Details
Creator M'Clees, Jas. E. (James E.) photographer.
Contributor Poulson, Charles A. 1789-1866, collector.
Berger, Jacob builder.
Johnston, William L., 1811-1849, architect.
Tyson, T.
Title Spring Garden Hall, N.W. corner Thirteenth & Spring Garden St. [graphic] / McClees.
Publisher PA. Philadelphia. 1856
Date 1855
Physical Description 1 photographic print: salted paper; 23 x 18 cm. (9 x 7 in.)
Description Exterior view of the hall containing the district's police station and Mayor's office completed in 1848 after the designs of William L. Johnston at Spring Garden and North Thirteenth streets. Shows the Greek-Revival style building, the largest of the commissioners' halls buildings, adorned with a steeple built by Jacob Berger and containing a clock made by T. Tyson. Also shows a gentleman at the entranceway of the building; neighboring buildings; and trees in cages, including one adorned with a broadside, lining the street in the foreground. Prior to the city's consolidation with bordering townships in 1854, neighborhoods maintained and housed their own police stations, mayors, and other government officials in commissioners' halls, including Spring Garden. Razed circa 1892.
Notes Title, date, and photographer's imprint from Poulson inscription on accompanying label.
Originally part of a series of eleven scrapbooks compiled by Philadelphia antiquarian Charles A. Poulson in the late 1850s entitled "Illustrations of Philadelphia" volume 5, page 69. The scrapbooks contained photographs of 18th-century public, commercial, and residential buildings in the city of Philadelphia collected by Poulson to document the vanishing architectural landscape.
McClees 1855-12.
Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited.
Reproduced in Kenneth Finkel's Nineteenth century photography in Philadelphia (New York: Dover Publications, Inc. in cooperation with the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1980), entry #94.
Biographical / historical note McClees, a prominent Philadelphia photographer and daguerreotypist, produced some of the earliest paper photographic views of Philadelphia between 1853 and 1859.
Subject Commissioners' Hall (Spring Garden, Philadelphia, Pa.)
City & town halls -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Police stations -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Geographic subject Spring Garden Street (Philadephia, Pa.) -- 1300 block.
Genre Albumen prints -- 1850-1860.
Associated name Berger, Jacob builder.
Associated name Johnston, William L., 1811-1849, architect.
Associated name Tyson, T.
Provenance Poulson, Charles A. (Charles Augustus), 1789-1866, collector.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| photo - McClees - Government Buildings [(5)2526.F.8a]
Accession number (5)2526.F.8a