View showing the proposed building for the mechanic's institute that was erected in 1853 on Williams, i.e. N. 39th, Street above Market Street. In a bucolic setting, two men walk up a path to the small Georgian and Florentine-style two-story building with several windows. The building contained a library, lecture hall, and classrooms for the young men to educate themselves and avoid vice during their free time. The building was purchased in 1871 by the Board of the Presbyterian Hospital and the institute relocated to 40th and Ludlow streets, Frontispiece to An Appeal in behalf of the West Philadelphia Institute, organized January 2, 1853 with the charter and constitution (Philadelphia: Printed by Isaac Ashmead, 1853)., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 825, LCP copy trimmed and lacking imprint., LCP AR [Annual Report] 2000, pg. 54-56., Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited., Historical Society of Pennsylvania: In *Wn 892, Gift of Jay Snider.
Date
[1853]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department W444 [P.9830.1]