Though brownstones are more typically associated with pre–Civil War houses west of Broad Street, this row proves that as late as 1849, new houses in the modern Italian Renaissance taste were being built in the oldest portions of the city. Bouvier is now remembered as an ancestor of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, but he made his fortune as one of Philadelphia's elite cabinetmakers. Presumably he selected the site for his house because of its proximity to the early Roman Catholic churches of the city.