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(Photo 2012 by Virginia Lawrence-Hope)

Opdyke Residence (75 North 2nd Street)

2-1/2 story red brick, with 3 dormers. Large frame bay window on 2nd floor, over entry door accessed by high (8-step) front stoop. This house was built on land originally obtained from the Penn Family in 1802 by Henry Spering.[1]

This land was part of a plot originally obtained from the Penn Family in 1802 by Henry Spering. The acquisition included both Original town Lots 36 and 38,[2] which were contiguous, and included all the property southwards essentially to the Wolf Building property today, and eastwards 230’ to include many of the small lots fronting on Spring Garden Street today.[3] Spering’s purchase also included Original Town Lot No.63, in the middle of the block on the West side of North 2nd Street.[4] Spering was the son of a Tory whose land was confiscated during the Revolution, but he recovered his family fortunes after the War, to become an important Northampton County politician holding offices such as Sheriff from 1897-1800[5] and Chief Burgess of Easton in 1804-05 and again in 1806.[6]

Spering sold the two Lots to Peter Miller in 1804 for £200. Miller was a blacksmith from Hanover Township, PA.[7]

  • This was apparently notthe same person known as Easton’s “merchant prince”, also named Peter Miller,[8] who ownedso many other properties in town.[9]

By December of 1825, blacksmith Peter Miller had moved to New York state. He sold the frame building and “Stone Smith Shop” at the eastern end of this property,[10] and then sold the remaining part of it to Col. Thomas McKeen a few days later.[11]

Col. Thomas McKeen (sometimes spelled “McKean”[12])(1763 – 1858[13]) was a protégé of Easton industrialist Samuel Sitgreaves. In 1827, McKeensucceeded Sitgreaves as the second President of the Easton Bank.[14] Col. McKeen obtained his military rank from the state militia, which he joined during the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794.[15] He was a “ruling elder” of the First Presbyterian Church of Easton for 35 years, and died in 1858 at the age of 96.[16] He was later referred to as one of the three “rich men of Easton”.[17]

Col. McKeen made a house at the street corner available to Rev. John Gray, and Presbyterian minister, and then sold Rev. Gray the housein 1830.[18] He apparently had four other houses (two of brick and two of stone) on the remainder of the property, fronting on North 2nd Street.[19] Since Col. McKeen’s actual residence was located down the street (at what is now 231 Spring Garden Street),[20] all of these four houses were presumably rented out as investments. Col. McKeen died without children in 1858, at age 96.[21] By 1860, his estate had rented one house on the property to coal merchant James F. Randolph; by that time, Randolph had been assigned the address of 43 North 2nd Street (under the numbering scheme adopted in 1855).[22] This would appear to be the location that became 75 North 2nd Street when the modern street numbering scheme was adopted later (see below).[23]

In 1864, Colonel McKeen’s estate sold all the remaining land on 2ndStreet for $7,600 to Thomas McKeen,[24] Col. McKeen’s grand-nephew[25] and one of the Colonel’s estate executors. Three months later, the grand-nephew transferred the property to Henry McKeen, the other executor of Col. McKeen’s estate. The sale price was $7,000.[26]

  • Col. McKeen’s executors were involved in at least one other such apparently self-interested transaction at the same time. The property that became the McKeen-Young Mansion at 241 Northampton Street was also transferred to an executor (in that case, to a nephew also named Thomas McKeen) in a two-step transaction (in that case both steps executed on the very same day).[27]
  • Unlike that same-day transaction, in the case of the 2nd Street property, the intermediary grand-nephew lost $600 as a result of the deal (the difference between his purchase price in September, and his sale price in December), and a period of three months did intervene between the two transactions. It is therefore possible that the two sales were not actually pre-planned to make a single disguised transfer. Perhaps grand-nephew Thomas McKeen (a resident of Camden, N.J.) simply found that managing property in Easton was not as easy as he had thought, and quickly “flipped” it to his fellow estate executor.

Once he had obtained ownership of these 2nd Street investment properties, Henry McKeen then proceeded to subdivide and sell off the individual homes. One year after his acquisition, Henry McKeen sold the brick buildingthat would later become 75 North 2nd Street to John Reilly for $4,200. Reilly obtained the right to insist that the front steps to his house be maintained “as they are now located” lapping in front of the property next door to the South. The sale also reserved to Henry McKeen the right to use a small baker’s alley on the northern side of Reilly’s property – incidentally showing that the other brick building was already located here at this date, between Reilly and Rev. Gray at the corner. This baker’s alleystill runson the ground floor (under a portion of the upper stories of the house) to the present day.[28]

  • Henry McKeen retained title to the brick house to the North that would become 77 North 2nd Street (next to Rev. Gray), which was sold in 1867.[29] Henry McKeen also retained the two stone houses located to the South, next to the Union Academy (Academy Hill) property, that would later be replaced by the Frank Lawall Mansion at 73 North 2nd Street.[30]

John Reilly (also spelled “Riley[31]) was a “contractor”, and became a long-term resident in the house he had purchased. [At that time, it was still numbered 43 North 2nd Street,[32] as it had been when John Randolph occupied it previously.] With the inauguration of the modern street numbering scheme, Mr. Riley/Reilly’s residence was assigned the address of 71 North 2nd Street.[33]

  • This numbering was a giant mistake, which caused subsequent confusion. Next door, Mrs. Nancy Agnew was initially assigned the 75 North 2nd Street address, and (apparently to leave plenty of room) Mr. Reilly then got No.71.[34] However, Mrs. Agnew had actually purchasedthe property next to Rev. Gray at the corner,[35] which was No.79,[36] so somebody evidently decided to eliminate the intervening unused numbers. Thus, Mrs. Agnew’s propertywas renumbered77 North 2nd Street, while what had been Mr. Riley’s was now changed after 1887 to No.75.[37]

Ownership and occupancy changed considerably over this period. John Reilly died on 9 June 1874, without a will (intestate). Interests in his property then passed to his widow (Mary A Reilly) and their eight children.[38] Mrs. Reilly continued to live in the house in the early 1870s,[39] although she apparently moved out by 1877.[40] By 1879 the house, 71 North 2nd Street was rented to dentist Vancleve (V.N.) Swayze,[41] until his death in 1882.[42] His family consisted of a wife (B.L. Swayze)plus 4 daughters,including Carrie D. and Anna C. Swayze.[43] By 1883, the householder had become Mrs. B.L. Swayze, while her two daughters Carrie D. and “Cora” (presumably, “Anna C.” from 1880) were the principals of the SunnySide School operated out of the house (from the 71 North 2nd Street address).[44]

By 1896, J.F. Tinsman was apparently a tenant in the house. In that year, Charles W. Kinsey (age 74) was a boarder with Tinsman; Kinsey died in September of that year.[45] Kinsey, an interesting character, had originally been trained as a tinsmith by Daniel Black, but went to California with the gold rush of 1849. He returned to Easton in 1852,[46]and was working in town as a tinsmith in 1860.[47] At some point, he became a member of the volunteer Phoenix Fire Company.[48] However at the start of the Civil War in 1861, Kinsey promptly joined Company H of the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment, serving as a private through its three months term.[49] He is said to have then re-enlisted as a corporal in Company B of the 51st Pennsylvania Regiment, where his right arm was “shot off” at the Battle of Fredericksburg on 13 December 1862.[50] Upon his return, tinsmithing was apparently too difficult to perform with only one arm, so he was able to get the assistant toll-taker’s job on the Delaware River bridge for 20 years.[51] He boarded with William Green in 1870 and 1880; his occupation was listed as a “Clerk” in 1880.[52] He had presumably moved to North 2nd Street after he retired as a tollkeeper.

In 1898, the Reilly heirs collectively sold the property to Emeline M. Schlosser for $2,850.[53] Schlosser held it for only a few months, and then resold it for $3,250 to Dorothy Opdyke, the wife of Joshua F. Opdyke.[54] The addressbecame 75 North 2nd Street, and the house became the long-time residence of Dorothy and Joshua F. Opdyke, then a partner in (later sole head of) the Pollock Brush Co.[55] Opdyke had been born in Berwick, PA in 1848, where he started out in business. He bought out John Pollock’s brush business in 1891 and moved to Easton, after which he “held a prominent place in business circles of Easton for more than a third of a century.” He died in 1927,[56]and his widow, Dorothy Opdyke, continued to live in the house on North 2nd Street[57] until she died in 1930.[58]

  • In 1930, the house address was confusingly listed in the City Directory as 73 North 2nd Street (rather than 75).[59] The reason for this change is unknown – perhaps it was another typographical error.[60]

The executor of Mrs. Opdyke’s estaterented out the house for a time. In the 1930s, it was rented to Joseph F. Norton, a manager of the 3rd Street Garage.[61] By 1942, it was rented to Elbern and Margaret Alkire,[62] and then sold them in 1946 for $7,800.[63] They occupied the house as both their residence and music studio for music lessons and publishing business.[64]

The Alkires purchased an additional small plot of land from the next-door neighbors in 1965.[65] Elbern Alkire died on 25 January 1981, and his widow passed title to the combined property along in 2002[66] to her sons.[67] They, in turn, sold the property to Maria Kastrinakis in 2009, for $277,500.[68]

[1]Compare Deed, John and Richard Penn (by Attorney) to Henry Spering, H2 417 (18 Aug. 1802) with Northampton County Tax Records Map, and A.D. Chidsey, Jr., The Penn Patents in the Forks of the Delaware Plan of Easton, Map 2 (Vol. II of Publications of the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1937). See also separate entry for the Peter Brady House at 79 North 2nd Street.

[2]Deed, John and Richard Penn (by Attorney) to Henry Spering, H2 417 (18 Aug. 1802).

[3]See Northampton County Tax Records Map, This shows that the first four modern lots at the corner of Spring Garden and North 2nd Streets have a combined frontage on North 2nd Street of 120.83 feet, compared with the 120 feet combined frontage of the Original Town Lots 36 and 38 shown in A.D. Chidsey, Jr., The Penn Patents in the Forks of the Delaware Plan of Easton, Map 2 (Vol. II of Publications of the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1937).

[4]Deed, John and Richard Penn (by Attorney) to Henry Spering, H2 417 (18 Aug. 1802); Chidsey, The Penn Patents, supra.

[5]A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village: Pre-Revolutionary Easton234, 258-59 (Vol.III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealorical Society, 1940). See generally separate entry for the Detwiller House at 52 Centre Square.

[6]Article, “Chief Executives of Easton Since 1789”, Easton Express, Sun., 12 June 1937, jubilee Section A, p.5, cols. 1-2.

[7]See Deed, Henry Spering to Peter Miller, H2 438 (17 March 1804).

Blacksmith Miller also owned other property in the area. See Deed, Peter (Maria Christina) Miller to Andrew Herster, G4 389 (3 April 1823)(property in Palmer Township at “Seip’s Road” sold by Peter Miller, blacksmith).

[8]See Floyd S. Bixler, The History with Reminiscences of the Early Taverns and Inns of Easton, 12 (Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1931)(Paper Read before the Northampton County Historical Society at the St. Crispin Anniversary Dinner at the Lafayette Hotel on 25 Oct. 1930); separate entry for the Two Rivers Landing at 30 Centre Square.

[9]The “merchant prince” Peter Miller owned property on Northampton Street, located where the Two Rivers Landing now stands. (See separate entry for 30 Centre Square, and sources cited therein). Property records in 1803 and 1805 refer to the Northampton Street Peter Miller as a “storekeeper”, and not as a blacksmith. Article of Agreement, John Green and Peter Miller, A3 225 (23 Feb. 1803)(Northampton County Real Estate Archives); Deed, Peter Miller to John Green, A3 226 (25 April 1805).

Moreover, the 1800 Census, Series M32, Roll 37, at page 537 lists one Peter Miller in the Borough of Easton, and at page 548 lists another Peter Miller in Hanover Township. The latter would appear to be the owner of the Fermor Street property.

[10]Deed, Peter (Maria Christiana) Miller to Sidney Down, B5 408 (14 Dec. 1825)(“Frame Messuage or Tenement Stone Smith Shop” beginning 64-1/2 feet from Fermor St., on the South side of Spring Garden St., and extending east another 165 feet). This is consistent with the modern corner property measurement, which extends along Spring Garden Street 72.5’ from the corner with Third (Fermor) Street. See

[11]Deed, Peter (Maria Christiana) Miller to Thomas McKeen, H5 328 (19 Dec. 1825). This Deed indicates that, in 1825, Peter Miller (“late of Easton”) had moved to New York state. The property sold measured 64.5’ on Spring Garden Street X 120’ on Fermor (now 2nd) Street, with the Union Academy property to the South.

[12]See, e.g., A.D. Chidsey, Jr., The Old County Courthouse and other Northampton County History 18 (Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, 1964); Historic Easton, Inc., Annual House Tour Site #2 (18 May 1985)(McKean).

He should not be confused with Thomas McKean, a Governor of Pennsylvania and signor of the Declaration of Independence.

[13]E.g., Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, I The Scotch-Irish of Northampton County, Pennsylvania 178 (1926).

[14]Dr. Elinor Warner, Easton, Pennsylvania Walking Tour, for Pennsylvania Art Education Association Conference 2000, (accessed 4 Jan. 2005); Chidsey, The Old County Courthouse and other Northampton County History, supra at 18; Historic Easton, Inc., Annual House Tour Site #2 (18 May 1985)(“new bride Harriet Porter”); Easton Heritage Alliance, House Tour 1996: Historic Easton Homes and Gardens 40-41 (18 May 1996); accord, Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, The 28th Annual House Tour 20 (3 May 2008)(built in 1833; before becoming Bank President, McKeen had been the first Head Cashier).

[15]Chidsey, The Old County Courthouse and other Northampton County History, supra, at 18(spelled “McKeen”); Virginia Williams Bentley, Sesquicentennial Story of the First Presbyterian Church of Easton, Pennsylvania 1811-186145 (1961)(spelled “McKeen”).

[16]Bentley, Sesquicentennial Story of the First Presbyterian Church of Easton, Pennsylvania 1811-1861, supra at 27 & n.*, 29, 45; seeRecord Book of First Presbyterian Church of Easton, Pennsylvania 1811-1887 (Easton Area Public Library Code F) 79 (copied in Easton Public Library 1936)(ordained an elder in the church on 8 June 1823).

[17]Article, “Rich Men”, Easton Argus, Thurs., 21 Nov. 1861, p.2, col.3. The other two identified by the Argus were Peter Miller (the merchant, not the blacksmith) and Hon. David D. Wagener. See generally separate entries for the Wagner Mansion (Pomfret Club) at 33 South 4th Street (owned by David Wagener’s son) and the Two Rivers Landing at 30 Centre Square.

[18]Deed, Thomas McKeen to John Gray, G5 228 (4 May 1830)(“two Story Brick Tenement” and corner property measuring 64’ 6” on Spring Garden Street X 24’ on North 2nd Street); see separate entry for 79 North 2nd Street.

[19]This is inferred because his estate had “two large Brick buildings and two Stone Buildings with other improvement” – a total of four houses – on this property. Deed, Thomas McKeen and Henry McKeen, Executors of the Will of Thomas McKeen (of Easton), to Thomas McKeen, H10 561 (6 Sept. 1864)(recital); accord, Deed, Thomas (Sally J.) McKeen to Henry McKeen, A11 373 (2 Dec. 1864)(recital).

[20]See separate entry for the Col. McKeen Mansion at 231 Spring Garden Street.

[21]Virginia Williams Bentley, Sesquicentennial Story of the First Presbyterian Church of Easton, Pennsylvania 1811-186145 (1961); see Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, I The Scotch-Irish of Northampton County, Pennsylvania 178 (1926).

[22]See William H. Boyd, Boyd’s Directory of Reading, Easton, [Etc.] 123 (William H. Boyd 1860)(at 43 North 2nd Street).

[23]43 North 2nd Street was presumably next door to No.41. No.41 North 2nd Street was, prior the 1874 street renumbering, the William Memmert House, which was replaced by the Frank Lawall Mansion (next door at 73 North 2nd Street under the modern numbering scheme). Compare Jeremiah H. Lant, The Northampton County Directory for 1873 96 (1873)(alphabetical listing) with D.G. Beers, Atlas of Northampton County Pennsylvania, Plan of Easton (A. Pomeroy & Co. 1874)(Wm Memmert); see also entry for the Frank Lawall Mansion at 73 North 2nd Street.

[24]Deed, Thomas McKeen and Henry McKeen, Executors of the Will of Thomas McKeen (of Easton), to Thomas McKeen, H10 561 (6 Sept. 1864)(sale price $7,600 for property next to the corner lot of Rev. John Gray, measuring 88’ on 2nd Street). This measurement may be slightly inaccurate: Rev. Gray’s property has a 24’ frontage, and Lots 36 and 38 each had 60’ (for a total of 120), leaving only 86’ of frontage to be occupied by this property.

[25]Major Thomas McKeen, a/k/a Thomas L. McKeen, was referred to in various records as a resident of Camden, N.J. He was instead involved in the lumber and iron industries, apparently because his father James was a saw-mill proprietor. See Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, I The Scotch-Irish of Northampton County, Pennsylvania 177-78 (1926)(James McKeen’s son was Major Thomas L. McKeen, in the lumber and iron businesses); William H. Boyd, Boyd’s Directory of Reading, Easton, etc. 126, 128 (William H. Boyd 1860)(Thomas L. McKeen, South Easton, in the firm of Pursel & McKeen, lumber-dealers); Talbot’s Lehigh Valley Gazetteer and Business Directory 1864-65 23 (Press of Wynkoop & Hallenbeck 1864)(James McKeen, saw-mill proprietor from South Easton); Fitzgerald & Dillon, Easton Directory for 1870-71 61 (Ringwalt & Brown 1870)(listing for Thomas L. McKean home at 91 Bushkill St. and James McKeen, lumber, home at 62 N. Ferry St.).

This Thomas McKeen was a grand-nephew of Col. Thomas McKeen. His father, James McKeen, was a nephew; his grandfather, also James McKeen, was a brother. See McKeen Genealogy Chart, contained in the “McKeen” file at the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society (no compiler noted).