Included are unpublished typewritten notes:

"6128 (Shoemaker, 5128)
George Smith and his son Jacob lived in a house that stood on this site, in 1809. They used to purchase flour at the country mills and cart it into town to market.

"There were really three old stone buildings and one frame structure that used to stand upon the lot where now stands the building of the Young Republican Club. On account of its long, low appearance, the frame building acquired the name of 'Noah's Ark.' About 1840 the buildings were owned by a family named Knorr. After John Knorr's death, a rag dealer named Gomeringer rented the property, but soon afterwards the dwellings were all torn down, and the present fine mansion was erected by Charles Magargee whose wife was a niece of John Knorr. The stone used in its construction was quarried on Mr. Magarge's grounds on the Wissahickon.

"Mr. Charles Magarge was born September 30, 1804. He was educated at the Friends' Academy, and entered business life at the age of thirteen. He steadily made his way upward, and, after a few years, he embarked in the rag and paper trade with his brother, on a capital of $1500. He became a director of the Germantown Bank, and was elected its president in 1848. In 1866 he resigned and bought the old Weiss paper mill on the Wissahickon. This he enlarged and greatly improved. Here he accumulated a fortune, and held the mills until the property was absorbed by Fairmount Park. He died October 1, 1883.

"In his later years Mr. Magarge became financially embarrassed and gave up his beautiful residence. It was then vacant for several years, and in 1885 it was occupied by the Franklin School, an institution which was organized with a view of affording to boys a thorough training in literature and science, so as to prepare them for the more extended work of the college and the university. The first head master was Mr. George A. Perry...it continued for only a little more than two years.

"The Young Republican Club purchased the property about 1893, and has occupied it continuously ever since."

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