Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-05-03

i business has laid its weight upon Gil
rard street and the aristocratic exclusion
of that historic tree-hanked block in the
clty's centre has fed Tenantless, aban-
doned. the tall four -storied houses along
the south side of the narrow thorough
fare face not only vista of commercial
activity which swept away their COM
panlons on the north side. but await like
the remnant of a forlorn hope the destruc-
tive hand of a relentless, overwhelming
foe. They die, they do not surrender, these
old dwellings. They hold too precious
heritage and too proud an association
with Philadelphia's first families to separ-
ate themselves from place in the history
of those old Quaker stocks and neigh
borhood that the annalist dare not over
look In his chronicle of the city's develop
ment and its progress.
Clinton street may boast, in the majesty
of its two.bocS length. Mere extent is
nothing That single row sandwiched
between Market and Chestnut streets pos
sesses proud career that commerce can
not obliterate. Shopping thousands may
tread daily over the site of those homes
of Philadelpha's -four hundred" of three
generations ago. Barter and sale go on
above the scenes of minuet and Wistar
party Pleban may replace caste In the
occupant of Girard street building. But
Girard street is as immortal in Philadel-
phia as the memory of the man whose
name 1t bears and in whose estate its
title lies vested in perpetuity.
FIRST FAMILIES. " ABODE.
From the western outlet mutely stares
the plain brick meeting house of the So
clety of Friends as 1t has since it's erec-
tlon in 1912. Gifted with tongue, that
walled and gated structure could unfold
a record of Girard street and its erstwhilc
habitants that would ring with eloquence
and revelation of the inner life OF the
Quaker City's first families.
A cafeteria, though ancient Girard
street would recognize no such foreign APP
pellatlon, Is today the sole tenant Of that
relic of n distinguished exclusive past. 1t
is located in the houses numbered l104
and 1106 and Ia conducted by the Business
Women's Christian League. Girard street
in It's heyday knew no such thing as a
business woman, and its spirit is solaced
by the reflection that a few short days will
see the removal of the sacrilegIous In
truder.
MODERN INVENTIONS.
run slow" reads sign at the 18th
street entrance to Girard street. 1t is in
tended as a direction to automobilists and
drivers Of the heavy.laden business trucks.
Such admonltion is unneeded to the
student of old Philadelphia who wends
his way thitherward. 1t was equally un-
necessary to the residents of that street
who from 1897 until a few years ago
stamped the lane-like avenue with the rev.
erential awe which their very names in
spired. The few remaining trees along
the gutter line are not more stately nor
more deeply rooted than the family trees
of the early Girard street families.
Franklin Peale, Richard Peters, Bonsal
Guillou, Ingraham, Cottman, Cresson. the
mere repetition of those surnames is his
tory and Philadelphia aristocracy itself.
1t was only 1910 when Miss Anna Thigh
man died. She and her brother, william
NJ. Tilghman who preceded her in death,
could find no place in all Philadelphia
better adapted for imparting vigor and
tone to their bluest of blue blood than the
confines of narrow Girard street.
Peter Wright, like Stephen Girard a
shipping magnate of his day, lived there
So did Colonel James NJ Bennett
whose clothing establishment, which he
dubbed Tower Hail." brought him wealth
which he lavished upon Methodist chart
ties at his death The Rev. DIR. John
Chambers, pastor of the Presbyterian
Church at Broad and Sansom streets long
since demolished; the Rev. DR.. Henry Du.
cachet, and one of his SUCCESSORS, the Rev
DIR. S. *. Mcconnell, made their homes on
Glrard street for the period of their in.
cumbencies, the rectory of st. Stephens
Episcopal Church.
FAMOUS RESIDENTS.
During the Civil War the United States
Quartermaster' office was located in the
building at the northeast corner.
Benjamin w. Richards, Mayor of Phila-
delphia in 1880 and 1881, and Robert T.
Conrad, who occupied the Chief Magis-
tracy Immediately preceding the CONSOLE
dation of the city in 1854, had their doml-
cile in Girard street
The Stephen Girard Building at the
southeast corner of 18th street marked
the first change in the aspect of the build
ings hanlking the south side of the street.
This was in 1896. Many of the older
tenants of the great houses below the
corner had departed before that desecra-
ton began. In their stead had come
many clubs, among them the Engineers
and Travellers Protective Association The
New Century Cooking School and Club,
at 1112, was the first of these. The
Philadelphia Real Estate Board at 1114
was the last. All have sought other quar-
ters, for every one of the IS original