Notes |
This once popular hotel, located at the corner of Third and Willow Streets, enjoyed prosperity in the early days of rail and
canal travel from the fact that it was the starting point for the cars of the Peoples' Line, connecting through to Pittsburgh,
and also for vehicles carrying passengers to the depot of the Philadelphia & Trenton Railroad, in Kensington. The structure
was built in 1833 by Enoch Middleton. It contained above 100 rooms for lodgers. When, in the summer of 1840, an effort was
made to lay tracks fro Kensington along Front Street to Willow Street and so reach the company's headquarters in the hotel,
a fierce riot ensued and the project was abandoned. In addition to the passenger trains starting by horse-power, from Third
Street and over the "Western Railroad," the Willow Street tracks were used by a line of pleasure cars which ran hourly, to
and from Fairmount, at a fare of twenty-five cents. This line of cars was operated by an Italian confectioner named Lucian.
The first locomotive ever operated in Philadelphia was moved over the Willow Street route in September, 1832, this beign so
recorded by Scharf & Westcott. Thebasis of this drawing was a wood cut of 1840, at which time Joseph Hall conducted the hotel
and the depot of the "Eastern and Western" Railroad lines was in the building to the right of the view.
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