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As Long as the Creeks and Rivers Run: Traces of the Lenni Lenape - Part II: Along the Schuylkill
By Shawn Evans, Atkin Olshin Schade Architects
Part I of this tour traced Lenni Lenape places along the Delaware River. The tour continues up the Schuylkill River.
One of the largest Lenape settlements was located on the eastern shore of the Schuylkill, just north of the Delaware. Numerous spellings of this area have been recorded, among them Pachsegink and Pachsegonk, meaning “in the valley.” i Now an industrial area along the riverbanks, Passyunk survives in name as one of the...
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As Long as the Creeks and Rivers Run: Traces of the Lenni Lenape - Part I: Along the Delaware
By Shawn Evans, Atkin Olshin Schade Architects
Philadelphia’s history stretches long before the advent of photography. Our city had already passed its sesquicentennial when it was first captured in film in 1839.i The historic photos of the City Archives provide a window into the evolution of the city: here we can find beloved buildings lost to changing tastes and to the perceived needs of the automobile, as well as traces of the landscape that existed here for thousands of years prior to William Penn. Among these landscapes are remnants of the natural environment...
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“One price and goods returnable”: Center City’s Department Stores
By Steven B. Ujifusa
During the first half of the nineteenth century, Market Street (formerly High Street) was a mix of residential and commercial, as Philadelphians clung to the Delaware waterfront for sustenance. Successful businessmen such as printer Benjamin Franklin and china maker Benjamin Tucker lived “above the store” or in houses adjacent to their businesses.i With the coming of the horse-drawn and electric streetcar, however, Market Street became almost exclusively commercial, as many business owners moved to fashionable residential districts to the south and the west.
Following the Civil War, there was an explosion in manufactured...
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The Philadelphia Aquarium at the Fairmount Water Works
By Hillary Kativa
While many know Philadelphia as the site of the first zoo in the United States, the story of the Philadelphia Aquarium, once among the largest in the world, is a less well-known part of the city's history. Following the closure of the Fairmount Water Works plant in 1909, the site took on new life as home to an aquarium from 1911 to 1962. At the time, aquariums were a novel concept largely inspired by fishery exhibitions at the Chicago and St. Louis World's Fairs in 1893 and 1904 respectively. After...
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The Corliss Engine
By Steven B. Ujifusa
On May 10, 1876, the crowd held its breath as President Grant and Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil started the massive Corliss engine, which stood at the center of Machinery Hall. Nearly 190,000 visitors had flooded the fairgrounds on opening day, and a choir of 1,000 sang the “Centennial Hymn,” composed for the occasion by John Greenleaf Whittier.
With a hiss of steam and the clank of pistons, the Corliss engine shook to life, as did the fair it powered. The great engine, according to historian Esther M. Klein, “symbolized the...
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Washington Avenue: A Representative Example of Philadelphia's Industrial Past, Part III
By Ron Hoess
We will begin the final part of our tour down Washington Avenue starting at Broad Street and working our way eastward towards the Delaware River. One of Philadelphia's major industries, textiles, was well represented along Washington Avenue. By 1860, Philadelphia had as many people employed in the textile industry as the textile center of New England - Lowell, Massachusetts1. The industry thrived through the early part of the 20th century, with large mills located primarily in the Kensington area of the city, but also scattered in various locations...
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Washington Avenue: A Representative Example of Philadelphia's Industrial Past, Part II
By Ron Hoess
We continue our tour down Washington Avenue at 17th Street heading east towards Broad Street. There are, of course, the ubiquitous coal yards along the way. These may seem strange to us today but were an essential feature in the first half of the 20th Century. Through World War II, nearly half of the railroad sidings along Washington Avenue were devoted to coal delivery. As we cross 17th Street looking north, we can see another element of Philadelphia's industrial past, the Philadelphia rowhouse....
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Washington Avenue: A Representative Example of Philadelphia's Industrial Past, Background History
By Ron Hoess
Philadelphia was once a major industrial center in the late 1900's and the first part of the 20th century, deservedly earning the title “workshop to the world”. Unlike other cities that were centered around a single industry, i.e. Pittsburgh and steel or Detroit and automobiles, Philadelphia had a spectrum of different industries. There were knitting mills in Kensington, steel mills in Nicetown and breweries in Brewerytown to name a few representatives.1 Today much of the manufacturing activity in Philadelphia is gone. Competition from overseas and limited capability for expansion within the confines of an...
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Washington Avenue: A Representative Example of Philadelphia's Industrial Past, Part I
By Ron Hoess
For the historic background of Washington Avenue, please read "Washington Avenue: A Representative Example of Philadelphia's Industrial Past, Background History."
We will start our tour at 25th and Washington Avenue and make our way eastward. At the north east corner of 25th and Washington Avenue, we have the Robert Wilson Coal Yard.1 There were numerous coal yards all along Washington Avenue. Not only was there a demand for coal by the surrounding factories, but it should also be remembered that at the turn of the century most of the rowhouses of the surrounding area...
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The Widener Mansion
By Deborah Boyer
During the second half of the nineteenth century, prominent businessmen throughout the United States amassed great fortunes through the development of new industries including railroads, steel production, and mining. Men such as Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, and Vanderbilt became wildly wealthy and often spent that wealth on lavish houses, yachts, and travel as well as philanthropic endeavors such as universities, museums, and charitable organizations. The era became known as the Gilded Age, and many critics accused the wealthy of wielding unchecked power and taking advantage of poor workers.
During this time, there were few people...