# Our Philadelphia

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Philadelphia and London: J.P. Lippincott Company, pages -–xiv
OUR PHILADELPHIA BY E. ROBINS PENNELL AND JOSEPH PENNELL
OUR PHILADELPHIA
LOOKING UP BROAD STREET FROM SPRUCE STREET
OUR PHILADELPHIA
DESCRIBED BY ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL ILLUSTRATED WITH ONE HUNDRED & FIVE LITHO- GRAPHS BY JOSEPH PENNELL
PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
MCMXIV
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
PUBLISHED OCTOBER, 1914
PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A.
PREFACE
To-day, when it is the American born in the Ghetto, or Syria, or some other remote part of the earth, whose recollections are prized, it may seem as if the following pages called for an apology. I have none to make. They were written simply for the pleasure of gathering together my old memories of a town that, as my native place, is dear to me and my new impressions of it after an absence of a quarter of a century. But now I have finished I add to this pleasure in my book the pleasant belief that it will have its value for others, if only for two reasons. In the first place, J.'s drawings which illustrate it are his record of the old Philadelphia that has passed and the new Philadelphia that is passing—a record that in a few years it will be impossible for anybody to make, so continually is Philadelphia changing. In the second, my story of Philadelphia, perfect or imperfect, may in as short a time be equally impossible for anybody to repeat, since I am one of those old-fashioned Americans, American by birth with many generations of American forefathers, who are rapidly becoming rare creatures among the hordes of new-fashioned Americans who were anything and everything else no longer than a year or a week or an hour ago.
Elizabeth Robins Pennell
3 Adelphi Terrace House, London May, 1914
CONTENTS
ILLUSTRATIONS
| | PAGE |
| Looking up Broad Street from Spruce Street | Frontispiece | |
| Delancey Place | | 3 |
| "Portico Row," Spruce Street | | 7 |
| Arch Street Meeting House | | 13 |
| The Schuylkill South from Callowhill Street | | 17 |
| Friends' Graveyard, Germantown | | 21 |
| In Rittenhouse Square | | 25 |
| The Pennsylvania Hospital from the Grounds | | 29 |
| "Eleventh and Spruce" | | 33 |
| Drawing Room at Cliveden | | 37 |
| Back-yards, St. Peter's Spire in the Distance | | 45 |
| Independence Square and the State House | | 51 |
| Christ Church Interior | | 57 |
| Classic Fairmount | | 65 |
| Down Pine Street | | 69 |
| Loudoun, Main Street, Germantown | | 75 |
| Entrance to Fairmount and the Washington Statue | | 83 |
| Main Street, Germantown | | 89 |
| Arch Street Meeting | | 95 |
| The Train Shed, Broad Street Station | | 99 |
| St. Peter's, Interior | | 105 |
| The Pennsylvania Hospital from Pine Street | | 109 |
| Second Street Market | | 115 |
| Fourth and Arch Streets Meeting House | | 121 |
| Johnson House, Germantown | | 127 |
| The Customs House | | 131 |
| Under Broad Street Station at Fifteenth Street | | 135 |
| The Philadelphia Club, Thirteenth and Walnut Streets | | 141 |
| The New Ritz-Carlton; The Finishing Touches; The Walnut Street Addition Has Since Been Made | | 149 ​ |
| The Hall, Stenton | | 155 |
| "Proclaim Liberty Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof" | | 159 |
| Bed Room, Stenton, the Home of James Logan | | 163 |
| The Tunnel in the Park | | 167 |
| The Boat Houses on the Schuylkill | | 171 |
| The Pulpit, St. Peter's | | 179 |
| The Cathedral, Logan Square | | 185 |
| Christ Church, from Second Street | | 189 |
| First Presbyterian Church, Seventh Street and Washington Square | | 195 |
| Old Swedes' Church | | 201 |
| Independence Hall: The Original Desk on Which the Declaration of Independence was Signed and the Chair Used by the President of Congress, John Hancock, in 1776 | | 207 |
| Philadelphia from Belmont | | 211 |
| The Dining Room, Stenton | | 217 |
| Down the Aisle at Christ Church | | 223 |
| The Bridge Across Market Street from Broad Street Station | | 229 |
| State House Yard | | 235 |
| The Penitentiary | | 247 |
| On the Reading, at Sixteenth Street | | 251 |
| Locust Street East from Broad Street | | 255 |
| Broad Street, Looking South from above Arch Street | | 261 |
| Clinton Street, with the Pennsylvania Hospital at its End | | 265 |
| The Cherry Street Stairs Near the River | | 269 |
| The Morris House on Eighth Street | | 273 |
| The Old Coaching-Inn Yard | | 279 |
| Franklin's Grave | | 285 |
| Arch Street Meeting | | 291 |
| Cliveden, the Chew House | | 295 |
| Bartram's | | 295 |
| Carpenter's Hall, Interior | | 305 |
| Main Street, Germantown | | 311 |
| Arch Street Meeting—Interior | | 317 |
| Front and Callowhill | | 321 |
| The Elevated at Market Street Wharf | | 327 ​ |
| Dr. Furness's House, West Washington Square, Just Before it was Pulled Down | | 333 |
| The Germantown Academy | | 339 |
| The State House from Independence Square | | 345 |
| "The Little Street of Clubs," Camac Street Above Spruce Street | | 349 |
| Down Sansom Street from Eighth Street. The Low Houses at Seventh Street Have Since Been Torn Down and the Western End of the Curtis Building Now Occupies Their Place | | 353 |
| The Double Stairway in the Pennsylvania Hospital | | 359 |
| Carpenter's Hall, Built 1771 | | 365 |
| Independence Hall—Lengthwise View | | 369 |
| Girard College | | 377 |
| Upsala, Germantown | | 383 |
| The Hall at Cliveden, the Chew House | | 387 |
| The Old Water-Works, Fairmount Park | | 391 |
| The Stairway, State House | | 397 |
| Upper Room, Stenton | | 403 |
| Wyck—The Doorway from Within | | 409 |
| The Philadelphia Dispensary from Independence Square | | 415 |
| Morris House, Germantown | | 419 |
| The State House Colonnade | | 425 |
| The Smith Memorial, West Fairmount Park | | 431 |
| The Basin, Old Water-Works | | 435 |
| Girard Street | | 441 |
| The Union League, from Broad and Chestnut Streets | | 445 |
| Broad Street Station | | 453 |
| Wanamaker's | | 457 |
| St. Peter's Churchyard | | 461 |
| City Hall from the Schuylkill | | 465 |
| Chestnut Street Bridge | | 469 |
| The Narrow Street | | 475 |
| The Market Street Elevated at the Delaware End | | 479 |
| The Railroad Bridges at Falls of Schuylkill | | 483 |
| The Parkway Pergolas | | 487 |
| Market Street West of the Schuylkill | | 491 |
| Manheim Cricket Ground | | 497 ​ |
| Dock Street and the Exchange | | 501 |
| The Locomotive Yard, West Philadelphia | | 507 |
| The Girakd Trust Company | | 511 |
| Twelfth Street Meeting House | | 515 |
| Wyck | | 519 |
| The Massed Sky-scrapers Above the Housetops | | 523 |
| Sunset. Philadelphia from Across the Delaware | | 527 |
| The Union League Between the Sky-scrapers | | 531 |
| Up Broad Street from League Island | | 535 |
| From Gray's Ferry | | 539 |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1936, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 88 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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