PhillyHistory Blog – Page 16 – Discoveries from the City Archives

The Pennsylvania Railroads Philadelphia Improvements, Part II

Post author By Ron Hoess
Post date November 13, 2009

Last month we looked at the Pennsylvania Railroads Philadelphia Improvements starting with the construction of Suburban Station followed by construction of the north wing of 30th Street Station, which opened September 28, 1930. Despite the Depression, construction would continue on the remaining major portion of 30th Street Station. From the outset, the Pennsylvania Railroad intended the station to be a magnificent structure. After soliciting numerous design proposals, the railroad finally settled on the architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White for their design of a Grecian style station built of structural steel and concrete faced with Alabama limestone.¹

Two aerial photographs and show the early stages of construction. It should be noted that the date of 1934 for these photographs is incorrect since the station was already in partial service by 1933.² By comparing numerous aerial photographs documenting the progress of the station’s construction, a more accurate date for the first photograph is February of 1931 and the second photograph would be late spring of 1931. The first aerial photograph shows the completed suburban wing of the station. Adjacent to the suburban wing (directly below it in the photograph) one can see that the tracks formerly used to enter Broad Street Station via the three railroad bridges have been removed. The second aerial photograph, taken a few months later, shows the area adjacent to the suburban wing as a white rectangular area. This represents the construction of the street level floor of the station.

Tracks entering the station are below this level. In order to accommodate the tracks a large amount of earth was first excavated from this area. This was not without incident, as it was discovered that the area was used as a burial site for 17th century Quakers and a number of coffins were unearthed and had to be relocated. After the earth had been excavated, securing the foundation required that 5000 pipes be driven into the ground some 80 feet deep to encounter bedrock. Once the pipes were filled with concrete, assembly of the structural steel could begin.³ Concomitant with work on the building, much of the site to the north and south of the building needed to be cleared for railroad tracks. In the aerial photographs, the buildings just north of the newly completed suburban wing were stockyards and an abattoir that had been razed for construction.

By the end of 1931, the structural steel framework of the building was near completion and the outer limestone walls were being erected. When completed the station was indeed magnificent. At each end of the concourse on the outside were porticoes, one facing 30th street the other the Schuylkill River and downtown Philadelphia. Each portico has ten Corinthian columns measuring 71 feet tall and 11 feet in diameter.⁴ Inside the station, the main concourse is 290 feet long and 135 feet wide. The ceiling towers some 95 feet above the Tennessee marble floor. Much of the ornamentation within the station represents a beautiful example of art deco design.⁵ Work continued on the station for the next two years, and the station was fully opened on December 15, 1933. The station remains active today and is Amtrak’s third busiest railroad station behind only Penn Station in New York and Union Station in Washington D.C.

While the station remains intact, a number of dramatic changes have occurred in the last few years. The most significant is the construction of the Cira Building just north of the suburban wing. A final note concerns the steam generation plant for 30th Street Station with its very tall smokestack visible in the aerial photographs and on the extreme left in the photograph of the portico. Built in 1929, it has apparently become expendable and is scheduled for implosion in November 2009, thus removing a familiar landmark from the West Philadelphia skyline.

References:

[1] Underkofler, Allen P. The Philadelphia Improvements Part II: 30th Street Station. The High Line, Vol. 3, Nos. 1 & 2 (Sep. 1980), p. 6

[2] Ibid., p. 11

[3] Ibid., p. 11

[4] Ibid., p. 7

[5] Ibid., p. 6

Urban Planning

The Pennsylvania Railroads Philadelphia Improvements, Part I

Post author By Ron Hoess
Post date October 15, 2009
1 Comment on The Pennsylvania Railroads Philadelphia Improvements, Part I

During the early 1920s, the Pennsylvania Railroad began planning for major changes to its infrastructure in the busy Philadelphia area, with the goal of expediting passenger traffic. While Broad Street Station presented an ideal location for the termination of inbound commuter traffic, a major drawback was its stub-ended design, which forced through trains destined for other cities to retrace their steps to West Philadelphia Station before continuing their journey.

To resolve this problem, the railroad planned two large construction projects.¹ The first part of the plan was to replace the company headquarters housed in Broad Street Station with a new building adjacent to the station, along what is now JFK Boulevard between 19th and 20th Streets. Beneath this building, a station would be constructed that would serve as the terminus for electric commuter cars coming in from the outlying areas of Philadelphia. This new station would be known as Broad Street Suburban Station or just “Suburban Station”.

Not wishing to retain the street-obstructing elevated trackage leading into Broad Street, often referred to as the “Chinese Wall”, the planner chose to have the tracks from West Philadelphia quickly descend below street level after they had crossed to the east bank of the Schuylkill River. In order to dig this subway, buildings between Filbert and Cuthbert Streets from 15th Street west to the Schuylkill River were demolished. The second part of the plan was to replace West Philadelphia Station with a large passenger station on the grand scale, similar to Penn Station or Grand Central Station in New York City.² The plans were approved by the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Board of Directors and agreed upon by the City in 1925. Major construction, however, did not begin until 1927.

The Suburban Station office building was completed in 1929. It represents an absolutely beautiful example of Art Deco design. The first two floors are polished black granite, while the remaining 20 floors are made of Alabama limestone and sandstone.³ Adorning the first floor is bronze work, complete with the familiar Pennsylvania Railroad keystone logo. The station below the building was opened on September 28, 1930. Commuter trains leaving Suburban Station crossed the Schuylkill River on a newly constructed stone arch bridge that would eventually serve as the replacement for the three separate railroad bridges that carried trains into Broad Street Station.⁴

Interestingly, the only portion of 30th Street Station that was constructed at the time Suburban Station was opened was the north wing, intended for commuter trains. Construction of the main portion of the station had only just been started, partly because of protracted negotiations with the city and the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (PRT) regarding the Market Street Elevated Line that would run along the south side of the station.⁵ As originally planned, the elevated would have passed through a south wing of 30th Street, symmetrical with the suburban north wing of the station. However, the Pennsylvania Railroad felt that the bridges of the elevated line would detract from the appearance of the station and negotiated with the City and PRT to place the elevated line in a subway instead. Unfortunately, as this 1949 picture shows, it took many years for the City to do this and the railroad was left with the rather unsightly elevated line running by its magnificent station.

Next month, we will look at the construction of 30th Street Station. In retrospect, looking at the scale of these projects and the fact that the nation was now at the height of its worst economic depression, it is a tribute to the Pennsylvania Railroad that it was able to complete them under such dire circumstances.

References:

[1] Underkofler, Allen P. The Philadelphia Improvements Part I: The Idea & Projects East of the Schuylkill River. The High Line, Vol. 2, Nos. 2 & 3 (May 1979).

[2] Underkofler, Allen P. The Philadelphia Improvements Part II: 30th Street Station. The High Line, Vol. 3, Nos. 1 & 2 (Sep. 1980).

[3] Messer, David W. Triumph III: Philadelphia Terminal 1838-2000. Baltimore, MD: Barnard, Roberts & Co., 2000, p 52.

[4] Ibid., p. 64.

[5] Ibid., p. 65.

Neighborhoods

The Callowhill Neighborhood

Post author By Mary
Post date September 15, 2009

Located north of Center City, the Callowhill neighborhood is bordered roughly by the Vine Street Expressway to the south, Spring Garden Street to the north, 8th Street to the east, and Broad Street to the west. The neighborhood takes its name from Callowhill Street, which runs east-west through the center of the neighborhood. Originally designated by William Penn as New Street, Callowhill was later renamed to honor Hannah Callowhill, Penn’s second wife.

Much of Callowhill was farmland until the 1840s. When the gigantic Baldwin Locomotive Company built its plant near Buttonwood Street west of Broad Street in the 1830s, men and families seeking employment began to settle in the neighborhood. Boarding houses and restaurants provided rooms and meals for single men who sought work in the coal yards, factories, and Locomotive Company, and families found housing in the many row houses. Additional factories, workshops, and machine shops moved to the area, and by the late 1800s, Callowhill served as both a residential and industrial neighborhood where workers could live near their workplaces. The 1895 Atlas of Philadelphia created by George and Walter Bromley shows small homes and residences as well as a number of businesses including the Hoopes & Townsend Nut and Bolt Works, the Knickerbocker Ice Company, a creamery, a brewery, a carriage factory, and an iron foundry.

In 1897, the landscape of the Callowhill neighborhood changed dramatically with construction along the City Branch line of the Reading Railroad. With the creation of a new passenger station at 12th and Market, Reading Railroad was required to remove its tracks from street level. The railroad decided to place the tracks, which ran just north of Callowhill Street from 20th Street to 13th Street, below street grade level in an open subway. Lowering the tracks required the excavation of tons of earth, the construction of temporary bridges, and the rerouting of sewer lines. Despite the immensity of the project, work was completed by 1900 and the new railroad lines provided manufacturers and businesses in Callowhill with improved access to transportation routes. The Reading Railroad also contributed another major feature to Callowhill in the form of the Reading Viaduct, a rail line that ran from Reading Terminal at 12th and Market all the way to Reading, Pennsylvania and was in use until 1984. Although portions of the line were destroyed for the construction of Septa lines and the Vine Street Expressway, two branches of the Viaduct still run through Callowhill and neighboring Chinatown.

Both the 1942 and 1962 Philadelphia Land Use Maps depict the same mixture of residential and industrial space. In 1942, buildings and yards belonging to the Reading Company dominated the space along Callowhill Road while the blocks between Noble and Spring Garden Streets contained more homes and small businesses. Twenty years later, the 1962 map shows that some older businesses have disappeared while newer companies have moved to the neighborhood. A few buildings remain the same. In both 1895 and 1962, Esslinger’s Brewery sits at the northeast intersection of 10th and Callowhill Streets and the United States Armory remains at the southeast intersection of Broad and Callowhill.

Beginning in the 1960s, the population of Callowhill declined as residents and businesses moved to the suburbs or other parts of Philadelphia. In the 1980s, the construction of the Vine Street Expressway and the Pennsylvania Convention Center in the Chinatown neighborhood just south of Callowhill caused further changes as homes and businesses that were previously cited in Chinatown became part of the Callowhill neighborhood. For this reason, Callowhill is sometimes also referred to as Chinatown North. The connection between the two neighborhoods has led to much discussion over the past decades as various individuals and organizations attempt to encourage urban growth and renewal while still meeting the needs of members of several communities.

Construction in the neighborhood began to increase again in the late 1990s and 2000s as developers renovated former factories and warehouses into new loft-style housing. In 2000, the Callowhill Neighborhood Association formed to assist with neighborhood development through community watches, clean-ups, and other activities.

Sources:

[1] Alotta, Robert I. Mermaids, Monasteries, Cherokees and Custer: The Stories Behind Philadelphia Street Names. Chicago: Bonus Books Inc., 1990.

[2] Atlas of the City of Philadelphia, 1895. George W. & Walter S. Bromley, Civil Engineers. http://www.philageohistory.org/geohistory/

[3] Callowhill Neighborhood Association. http://www.callowhill.org/index.cfm

[4] Hoess, Ron. “The Reading Railroad’s Turn of the Century Big Dig, Part One.” PhillyHistory.org Blog. May 7, 2009. https://phillyhistory.wpengine.com/archive/0001/01/01/the-reading-railroads-turn-of-the-century-big-dig-part.aspx

[5] Hoess, Ron. “The Reading Railroad’s Turn of the Century Big Dig, Part Two.” PhillyHistory.org Blog. June 10, 2009. https://phillyhistory.wpengine.com/archive/0001/01/01/the-reading-railroads-turn-of-the-century-big-dig-part-again.aspx

[6] Miller, Fredric M., Morris J. Vogel, Allen F. Davis. Still Philadelphia: A Photographic History, 1890-1940. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983.

[7] Philadelphia Land Use Map, 1942. Plans & Registry Division, Bureau of Engineering Surveys & Zoning, Department of Public Works, Federal Works Progress Administration for Pennsylvania. http://www.philageohistory.org/geohistory/

[8] Philadelphia Land Use Map, 1962. Plans & Registry Division, Bureau of Engineering Surveys & Zoning, Department of Public Works, Federal Works Progress Administration for Pennsylvania. http://www.philageohistory.org/geohistory/

[9] Sloe, Phoebee. “Lemon Ridge: A Tree Story.” Callowhill News Fall/Winter 2006, Vol. 2, Quarter 4.

Entertainment

The Art Club of Philadelphia

Post author By Mary
Post date August 21, 2009

Incorporated on January 18, 1887, the Art Club of Philadelphia was formed “to advance the knowledge and love of the Fine Arts, through the exhibition of works of Art, the acquisition of books and papers for the purpose of forming an Art Library, lectures upon subjects pertaining to Art, receptions given to men or women distinguished in Art, Literature, Science or Politics, and by other kindred means, and to promote social intercourse among its members.”¹

Created as both a social club and an organization for the support of the arts, the Art Club needed a club house that would help meet the objectives laid out in its charter. Members of the club selected a location on Broad Street near the intersection of Broad and Chancellor Streets. The building at that location had previously served as a boarding house before being purchased by J.B. Lippincott and then by the Art Club for $100,000. Architect Frank Miles Day was selected to design the building, his first major commission as an architect. He would continue to work in Philadelphia and serve as president of the American Institute of Architects in 1906 and 1907.² He also lectured on architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University before his death in 1918.³

The building required extensive renovations to meet the needs of the Art Club, including tearing down the back building to expand the space. The building and renovations were completed in 1889 and the Art Club held its first meeting in the new clubhouse on December 7, 1889. The building featured galleries for public exhibitions, parlors, a library, and a gentleman’s café and billiard room as well as private club spaces including a members’ dining room and bedrooms and bathrooms reserved for the use of club members. Servants’ quarters were located on the fifth floor. An article in the New York Times on December 8, 1889 noted that the entire building was “wired for electric lighting and also arranged for gas service.” The article also notes the beautiful furnishings and design of the building and describes it as “one of the most beautiful and artistic clubhouses to be found in the country.”⁴

The Art Club’s former building on Broad Street was demolished in 1976-1976.⁵

Sources:

[1] Art Club of Philadelphia, “Charter, constitution and by-laws of the Art Club of Philadelphia with house rules, report of the Board of Directors and list of members.” Philadelphia: Patterson & White Co., 1917, p. 15.

[2] The New York Times. “Frank Miles Day Dead.” June 18, 1918. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C03E3DE173EE433A2575BC1A9609C946996D6CF

[3] Frank Miles Day Collection, The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania. http://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/faids/aaup/Day.pdf

[4] The New York Times. “Philadelphia’s Art Club – First Meeting in its New Quarters.” December 8, 1889.

[5] “Philadelphia Art Club 220 S. Broad Street.” Historic American Building Survey HABS No. PA-1529. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hh:@field(DOCID+@lit(PA1052))

New Features

Visit PhillyHistory.org on your iPhone!

Post author By Mary
Post date July 31, 2009

The PhillyHistory team is excited to announce that PhillyHistory.org is now accessible via iPhone at http://www.phillyhistory.org/i/! While PhillyHistory.org has been available on mobile phones for awhile, we had not yet developed a web application that allowed the website to be easily accessed and searched using an iPhone. To solve this problem, we created an iPhone specific web application that makes PhillyHistory.org easily accessible to iPhone users.

Since the display screen of an iPhone is obviously smaller than the screen on a computer, we chose to emphasize specific search criteria and photo display options to make the application as easy to use as possible. iPhone users have the option of searching for photographs by neighborhood or location or by navigating through a map of the city. The location of a photo is identified on the map by a red flag, and clicking on a flag displays the photograph and more information.

With full maps and geographic search capabilities, PhillyHistory.org on iPhone provides another great way to access historic photographs of the city. So if you’re walking around Philadelphia and want to know what an intersection looked like 60 years ago, pull out your iPhone or cell phone and check out PhillyHistory.org!

New Features

PhillyHistory.org Photos Now Available on Flickr!

Post author By Mary
Post date June 22, 2009

We are excited to announce that a select number of images from PhillyHistory.org are now available on Flickr!

Flickr, a popular online photo sharing website, allows users to upload images and share those images with the public. With millions of users from around the world, placing PhillyHistory.org photos on Flickr provides an opportunity to introduce many new people to the fantastic collection of images in the PhillyHistory.org database. Sixty-six photos, including some of the oldest and most popular images from the City Archives, were hand-picked for inclusion on Flickr. The images are organized into four thematic sets that provide a visual history of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods, schools, construction and transportation projects, and public services and celebrations. Each photo is accompanied by information about the image, the address where it was taken (if available), and a link to the photograph on PhillyHistory.org.

One of the most exciting features on the new PhillyHistory.org Flickr photostream is the public commenting and tagging function. Since the PhillyHistory project began, we’ve received some wonderful stories and comments about the photographs from people around the world. Whenever possible, we try to share such feedback through our newsletter and other reports. The new Flickr photostream, however, gives you a chance to immediately comment on the photos, add notes directly to the images, tag the photos with keywords, and respond to comments left by other users. We’re hoping this feature will let the whole PhillyHistory.org community hear many more wonderful stories and remarks about the photos and what they mean to you.

The PhillyHistory.org photos on Flickr are available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/phillyhistory. We encourage people to visit the photostream and add their comments, notes, and tags to the photos. Let us know what you think about the images!

Urban Planning

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

Post author By Ron Hoess
Post date June 10, 2009

Last month, we discussed the Reading Railroad’s ambitious plans for placing their City Branch below ground level. One part was the construction of a tunnel beneath Pennsylvania Avenue. The tunnel was to be 2888 feet long and of sufficient width to hold four tracks, two for the main line into the city and two for storage.¹ At the time, steam power still ruled the rails, so providing suitable ventilation for a tunnel of this length was not a trivial engineering problem. Extensive correspondence over the issue survives in the Reading archives. Ultimately, the problem was solved by placing a series of ventilating grates down the median of Pennsylvania Avenue above, much like Park Avenue in New York City.

A recent featured photograph shows the setting of the keystone at the east portal of the tunnel in 1898 and the completed tunnel in 1900. Construction of the tunnel was not done by boring underground but rather by using the “cut and fill” technique in which the earth is first excavated and retaining walls and roof constructed, after which earth is backfilled on the roof.

Beyond the tunnel, the remainder of the line was an open subway of almost equal length stretching from 20th Street down to 13th Street. At the turn of the century, this was still one of the key manufacturing areas of Philadelphia, and the industries there depended on railroad access. Alongside the tracks that constituted the mainline, the Reading constructed additional sidings and storage yards that served these industries. The unquestionably dominant industry along the City Branch was the Baldwin Locomotive Works, which by 1905 was the largest employer in the region with a workforce of over 15,500 individuals.² Adjacent to Baldwin Locomotive Works was the plant of William Sellers & Co. at 16th Street. While not as large as Baldwin, the company’s owner designed and successfully campaigned for the use of the first U.S. standard screw thread, which had a major impact on standardization in manufacturing practices.³ The complex trackage in the area allowed Reading switchers to shove freight cars from their subway up an incline to street level and then cross back over the subway tracks on an angled girder bridge into the factory.

Along with the tracks leading into the Baldwin plant between 15th Street and Broad Street, the railroad also built a substantial freight yard on either side of Broad Street. In later years, the air space over these yards would be utilized by constructing buildings over the tracks. The Inquirer Building (actually the Elverson Building, named after the owners) was constructed in 1925 between 15th Street and Broad Street and supplied the Reading Railroad with another customer requiring shipments of newsprint.⁴

On the east side of Broad Street, the Reading would, in 1930, construct its own multistory warehouse over the tracks, replacing the rather modest one-story freight sheds which had previously occupied the site. The Terminal Commerce Building, as it was called, still stands today and is a beautiful example of Art Deco architecture. While the tracks and many of the industrial buildings are gone today, the pictures remind us of Philadelphia’s rich industrial history that earned it the name of “Workshop of the World”.

References:

[1] Engineering department notes, Reading Company Collection, Hagley Museum and Library.

[2] Scranton, P. & Licht, W. Work Sights. Temple University Press, Philadelphia (1986), p. 182.

[3] #234 The United States Standard Screw Threads (1864) American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Accessed May 25, 2009.

[4] Workshop of the World. Oliver Evans Press, Philadelphia (1990), pp. 5-43–5-44.

Public Services

Founder’s Week in Philadelphia

Post author By Mary
Post date June 4, 2009

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the city of Philadelphia hosted several large celebrations. Events such as the 1876 Centennial and the 1898 Peace Jubilee connected Philadelphia residents to the anniversary of the founding of the United States and the end of the Spanish-American war. From October 4 to 10, 1908, however, the city threw a celebration that focused on local history rather than national or global events. Known as Founder’s Week, the festivities commemorated the 225th anniversary of the founding of Philadelphia with events throughout the city.

The festivities were well-attended by residents of Philadelphia as well as visitors to the city. A New York Times article from October 5, 1908 states that trains traveling into Philadelphia were three to five cars longer than usual to accommodate the crowds. As part of the celebration, the week was divided into different thematic days, each featuring corresponding parades and other activities. October 4, 1908, designated as Religious Day and the first day of the week long celebration, included services at various churches as well as open air services in Independence, Washington, Rittenhouse, Logan, Morris, and Franklin Squares and at Memorial Hall and Strawberry Mansion in Fairmount Park. The article estimates that 15,000 people attended each of the outdoor services and 20,000 Catholics gathered in Chestnut Street to receive the papal blessing from Mgr. Falconi. Members of the National Guard of Pennsylvania were housed in armories throughout the city, and thirteen United States fighting ships were anchored in the Delaware in preparation for the military parade on October 5, also known as Military Day.

October 6, Municipal Day, included a parade of police and firemen from around the city and Industrial Day, October 7, featured a parade that focused on Philadelphia’s industrial achievements followed by a later parade that included members of local labor organizations. On October 8, Children’s and Naval Day, activities consisted of a patriotic performance by children at Independence Hall, a review of the ships in the harbor, and a river pageant.

Historical Day on Friday, October 9, featured a large historical pageant held on Broad Street. The pageant was divided into nine divisions with multiple floats illustrating the historic events that occurred in each division. Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, a local historian and one of the pageant’s organizers, felt that the event should provide a historical and civic education to Philadelphians, rather than simply serving as another form of entertainment. This lesson in civic history, however, was influenced by the views of the pageant’s organizers. Native Americans were mentioned at the beginning of the pageant and African-Americans were included in scenes illustrating the underground railroad, but the pageant did not mention the arrival of any immigrants or ethnic groups after the American Revolution.

The lack of focus on the history of specific ethnic groups in Philadelphia is seen by some historians as evidence of city leaders’ attempts to unite different neighborhoods and groups in the city. Often, ethnic groups held celebrations commemorating events important to that group rather than joining together in municipal holidays. The Founder’s Week served as a way to bring Philadelphians together while also providing them with a civic history lesson, albeit one that focused on only certain historical events. After Historical Day, the celebration concluded with Athletic and Knights Templar Day on October 10. The final events included more parades, fireworks, an automobile race, and a regatta on the Schuylkill River.

After Founder’s Week, Philadelphia hosted a few additional large celebrations. In 1919, the city held a parade for troops returning from World War I, and in 1926, the Sesquicentennial International Exposition was held in the South Philadelphia area.

Sources:

[1] Glassberg, David. “Public Ritual and Cultural Hierarchy: Philadelphia’s Civic Celebrations at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 107, No. 3 (Jul., 1983), pp. 421-448.

[2] New York Times. “Four Races for New York.” October 11, 1908. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C00E1DE1731E233A25752C1A9669D946997D6CF

[3] New York Times. “Philadelphia Opens Its’ Founders Week.” October 5, 1908. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E00E1D6133EE233A25756C0A9669D946997D6CF

[4] Joyce, John St. George. Story of Philadelphia. Rex Printing House, 1919. p. 305-306. http://books.google.com/books?id=Wh8VAAAAYAAJ&printsec=toc

New Features

Introducing Google Street View on PhillyHistory.org!

Post author By Mary
Post date May 15, 2009

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!

Urban Planning

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

Post author By Ron Hoess
Post date May 7, 2009

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

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.

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