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    Visiting Turn-of-the-Century Philadelphia
    Visiting Turn-of-the-Century Philadelphia
    Visiting Turn-of-the-Century Philadelphia
    Ebook188 pages54 minutes

    Visiting Turn-of-the-Century Philadelphia

    By Lynn M. Homan and Thomas Reilly

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    About this ebook

    From the 1890s through the 1920s, the postcard was an extraordinarily popular means of communication, and many of the postcards produced during this golden age can today be considered works of art. Postcard photographers traveled the length and breadth of the nation snapping photographs of busy street scenes, documenting local landmarks, and assembling crowds of local children only too happy to pose for a picture. These images, printed as postcards and sold in general stores across the country, survive as telling reminders of an important era in America s history. This fascinating new history of Philadelphia at the turn of the century showcases more than two hundred of the best postcards available.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 23, 1999
    ISBN9781439627136
    Visiting Turn-of-the-Century Philadelphia
    Author

    Lynn M. Homan

    As museum exhibit designers and the authors of more than 15 books, Lynn M. Homan and Thomas Reilly enjoy telling the stories behind the pictures. So grab a cool drink and a shady spot under a palm tree, and join the authors as they re-create the experience that is the Florida Keys.

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    • 3/5
      Another in a series of broad pictorial histories, oddly weighted toward photos of the old Curtis Publishing Company (prob. 10 percent of the content).

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    Visiting Turn-of-the-Century Philadelphia - Lynn M. Homan

    today.

    INTRODUCTION

    By the end of the first quarter of the 20th century, Philadelphia had grown from a population of 4,000 in 1699 to approximately 2,500,000 residents in the city and surrounding suburbs. Since its founding in 1683 by William Penn, an English Quaker, as the capital of his colony of Pennsylvania, the city had also drawn millions of visitors. The largest city in Pennsylvania, the third largest in America, and the eighth largest in the world, Philadelphia was a city with a rich history. A colony founded on religious freedom, Pennsylvania drew not just those of the Quaker faith, but members of all religious denominations. The number and variety of churches in Philadelphia illustrated that diversity. At the start of the American Revolution, delegates from each of the colonies came to Philadelphia to participate in the Continental Congress. Following the war with England, Philadelphia became the first capital of the new nation. As the nation’s center of government, the city drew even more visitors. Immigrants from throughout the world made Philadelphia their destination as well. As evidenced by Philadelphia’s growth, many of those visitors returned to settle permanently.

    Visitors to Philadelphia, whether tourists or businessmen, during the first quarter of the 20th century would find a city undergoing great changes. Alterations occurred in almost every aspect of life. Many of the new residents were poor and unskilled, as compared to the earlier immigrants who brought with them expertise in various trades. New technologies altered modes of transportation; at the same time, traffic congestion increased. The city’s skyline changed, as new buildings soared to unprecedented heights. Boarding houses still existed, but an increasing number of large hotels filled the center city. The cultural life of the city took on a new sophistication. Although still small town in nature in some ways, the City of Brotherly Love was rapidly taking on the appearance of a metropolis.

    Few American cities were as well known for the layout of its streets as Philadelphia. Following William Penn’s first visit to Philadelphia, he wrote, The city consists of a large Front Street to each river, and a High Street from Front, of 100 foot broad, and a Broad Street in the middle of the city, from side to side, of the like breadth ... and eight streets that run from Front to Front, and twenty streets that run across the city, from side to side; all these streets are fifty feet breadth. As determined by Penn, Broad Street, the wide (or broad) avenue between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, was one of the main arteries of Philadelphia. The street ran 12 miles in length, and many Philadelphians chauvinistically, albeit erroneously, claimed that it was the longest street in the world. From the very beginning, Penn’s plan for Philadelphia called for five public squares: Center Square, Logan Square, Franklin Square, Washington

    Square, and Rittenhouse Square. The squares had been laid out by Surveyor General Thomas Holme in 1682. Many of the early streets and avenues such as Tulpehocken, Wingohocking, Wissahickon, and Aramingo were derivations of American Indian names.

    At the start of the 1900s, Philadelphia was a city on the move. Railroads and horses provided most of the transportation for visitors and local residents alike. As subway-elevated lines, electric trolleys, and commuter railroads opened up new sections, the city began growing outward. Transportation took on a whole new dimension. The horseless carriage or automobile had a profound effect. Within only a few years, the influence of the automobile on the city would be tremendous. Broad Street became the home of many automobile showrooms and was known as automobile row. Gas stations, dealerships, repair stations, and parking lots were quickly built in all parts of the city. Electric trolleys, motor cars, people, and horse-drawn vehicles of all sorts competed for space in the narrow downtown streets. In less than 15 years, the number of cars in the city increased from 100,000 to 250,000, resulting in major traffic congestion.

    The 1925 Philadelphia City Directory began with the following introduction: Philadelphia ‘The World’s Greatest Workshop’ A Brief Survey of the City; its Port, the Second Largest in the United States; Commerce and Industries, which, Enjoying a Reputation for Quality and Integrity, Have Set the Standard for Production, Not Alone in America, but Throughout the World. The article went on to tout the city as unique historically, great commercially, aggressive in her ideas of expansion and industrial growth, and progressive artistically. The Quaker modesty of William Penn’s era had definitely been replaced by a booming civic pride.

    While the changes in the growing city had the greatest impact on the residents, visitors to Philadelphia were less affected. They saw only a diverse community filled with big-city amenities and small-town warmth, metropolitan attractions, and plenty of excitement. Then, as now, visitors remembered their trip through postcards and photographs of the places they had been, the sights they had seen, and the things they had done. For the visitor of today, many of those places and images no longer exist, victims of demolition, urban renewal, and a changing society. Yet, through these postcards, carefully saved over the years, we can share those visits to Philadelphia during the first quarter of the 20th century.

    One

    GETTING AROUND TOWN

    Visitors came to Philadelphia for many reasons during the first quarter of the 20th century. Some came

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