A river town that learned to burn coal
East Falls has an early place in the story of heating. Before the War of 1812, Josiah White and Erskine Hazard ran a foundry, a wire mill and a nail works off the falls, and during that war they learned to use anthracite for industrial heating. The rapids themselves vanished in 1822, when the dam at the Fairmount Water Works raised the river, though rocks near the old fall line still show above the water.
Mill houses three stories high
The neighborhood’s housing came with the textile mills. John and James Dobson ran what grew into the city’s largest woolen mill, making blankets for the Union Army and carpets sold across the country. John Dobson bought land near the mills and built rows of houses and some twins to rent to his workers, most of them three stories tall. Many survive and make up a large part of East Falls today.
A house that is three floors tall and one room wide is hard to keep even. Warmth pools on the top floor in July and the first floor can feel drafty in January, and a single thermostat in the middle can’t please both. Balancing dampers or adding a return upstairs are the usual fixes, and which one fits depends on what the house already has.
Living over the shop
Some of the Dobson houses on Ridge Avenue were built with a store on the ground floor and a home above. A mixed building like this often has two sets of equipment in one basement or on one roof, and it matters which one serves which space before anyone starts a repair. Other buildings have been divided or combined over the years. The stone back-to-back houses on West Westmoreland Street, built in 1890 and 1891 as four homes apiece, were converted in 1935 into apartments with one on each floor. In a house with that kind of history, the pipes and ducts rarely follow the original plan.
Close to the river and the park
East Falls runs along the Schuylkill up to the mouth of the Wissahickon Creek, and the Falls Bridge links it to the far bank. The housing isn’t only mill rows. Grace Kelly grew up at 3901 Henry Avenue, and Alden Park was one of the first apartment complexes built as towers in a park. Apartment buildings like that often run on larger central equipment, such as one boiler serving many units, which needs different care from a rowhouse furnace. From our shop in Bala Cynwyd it is about fifteen minutes away. We troubleshoot before replacing anything and repair the same day when we can. Emergency calls are answered around the clock.