Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-02-06

This is tho second Of series Of ar.
ticlcs rhich wW appear in the Erenin1
Public Ledger from time to time dc
scribino Wtlc nooks and corners hidden
dmny IN the heart Of the city: bycnVs
ondint rith the GuninfncSS Of an Old
World city and flied wih the romance
Of a long-dgo past.
For three blocks westward from the
Front street markets. De 1.aDcey street
offers a fairly complete detail of the Old
City. In places the design has been
scratched. in others obscurcd or con-
ccaled. or obliteratcd. as where a front
has been hacked out to make room for
a show window. or roof disfigured for
the sake Of an extra storeroom.
Restoration. even yet. would seem TO
be- a relatively easy matter. Dc Lancey
street has been only little while in the
hands OF IH,ilistincs. Indeed the mar
gin of the Philistines' majority is still
So slim rs to be open to question. Busi-
ness is mostly the desultory business Of
shoe fixing. notion and icc-cream cone
selling. and odd jobbery. Counting. of
course. the tencments. it remains largely
a place where people live.
Union street. they called it in tho
hard cider days, perhaps in irony. be.
cause the most trustworthy traditions
have il that the street was Democratic.
Certainly the "fIopc Hose which hai
its tirohousc Just below Second street
was Democratic. and took occasion be-
fore. between and during fires to i'm
press Jacksonian ideas on their rivals
of the Good Intent Company. who
appcar to have been Whig.
Street as Old rs Neighhors
Doubtless there was an earlier name
than Union street-sOmCthing arbOraI.
for the street is as old. at least, as its
neighbors. Who lived in the first houses
that were built there it is difficult. If
not impossible. to find ont. Not the
Governor General and others of great
importance. because the oldest houses
are small and unSuited 70 fine com
panics. Probably artisans.
The larger houses came later. That
is evidenced. if by nothing else than
the beginnings Of what is called 'the
Emplrc STYLE in them. Corinthian pill
lars on the door jambs. Greek designs
carved into the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
ination that was not quite corruption.
| The atticH. the spind!ed stairways, the
ioorlights and the foorngs were all &c.
cording to the native order. One can
only spcculatu rs to the chandeliers.
/ These were the home Of men of trade,
clothers. chambers, sugar merchants,
wholesale tobacconists, grain dealers
/ md so on. aud maybe few ship mas
tors, though these kept generally still
/ closed TO the river front-bourgeoise
who showed tho Green Tree fire as
s,lranre emblem which indicated they
oaid nothing extra for having their
| pavements shaded.
Moved to Chestnut Street
Later on they moved with business
to Chestnut street and with fashion to
the spacious districts outlying Penn
square. This migration. though, must
have been very gradual. for even in
these days the metamorphoss of a
street takes time.
Slowly Irish and Germans of the first
/ immigration~. and a few Swcdes took
possession of the street.
1t is worth rcmarking that it has
been these families that, until few
years back, when the first and second
generations We're dead. the third old
and losing heart and the fourth restive