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- Title
- Photographic views of New City Building
- Description
- Albums of progress photographs of the early construction of City Hall built 1871-1901 on Penn Square after the designs of John McArthur, Jr. Photographs show different stages of the construction of the foundation and lower floor of the building between 1873 and 1875. Includes images of the dirt sub basement; construction materials, equipment, and workers; aerial views of the built foundation; partially completed walls and abutments; and studio views of columns and architectural ornaments. Several of the views include scaffolding; horse-drawn carts; pulleys; piles of construction debris; Pennsylvania Railroad cars on Market Street; and workers and well-dressed men, probably the commissioners, reviewing and posed on or near constructed parts of the building and construction materials. Views also show surrounding cityscape, including the Masonic Temple (Broad and Filbert); United States Mint (1331-1337 Chestnut Street); the Seventh Presbyterian Church (Broad Street above Chestnut Street); Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Depot (13th and Market); La Salle College High School (Filbert and Juniper); Sharpless & Watts, flooring tile (1325 Market Street); the spires of Arch Street Methodist Episcopal Church (s.w. cor. Broad & Arch) and First Baptist Church (n.w. cor. Broad and Arch); and other surrounding businesses (beer hall, wall paper, and furniture) and residences., Volume 1 (Oct. 1873-Aug. 1874) contains two tipped in letters, dated December 26, 1873 and June 27, 1874, from President of the Commissioners for the Erection of the Public Buildings Samuel C. Perkins. Correspondence presents the stereographs, "authorized to be taken by the commissioners," as a means for the library to "have for preservation in [the] archives a complete photographic record of the progress of a work which under any aspect must be considered as of marked importance in our local history.", Stereographs numbered, dated, and printed with the series title "Views of Construction in Sub-Basement" or "Views of Construction" and the names of the architect, chief assistant, and board of commissioners on the verso., Calf bindings, polished and mottled., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Volume 1 image reproduced in The Print and Photograph Department of the Library Company of Philadelphia's Center City Philadelphia in the 19th century (Portsmouth, N.H.: Arcadia Publishing, 2006), p. 116., Samuel C. Perkins, a Philadelphia lawyer, served as president of the Commissioners for the Erection of the Public Buidlings 1872-1891., Housed in phase boxes.
- Creator
- Cremer, James, 1821-1893
- Date
- 1873-1875
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums - Cremer [(1) 23455.D & (2) 23455.D]
- Title
- [Plate 11 and advertisements from Rae's Philadelphia pictorial directory & panoramic advertiser. Chestnut Street, from Second to Tenth Streets]
- Description
- Plate showing a section of the 700 block (166-213 pre consolidation) of Chestnut Street. South side includes Mrs. M. Burke’s Millenery [sic] Rooms and Winchester & Scott, Gentlemen’s Furnishing Store (172); Cornelius & Co., Gas Fixtures (176); Willis P. Hazard, Cheap Book Store (178); and McClees & Germon, Daguerreotype Rooms and Jos. S. Natt, Looking Glasses (182). North side includes the Masonic Hall (built 1808-1811 after the designs of William Strickland) and tenant businesses, including D. A. Warden, Pianos, Melodeons, [A. D. K.] Moore, Fancy Stationery, and A. Hildebrandt, Fancy Baskets & Toys (225); Washington House hotel with offices of the proprietor A. F. Glass (221-223); china ware importers Tyndale & Mitchell (219); Geo. W. Ward, Gentleman’s Furnishings Store (217); Sturdivant’s House hotel (215); and Warne’s Rifle & Pistol Gallery (213). Also shows the Warne façade adorned with a sign illustrated with the figure of a man pointing to the left., Advertisements promote twelve of the businesses depicted, including McClees & Germon who advertise "The increased width of the street, occasioned by the recess formed by the Masonic Hall, (which is directly opposite) and a front almost entirely of glass, give facilities for an operating room on the Second Floor, with a North light, (the most pleasant, effective and certain of all others, where a sufficiency can be obtained,) possessed by no other establishment of the city…." Several of the advertisements contain ornamented type and two contain illustrations depicting a man pointing (Warne’s) and a man’s shirt (Ward’s Improved Pattern, Warranted to Fit)., Title supplied by cataloger., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Folder 12., LCP also holds trimmed duplicates depicting North side [P.2008.34.16.7 and (1)1322.F.274] and trimmed duplicate depicting South side [P.2008.34.16.9].
- Creator
- Rae, Julio H.
- Date
- [1851]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums - Rae - Folder 12 [*Am 1851 Rae, 2975.Q]