Categories
New Features

Introducing Google Street View on PhillyHistory.org!

Visitors to PhillyHistory.org may have noticed some interesting new features in the last couple weeks. We recently released the latest version of PhillyHistory.org which includes a few additions to the website. One of those additions is the inclusion of Google Street View. You may be familiar with Google Street View if you have experience using Google Maps. Google Street View provides street level photographs of cities and neighborhoods around the world. Using Street View on Google Maps, you can take virtual tours of various cities, including large portions of Philadelphia.

Street View provides a way to see the notable landmarks and general streets of a city without having to physically travel to that city. On PhillyHistory.org we thought that using Street View might be a great way to offer the ability to compare the historic photographs with a present day view of the same location. The historic photographs on PhillyHistory are beautiful, but after looking at them, it’s easy to start wondering if a certain building still exists or how the neighborhood has changed over 50 years. Short of actually going to the physical location where the photo was taken, however, it was difficult to view the modern location and contrast it to the historic photo.

Google Street View gives us a way to solve that problem. Thanks to the work of our software developers, we were able to add a link to Street View to many of the photographs in PhillyHistory.org. To see the Street View for a photograph, click on the small thumbnail of the photograph to load a larger detail view of the image. Below the historic photograph will be two small thumbnails – one of the historic image and one of a white box labeled “Google Street View.” Click on the Google Street View box to load a current view of the same location where the historic photo was taken. You may need to navigate up and down the road or pan the view in order to see the exact location that matches the historic photograph.

The results provide an exciting visual demonstration of how the city has changed and developed over the course of its history. A 1914 photo shows a few people standing outside the Head House Market near 2nd and Pine Streets. The present-day Street View for that location shows the same market house with a few changes. A photo from 1918 of the intersection of Arch Street and 10th Street includes several businesses and a sign stretched across the street proclaiming that “Food Will Win the War.” The same intersection in 2009 is still home to many businesses and restaurants. Instead of a war-time sign, an ornate Chinese gate extends across the street, reflecting the ancestry of many residents of an area which now makes up part of the Chinatown neighborhood.

While not every Philadelphia street is included in Google Street View, many streets are available. We hope you enjoy the opportunity to compare past architecture to the present landscape and learn more of the story of the city’s past. Check out the Street View on PhillyHistory.org, and let us know what you think at info@phillyhistory.org!

Categories
Urban Planning

The Reading Railroad’s Turn of the Century Big Dig, Part I


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If one were to explore the neighborhood just north of Callowhill Street between 20th and Broad Street, the casual observer might be perplexed by what appears to be a sunken urban greenway running parallel to Callowhill Street. This trench, some 40 feet wide and 20 feet deep, is now overgrown with trees and littered with trash. While it is hard to imagine, this was once a busy railroad thoroughfare belonging to the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad. The origins of this portion of the railroad date back more than a century and represented an important route for the Reading to deliver goods into Center City. In the mid 1800’s, the Reading, whose main terminal was at Port Richmond, was looking for access to the heart of Philadelphia. Its chance came in 1850, when it bought the old Philadelphia and Columbia line between Peter’s Island in the Schuylkill (Belmont) and Broad and Vine Streets.1

By 1893 the volume of railroad traffic along this line, which the Reading referred to as its City Branch,1 had become so great that the city fathers felt it necessary to intervene.2 At this time, all the railroad trackage was at street level, which meant numerous grade crossings as the railroad traversed the grid of Philadelphia streets. A nice example is at Broad and Noble Streets, where at least three tracks crossed the intersection, complete with crossing gates and watchman’s shanty. In addition to the traffic problems this arrangement created, the city fathers were sensitive to the fact that as the railroad traveled south along the east bank of the Schuylkill River, it ran right in front of the entrance to Fairmount Park, a less than pleasing spectacle. As part of an agreement to allow the Reading to build its new passenger terminal at 12th and Market Street, the railroad was also required to find some solution to the problem of street trackage.2


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After numerous plans it was finally decided that the tracks would be placed below street level, an interesting departure from the usual railroad strategy. Both the Reading Railroad and its rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad, typically opted for grade elevation rather than lowering the track, a prime example being the Pennsylvania Railroad’s elevated trackage into Broad Street Station, later nicknamed the “Chinese Wall”. The project would consist of two major parts. The first was along Pennsylvania Avenue from Taney Street east to 21st and Hamilton. Four tracks would be placed in a tunnel running underneath Pennsylvania Avenue. The second part was an open subway from 21st Street to 13th and Callowhill.2

Work began in 1897 and the magnitude of it cannot be overstated. There was an enormous amount of earth to be excavated. In addition, there was the logistical nightmare of doing construction without disrupting service to various industries along the line, so temporary track needed to be laid. Since the track was going below street level, various sewer lines had to be rerouted, and bridges needed to be constructed to keep through streets open. Even the railroad’s own engine servicing facilities would be demolished so that the tracks could be lowered.


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Despite the immense scope of the project, much of the work was completed within two to three years. By 1900 the line was fully functional and connected to the Reading Passenger Terminal at its eastern terminus. The line remained active for nearly 100 years. In 1984, the Reading Terminal closed, and by 1997, the last remaining freight customer along the line closed, marking the end of rail service.3 While little remains today of what was once a key industrial section of Philadelphia, we will look in Part II at a number of places along the line during construction and see the importance of the railroad and the industries it served.

References:

[1] Pennsylvania Railroad Company. “Inspection of Physical Property by Board of Directors, November 10-11-12, 1948.” http://www.railsandtrails.com/PRR/BOD1948/history.html

[2] Webster, George S. and Wagner, Samuel T. “History of the Pensylvania Avenue Subway, Philadelphia, and Sewer Construction Connected Therewith.” Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, v. XLIV (Dec. 1900), pp. 1–33.

[3] Castelli, Douglas, Hill, Erin, Johnson, Michael & Jones, Dayle. “Innovative Rail Technologies Cross-Town Rail Line: Final Report.” Appendix B. (2003) http://hdl.handle.net/1860/116

Categories
Public Services

Public Education in Philadelphia: Central High School


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The founding of a free public school system in the United States is the result of much discussion over several decades. In the early 1800s, Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania debated and tested different ideas for establishing a public school system that would provide an education for those who could not afford the cost of independent or private schools. Various experimental schools were started and operated with varying levels of success. Finally an act passed by the state in 1836 provided authorization for the City of Philadelphia to establish a Central High School. On October 26, 1838, Central High School in Philadelphia formally opened with a first class of sixty-three students. At the time of its dedication, Central was only the second public high school in the country and was open only to male students.

The cornerstone for the new school building was laid on September 19, 1837 at the intersection of Juniper and Market Streets. Three stories tall, the building was shaped like a T and included an astronomical observatory. The roof of the first Central High School building can be seen in what is considered the earliest surviving American photograph, made by Joseph Saxton in October 1839.


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In 1839, Alexander Dallas Bache, the great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, was named as president of the school and selected many of the first faculty members. Some of the initial courses included natural history, French, drawing and writing, mathematics, Greek, Latin, and mental, moral, and political science. The school grew over the next decade and celebrated two momentous events. On June 24, 1847, President James K. Polk and Vice President George M. Dallas visited the school and addressed the students, and on April 9, 1849, the state legislature granted the school the right to confer academic degrees.

By the early 1850s, changes in the neighborhood around Juniper and Market Streets and the need for additional space forced school officials to look for a new location. On June 28, 1854, a new school building on the southeast corner of Broad and Green Streets was dedicated. The building featured fifteen classrooms, an assembly hall, an observatory, and high ceilings to assist with ventilation. During this time, the school faced criticism regarding financial expenditures and the curriculum, especially the decision to teach certain foreign languages.


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The population of the school continued to grow throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. By the 1890s, classes were forced to meet in neighboring locations and plans were made for construction of a new school building. A lot was chosen on the southwest corner of Broad and Green Streets, and ground was broken on May 7, 1894. Due to several delays, classes did open in the new building until September 1900. Additional construction was finished later and a formal dedication held on November 22, 1902. President Theodore Roosevelt and several members of his cabinet traveled to Philadelphia for the dedication. The President spoke first in the school’s assembly hall to an audience made up of city officials, the faculty, and school alumni before then delivering a speech from the north balcony of the building to the students.

In 1939, the school moved again to its present location at Ogontz and Olney Avenues. In 1983, girls were admitted to Central High School after federal Judge William M. Marutani ruled that the single-sex admissions policy was unconstitutional.

When Central High School was founded in 1838, it was an innovative development in the use of free public education in Pennsylvania. By 1902 when President Roosevelt spoke at the dedication of Central High’s new building, he stated that there were over 170,000 public school students in the City of Philadelphia and that “it is, of course, a mere truism to say that the stability, the future welfare of our institutions depend upon the grade of citizenship turned out from our public schools.” In 1902, as it is today, many aspects of public schooling were fiercely debated, but the public school system had become accepted as necessary for the benefit of society.


Sources:

[1] Anthe, Charles. “History.” Central High School. http://www.centralhigh.net/pages/about/history

[2] Edmonds, Franklin Spencer. History of the Central High School of Philadelphia. Philadlephia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1902. http://books.google.com/books?id=wogWAAAAIAAJ&printsec=titlepage&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPP1,M1

[3] New York Times. “President Says M’Kinley’s Policies Have Triumphed.” November 23, 1902. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E00EFD91E3DEE32A25750C2A9679D946397D6CF