The Humble Boot Scrapers of Philadelphia

Way back in 2014, just after moving into our Half Classic Six in New York City, I was doing some research on transom windows when I discovered Alex and Wendy’s Old Town Home house blog which quickly became an instant go to for old house related stuff. Being the obsessive information whore that I am, I of course had to devour the entirety of all that they had written and read everything up to that point over a weekend. While I learned quite a number of new old house things I had not known before, there was one post which stuck in my head; “These Boot Scrapers Were Made for Cleaning“. Alex wrote a well researched and thorough post about the humble boot scrapers adorning the entrances of houses around their home in Old Town Alexandria.

Fast forward to January of 2017, while on our second visit to Philly (only a month after our first during which we decided to uproot our comfortable lives from the Upper West Side of Manhattan and trade it in for better work/life balance in a rowhouse in Philly), Alex’s post resurfaced in my mind. As we traversed the sidewalks of nearby late 18th and early 19th century neighborhoods, I began to see boot scrapers on nearly every block. We had arranged to see houses with our realtor, I was elated when we arrived at our house for the first time and saw the cast iron boot scraper embedded into a block of marble next to our marble stoop. [Fair warning… This is a long post with about 50 images, but it is worth the read!]

So what exactly is a boot scraper? Well…. Think back to olden times when walking in the street and on sidewalks involved a lot of mud, sewage, and of course, copious amounts of horse sh*t. It was inevitable that all this disgust would cling to the bottoms of shoes, and need to be scraped off before entering one’s home. They were known as a “décrottoir” in French, which quite literally implies the need to remove excrement. The idea behind them goes back quite a long way, but they really became popular in France and Belgium during the 18th century, when walking became fashionable for the middle and upper classes. Folks began stepping away from their carriages to walk the same streets as the commoners. Originally, they were positioned along sidewalks at various places, but by the second half of the 18th century they were taking a more prominent spot next to the entrances of private homes. It became quite common for city houses to have an inset in the front wall (above and below) where there was often a highly stylized cast iron boot scraper embedded into the wall.

As their popularity rose in Belgium and France, it soon followed suit in London and other European cities. With America still being under British rule, they, of course, found their way here as well, becoming common in New York City (they can be found in Greenwich Village), Boston, Baltimore (and Alexandria), and, of course, Philadelphia.

America did not have the wealth of the Europeans, so they became popular here in a slightly different format. Rather than  being embedded into the front walls of grand houses, they took the form of standing alone, embedded into the sidewalk next to the front steps, or being built into iron stair rails and fences. Early boot scrapers in America were hand-forged from iron, but by the 19th century it seems that cast iron ones became the standard and remained popular well into the Victorian era.

They also became more democratized here in North America in that they could be found in not just the homes of the well off. This is especially true in Philadelphia where even laborers had the opportunity to own their own homes (albeit very small ones).

While boot scrapers can be found in many of the oldest neighborhoods of Philly, I will be focusing on the three neighborhoods I walk through on a daily basis. The oldest being Society Hill, which is the largest intact 18th and very early 19th century residential neighborhood  in the country. Just south of Society Hill is Queen Village (originally the northern part of Southwark), where the houses are just as old as Society Hill, but tend to be more on the humble side. And finally, my neighborhood, Pennsport (also originally part of Southwark) where houses tend to be early 19th century and newer. We are quite literally only a block south of Queen Village, but it is rare to see boot scrapers on the blocks south of us as they were mostly built after the 1860s.

First up, is our humble but beautiful boot scraper (above). It is cast iron and look a lot like a harp. It seems the harp theme was quite common. My best guess is that it is original to when our house was completed in 1852 and was most likely set in amongst slabs of slate which was the standard for sidewalks by the 1850s. (Some of the slate sidewalks are still found in my neighborhood, but nearly all are in pretty rough shape.) I imagine that almost every house on our block had a boot scraper back in the 1850s, but over time as slate sidewalks gave way to concrete, they disappeared.

Examples of cast iron harp shaped boot scrapers are fairly common. It seems that our exact design was rather popular, which leads me to believe it came out of a catalog. The example below was unfortunately embedded in concrete.

This one is conveniently located at the top of the stoop right next to the front door. I suspect however, this is not an original location given that I have not seen any others in that location.

This one seems conveniently located, but looks more like a tripping hazard to me. The building it belongs too was constructed in the 1980s, but when I looked at it closely, the boot scraper itself appears to be vintage.

The next several look to be a variation on ours. They are all quite nice in their own way.

You will notice that these are embedded into the blocks of marble. They achieved this by boring a hole into the marble and then using molten lead to set them into place. This is similar to how iron railings were set into stone steps in the 19th century. The one below looks old, but given that it is held in place with Phillips head screws and the block of marble is not worn down on the edges, I would venture to guess it is a reproduction.

The next one looks to have a marine motif with the two fish (still in the shape of a harp).

There are other variations of cast iron boot scrapers. The following three are identical boot scrapers just two blocks away from us. The rowhouses they belong to were constructed in the 1830s. Notice the absolutely stunning blue King of Prussia Marble.

There are a few more cast iron boot scrapers found around the area. My first thought when I came upon the design of the next three was “Winged Victory”. They bear no resemblance to the statue, but they definitely allude to wings and have an almost Art Deco feel. I can assure you these wings are definitely 19th century.

And then there is this one. So far, it is the only example of this design I have seen. It has a sort of regal design and clearly has been well used over the decades. Ignore the random band-aid and bottle cap.

The above examples were found in all three neighborhoods, but Society Hill is where you will find the really old forged iron boot scrapers. Just pause for a moment to think about the fact that these were individually hand-forged by local blacksmiths. They truly are historic artifacts.

There are so many more examples of forged iron boot scrapers, but the one below really stood out to me. It is on the 200 block of Delancey Street (one of my absolute favorite blocks in the city) at a pair of rowhouses built by carpenter John Goodwin in 1756.

Boot scrapers were not just limited to stand-alone units. While they were not embedded into the front walls of homes as they were in Europe, they were frequently incorporated into the design of handrails and fences. Like the ones above, these would have been hand forged locally by blacksmiths when making custom handrails and fences. I love that this much thought was put into them.

You can see the scraper above had both types. What I don’t know is if the scraper in the handrail replaced the one originally set in the marble block. Spruce and Pine Streets have several rows of early 19th century houses which sport boot scrapers built into their front fences (check out these along the 900 block of Spruce Street). These homes were definitely for the more well-off folks, as having a “front yard” in the early 1800’s was not common in Society Hill.

And finally, boot scrapers were not limited to residential use. Philly has several at the entrances to churches, synagogues, banks, and other commercial buildings. This one is surrounded by slate sidewalk at a synagogue.

The next two are at a pair of former banks on Walnut Street. Both are forged iron and quite beautiful.

And my final example is on the steps of The Philadelphia Contributionship, which is the first fire insurance company in America. Benjamin Franklin  was one of the original founders in 1752, and it is still in business today.

Well, that wraps up my tour of boot scrapers in Philadelphia. There are hundreds of them and I have only scratched the surface, but I hope you have enjoyed my efforts. Boot scrapers can still be found out in the countryside, where there is a practical need. But in the city…. They eventually fell out of favor as sanitation standards and expectations improved in the latter half of the 19th century. If you haven’t read Alex’s post, I would encourage you to do so. He has a lot more about the history of boot scrapers as well as some awesome images from his neighborhood in Alexandra. VA. Additional info was found in this post from the Independent (UK, access requires registration).

Meanwhile…. In Other News….

It is pretty obvious that I have not been posting much here. Two big reasons….

First, life has just been super busy. After moving my father here from California in June and driving back in July. I have been taking care of him while he has been living with us. He is limited to the first floor due to mobility issues, so that has made it a challenge to dive into projects (but some things are happening, albeit slowly). Anything for the main floor is basically on hold for now. Stay tuned, I promise more house content coming.

The bigger reason I have not been so active on here is that I am spending MUCH MORE TIME pursuing my art. There’s an entire blog post to be written about it, and I will, I promise. Let’s just say that after many years of searching for my medium, I’ve finally found it and I am super psyched. In the meantime, if you are curious about what I am doing, I would invite (Encourage? Beg? Plead?) you to follow me on my other Instagram account: @devyn.caldwell.

Oh… One last thing. If you remember, I was co-host on the podcast True Tales From Old Houses up until the end of last year. I am excited to be a guest on two upcoming episodes to be recorded live in the Hudson River Valley. I will be joining show host Stacy Grinsfelder with Susan and Will Brinson from House of Brinson as well as the ever so popular Daniel Kanter from Kingston, NY on November 6th. Tickets for the very limited space event went on sale yesterday and are expected to sell out soon. So, here is your chance to meet me, and my fellow old house peeps!

Till next time. . .

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