Eli Kirk Price

Who was Eli Kirk Price?

Eli Kirk Price was a Philadelphia lawyer, a commissioner of Fairmount Park from the time of its founding, and a member of the American Philosophical Society.

Born into a Chester County Quaker family, he initially trained as a merchant before entering the law, where he specialized in real estate. In 1853 he was elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate in Harrisburg as an independent, specifically to secure the consolidation of the city and county of Philadelphia into one metropolitan unit. The Consolidation Act of 1854 passed in February 1854 and tripled the size of Philadelphia, making it the largest territorial city in the U.S. Price quit his Senate office at the end of the term.

Price supported other reform efforts, helping to rewrite Pennsylvania's real estate laws, strengthen married women's rights to property, establish a building inspectorate in Philadelphia, and secure the real estate for Fairmount Park.

He was an active member of the American Philosophical Society and a constant contributor to its "Transactions," a member of several foreign scientific and literary societies, president of the University hospital, of the Preston retreat, of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society, and of the Numismatic and antiquarian society, a vice-president of the American Philosophical Society, and a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. He published "Law of Limitations and Liens against Real Estate"; several treatises that were contributed to the American Philosophical Society; and the memorial volumes "Philip and Rachel Price"; "Rebecca"; and the "Centennial Meeting of the Descendants of Philip and Rachel Price".