Street scene on Spruce Street between Tenth and Eleventh streets with a view of the Almshouse and House of Employment, built after the designs of Philadelphia architect Robert Smith in 1767. In the foreground, human figures capture an animal figure escaped from a nearby horse-drawn cart. The Alms House provided shelter to indigents incapable of labor, while the House of Employment housed the poor able to work. The inmates predominately manufactued textiles. The houses were razed in 1835, superseded by the Blockley Almshouse in West Philadelphia., Title from plate 25 in the first edition of Birch's "Views of Philadelphia.", Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., See Martin Snyder's "William Birch: His Philadelphia Views," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 73 (July 1949), p. 271-315.
Creator
Birch, William Russell, 1755-1834, artist
Date
[ca. 1799]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department drawings & watercolors - Birch - Alms House [P.9329]
