Elfreth's Alley, barely twelve feet wide, is the oldest continuously inhabited residential street in the United States. Elfreth's Alley is a narrow cobblestone lane, barely twelve feet wide, lined with thirty-two Federal and Georgian row houses built between 1702 and 1836. It was named for Jeremiah Elfreth, a blacksmith and property owner who developed much of the lane in the early eighteenth century.
The residents who lived here were not wealthy; they were the tradespeople who built and maintained Philadelphia — artisans, glass blowers, dressmakers, smiths, and sea captains who needed to be close to the Delaware River wharves. Most of the houses are original, with their original brick, original window frames, and in some cases original interior woodwork, preserved through a combination of neglect and stewardship. The Mantua Maker's House at number 126 is open as a museum on weekends.
Look at the scale of the buildings — two and a half stories, narrow lots, shared party walls — and you are looking at the housing stock of working Philadelphia in the eighteenth century. The cobblestones underfoot are original. The lane is still residential; people live in these houses.