The Origins of Philadelphia's Octavia Hill Association: Social Reform in the "Contented" City
Philadelphia s Octavia Hill ^Association: Social Reform in the "Contented" City IN RECENT years, historians have offered modifications to Philadelphia's turn-of-the-century image as a "corrupt and contented" city. The Quaker City may have been as corrupt as any other large urban center, but abundant evidence indicates that thousands of its blacks, immigrants, and working-class citizens were anything but contented. However historians have continued to portray Philadelphia's middleand upper-class reformers as a "contented" lot—content, that is, to seek efficient, good-government solutions by tinkering with the political machinery, while ignoring serious social issues like housing, health, and sanitation. Nevertheless, some social reformers did have visions of a cleaner, healthier Philadelphia with an improved quality of life. Their paternalism and some of their methods may appear outmoded by modern standards, but their lonely struggle against middle-class contentment deserves recognition. The Octavia Hill Association was one such organization of social reformers. Both Philadelphians and visitors frequently justified the city's