Washington Avenue from 7th Street - 25th Street, Philadelphia PA
© John Mayer,
Workshop of the
World (Oliver Evans Press, 1990).
The most important east-west
throughway in South Philadelphia is Washington Avenue.
With the arrival of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and
Baltimore Railroad in 1838, scores of industrial concerns
clustered their factories along the rail lines.
Virtually all first generation industries along
Washington Avenue have disappeared, and the late
nineteenth-century large-scale firms that followed are
disappearing quickly as well. The density and variety of
the industries within this neighborhood suggest the
inter-relationships that existed in the nineteenth
century. Coal yards along the south side of the avenue
supplied fuel for the boilers of the steam engines that
powered the mills. Iron goods were made by the Southwark
Foundry or I. P. Morris. Cotton goods woven by C.J. Milne
supplied John Wanamaker and other clothing factories in
the region. The residential communities surrounding the
district were home to the workers who labored in the
mills.
The scale and variety of manufacturers made Washington
Avenue a thriving and important industrial district into
the twentieth century, including:
National Licorice Company, 1301 Washington Avenue,
c.1927, now dormant;
John Wyeth Chemical Works, 1201 Washington Avenue,
c.1909, now used as a U-Haul facility.
American Cigar Company, 1135 Washington Avenue, c.1906,
now used as a furniture warehouse.
Main Belting Company, 1217-37 Carpenter Street, c.1890.
Frankford Chocolate Company, 2101 Washington Avenue,
c.1880.
Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Freight
Station Train Shed, Catherine & 15th Streets, c.1876.
John Wanamaker Clothing Factory, 1001 South Broad Street,
c.1901.
The Caleb J. Milne Factory, from c.1895 and 1904, on the
north side of Washington Avenue between 10th and
11th Streets, is one of the few nineteenth century
industrial buildings remaining in South Philadelphia.
Designed by the local firm of Hales and Ballinger, this
five story mill housed the spinning, weaving, and
finishing operations for the cotton goods produced by the
Milne Company. In the courtyard or breezeway to the north
of the main mill building are the boiler house and engine
house. A 1904 addition to the factory was designed by
William Steele. The complex is currently abandoned.
The Curtis Publishing Company's warehouse, at 1101
Washington Avenue, is a six story brick warehouse
designed by Edgar V. Seeler in 1909. Curtis used it in
conjunction with its printing business, one of the
Philadelphia's most significant twentieth century
industrial trades.
Update May
2007 (by
Joel Spivak):
Many
of the buildings surveyed in 1990 are now gone. The
National Licorice Company building at 1301 Washington
Avenue, the John Wanamaker Clothing Factory at 1001 South
Broad Street, and the Caleb J. Milne Factory on
Washington Avenue have been demolished. A strip mall now
occupies the site of the Milne Factory. The Curtis
Publishing Company building has been heightened, and
converted to condos. The Philadelphia, Wilmington,
Baltimore Railroad Freight Train Shed still stands at
Catherine and 15th streets and the Frankford Chocolate
Company brick buildings survive at 2101 Washington
Avenue.