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When I was a little boy growing up in Springfield, in Eastern Montgomery County, I knew that a neighbor built our house and most of the others in our neighborhood. Today, if you drive into that neighborhood, the houses look almost the same, only the people have changed inside. But looking at the large tracts of land that were in parts of Philadelphia over 100 years ago, I note that this was what a neighborhood looked like before it became one(a neighborhood). I have always been fascinated by photographs from long ago. Some show areas that I recognize as part of my community today. Without these photos, and it's good to know that without the old maps, we might not have an accurate idea of what was here before we set down our roots. I had no idea about the types of homes bulit in Center City and that there were reasons why some are so much smaller than others. I also had no idea until today why my mother's childhood home on Roosevelt Boulevard, had a back staircase. I missed Jeff's lecture once before, so thanks for all of this interesting historical stuff.