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- Title
- [Chestnut Street Theatre, 603-609 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia]
- Description
- View of the second building of the theater, built 1820-1822 after the designs of William Strickland, displaying several playbills for the last performance at the current building. Includes additional playbills displayed under a gaslight fixture in front of the adjacent theater, the Melodeon (611-613 Chestnut). Fixture adorned with shades advertising the "Melodeon Celebrated Troupe Dancer" and an illustration of a dancer. Also shows the opposite neighboring businesses of a shooting gallery and "Shakespeare Bowling Saloon" (601 Chestnut) and Hart's Building owned by prominent Jewish publisher and philanthropist, Abraham Hart, erected 1848 (537-539 Chestnut). Signage advertising Gilbert & Gihon, engravers on wood, is partially visible on Hart's Building and a poster showing a man shooting a pistol adorns the shooting gallery. Theater razed 1856., Title supplied by cataloguer., Photographer's blindstamp on mount of (6)1322.F.44., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of views of Philadelphia., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Published in Robert F. Looney's Old Philadelphia in Early Photographs, 1839-1914 (New York: Dover Publications, Inc. in cooperation with The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1976), entry #125., 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. 16., Arcadia caption text: Referred to as the New Theatre to distinguish it from the Southwark, or Old, Theatre, the Chestnut Street Theatre opened in 1794 near the northwest corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets. After fire destroyed its building in 1820, the Association of the Proprietors of the New Theatre sold shares in the property and hired William Strickland to design a new building. Constructed at the same location in only eight months, the imposing marble structure included the statues of Comedy and Tragedy sculpted by William Rush, which survived the fire. To celebrate its opening, the managers held a contest for the best opening night address. Prize winner Charles Sprague’s verses were so well-received that his address was read a second night. The theater is shown here in 1855, shortly before being demolished.
- Creator
- M'Clees, Jas. E. (James E.), photographer
- Date
- May 1, 1855
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - McClees - Theaters [(6)1322.F.44; (7)1322.F.63a]
- Title
- Aaron Wolff's old wine store, &c on the northwest corner of Chestnut and Seventh Street
- Description
- Views showing the former wine shop being tenanted by Mahlon Warne, rifle and pistol gallery, and J.E. Gould, pianos, at 701 Chestnut Street. Also shows a partial view of John Sturdivant's lodging house (703 Chestnut); a vendor stand, horse-drawn carts and wagons, and signage for Lacey & Phillips, saddlery, painted on their building on South Seventh Street. Wolff operated as a wine merchant in the 1840s., Title and photographer's imprint from Poulson inscription on mount of (3)2526.F.70., Date inscribed on (3)2526.F.70., Newspaper clippings dated April 1859 pasted on mount of (3)2526.F.70 reporting the demolition of the building., One of the images originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of views of Philadelphia., One of the images originally part of a series of eleven scrapbooks compiled by Philadelphia antiquarian Charles A. Poulson in the late 1850s entitled "Illustrations of Philadelphia" volume 3, page 70. The scrapbooks contained approximately 120 photographs by Philadelphia painter and pioneer photographer Richards of 18th-century public, commercial, and residential buildings in the city of Philadelphia commissioned by Poulson to document the vanishing architectural landscape., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., One of the images [(3)2526.F.70] 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. 63., Arcadia caption text: ... This image, one of approximately 120 views shot by Richards, was taken in April 1859, only days before the demolition of this building at the northwest corner of Seventh and Chestnut streets. The building’s last tenants included a wine shop, a piano store, and on the top story a shooting gallery with bulls-eye targets affixed to the windows.
- Creator
- Richards, F. De B. (Frederick De Bourg), photographer
- Date
- April 1859
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - Richards - Businesses - W [(6)1322.F.113f; (3)2526.F.70 (Poulson)]
- 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]
- 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]