Happy New Year to you all! Still no reply from Joel Dworsky, the archaeologist who wrote to me from URSCORP a year ago. I have also visited the West Shipyard site maintained by the Durst organization:
https://westshipyard.com/category/updates/
but no updates since June 24th of last year and the last open house was June 8th.
I scanned the web with Google, looking for more recent articles, but none surfaced. Will let you know if I become aware of any new developments.
Carol
The past few years have been busy and full of change for me, and I imagine for many of you as well.
I have retired and moved twice in that time. Now finally settled, I have only just begun to get back to researching my ancestry, On December 22, 2022 I received this message through Ancestry.com from URSCORP:
“Hello, My name is Joel Dworsky, and I am an archaeologist working on a project related to the West Family in 17th and 18th century Philadelphia. I excavated one of the family lots where James West, a shipwright, and husband of Prudence (Harrow/Barrow/Thuber/Thacker?), first began building ships in Pennsylvania in the late 17th century. I am trying to collect more background information on the family, particularly focusing on where James West and his wife Prudence came from in England. It seems to be debated by genealogists as to whether they came from the area around Bristol in Gloustershire or whether there is a connection to Norfolk and the Norwich area. It seems as though you have done a great deal of primary document research work related to portions of this family, and I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further. Knowing where James West learned the shipbuilding trade could offer a great deal of insight into where I look for historical analogs for the shipbuilding-related materials I have seen in the ground in Philadelphia. Any assistance you could offer would be greatly appreciated.”
I replied, requesting he reach out to me in an email, providing my email address. I offered to share PDFs of the documents received from the genealogist I hired years ago in England, documents that could not be shared through the Ancestry.com message system. So far, I have not heard back from Mr. Dworsky.
It does seem as though there has been increased activity at the James West Shipyard AKA the Hertz Lot. If you would like to follow what’s happening, the best place to do this seems to be:
TMP
Personally, I’m hoping for some more open house events!
My best to you all,
Carol
This article from April 2021 states that the project was presented as part of the Penn’s Landing Project in April of this year.
My concern would be that as far as what I have found in web postings, the points of archaeological interest discovered in the original dig were not re-discovered in 2012. Therefore, there may be much of historical interest that will not be clearly identified, revealed or mapped out before construction begins. I certainly hope that the city planners will not allow that to happen.
Hertz Lot, parking lot across from Dave & Busters, 300 N. Christopher Columbus Blvd. Whatever you call it, this is the site that Durst purchased for 10 million in 2020 and plans to develop ASAP with a 25 floor residential building. I continue to look for more plans regarding the archaeologically significant James West Shipyard which is part of the purchase.
Permits Pulled for 25-Story, 360-Unit Building Near the Delaware River
Here is the final report for Durst Organization by AECOM:
The 1.6 acre shipyard and tavern site to the West of Columbus Avenue, situated across the street from Dave & Busters, AKA the Hertz Lot, was purchased early this year by the Durst Organization. There are plans to put a 25 story tower on the site, leaving half of the lot as a public park. They expect to break ground in early 2021.
From the article published in BizNow on January 15, 2020, “DRWC’s requirements for the sale include Durst’s agreement to study and preserve the archaeological heritage of the lot, which contains the remnants of a shipyard built in the 1600s and a 19th-century landfill. To the rear of the property sit the Wood Street Steps, the last surviving pedestrian pass-through to the Delaware River out of 10 planned by William Penn when he founded Philadelphia…The public park section, designed by Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners, will sit atop the former shipyard, which includes what some historians believe is the only surviving boat slipway from the 17th century on the East Coast” as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
According to the article, “the archaeological process is being overseen by the Philadelphia Historical Commission and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Durst said in a statement that it has completed its due diligence of the site to “help inform the full excavation and documentation of all areas of the site that will be disturbed by construction.”
Now there’s an opening ceremony I’d like to be invited to attend!
The Durst Organization of New York City has received approval for a $2B development project on land that includes the James West Shipyard. No discussion yet about how the historic colonial archaeological remnants will me managed. Stay tuned for more.
https://www.phillyvoice.com/penns-landing-durst-organization-drwc-waterfront-philadelphia/
…since the last posting. No funding appears forthcoming in the near future for further exploration of the Hertz Lot, AKA West Shipyard, but we can dream and learn more in the meantime. Here are some more recent web articles related to the shipbuilding, Philadelphia, and the James West:
http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/shipbuilding-and-shipyards/
This article, “Shipbuilding and Shipyards”, was written by Jeffery M. Dorwart. He is the author of histories of the Philadelphia Navy Yard; Fort Mifflin of Philadelphia; Naval Air Station Wildwood; Camden and Cape May Counties, New Jersey; Office of Naval Intelligence; Ferdinand Eberstadt and James Forrestal, and is Professor Emeritus of History, Rutgers University. References are provided.
https://earlyphiladelphiashipbuilding.wordpress.com/
James J. Farley’s book about early American Shipping is available here on WordPress in it’s entirety. There is mention of James West, as well as some notes from his account book.
http://www.delawareriverwaterfront.com/planning/shipyard-archaeology
Mentioned before and specific to our interests as James West descendants, this is the presentation by DRWC (Delaware River Waterfront Corporation) regarding their progress towards developing Philadelphia’s waterfront. The complete archaeological study prepared 2013 resides here, as well as information about meetings and goals of the corporation. If anything new and exciting were to happen regarding the West site, it would likely be posted here.
Harry Kyriakodis, author of Philadelphia’s Lost Waterfront (2011), Northern Liberties: The Story of a Philadelphia River Ward (2012), and The Benjamin Franklin Parkway (2014), prepared this article in 2012 for Hidden Philadelphia, and it is still posted. Worth a look if you haven’t read it.
Additionally, Richard Remer is about to publish his book about the shipwrights of Kensington, Philadelphia, (as you may know, our Charles West next purchased property in Kensington to expand the business). Some nice photos, including one or two of West Hill mansion. Many of the allied families will be included. I’m looking forward to it’s release. Rich was instrumental in helping me to construct my West tree. He has worked on other titles with Kenneth W. Milano.
Anyone needing an invitation to view the “James West, Shipwright of Northern Liberties” tree in Ancestry, please let me know. I’d be happy to link you as a guest.
My best to all my West cousins,
Carol
I’ve finally found the final report on the 2012 dig:
It is possible to view the document and also to download a PDF file.
The “Penny Pott House” is portrayed in the earliest known painting of Philadelphia—the first known painting of any American city, for that matter! A man assumed to be a sign painter, Peter Cooper, painted a fanciful rendering of the city skyline in 1720 and numbered twenty-four sites he considered worthy of attention. Barely making it into the picture, the “Penny Pott House” is number twenty-four: it is the farthest building on the right of the canvas. The dark bulk of the hull of a ship can be seen to the left of the building, closer to the river. The painting, once a piece of trash fetched from a rubbish pile in mid-ninteenth century London, was sent as a curiosity to the Library Company in Philadelphia where it was cleaned, restored, and is today considered one of their most prized possessions. The story of the Library Company, as well as the story of the painting is worth telling, but to do so would be to digress from the topic at hand. You can find information on the painting at:
http://lcpdams.librarycompany.org:8881/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=59429&local_base=GEN01
Reprints of the painting are offered for sale at:
http://www.dianepublishing.net/PhotoGallery.asp?ProductCode=lcp%5Fcooper
As the painting is entitled, “The South East Prospect of Philadelphia” it is surprising that our multiple-great grandfather’s shipyard and tavern made it into the picture at all, being just beyond the northern-most boundary of the city proper.
So, what do we know about the Penny Pott Tavern? We know that it is thought to have been the second tavern built in Philadelphia, built some time after the Blue Anchor was built in 1682. We know that it was licensed under the King of England to sell beer for a penny a pot: it offered a cheap brew made using molasses. We know that James West purchased the tavern “of the Widow”, though it is not clear who the first owner was. Did the family at any time reside in some portion of the building? If Peter Cooper’s painting is to be believed, by 1720 there was already an extension added onto the original tavern.
The next image of the Penny Pot Tavern appears in Watson’s Annals of Philadelphia, published in 1830. It shows, as was implied in the painting by Peter Cooper, that there is little more than the building’s depth separating it from the hull of a ship currently under construction. The Library Company of Philadelphia has a nice digital copy of this work:
http://lcpdams.librarycompany.org:8881/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=64815&local_base=GEN01
It is believed that West purchased the Tavern to assist with cash-flow problems, common in the Americas at the time. While reliant upon the currency of England, the exchange of money for goods or services was not always as readily accomplished as might have been desired, so barter was often used. By running a tab at the Penny Pott Tavern for his workers, James West was able to keep the men close to the work site and make additional profit from from the wages they spent at the tavern, while potentially making use of meat and produce he might barter for.
The 2012 dig was disappointing in that one of the stated goals was to find the foundation of the Penny Pott Tavern, and this was not clearly accomplished. We know that Peter Cooper’s painting shows very little development at that time to the south of the Penny Pott Tavern, that the tavern was located at Vine Street wharf, and that Vine Street was reportedly fifty feet wide at that time. In The Historical Magazine, Volume I, published by C. Benjamin Richardson in 1857 and digitized by Google in 2007, it is reported on page 139 that the Penny Pott House was located “on the upper side of Vine street, on or near the present line of Delaware avenue”, and that “as early as 1701, Penn decreed that Penny Pot Landing should be left open and free to all”. This was largely because Philadelphia had very few favorable landings until the wharves were built between Vine street and Dock: the ground was reported to be a high bluff. In fact the first child born in Philadelphia, John Key, was reported to have been born in one of the caves “near the spot where the Penny Pott House was afterwards built”.
Carol
jameswestdescendants 