony’s friends and immediate family members continued to support the Drexel Institute, as they had done since its opening. For decades, they served on institutional committees, created scholarships, donated artworks, funded or donated buildings, and provided other financial and strategic support.

Main Building later expanded, with Curtis Hall added in 1928 and Randell Hall in 1901 (originally the site of a building given to the institute by son-in-law James in 1893; the institute later built today’s Randell Hall, first called East Hall, on the site). Only one other building on campus dates back to the founder’s era: the Paul Peck Alumni Center. The Frank Furness-designed building is on located on the southeast corner of 32nd and Market streets and was built in 1876 as the Centennial National Bank.

The houses developed by Anthony Drexel in 1883 standing today on 39th and Pine streets, pictured in the top photo, and 39th Street and Baltimore Avenue, pictured in the bottom photo.

Drexel Historic Districts: Then and Now

Drexel’s founder lived through West Philadelphia’s growth as a “streetcar suburb” for both middle-class families and wealthy residents speculating on the value of a new part of the city. In addition to acquiring sites and building property to develop the block known as the Drexel Colony, he also acquired a larger parcel of land to build even more properties that were then inhabited by more residents of the burgeoning neighborhood.

Anthony developed 44 residential three-story brick Queen Anne-style rowhomes between 39^th and 40^th streets from Pine Street to Baltimore Avenue (less than a 10-minute walk from his house). He acquired the land in 1877, and the G.W. & W. D. Hewitt-designed houses were built in 1883.

Some of the buildings have retained their architectural style and original doors, window grilles, iron gates and/or ornamental moldings. As noted by the University City Historic District, “the Drexel rows [of buildings] show an added effort in their sophisticated cornice designs and the terra cotta and molded brick banding that alleviated the potential starkness of the brick facades.” 

The Drexel Development Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Grouped with nearby properties developed by lumber merchant Annesley R. Govett, it was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places in 2022 as the Drexel-Govett Historic District.

The interior of the Drexel Family Mausoleum in the Woodlands cemetery. The bust is of family patriarch Francis Martin Drexel, Anthony’s father.

The Woodlands: Then and Now

The Woodlands is a sprawling 19^th century cemetery built on a stately 18^th century manor that continues to be a 21^st century West Philadelphia greenspace. The cemetery was incorporated in the 1840s, and one of its first and biggest structures involves the Drexel family. 

After the death of Anthony’s father and Drexel & Co. founder, Francis Martin Drexel, in 1863, a Drexel Family Mausoleum was erected in front of the Woodlands mansion, reportedly to honor Francis’s wishes to eternally oversee the Schuylkill River (impossible to do today). The large white mausoleum designed by Collins & Autenriethresembles a Roman temple;it’s surrounded by a marble balustrade and is not open to the public.

For about 120 years, more than 40 members of the Drexel family were laid to rest in the mausoleum, including Anthony, his wife, some of his children and his parents. During the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st centuries, additional Drexel family members, including son George and grandson Col. Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Sr. (the subject of the book and subsequent Disney movie known as “The Happiest Millionaire”), were buried in a nearby ground plot.