While watching the election returns last night on CNN I was thinking that news coverage of an election in and around 1800 reporters could have been swarming our local area to get news about the elections. Why? Do you know that Thomas Leiper – whose home on Avondale Road – shown on the left – was a confidant of Thomas Jefferson, and that Leiper was a landlord to Jefferson. Leiper rented a home to Jefferson that he owned at 8th and Market Street in Philadelphia, the site later became the location of Gimbels Department Store. Beginning in 1791 the two men began a correspondence that eventually numbered over 100 letters. Topics included political issues and the mutual distrust of England. The letters ended with Leiper’s death in 1825.
Leiper was a key figure in the formation of the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania, and his descendants claim that in addition to Jefferson, 8 other presidents were entertained at “Avondale”, as Leiper named his home, before, during or after their terms in office.
So one can imagine what election nights in Nether Providence during the years around 1800 were like. The opinions and thoughts of Thomas Leiper were most certainly highly prized.
