Between 1865 and 1867 Charles Gessford and Stephen Flanagan partnered in building 16 attached row houses on 11th Street, SE (132-144 Eleventh Street, SE). Gessford had the row houses built for his Philadelphia native wife to aid with her homesickness. Thus creating Philadelphia Row. The buildings had flat fronts of innovative machine-made pressed bricks. The bricks’ smooth surfaces and crisp edges contrasted visibly with the coarser texture of older ones and would replace the