While income inequalities may have always existed in human societies, efforts to alleviate economic suffering have changed over time. The social service safety nets of today are relatively new inventions. In the 19th century, support generally came from the private sector and individuals. A familiar denizen of that time was the soup house, or soup society. Philadelphia, with an abundance of poor residents, was home to a number of these charities.

Soup societies were generally founded to serve a particular neighborhood and ethnic group. The first was the Southwark Soup Society, founded in 1805 by James Ronaldson, who immigrated from Scotland in 1794, co-founded the first type foundry in the United States, and would go on to become the first president of the Franklin Institute. Located at 833 S. Hancock Street, at the time known as Sutherland Street, Southwark served a growing immigrant population who settled there after arriving at the Washington Avenue docks.

In 1814, Southern Soup Society was founded in Green’s Court, between 4th and 5th Streets and Spruce and Pine Streets. At various times it was known as Green’s Court Soup House, the Philadelphia Soup House, and the Philadelphia Society for Supplying the Poor with Soup. In 1879, the address was referred to as 338 Griscom Street (now Lawrence Court).

Beyond supplying soup and bread to the area poor, the Northern Soup Society, founded in 1817, also offered bathing facilities. Located on the second and third floors of their building on the northeast corner of 4th and Peters (now Reno) Streets, near Brown Street, Northern Soup Society’s 18 showers provided 30,000 free baths per year by 1926. In the 1890s, it operated a branch at various locations further west and north, including 28th and Cumberland Streets, 24th and Huntingdon Streets, and 27th and York Streets.

The Western Soup Society at 1613-15 South Street also operated a bath house after its founding in 1837. The need was great, as administrators noted “not more than one in ten of the 200 families we visited have bathing facilities in their homes.” Western Soup Society charged five cents per bath, which included soap and towels, noting that “all the Public Bath Associations of the city show a deficit.”

In 1844 the Kensington Methodist Episcopal Church founded the East Kensington Soup Society to serve the mostly Protestant portion of Kensington east of Frankford Avenue, between Norris Street, Front Street, Laurel Street, and the Delaware River. At its first location on Allen Street, East Kensington Soup Society operated as a shelter as well, but when it moved to 1036 Crease Street, it was only a soup kitchen, changing its name to the Kensington Soup Society. For the first half of the 20th century, they also distributed coal to needy residents.

An especially industrious group founded the Spring Garden Soup Society in 1853 and raised enough funds to purchase a lot and erect a building at 1329-31 Buttonwood Street. According to their records, the architect Samuel Sloan, known for his numerous Italianate villas and asylum buildings, donated his services for the project. The Cresson & Co. iron works donated a 90-gallon black iron soup pot. Spring Garden Soup Society also benefitted from their president’s position as head of the Atmore Mince Meat Company, which supplied meat for soup.

At times the various soup societies argued over territory. They arrived at an agreement in 1862 that defined boundaries. A map drawn up at the time shows Spring Garden as serving an area between Market and Spring Garden Streets and from 8th Street to the Schuylkill River.

Nearby, the Central Soup Society’s office, soup house, and bath rooms were located at 709-711 Cherry Street, where they also distributed coal, groceries, and clothing to poor residents from Walnut to Callowhill Streets and Broad Street to the Delaware River. Central Soup Society’s annual reports note Quaker philanthropist Anna T. Jeanes as a principal contributor, whose estate gave the soup society $3,000 for its endowment. Her brothers Samuel and Joshua were among the organizers of the society.

In South Philadelphia, the Moyamensing Soup Society was founded in 1858 on the northwest corner of S. 8th and Marriott (now Montrose) Streets, below Christian Street, where it offered its printed notices in both English and Italian.

After the Civil War, the 1870s saw more groups being founded, including the Richmond Soup Society in Port Richmond, the Northwestern Soup Society at 19th and Thompson Streets, the North Eastern Soup Society and Relief Association of the 19th Ward at 1930 N. Front Street, and the Twentieth Ward Soup Society at 11th and Jefferson Streets.

The soup societies operated independently from any government support or input. Volunteer managers would solicit donations of either cash or supplies. Cash contributions from individuals were generally $5 or $10, though wealthier donors would give more, like Anthony Drexel ($50) or Anna Jeanes ($100). Many prominent companies from the era appear in the donor lists, such as the H. Disston & Sons Co., the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Strawbridge & Clothier, and Bailey, Banks & Biddle.

Most operated between December through March, offering soup and bread, and sometimes more, such as coal, tea, sugar, or other food six days a week.

Although soup society managers were generous with money and their volunteer time, they sometimes harbored a dim view of their clientele. Tickets were issued to families deemed “worthy” poor, which entitled them to a pint of soup and a half loaf of bread per person in the household. In its annual report in 1879, the Twentieth Ward Soup Society expressed concern about “how best to distribute charitable relief by discriminating between the deserving and unworthy poor and suppressing mendicancy.” The Northern Soup Society had similar views. “Care has been taken that none but deserving cases should partake of the benefits of this charity.” Moyamensing Soup Society’s 1883 annual report noted, “We are happy to say that there was a decided improvement in the appearance of the applicants above those of former years in regard to cleanliness.”

Administrators of soup societies would usually evaluate applicants by visiting their homes or relying on referrals. However, most were nevertheless willing to help homeless residents. In 1875, the Kensington Soup Society reported serving about 40 “transients” daily, in addition to an average of 370 families.

In the early 20th century, many of the societies expanded their efforts to include other services. These were usually overseen by an “improvement committee” and carried out by a staff person known as a “visitor.” Like the concerns of serving food only to the “deserving” poor, these additional offerings also had a moralistic tone, intending to “exert such an influence on the lives of the people asking aid, as to make them self-respecting and self-reliant,” as the Northern Soup Society noted in a report.

The services often included help in securing employment, doctor and hospital referrals, sponsoring children for summer camp outside of the city, Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets, and small loans for groceries or to help a move to better quarters.

In addition, the Western Soup Society offered cooking and sewing classes, a branch of the Penny Saving Fund, and a temporary home for women with children. In 1916, the Richmond Soup Society offered violin and singing lessons, a children’s annual outing to Smith Memorial Playground, a shoe mending service, a sewing class for women, and a class in domestic science for “women who have spent much of their lives in the mills of Kensington.”

The activities of the soup societies reflected major events of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The impetus for the founding of the oldest of the soup societies was the War of 1812 and the Panic of 1819.

Philadelphia experienced a smallpox epidemic in 1872, which was acknowledged in the report of the North Western Soup Society, noting that “fear of infection from contact with a crowd prevented many from availing themselves of the benefits of the Society,” reducing the amount of soup distributed. They also observed that all the city’s soup houses seemed to have experienced this.

In 1918, the Northern Soup Society provided 100 gallons of soup each day to 11 emergency hospitals, nine health centers, six public schools and Settlement Houses during the Spanish flu epidemic. In the 7th Ward, the Western Soup Society also supplied soup to the nearby Durham Public School and to Mercy-Douglass Hospital and University Settlement House.

Western Soup Society noticed there was less demand for their relief work in 1923, “due to better economic conditions and the advent of Prohibition.” A few years later, they would see a reversal, noting in 1931 during the Great Depression that “to meet the demands of the unemployment situation, much more relief has been given.”

In the 1940s during World War II, Kensington Soup Society aided injured servicemen and their families.

After expanding their range of services, some of the soup societies felt challenged to continue as small volunteer operations and eventually merged with other charitable organizations. Southwark Soup Society merged with the Union Benevolent Association in 1949. The Western Soup Society underwent mergers with settlement houses, ultimately becoming the community agency Diversified Community Services, now known as Greater Philadelphia Community Alliance.

Others changed their approach to their charitable work by reorganizing as private foundations and giving grants to other organizations fighting food insecurity. Spring Garden Soup Society, with assets of about $1 million, reorganized as a private foundation. In 2023, they gave $74,000 in grants for food supplies to 11 shelters, church food programs, and soup kitchens in Philadelphia. North Eastern Soup Society & Relief Association 19th Ward Philadelphia still retains the name, but is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, giving grants to Philadelphia organizations. Central Soup Society, with current members largely in Virginia and Florida, gives grants that average about $1,500 to charities in various locations, with some focused on food, including Philadelphia’s Philabundance. Kensington Soup Society, the last of its kind operating in Philadelphia, closed its doors in 2007.

While Philadelphia’s soup society era has passed, a few of the buildings that formerly housed them remain. The successor to the Western Soup Society, Greater Philadelphia Community Alliance, still operates some of their programs from the organization’s original building at 1613-15 South Street.

The Spring Garden Soup Society building at 1329-31 Buttonwood Street was added to Philadelphia Register of Historic Places in 1969, and the Kensington Soup Society building at 1036-38 Crease Street was designated in 2012. Now a private residence with a state historic marker in front, the Southwark Soup Society building at 833 S. Hancock Street was designated in both 1958 and 1966. In 2022, the building for the North Eastern Soup Society & Relief Assn of the 19th Ward Philadelphia at 1930 N. Front Street was demolished to make way for a five-story apartment block.

---

---