Old World Warehouse Then

Old World Warehouse’s lofts are located on Shackamaxon Street in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia. This entire section of the city was at one time called Shackamaxon, alternately believed to mean “place of eels” or (more flatteringly) “meeting place of chiefs.”

The building in which the lofts have been created was a portion of the former Morse Elevator Works, a world-famous elevator company whose manufacturing was centered in Philadelphia.

The first buildings in the Morse complex (those on the corner of Frankford Avenue and Wildey Street) were purchased by Morse, Williams and Company from the Martin Landenberger Hosiery Mill sometime between1884 and 1886. Morse began manufacture of both passenger and freight elevators at that location and was highly successful

The beginnings of the building that is now home to Old World Warehouse’s lofts was constructed in 1885. A schematic of the complex done by Ernest Hexamer in 1886 shows a building at the corner of Shackamaxon and Wildey Streets. However, unlike the current building, it is only story tall and it has only 60 feet of frontage on Shackamaxon. (The current building runs along Shackamaxon a distance of approximately 100 feet.)

Morse segregated its machinery, blacksmithing and woodworking operations among its various buildings. The building that eventually grew in to the Old World Warehouse’s lofts building was number 5 in the Morse complex and was the woodworking shop for the elevator works. According to Hexamer, In 1886 there were 12 hands employed in Building 5 working on the following equipment: “1 large Daniel planer, 1 jointer, one mortising machine, 1 sticking machine, 1 band, 1 jig and circular saw, 1 wood turning lathe.“ Interestingly, wood shavings made in the woodworking shop were blown through galvanized iron tubes into Building number 3.

Morse’s building thrived at this location and by 1891 Morse was the world’s leading producer of freight elevators.

In 1892, founder Stephen Morse was declared insane. The business, however, continued to prosper and in the 1890s it expanded significantly to meet demand. It was during this period that the one story brick building with the tin roof was expanded into its current form.

This 1901 photograph of the Shackamaxon face of the current loft building shows the fully built-out warehouse. It consists of two portions distinguished easily by the difference in roof style. The first has the same foot print as the original one story structure (running approximately 60 feet up Shackamaxon from the corner of Wildey Street), but is three stories and 47 feet high. That portion has a gabled roof with the front of the gable facing on to Shackamaxon Street. Construction of the second portion added approximately 40 feet to the warehouse’s Shackamaxon frontage. This portion has a roof which slopes away from the first portion of the warehouse. Both buildings are brick with heavy timber construction and multi-layered wood floors making them ideal for lofts.

The Morse, Williams & Company was purchased by the Otis Elevator Company in 1902 and operations continued. In 1949 the complex of buildings was acquired by Guilbert, Inc., a manufacturer of elevators and dumbwaiters in and then by the Montgomery Elevator Company in 1976. It is likely that at least some portion of the complex was associated with elevator manufacture until 1987.

For a period of time the warehouse was shuttered. Virtually all the doors and windows were cinder blocked closed and the building was essentially unused. In 2001 work began to bring the building back to life, this time as a loft building. Countless hours were spent cleaning and pointing the brick, punching out the cinder blocks to make way for new windows and entry ways, sanding black surfaces which turned out to be beautiful pine plank floors and all the other updates necessary for 21century living.

Fortunately, the historic feel of both the building and its surroundings have not been erased with time. Shackamaxon Street has small row homes evidencing a variety of stages of history. Incredibly, this portion of Wildey Street remains as a cobble stone lane today. And, the ghost of letters spelling out “Morse Elevator Works” still appears in the brickwork at the top of the gable along the Shackamaxon Street side of the loft building.

Some information derived from WORKSHOP OF THE WORLD—A Selective Guide to the Industrial Archeology of Philadelphia © Oliver Evans Press, 1990; adapted for the internet in 2007.