4/1/2024 0 Comments Suburban turmoilHowever there seems to have been little initial demand for the plots in Hamiltonville and Mantua. Peters was Chairman of the Bridge Company when it built a wire (suspension) bridge at the upper ferry. Peters laid out the village of Mantua on his land between the Lancaster Turnpike and the Upper Ferry Bridge. Another resident landholder, Judge Richard Peters, apparently had similar thoughts. It appears he thought the plots would appeal to buyers who wanted a country house or "villa". To capitalize on this, he divided a portion of his estate (north of Woodland Avenue) into parcels and had streets laid out for the village of Hamilton. Some of it was rented to tenant farmers, but Hamilton clearly recognized that the 1804 opening of the Permanent Bridge at Market Street offered new potentials for his property along the Darby Road (now Woodland Avenue). The first was by William Hamilton, gentleman botanist, who owned close to 500 acres including The Woodlands. In the early 1800s two West Philadelphia land owners attempted a somewhat novel idea, to establish essentially residential villages.
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