Look Up! The Poth dynasty on the Drexel campus

“Look Up” is a PlanPhilly feature that encourages appreciation of our architectural and historical environment. Each week, the photo essay will focus on a different Philadelphia area neighborhood and its distinctive building styles and details, all of which make up the physical fabric of the city and region.

The Powelton section of West Philadelphia was home to wealthy industrialists and businessmen in the late 19th century, including Frederick A. Poth, who built a dynasty along Powelton Avenue.

At 33rd and Powelton, the successful brewer commissioned A.W. Dilks to build his 1887 home, a striking mansion of red brick and brownstone, and towers, bays and dormers that reflected the German Gothic heritage of the homeowner and the High Victorian style of the time. Poth and son-in-law Edward Schmidt used revenue from their breweries to develop real estate throughout Powelton, with many of the homes designed by Dilks.

But for the 3500 block of Powelton, Poth hired Willis Hale, renowned architect of the Widener Mansion, (Divine) Lorraine Hotel, and Hale Building, to design a row of speculative houses in 1902. Poth sold the unfinished project to a new owner, who converted the homes into apartments. In 1908, architects Samuel Milligan and Frederick Webber filled in the spaces between the houses with stair towers, and built a tower at the center of the row on Powelton Avenue to unify the complex.

The Poth Mansion has been the home of Drexel University’s Alpha Pi Lamda fraternity since 1939. The Powelton Apartments were renovated and renamed The Courts in 1998.

“Look Up” Wright’s Ardmore Experiment

“Look Up” Contemporary neighbors in Society Hill

“Look Up” Imaginative Eyre on Locust Street

“Look Up!” Elfreth’s Alley has issues

“Look Up” Architectural exercises on Boathouse Row

“Look Up!” John Notman’s brownstone temples

“Look Up!” 19th Century luxe on Locust St.

“Look Up!: 20th Century evolution in East Falls

“Look Up!” Rural retreats in Northeast Philly

“Look Up!” Modernist lines on Haverford Ave.

“Look Up!” Chestnut Hill’s modernist gems

Contact the writer at ajaffe@planphilly.com.

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