Reversed view set during the colonial era showing the High Street Prison built circa 1723 at Third and High (Market) streets. The site included a debtor's jail (High Street side) and workhouse (Third Street side) joined together by a wall that formed part of a yard enclosure. Men in colonial attire walk in front of the jail and past the wall to the workhouse. A horse stands between two small outbuildings in the right of the image. The prison operated until the early 1770s when replaced by the Walnut Street Prison., Plate published in John F. Watson's Annals of Philadelphia...(Philadelphia: E.L. Carey & A. Hart, 1830), opp., Manuscript note on recto: Same in 2 book. Reversed and variant in th [sic] book., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 726, Gift of James Rush., See Martin Snyder, "William J Breton, Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia Artist," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (April 1961), p. 194 about the later impressions of the view reversed and printed from a redrawn stone.
Creator
Breton, William L., artist
Date
[1830]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department BW - Prisons [9245.Q.24]
View looking east from above Third and High (Market) streets showing the High Street Prison built circa 1723 and the nearby old market stalls during the colonial era. Shows white men in colonial attire walking on the sidewalks and street. In the right of the image, an African American man walks beside a white man. Two African American men are depicted in a stockade and attached to a whipping post near the jail. The man attached to the whipping post is attired in a white cloth that is tied around his waist. The prison operated until the early 1770s when replaced by the Walnut Street Prison. The market shambles were replaced by the permanent Jersey Market circa 1765., Plate published in John F. Watson's Annals of Philadelphia...(Philadelphia: E.L. Carey & A. Hart, 1830), opp. p. 301., Title from item., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 354, Gift of James Rush., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., RVCDC, Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphiana - Streets - High (2 copies)
Creator
Breton, William L., artist
Date
[1830]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department BW - Markets [9245.Q.21]