Background:
Germantown Atlases reveal that the first moves to open the block of McCallum (or Adams as it was then called) Street between Harvey Street and Walnut Lane took place between 1871 and 1885. There were no traces of a thoroughfare in 1871. By 1885 the street had been fully widened for the first half of the block below Walnut Lane, while four pairs of new two-story twins faced each other across a somewhat narrower middle stretch of the block, and the section of McCallum Street just above Harvey Street was no more than a path or narrow alley.

Not long after, two pairs of twins and the corner house on the east side of McCallum near Harvey were moved and the street widened its entire length.

Sources:

• GHS: Photo Box 11, envelope 8: "McCallum (originally Adams) Street before opening" (print from "Spaces and & Places" exhibit, 1980. Image shows a narrow dirt alley between fenced in yards with many trees and bushes).

• GHS: Photo Box 14, envelope 5: "McCallum Street" (photograph looking south past nos. 6023, 6021, 6019 and 6017 toward Harvey Street and Old Town Hall after the street was widened. Early autos on the street).

• GHS: "Streets" Box, bound scrapbook "Streets," p. 48: "McCallum 'Street'-a mere alley" and "McCallum Street becomes a thoroughfare" (before and after photos showing the results of the widening of McCallum Street above Harvey Street; shows houses at either side of the intersection).

• PHC: "6021-3 6017-9 6015 McCallum St.", "6021-3 McCallum St." and "6021 6015-7 McCallum St." (contact prints and 8x10 photographs made in the 1980's).