Ricker House (527 Northampton Street, Now 6Th Street Laundromat Plus)

4

[Photo by Richard F. Hope]

Bishop Apartments Building (527 Northampton Street, now 6th Street Laundromat Plus)

4-1/2-story brick, with 2 dormers and dental roof cornice.[1]

This is the eastern half of Original Town Lot No.242. The entire Lot was sold by the Penn Family Proprietors to John Knaus in 1805.[2] Knaus, in turn, sold the property to William Ricker three years later.[3] When William Ricker died in 1860 at age 80,[4] he willed the property to his daughter, Catherine, for life. She owned the property until she died in 1909.[5]

During much of Catherine Ricker’s ownership period, beginning by 1873 and lasting into the 20th Century, John P. Ricker lived on this property.[6] A carpenter by trade,[7] he was apparently the grandson of William (Wilhelm) Ricker.[8] During the Civil War, he served as the Captain of Company E, 153rd Pennsylvania Regiment.[9] His Regiment had the misfortune to be the first unit to receive the celebrated flanking attack of Confederate General “Stonewall” Jackson that defeated the Union Army on that day.[10] Surrounded by Confederates on three sides, the recruits of the 153rd Regiment nevertheless stood their ground like veterans until ordered to retreat,[11] “getting off one deadly accurate volley” in the process.[12] The 153rd Regiment went on to be heavily engaged at the Battle of Gettysburg, fought after the enlistment period of many of its companies had technically ended.[13] Captain Ricker was wounded in that battle,[14] and received a government pension after the War for a gunshot wound in his leg.[15] The Regiment initially fought the Confederates who swept the Union Army from the town, but the next day it held position on Cemetery Hill despite heavy artillery fire and a determined infantry attack. At one point the Regiment was driven from its first line of defense, and Confederate troops began reaching the supporting Union artillery guns. A leading Confderate soldier threw himself over the muzzle of one of the Union cannons, and told the gunners: “I take command of this gun”. One of the Union gunners, a German, replied: “Du sollst sie haben” (“you shall have it”), and fired the gun. “A second later, and the soul of the daring rebel had taken its flight.”[16]

·  The 153rd Regiment’s Colonel was Charles Glanz[17] of Easton, who had been Willibald Kuebler’s partner in Kuebler’s Brewery when it was established there in 1852.[18] The Lt. Colonel was Jacob Dachrodt,[19] who after the War kept a butcher shop in the Parsons-Taylor House for most of the rest of the 19th Century.[20]

In 1887, Ricker served as the representative of the Fourth Ward on Easton’s Select Council.[21] He died in 1906, three years before Catherine Ricker died, and is buried in Easton Cemetery.[22]

·  Prior to the 1874 inauguration of Easton’s modern street numbering scheme, the Ricker property was listed as 217 Northampton Street.[23] It was assigned the modern No.529 in the 1874 renumbering.[24] The front of the building apparently housed a green grocer (at No.529) and a barber (at No.531).[25]

Members of John P. Ricker’s family living with him in the building included (at times) his wife Rebecca and four sons.[26] One of the sons, Thomas P. Ricker (born 1857), initially trained as a carpenter,[27] but also became a volunteer fireman. Shortly after the new paid Central Fire Department was formed in 1879, he joined as a professional fireman. He became Chief of the Easton Fire Department in 1891-95, and again in 1899 until his death in 1919.[28]

·  Another son, Howard, continued to live with his father at this address in 1900 and continued his father’s carpenter trade,[29] but by 1910 was living alone on his “Own Income”.[30]

A picture of this building in the 1890s shows a 2-story clapboard house with two entrances, standing next to the Library Court alley. Notices on the left hand (western) door indicate that it was a barber shop.[31] Directory entries show that the barber was Albert Breininger, located at 531 Northampton Street.[32] A small wooden house next door (at 533 Northampton Street) was Chauncey Freeman’s news dealership.[33]

In 1910 (the year after Catherine Ricker’s death), the Ricker Estate sold this property to Frank D. Bishop.[34] Four years later (in 1914) this building was apparently first listed as the “Bishop Apartments”,[35] probably indicating the old Ricker house was replaced by the present brick building at that time. The property has continued to bear the “Bishop” name ever since.[36]

·  Bishop was an art dealer, who also dealt in pictures frames and mirrors, with his shop at 512 Northampton Street and his residence at No.514-1/2.[37]

Frank Bishop conveyed the property to his wife, Elizabeth, in 1922.[38] In 1928 Elizabeth, then remarried to Howard J. Hanna, split the property and sold the Bishop Apartment Building portion to Sophia (also spelled Sophie) B. Kitchen.[39] Later in that year she separately sold Mrs. Kitchen the Church Street portion of the property at the rear.[40]

·  Mrs. Bishop (Hanna) and Mrs. Kitchen had previously lived in the same neighboring apartment building,[41] and their relationship may date from that time.

·  Mrs. Kitchen’s husband, George F. Kitchen, was a jeweler and engraver in Easton in the early part of the 20th Century, living and working at separate addresses on Northampton Street.[42] In 1930 (two years after purchasing the Bishop Apartments), he was in the real estate business, and had moved his residence up to College Hill.[43]

Mrs. Kitchen apparently ran into financial difficulties during the Great Depression of the 1930s; this property was sold at Sheriff’s sale to the West Ward Building Association,[44] and other properties owned by Ms. Kitchen were sold off at approximately the same time.[45] In 1941, Ms. Kitchen also separately sold off the Church Street lot at the rear.[46]

In 1941, William Americus acquired the Bishop Apartments Building from the West Ward Building Association,[47] and three years later re-united the property with the Church Street lot to the rear.[48]

·  Americus had been born in Sparta, Greece in 1893, and immigrated to New York City as a 12-year-old boy. In New York, he became the Metropolitan amateur middleweight wresting champion during the period 1919-23. He moved to Easton at approximately the close of this period, and ran a wholesale fruit business before opening the Skill Amusement companies of Easton.[49] Americus became a substantial landowner in Easton, also acquiring at various times the Norton Building (at the SW corner of Northampton and Second Streets),[50] and the Eastonia (across from the Post Office, at the NW corner of Second and Ferry Streets),[51] among others.[52]

When Americus died in August 1953,[53] his widow Louise inherited the Bishop Apartments Building.[54] She later married Eugene John Pappas, a restaurant owner from Denver, Colorado who had originally immigrated from Messinia, Greece,[55] and who in turn became a co-owner of this building[56] (as well as others that Louise had inherited from Americus[57]). However, Mrs. Pappas shortly thereafter took back sole control of the Bishop Apartments Building itself,[58] and in 1986 sold it to a real estate company.[59]

In 1990, a developer (Robert Johnsen of Flemington, N.J.) received a $70,000 loan from the City of Easton and another $75,000 federal housing grant to renovate it, but never finished the project, which was then sold at Sheriff’s Sale.[60] A subsequent developer (Valley Housing Development Corp.) received another $40,000 from Northampton County, plus federal tax credits and a $70,000 loan guarantee, to finish the project.[61]

The vacant lot next door (to the West, next to the Central Fire Station) at 533-35 Northampton Street today belongs to the same owners as the Bishop Apartments Building. It was once also part of Original Lot No.242, but became a separate property owned in the 19th Century by the Serfass Family, who kept it until 1974.[62] The subsequent owner appears to have had financial difficulties,[63] and in the 1990s, the building on the property was destroyed by fire and had to be demolished, which the City of Easton had to accomplish after obtaining the property from the owners. The City then sold the property (then vacant) to the developers of the Bishop Apartments Building in 1992, subject to an easement to park Fire Department vehicles in the rear.[64]

[1] Also listed as 529-31 Northampton St. in Northampton County tax records photo (www.ncpub.org).

[2] Deed, John Penn and Richard Penn to John Knauss, C3 396 (17 Apr. 1805)(sale price £151 17s. 6d. for Lot Nos.221, 222, 242, 226, 228, 230 and 232); see Northampton Trust Co., Administrator of Estate of William Ricker, to Frank D. Bishop, G38 290 (1 June 1910)(recitals).

[3] Deed, John (Elizabeth) Knaus to William Ricker, D3 216 (26 Sept. 1808); see Deed, Northampton Trust Co., Administrator of Estate of William Ricker, to Frank D. Bishop, G38 290 (1 June 1910)(recitals).

[4] See Works Progress Administration Personnel (comp. & ed.), III Parish Records of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton, PA (Easton Area Public Library designation CCC) 670 (Easton Public Library 1937)(William Ricker, born 1779, died 1860 age 80). William’s wife was also named Catherine, but she died in 1863, at age 82. Id. at 701. See also id., Vol.II (Easton Area Public Library designation CC) at 442 (marriage of Samuel Ricker, son of William and Catherine Ricker) and 449 (marriage of Charles Ricker, son of same).

[5] See Deed, Northampton Trust Co., Administrator of Estate of William Ricker, to Frank D. Bishop, G38 290 (1 June 1910)(and recitals).

[6] See D.G. Beers, Atlas of Northampton County Pennsylvania, Plan of Easton (A. Pomeroy & Co. 1874)(J.P. Ricker, fourth building from Sixth Street); Jeremiah H. Lant, The Northampton County Directory for 1873 107 (1873)(John H. Ricker, carpenter, at the rear of 217 Northampton Street); Webb Bros. & Co., Webb’s Easton and Phillipsburg Directory 1875-6 100 (M.J. Riegel 1875)(John P. Ricker, carpenter, home rear 529 Northampton Street); J.H. Lant, Easton [Etc.] Directory for 1877 120 (M.J. Riegel 1877)(same); 1880 Census, Series T9, Roll 1161, p.410D; 1900 Census, Series T623, Roll 1447, p.107B.

In 1870, prior to taking up residence here, John P. Ricker apparently resided in the Leidich Property building at what was then numbered 211 Northampton Street. Fitzgerald & Dillon, Easton Directory for 1870-71 128 (Ringwalt & Brown 1870)(John P. Ricker, carpenter). He had also lived in Easton prior to the Civil War. See C[harles] Kitchen, A General Directory of the Borough of Easton PA 49 (Cole & Eichman 1855)(John P. Ricker, carpenter, 216 Northampton Street); William H. Boyd, Boyd’s Directory of Reading, Easton, [Etc.] 128 (William H. Boyd 1860)(John P. Ricker, carpenter, home on Northampton Street near 12th Street).

A picture of a 2-story frame duplex house (with two entrances) dated to circa 1890 appears in Leonard S. Buscemi Sr., The 2000 Easton-Phillipsburg Calendar unnumbered p.72 (Buscemi Enterprises 1999). According to the caption, at that time signs on the left (western) door indicated that a barber shop had recently moved from the building to 4 North 6th Street, while the right (eastern) door led to Freeman’s book store. Mr. Buscemi also indicates that the house was at one time the “Riche” homestead.

[7] E.g., Webb Bros. & Co., Webb’s Easton and Phillipsburg Directory 1875-6 100 (M.J. Riegel 1875); 1880 Census, Series T9, Roll 1161, p.410D.

[8] See Letter, Helen P. Alleman [Library Researcher] to Tom Ricker (Easton Area Public Library Ricker Family File, dated 21 June 1963)(“It is probable that Jacob [Ricker] . . . is the . . . son of Wilhelm Ricker and Catherine”, and John Philip Ricker, carpenter, was the son of Jacob Ricker). That would, in turn, make John P. Ricker a nephew of unmarried Catherine Ricker, the owner of the house.

[9] Samuel P. Bates, IV History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 784 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1870); Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 249 (George W. West 1885 / 1889); see Obituary, Thomas P. Ricker, Easton Express, 11 Oct. 1919, p.1, cols. 4-5, at p.10, cols. 5-6 (son of Captain John P. Ricker and his wife Rebecca); Obituary, Howard Ricker, Easton Express, Fri., 24 Sept. 1937, p.5, col.1 (father was Captain of Company E, 153rd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Civil War); Henry F. Marx (compiler), III Marriages and Deaths Northampton County 1852 – 1870 Newspaper Extracts 723 (Easton Area Public Library 1934)(1863 death of John Burt Ricker, age almost 11, the son of Captain J.P. Ricker and his wife Rebecca).

In particular, he was the Captain of Company E, 153rd Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers. W.R. Kiefer, History of the One Hundred and Fifty-Third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers Infantry 268 (Press of Chemical Pub. Co. 1909).

[10] Samuel P. Bates, IV History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 773-75 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1870); James Wright and Kim Kromer, Nazareth’s Company A, 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Civil War 6, 11, 13-14, 22 (Nazareth (PA)Keepsakes No.19: Moravian Hall Square Museum/Craft Shop Dec. 2004).

[11] Samuel P. Bates, IV History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 776 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1870).

[12] James Wright, The Civil War: Northampton County Perspective 27 (The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 2004).

[13] James Wright and Kim Kromer, Nazareth’s Company A, 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Civil War 15-17 (Nazareth (PA)Keepsakes No.19: Moravian Hall Square Museum/Craft Shop Dec. 2004); see Samuel P. Bates, IV History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 775-76 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1870)(six companies enlistment having expired, requested release after the Battle of Gettysburg while pursuing the Confederate forces).