Magnificent Mansion
on North Broad Street
Still Shines

In the years following the Civil War, the tall, elegant brownstone mansion at 1438 N. Broad Street, with its stylish mansard roof and Renaissance trim, was undoubtedly the scene of some of Philadelphia's most lavish holiday parties.

The mansions of North Broad Street in that day were home to the city's mighty industrial barons, men of fabulous wealth and flamboyant taste, and it's not hard to imagine the splendor of the social gatherings in these opulent dwellings with women gowned in rustling taffeta, white-gloved waiters carrying silver trays laden with hors d'oeuvres, and flutes of champagne, lace-covered tables set with bone china glowing rosily in gaslight, violins playing in the background.

North Broad Street is no longer home to the rich and famous, and time has taken its toll on the mansions there. Many have disappeared. But 1438 still stands and is still the scene of many happy social events, including holiday parties, although there are no ladies gowned in rustling taffeta gowns who attend them, there are no flutes of champagne, and no white glove waiters. There is something much better. The mansion at 1438 N. Broad is now home to the North City Congress.

North City Congress is a big, bustling operation with programs for older adults. Funding comes from the United Way and the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging.

North City Congress a non-profit agency is home to the North Broad Street Senior Center where, happily, the good times never cease. In addition to holiday parties, the center has dance classes, a choir, lots of games, bingo, cards, checkers, and billiards to name a few, as well, as trips to the movies, Atlantic City and Lancaster County. The center also has computer lab, and offers classes in arts and crafts, sewing, and ceramics. A hot, nutritious lunch is served every day in the mansion's dinning room. 

In a neighborhood where so much grand architecture of the 19th Century has been destroyed, the mansion at 1438 N. Broad survives as a shining example of how the past can and should be preserved to serve the present and the future.

Learn how you can support NCC here

City Controller Alan Butkovitz
visiting the North Broad Senior Center