6114 Cedar Ave.

This renovated stand-alone house at 6114 Cedar Ave. retains some distinctive elements of its original West End architecture: redbrick façade, roof cornice, and ornamental brick below the cornice. 

In 1900, this house was the home of Charles and Rosa (Breisch) Alber (ages 30 and 32). They immigrated from Germany about 1890 and married in Philadelphia in 1892. They had six children although two died at a very early age. Charles was a butcher who had been in business with his brother at 826 Race St.  It appears that the business ran into trouble as Charles advertised for a job in 1904.  At the time, he was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver and died in 1906. To cover the rent and feed her family, Rosa started taking in washing. Seventeen-year-old Charles, Jr. started working as a cloth cutter in a factory and his sister Helen, 14, worked as a sewer in the same factory. During World War I, Charles served overseas in Co. D 1st Telegraph Battalion. After the war, he worked as a wireman for the telephone company.  In 1920, their younger daughter, Bertha, was making records for a “talking machine” company and son Erwin was working as an electrician’s helper. In 1930, Rosa was living at 2652 70th Street in Southwest Philadelphia. Erwin was working as a machinist for the electric company. Bertha had apparently married but was not living with her husband.