Sunlight enlivens the abandoned Quaker Storage building, 9th & Poplar Streets.
New twin homes have replaced the demolished "Richard Allen projects." © Torben Jenk (2007).
NORTH PHILADELPHIA
© Carmen A. Weber, Irving
Kosmin, and Muriel Kirkpatrick, Workshop of the World (Oliver
Evans Press, 1990).
North Philadelphia as
considered here is a vast area ringed by the older and
more defined neighborhoods of the city such as
Germantown, Fishtown, Kensington, the Northern Liberties,
and Center City. Its growth is closely linked to, and
developed out of, that of West Kensington and the
Northern Liberties.
North Philadelphia consisted mainly of farms and open
area in the eighteenth century, also encompassing several
large estates such as Bush Hill to the west and Fair Hill
to the east. In the early to mid-1800s industrial
development spread into West Kensington and North
Philadelphia from the more settled areas of Center City
south of Vine Street and the Northern Liberties to the
east. Initial development was heaviest in the Spring
Garden District, east of Broad, which by 1809 "was
sufficiently built up to be afforded the same legal
protection from hazardous manufactories as the city
enjoyed." 1
The location near
the Schuylkill River of Steven Girard's College, the
Eastern State Penitentiary, and the Preston Retreat, a
maternity home for indigent women, stimulated travel west
and north along the Ridge Pike. After the 1830s railroads
had the greatest effect on industrial growth in North
Philadelphia.
Many competing business interests directed the
establishment of railroad lines in Philadelphia, and
there were difficulties connecting the city-run and
state-run lines. Initial state-financed lines, such as
the Columbia Railroad (later Philadelphia and Reading),
came from the west and were directed to Broad and Vine
Streets, which in the 1830s was still a number of blocks
west of the city proper. The tracks of the Philadelphia
and Reading Railroad ran along Pennsylvania Avenue; a
portion of the bed had been constructed in the late 1700s
for the Delaware and Schuylkill Canal, which was never
completed. The Richmond and Reading Railroad connected
with the Philadelphia and Reading
Railroad in northwest Philadelphia, crossing the
Schuylkill River near the Falls. The Philadelphia and
Reading also had a spur running northwest to Norristown.
Numerous Philadelphia and Reading facilities were located
in North Philadelphia, among them a car and machine
repair shop and engine house at 9th and Green Streets;
and an engine house, turntable, and yard at 19th Street
and Pennsylvania Avenue. The Philadelphia and Reading
Railroad had their freight depot on Broad Street between
Noble and Callowhill Streets. 2
Oliver Evans helped bring steam power to Philadelphia,
but it was Matthias W. Baldwin who was credited with
bringing the railroad steam engine to America.
3
In 1831, copying
plans based on English models, he built a miniature
working engine which hauled two cars and four persons; it
ran around a track in Peale's Museum. 4
The following
year, Baldwin's full-sized "Old Ironsides", one of the
first American made locomotives, ran through North
Philadelphia along the horsecar track of the Philadelphia
and Germantown Railroad. In 1835 Baldwin moved his
locomotive works from Center City to Broad and Hamilton
Streets, later expanding west. By 1884 the plant covered
nine acres, employed up to 3,000 people, and produced
over 500 different sizes or styles of locomotives.
5
In 1914 the
Baldwin Works had expanded to 38 buildings covering 17
acres of land; 19,000 employees produced 2,500
locomotives. Hampered by lack of space to further
enlarge, Baldwin moved in 1925 to its Eddystone plant
where it had acquired 184 acres in 1906. The Baldwin
Works in North Philadelphia were demolished in 1937.
By the 1850s this small industrial enclave in the Spring
Garden area along the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
included Hoopes and Townsend, who manufactured nuts,
bolts, and rivets in a plant on Buttonwood Street;
Bancroft and Seller (later known as William Sellers and
Company) with their machine shops along Pennsylvania
Avenue between 16th and 17th Streets; the industrial
works of Bement and Dougherty at 20th and Callowhill
Streets; and the Pennsylvania Soap-Works on Callowhill
Street, which became the largest soap manufactory in
Pennsylvania by the 1880s. 6
Companies
locating in this area tended either to make products used
by the railroads or benefitted from the coal delivered
here from upstate.
The remainder of North Philadelphia's industry developed
essentially from the southeast to the northwest along the
Philadelphia and Germantown Railroad. In 1862 several
brick yards, a "malleable iron works", a malt house, and
woolen factory were located along side the railroad. Just
below Diamond Street a "Gasometer" stood on property
still owned today by the Philadelphia Gas Works.
7
Rowhouses
clustered on both sides of the track, with the area to
the east blending into the combined residential and
industrial neighborhood of Kensington. By the 1870s, the
industries along the railroad had multiplied to include
numerous lumber yards, coal yards, lime yards, iron
foundries, planing mills, and several wagon works, many
with their own feeder lines. Other factories included a
boiler works, a clay works, a terra cotta pipe works, and
a fire brick and stove lining facility. Several small
industries, such as a woolen mill, a coffin factory, a
soap factory, and a bath tub manufactory filled in both
east and west towards Kensington Avenue and Broad
Street. 8
Numerous textile
firms, many of them producing carpet, were located on
both sides of Lehigh Avenue.
The neighborhood was densely built by the 1890s, with a
mix of residential housing and a variety of factories,
still mainly clustered along the railroads stretching to
Erie Avenue. 9
During the same
period, wealthier residences and cultural institutions,
such as a variety of churches, Temple University, La
Salle College, and Dropsie College, spread along Broad
Street north of Girard Avenue, where the Peter A. B.
Widener mansion was located. Across the street the
William Elkins mansion has been replaced by a McDonald's.
Widener and Elkins, after building individual fortunes,
together acquired and combined the city's numerous street
railway lines into the Philadelphia Rapid Transit System,
and they were instrumental in establishing several
planned residential areas in North Philadelphia. Alfred
Burk, millionaire leather manufacturer, also chose to
establish his home in this area, rather than in the more
fashionable Rittenhouse Square; 10
his mansion is at
Broad and Jefferson. An opera house was located on the
corner of Broad and Montgomery, later converted to Wilkie
Buick, which was demolished last year. After the turn of
the century Oscar Hammerstein built another opera house,
"The Met," at Broad and Poplar, which still stands.
Further to the west beyond Girard College was a nine
block area, situated adjacent to the Philadelphia and
Reading Railroad, that became Brewerytown. Although beer
was manufactured in many areas of the city, between the
mid 1850s and 1920 this neighborhood was reputedly the
densest concentration of breweries in
Pennsylvania. 11
While numerous
companies were formed and vanished in a short period of
time, the Louis Bergdoll Brewing Company, the Bergner and
Engel breweries, the Frederick Poth Brewery, and the
Arnholdt and Schaefer Brewing Company were among the
better known and enduring of Brewerytown. This
predominantly German neighborhood featured bars, concert
halls, and beer gardens selling lager to its inhabitants.
The bulk of this industry was destroyed by Prohibition in
the 1920s, with very few breweries returning to operation
in the neighborhood after its repeal.
During the twentieth century growth continued above Erie
Avenue whereas the areas closer to Center City were
redeveloped. The automobile industry appeared on Broad
Street between Vine Street and Fairmount Avenue, forming
a "Gasoline Alley." Carriage and wagon works were
replaced with the large factories of Packard, Cadillac,
Ford, and Studebaker. By 1925 auto companies and machine
shops serving them were located at Broad and Lehigh as
well. 12
It was not until
later that this intersection became designated "Garment
Square" because of its association with Botany 500 and
Queen Casuals.
A few blocks north of this intersection the Pennsylvania
and Reading railroad lines cross; in 1892 there was a
"Junction Hotel" and stables on the north east corner of
Broad and Lehigh. A number of industries developed along
Glenwood Avenue which fronted on the Pennsylvania
Railroad as it ran out to the north east from the yards
behind the Thirtieth Street Station. Some of these firms,
such as S.L. Allen who originated the Flexible Flyer
sled, are still in business under different ownership,
others like Nabisco (National Biscuit Company), stayed in
the Philadelphia area after they moved from buildings
located in North Philadelphia. Other large companies,
such as Schaum and Uhlinger and Philips, Townsend, are no
longer in business, their buildings have been reutilized
by a diversity of changing firms up to the present
day.
1 Richard J.
Webster, Philadelphia
Preserved, A Catalog of the Historic American Building
Survey, (Philadelphia, 1976), p.
284.
2 Thomas Morrison,
A
Correct Map of the City of
Philadelphia, (Philadelphia, 1834); see
also Barnes.
3 Thomas J. Scharf and
Thompson Westcott, History
of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, (Philadelphia, 1884), Vol.
3, p. 2555.
4 Scharf and Westcott,
pp. 2255-6.
5 Scharf and Westcott,
pp. 2257-58.
6 Webster, p. 287.
7 Samuel Smedley,
Smedley's
Atlas of the City of Philadelphia, (Philadelphia, 1862).
8 G. M. Hopkins,
City
Atlas of Philadelphia by Wards, Volume 6, (Philadelphia,
1875).
9 George W. Baist,
Property
Atlas of the City and County of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, (Philadelphia, 1895).
10 Webster, pg. 290.
11 R. Dochter,
"Brewerytown, Philadelphia," c.1980, (copy on file,
Philadelphia Historical Commission).
12 George W.
Bromley, Atlas
of the City of Philadelphia (North Philadelphia), Lehigh
to Wingohocking, (Philadelphia, 1925).