Housing Association of Delaware Valley Records, Part 1

The finding aid for this collection is in 10 parts:
 

Part 1, Historical Note, Collection Overview, Organization and Arrangement, and Separated Material
Part 2, URB 3: Series I - II
Part 3, URB 3: Series III-IV
Part 4, URB 3: Series V (Boxes 89-137)
Part 5, URB 3: Series V (Boxes 138-183)
Part 6, URB 3: Series V (Boxes 184-334)
Part 7, URB 3: Series VI
Part 8, URB 29
Part 9, Accessions 107, 124, 141, 161, 162, 285
Part 10, Accession 781 and Newspaper Clippings

HISTORICAL NOTE

Founded during the Progressive era, the Housing Association of the Delaware Valley, which was known as the Philadelphia Housing Commission from 1909 to 1916 and the Philadelphia Housing Association from 1916 to 1968, consistently maintained that housing problems and polities were intimately related to the City's social conditions and physical evolution.

 

COLLECTION OVERVIEW

The Housing Association of the Delaware Valley records document many aspects of the history of the Philadelphia metropolitan area from 1909 onward. Aside from providing a comprehensive account of housing, subjects within the records range from sanitary problems of the 1910s to the neighborhood struggles against expressways in the 1970s.

Researchers desiring more description of the early manuscript records of the Housing Association may wish to review the booklet Housing Association of Delaware Valley: A Guide to the Collection (Philadelphia: Urban Archives Center, Temple University Libraries, 1976).

 

ORGANIZATION AND ARRANGEMENT

This collection consists of multiple accessions of records, described below.

URB 3 contains 343 boxes of records from 1909-1975, and is organized into six series:

Series I: Executive Secretary's Office Files, 1909-1916
Series II: Executive Secretary's Office Files, 1917-1920
Series III: Executive Secretary's Office Files, 1921-1950
Series IV: Office Files, 1911-1950
Series V: Office Files, 1951-1970
Series VI: Statistics
    
URB 29 contains 9 boxes of records from 1909-1972, and is organized into four series:

Series I: Reports and Publications
Series II: Board and Executive Minutes
Series III: Statistics
Series IV: Evaluations of Housing Association
    
Accessions 107, 124, 141, 161, 162, 285 (with the possible inclusion of additional accessions) have been combined into one inventory, and contain 63 boxes of records from 1942-1975.  

Accession 781 contains 6 boxes of records from 1947-1972. This accession consists of materials received from the Housing Association of the Delaware Valley and concerned with urban renewal areas within the city of Philadelphia (Boxes 1-5). There are also a few files dealing with urban renewal in other areas (Box 6). The majority of the materials were issued by the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Philadelphia. Of special interest is the large amount of material dealing with the Crosstown Expressway plans and protests.

Newspaper clippings contain 23 reels of microfilm, covering the years 1911-1960.

No inventories are available for accessions 375 (records 1972-1979), 425 (records 1963-1979), 439 (records 1970-1979), 477 (records 1968-1980), 561 (records 1913, 1936, 1859, 1970-1982), 580 (undated records), 584 (records 1974-1983), or 618 (records 1976-1985). Contact the Special Collections Research Center for more information.

 

SEPARATED MATERIAL

Original photographs have been removed from these accessions, and can be found in the following photograph collections:

Housing Association of Delaware Valley Photograph Collections: Numbered (PC-01)
Housing Association of Delaware Valley Photograph Collections: Unnumbered (PC-04)
Housing Association of Delaware Valley Photograph Collections: PHA Lantern Slide Collection (PC-9)
Housing Association of Delaware Valley Photograph Collections: PHA Prints from Lantern Slide Collection (PC-7)
Octavia Hill Association (Philadelphia, Pa.) Photograph Collection (PC-11, 12, 13)
Octavia Hill Association (Philadelphia, Pa.) Lantern Slide Collection (PC-10)

RELATED MATERIAL

Housing Association of Delaware Valley Negro Migrant Study Records (URB 31)
Octavia Hill Association (Philadelphia, Pa.) Records (URB 46)