Details
Creator Taylor, Frank H. (Frank Hamilton), 1846-1927
Title Around the Head of Old Dock Street
Date ca. 1922
Description Reproduction of a drawing depicting a series of hotels, including the Exchange Hotel. There are pedestrians and horse drawn carriages in the street, and the end of a freight train in the foreground.
Notes In the forties and long afterward upper Dock street was the hub of business and social Philadelphia. In the broad space between the Pennsylvania Bank and the imposing building of the Commercial Exchange, built in 1832, was the point of arrival and departure of stages, hacks and in their time horse-cars, which provided much of the transit of their time. Here, also, were freight sidings, the cars from the West being drawn hither by long lines of mules. Round about were the most popular taverns and saloons of the town. One of these, the Exchange Hotel, then numbered 75 and 77 Dock street, managed by Copple and Jones, and at one time was called the "Wisconsin Hotel," was famous for its profuse menu. Masons of high degree banqueted at its table and often. Here in February, 1852, Gen. Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, with his staff, was entertained by important citizens, an event long remembered among the gustatory triumphs of the period. The old hotel was displaced long ago by a commercial edifice, now numbered 235 Doct Street. The present structure (in 1918) is marked for removal to make room for something still more modern and roomy.
Taylor Catalog Number: 121
Is part of Frank H. Taylor Collection
Identifier Taylor - Case 11-13 [2717.F]