COMMERCE

From its earliest decades, smaller-scale businesses were remarkably well distributed through the area. The presence of elite residents and consumers created economic opportunities for much of the population immediately to their south, while others provided goods and services for wider markets or for these working communities themselves. Taverns, livery stables, groceries, stores, bakeries, workshops, and factories were a pervasive part of the fabric of the neighborhood, absent only from the elite residential streetscapes during their early heyday. But that day was relatively brief for streets like Chestnut and to a lesser degree Walnut, which were almost completely transformed from elite residential to commercial and recreational use during the third quarter of the 19th century, with vividly styled new storefronts and facades, often of stone, replacing the understated faces of old townhouses and mansions.

Three of the neighborhood's edges soon took on a special character connected with business. Commercial establishments and activities played a central role in the development of Market Street from early in the 19th century. High Street was not renamed Market Street without cause; early on it was the city's literal market place, and later it became synonymous with department stores like Wanamaker's, Snellenburg's, Strawbridge's, and Lit Brothers. Broad Street, less the thoroughfare from hinterland to port, would blossom later, retaining more of an institutional and recreational character from its earliest years. In the 1880s, the city's legal and financial centers of gravity shifted toward Broad, and for the next four decades early skyscrapers, built with a steel skeleton, repopulated Broad Street with buildings of ten, twenty, and even thirty stories, mostly for offices near City Hall or for luxury hotels to the south. And on the southern boundary of the neighborhood, South Street became a spine of intense streetside commercial and recreational activity for a wide range of social groups, with Eastern-European, Italian, African American, and Asian merchants all clamoring for the smallest bits of frontage.

 

Instructions: Click on the small image to bring up a full-screen view. This will appear in a second window.

  • C1. Northeast corner of Twelfth and Spruce Street.
    Watercolor by Benjamin R. Evans, 1883.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Northeast corner of Twelfth and Spruce Street
  • C2a. Southeast corner 13th and Locust streets.
    Photograph, 10 November 1917.
    Philadelphia City Archives (902/ #3795).
Southeast corner 13th and Locust streets
  • C2b. Fire insurance survey of store and dwelling, southeast corner 13th and Locust, for Thomas R. Patton, 8 August 1854 (photoreproduction).
    Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Franklin Fire Insurance Co. Records (policy 155: 21018).
Fire insurance survey of store and dwelling, southeast corner 13th and Locust
  • C3. Fire insurance survey of livery stable, southwest corner 11th and Charlotte streets [220 South 11th Street, sw corner St. James Street] for Richard Park, 22 July 1854 (photoreproduction).
    Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Franklin Fire Insurance Co. Records (policy 155: 20967).
Fire insurance survey of livery stable, southwest corner 11th and Charlotte streets
  • C4a. Store or tavern, northeast corner 13th and Lombard streets.
    Photograph, 1928.
    Philadelphia City Archives (922/ #18829).
Store or tavern, northeast corner 13th and Lombard streets
  • C4b. Houses, northeast corner 13th and Lombard streets.
    Photograph, January 2000.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.

    Note the nearly complete erasure of traces of the former store.
Houses, northeast corner 13th and Lombard streets
  • C5a. Fire insurance survey of tavern, northwest corner Pine and Quince streets [1127 Pine Street], for Abram McKeal, 18 June 1831.
    Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Franklin Fire Insurance Co. Records (policy 0: 303).
Fire insurance survey of tavern, northwest corner Pine and Quince streets
  • C5b. Northwest corner Pine and Quince streets.
    Photograph, January 2000.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Northwest corner Pine and Quince streets
  • C6. A Guide to the Stranger, or Pocket Companion for the Fancy, Containing a List of the Gay Houses and the Ladies Of Pleasure in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection (Philadelphia, 1849).
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
A Guide to the Stranger, or Pocket Companion for the Fancy
  • C7. Frank Meehan grocery, southeast corner 13th and Pine streets.
    Photograph, 3 October 1928.
    Philadelphia City Archives (1220/ #18835).
Frank Meehan grocery, southeast corner 13th and Pine streets
  • C8. Fire insurance survey of tavern, 1105-15 Pine Street, for James Stroud, 19 November 1852 (photoreproduction)
    Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Franklin Fire Insurance Co. Records (policy 130: 17024).

    This site later accommodated the Gladstone Apartments; see item D19.
Fire insurance survey of tavern, 1105-15 Pine Street, for James Stroud
  • C9. 7th Ward Central Hotel, 1300 Lombard Street.
    Albumen print on cardboard, ca. 1886.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.

    For a later view of the site, see item E20.
7th Ward Central Hotel, 1300 Lombard Street
  • C10. Printing works and office, "Henry R. Ashmead, Book and Job Printer, . . . George Street above Eleventh" [1104 Sansom Street].
    Engraving, ca. 1856.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Printing works and office
  • C11. Concert Hall and Chestnut Street Theatre, Chestnut Street at Twelfth (north side), 1211-27 Chestnut Street.
    Watercolor by Benjamin R. Evans, 1879.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.

    For earlier structures at this site, see items A2 and A11.
Concert Hall and Chestnut Street Theatre, Chestnut Street at Twelfth (north side)
  • C12. "Domestic" and Grover & Baker Sewing Machines, store interior, 1111 Chestnut Street.
    Albumen print stereograph by R. Newell & Son, ca. 1877.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
"Domestic" and Grover & Baker Sewing Machines
  • C13 a-f. The Baxter Panoramic Business Directory, engravings, 1879-80.
    Historical Society of Pennsylvania (V37:31-36)

    Published as advertising vehicles, these sheets were issued only for a few dozen blockfronts that were predominantly commercial. Non-subscribing stores would not have their names lettered onto their buildings.
    • C13a. 1100 block Chestnut Street, north side, Nov. 1879, no. 13.
1100 block Chestnut Street, north side
    • C13b. 1100 block Chestnut Street, south side, Mar. 1880, no. 31.
1100 block Chestnut Street, south side
    • C13c. 1200 block Chestnut Street, north side, Feb. 1880, no. 26.
1200 block Chestnut Street, north side
    • C13d. 1200 block Chestnut Street, south side, Apr. 1880, unnum.
1200 block Chestnut Street, south side
    • C13e. 1300 block Chestnut Street, north side, Jan. 1880, no. 24.
1300 block Chestnut Street, north side
    • C13f. 1300 block Chestnut Street, south side, Feb. 1880, no. 29.
1300 block Chestnut Street, south side
  • C14. Map of area, 1885.
    Photocomposite from George W. and Walter S. Bromley, Atlas of the City of Philadelphia, Volume 1, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th Wards (Philadelphia: G.W. Bromley & Co., 1885), plates I, J, K, N, O, P.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Map of area, 1885
  • C15. Market Street, South West corner of 12th Street in 1841.
    Watercolor by David J. Kennedy, 1841.
    Historical Society of Pennsylvania (K 2-98).

    For a later view of the site, see item E4.
Market Street, South West corner of 12th Street in 1841
  • C16. Stores of the Girard Estate, cor. Market & 12th Sts. [southeast corner].
    Perspective after design by James H. Windrim, architect, from Builder and Decorator (Philadelphia), December 1888.
    Bryn Mawr College, William A. Keely Collection, gift of John W. Freas, 1993

    For an earlier view of the site, see item I7.
Stores of the Girard Estate, cor. Market & 12th Sts
  • C17. John Wanamaker's Grand Depot, northwest corner 13th and Chestnut streets (remodeled 1870s -1880s).
    Lithograph, ca. 1884.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.

    For earlier buildings on this site, see items A4 and B7.
John Wanamaker's Grand Depot
  • C18a. Hotel Walton, Philadelphia, Pa., 233-47 South Broad Street (built 1893-95, Angus Wade, architect).
    Gelatin silver print by Byron, 1908.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Hotel Walton, Philadelphia, Pa
  • C18b. Lobby, Hotel Walton, Phila, Pa.
    Gelatin silver print by Byron, 1908.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Lobby, Hotel Walton, Phila, Pa
  • C19. View of Philadelphia from City Hall, looking South.
    Gelatin silver print by William H. Rau, 1894.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
View of Philadelphia from City Hall, looking South
  • C20. The Lucas Building, Philadelphia, Willis G. Hale, architect, 1326 Chestnut Street (built 1887-88).
    Photograph from Architectural Era (Philadelphia), October 1889.
    Bryn Mawr College, William A. Keely Collection, gift of John W. Freas, 1993.

    Tastes changed quickly in the nineteenth century. Within a decade of this building's completion, it was lambasted in the national architectural press as an "architectural abberation," and ascribed to an architect for whom historical architecture was "a field not for study, but for pillage."
The Lucas Building, Philadelphia, Willis G. Hale, architect
  • C21. S. E. cor 13th & Chestnut Sts., DeLong Building, 1232 Chestnut St (built 1899-1900, Horace Trumbauer, architect).
    Watercolor by E. R. Stoever, 1914.
    Bryn Mawr College, gift of Joseph M. Fox, 1975.
S. E. cor 13th & Chestnut Sts, DeLong Building
  • C22. Antique Store, Pine Street E. of 13th St., "The Old Curiosity Shop" of James Eham, 1237 Pine Street.
    Gelatin silver print by George Mark Wilson, ca. 1923.
    Library Company of Philadelphia, Gift of Mrs. Margaret O. Sweeney, 1979.
Antique Store, Pine Street E. of 13th St
  • C23. Meade's Antiques, 1117-19 Pine Street (built 1850 as public school, with front stairway tower added in 1893).
    Photograph, 25 September 1958.
    Philadelphia City Archives (1219/ #36259).
Meade's Antiques, 1117-19 Pine Street
Introduction | From Edge to Center: Movin' West | Communities | Commerce |Enclave
Persistence and Ambition in the Twentieth Century | The Cassatt House | Prospects

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