USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 28
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Tanyards .- It is within the last forty-five years that two or three tanyards, such as Howell's, Hudson's, &c., were extended from Fourth street, south of the Friends' school, down to the rear of Girard's bank, and within forty years, two or three were situated with Israel's stables on the northeast section of Dock and Third streets. A
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great fire at this latter place cleared off several lots, and made rocm for some good houses which since occupy their place. In early times the tanyards were ranged along the line of the Dock creek, and their tan did much to fill it up. They were often subjects of complaint. The Pennsylvania Gazette of October, 1739, No. 566, contains remarks thereon. In 1699, there were but two tanyards in the city, to wit : Hudson's and Lambert's, on Dock creek.
Rope Walks were once much nearer than at present. One once stood along the line of Cable lane, giving origin to that name of the street. Another began at Vine and Third streets, before Third street was opened there, and extended in a northwestern direction. Another used to stand nearthe Old Theatre in Cedar street, by Fifth street, and thence extended westward. Another, a little south of it, ran towards the Delaware.
Ship Yards .- These, in early days, were much nigher the city than we might now imagine without the facts to assist us. For instance, in 1723, Michael Royll advertises for sale a new sloop on the stocks at the Drawbridge. The activity of ship building was very great when materials were so much lower. West had great ship yards at Vine street. The late aged John Brown saw a ship launched from the yard near the present Old Ferry. His father, Parrock, had his ship yards at Race street. The late William West, Esq.,(when aged about 73,) told me the ship yards were numerous in his youth from Vine street down to Race street. Many of the vessels built, were sold as fast as built, for English and Irish houses abroad. Seventy years ago a ship or brig was built a little below Race street; and stranger still, a small vessel was built in Lombard street, east of Second street, and was conveyed on rollers to the river.
Blacksmith Shops .- It shows the change of times, to state that seventy to eighty years ago, William Bissell had his blacksmith shop at the northeast corner of Elbow lane and Third street, and that at the northeast corner of Third and High streets, John Rouse had a large frame for his blacksmith shop, and adjoining to the prison, on the south side of High street above Third street, stood blacksmiths and wheelwrights' sheds. All these were seen and remembered by Mrs. S., an aged lady, who told me of them.
Auctions .- Some of us of the present day complain of the great evil of having so many auction rooms-taking the business out of the regular stores, &c. As early as the year 1770, they were considered as a great nuisance to the shopkeepers, and then every man set up for himself wherever he pleased. The Northern Liberties and South- wark were then full of them. They paid no duties to the govern- ment, and it was solicited that they might be taxed five per cent. to restrain them. Sometimes public sale was then called " by public cant," and by " public outcry."
At an earlier period the public vendue was held under the north- west corner of the court house in Second street, and on the vacation of the office in 1742, John Clifton offered £100, and Reese Meredith
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£110 per annum to the Corporation, to be privileged to become the successor .*
After the peace of 1783, the rivalship of auctioneers became great, being limited to a few for the city ; others set up in the Liberties, and such was the allurements to draw customers after them as might excite our wonder now. Carriages were provided to carry purchasers gratis out to the auction held across the Schuylkill at the Upper ferry, and ferriages were paid for those who went across the Delaware to an auction held at Cooper's ferry.
In confirmation, I add a short article from the reminiscences of my friend Mr. P., to wit: In the year 1789, and previous, there were but three auctioneers allowed by law for the City, Northern Liberties and Southwark; and the restriction extended to within two miles of the State house. Several persons were desirous of following that business, but could not obtain appointments from the supreme executive council, and came to the determination of carrying on the same be- yond the prescribed limits, and where goods could be sold at auction without being subject to the State duty. The first person who com- menced was Jonas Phillips, who held his auction in the large brick house on the rising ground over the middle ferry of Schuylkill. He was followed by John Chaloner, who held his sales in one of the stone stables at the upper ferry kept by Elijah Weed. The sales were always in the afternoon, the mornings being occupied in trans- porting the goods on drays to the respective auction rooms; where they were displayed on the shelves. The company being conveyed out and home, in the large old fashioned stages, which were in attend- ance at the houses of the respective auctioneers precisely at one o'clock, P. M., for that purpose. After the sale, the goods were repacked in trunks and cases, brought to the city and delivered to the purchasers next morning at the residence of the auctioneer. Phillips resided opposite the old Jersey market, south side, and Chaloner in Chestnut street, a few doors east of the sign of the Cross Keys, kept by Israel Israel, corner of Third street.
Board Yards .- It is only within the last thirty-five years that board yards and wood yards have been opened in the western part of the city. In former times they were universally confined to the wharves above Vine street. When the first two or three persons opened board yards in the west, it excited surprise and distrust of their success. The north side of Pine street, from Fifth to Sixth street, was once a large board yard, and another was on the south side of Spruce street in the same square. These were among the first inland yards. There was a large board yard on the lot of Ross's store, in Front below Walnut street. There was also the board yard of McCulloch & Patterson on the wharf between Walnut and Spruce streets, in 1785.
* When the City Council rented it to Patrick Baird, in 1730, he paid for the room there only £8 per annum, and not to sell any goods in one lot under the value of 50 «hillings.
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Chestnut street has, within a few years, become the chief street in Philadelphia, as a fashionable walk. High street once had the preference. Circumstances may yet deprive even Chestnut street of its present pre-eminence. In the mean time its claims to favour and renown have been set forth in song, to the following effect, to wit .
In vain may Bond street, or the Parks, Talk of their demoiselles and sparks- Or Boulevard's walks, or Tuileries' shades Boast of their own Parisian maids ; In vain Venetia's sons may pride The masks that o'er Rialto glide ; And our own Broadway, too, will sink Beneath the Muse's pen and ink ; While Chestnut's fav'rite street will stand The pride and honour of our land !
LOCAL CHANGES IN STREETS AND PLACES.
IN these pages, concerning the changes effected in various sections in and about the city, the aged will often be reminded of their former play grounds, then waste and rugged, now ruined to such purposes by the alleged improvements and the stately edifices erected thereon. To be reminded of such localities as they saw them in their joyous youth, is to fill the mind with pleasing images.
"Scenes that sooth'd Or charm'd me young, no longer young, I find Still soothing, and of power to charm me still!"
At no period since the origin of Philadelphia has its extension, improvements and changes been so great as within the last forty-five years. It may be truly said that from the peace of 1783, which completed the first century of its existence as a city, it has trebled its buildings and population. That peace gave an immediate im- pulse to trade and commerce, and these brought the means to make extensive improvements. But the circumstance which peculiarly aided the prosperity and increase of Philadelphia, together with every other city and place in the United States, was the war in Europe and in their colonies, brought on by the French Revolution, and making us, on that emergency, the general carriers of the trade of Europe. It not only diffused general riches among the people, and changed the aspect of the city, but even the habits and manners of the people themselves. From the year 1790, therefore, we may remember a constant change of the former waste grounds of the
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city, the demolition of old buildings or of inconvenient ones, and the erection of more stately and modernized houses in their places.
So far as these notices may have to record recent circumstances, I am aware they can afford but little present interest; but, by the samne rule, whereby we of the present day can be interested in the doings of our forefathers in times and things which we never saw, so the time is coming when the generations which shall succeed us may feel some of the gratifications, in reading some of these recent facts, which I have felt in collecting those of the past inhabitants. Man naturally desires to know the rise and progress of things around him.
The Governor's Woods was a body of forest trees, which stood till the time of the Revolution, called also Centre Woods, lying between High street and South street, and Broad street and the river Schuylkill. They received their name from being a part of the proprietary's estate. There was an old consequential German, named Adam Poth, (whom the aged may still remember,) who had some care of them, and who used to take on a magisterial air of authority when trespasses were made by wandering boys or poor people. When the British came, and needed fuel, it was found more expedient to cut them down and sell to them what they could, than to leave them to help themselves as conquerors.
An aged lady, now alive, tells me that she and other girls deemed it a great frolic to go out to the woods-she usually went out Spruce street. Between Seventh and Eighth streets they gathered wild strawberries; they entered the woods opposite the Hospital, and pro- ceeded through them out to the Schuylkill. The road leading through them was very narrow, and the trees very lofty and thrifty.
Old George Warner, who died in 1810, spoke with lively recol- lection of the state of the woods out High street, saying they were of great growth, especially from beyond the Centre Square to the then romantic and picturesque banks of the Schuylkill. In going, in the year 1726, from the Swedes' church to the Blue-house tavern, on the corner of Ninth and South streets, he saw nothing but lofty forests and swamps, and abundance of game.
An aged lady, Mrs. N., says the woods out High street began as far eastward as Eighth street, and that the walk out High street used to be a complete shade of forest trees, cooling and refreshing the whole road to Schuylkill. At about Sixth street used to be a long bench under a shade, to afford rest to the city travellers.
Hudson's Orchard and Neighbourhood .- On the north side of High street, from thence to Arch street, and from Fifth to Sixth street, was Hudson's orchard of apple trees. When the late Timothy Matlack was a young man, he rented the whole enclosure for eight dollars per annum for his horse pasture. At about sixty feet from the northwest corner of Fifth and High streets, in a north- west direction, there was a considerable pond of water, of four feet depth, on which it was the custom of the city boys to skate in
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winter. Up by North alley, on Fifth street, was a skindresser's frame house ; on High street there also stood an old frame house ; and except these, the whole ground was a grass lot. The first brick house ever built therein was owned by Pemberton, the same now Mr. Lyle's, on High street.
At the northeast corner of Sixth and High streets there was a raised footwalk, as a kind of causeway, of two feet elevation, to keep the traveller from the water which settled on the lot on the north side of High street. At this corner, in times of floods, the water ran down the middle of High street, and communicated to the pond aforesaid. Mrs. Pearson said there was a time when, as a curiosity, a boat was brought to the place, and used in crossing the water.
In the year 1731 John Bradley was found drowned in the above mentioned water, "-by accidental death."
The southeast corner of Fifth and High streets, late Sheaff's house, has been dug down as much as five feet in the street, to form the present level.
When Isaac Zane built his house on the north side of High street, above Sixth street, it was set down in such a wet place that it excited talk that he should choose such a disagreeable spot. In confirmation, I have heard from the Pearson family, (Pearson was City surveyor) that when he built his frame house in Seventh street, sixty-five years ago, a little north of the present St. James' church, there was a deep ravine through the church lot out to Market street, which bore off much water in rains, &c., from Arch street. And through the whole summer there was water enough on the north side of High street, and back of St. James', to keep the frogs in perpetual night songs. In connection with this, also, the late mayor, General Barker, told me he remembered very well that a drunken man, crossing this gully on High street, fell off the footlog into the shallow water, and was found drowned, laying upon his face.
City Hills .- Many who understand the subject deem it to have been a bad taste which led to the "system of levelling" the once beautiful natural inequalities of the city ground plot. Had they been preserved, the original varieties of surface would have afforded pleasing changes to the eye. What was emphatically called " the hill" in the olden time, extending from Walnut street in a course. with the southern side of Dock street, presented once a precipitous and high bank, especially by Pear street and St. Paul's church, which might have been cultivated in hanging gardens, descending to the dock, and open to the public gaze. Thence crossing beyond Little Dock street you ascended to "Society Hill," situate chiefly from Second to Front street, and from Union to the summit of Pine and Front 'streets. From that cause, buildings on Union street, north side, might have shown beautiful descending gardens on their
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northern aspect .* The same bad taste and avidity for converting every piece of ground to the greatest possible revenue caused the building up of the whole extent of Front street on the eastern or bank side, quite contrary to the original design of the founder. Nothing could be imagined more beautiful than a high open view to the river and the Jersey shore along the whole front of the city! Indeed, such is the opinion of some, that even at this late day it is worth the attempt to restore a part of the eastern front, by razing the houses on the eastern side of Front street. It may be remembered that in the year 1822 this subject was much discussed in the public prints, and the project was strenuously supported by the communi. cations of Paul Beck, Esq. It may be observed, as a general remark, that the high table lands of Philadelphia, verging to " the bank" along the river, never had any where any declination towards the river, but the general high plane gradually raised higher and higher towards the river until it came to the abrupt bluff. Rain-water, therefore, naturally ran back from the Delaware front and found its way into the Dock creek, then extending from Arch street to Spruce street. The water falling between Race and Vine streets from Second street, fell into both those streets from " the hill" once between them; for both those streets were originally natural water courses leading down to the river, and from that cause, when those streets were paved, they had to pave the channel in the middle, and to leave the pebble part much lower than the foot-pavements. There was also once " the hill" along Front street near Combes' alley, so much so, that in the memory of D. Marot, the water once ran from Front street westward in that alley. There was once " the hill" near the " Cherry Garden," inclining from the southeast corner of South and Front streets towards the river. The houses still standing along Front street in that neighbourhood have their yards one story higher than Front street.
Streets cut down and raised .- The streets as they now are gra- duated are by no means to be considered as presenting the original level of the city. In many places they have been raised, and in others depressed. Thus Market, Arch and Race streets, near Front street, have all been lowered as much as possible; and Front street has also been lowered to as much of a level as possible. On the other hand, at the foot of those hills (below Water street) they have been raised ; for instance, the house still standing at the southwest corner of Race and Water streets goes down three steps to the first floor, whereas it used to go up three or four steps, in the memory of some ancients ; thus proving the raising of the street there ; at the same time, on Front street near by, the street is lowered full one story, as the cellar of the house on the northwest corner of Front and Race streets, now standing out of the ground, fully proves.
· Alderman Plumstead once had such a garden there, which was the admiration o' the town.
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Clarke's stores, on the southeast corner of Arch and Water streets, show, by the arches above the present windows and doors, that the ground floors have been lowered three feet, to conform to the street there. Forty years ago the ground north of Arch street on Front street to above Race street, western side, was twelve feet higher than the present foot-pavement; for instance, where the row of modern brick buildings north of Arch street now stands, was a Friends' meeting, called Bank meeting, on a green hill, within a brick wall, and to which you went up full twelve feet, by steps-several old houses still there, with cellars out of ground, indicate the same. And below Arch street, in the neighbourhood of Combes' alley, the late old houses of Gerhard's had their first story formed of what was once the cellar part under ground. Second street, from Arch to High street, has been cut down nearly two feet below its former pavement. Fourth street, from Arch street to below High street, has been filled up full two feet.
Walnut street, eastward from Second street, has been raised as much as two feet, sufficiently proved by an old house still standing on the south side of that street, which has its ground floor one foot beneath the present pavement. Walnut street, west of Second street, must have been filled in greatly, as they found near there a paved street six feet beneath the present surface, in laying the iron pipes near to Dock street. In Walnut street, by Third street, the street must have been eight feet higher than now, forming quite a hill there, as the late cake house near there (once a part of an old Cus- tom house) had nearly all of its first story formed of what was once the cellar under ground. The street, at the corner of High and Fourth streets, has been much raised. The house of C. P. Wayne, on the southwest corner, has its floor raised one foot, and originally the house had several steps of ascent. Deep floods have been seen there, by T. Matlack and others, quite across the whole street, in their early days. In Water street, above Arch street, the street must have been raised two or three feet, as a house is still standing there, Nos. 82 and 84, having six steps to go down to what was its first floor. So, too, near S. Girard's, the street is raised, and a house still there descends one step to its ground floor. In Water street, above Chestnut street, the raising is manifest by a house on the bank side having three steps down to its first floor. Several houses midway between Chestnut and Walnut streets, which go down two steps, and several below Walnut street going down one step, suffi ciently prove the elevation made in Water street in those sections since those old houses were built. The most of the ground in the southwestern direction of the city, and Southwark, having been raised from two to three feet, has generally caused all the streets in that direction to be formed of earth filled in there; for instance, it may now be observed that all the oldest houses along Passyunk road below Shippen street, are full two feet under the present street. Out Fitzwater street the old houses are covered up three feet. Out
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South street, from Fifth to Ninth streets, the ground is artificially raised above all the old houses two and a half feet. Front street, below South street, is cut down as much as twelve feet, as the ele- vation of the houses on the eastern side now show. Swanson street, from Almond street southward, has been cut down as much as eight feet, as the houses on the western side sufficiently indicate. South street, from Front street to Little Water street, and Penn street continued to Almond street, severally show, by the cellars of old houses standing above ground, that those streets have been cut through a former rising ground there, once called "the hill." Eleventh street, from High street to Arch street, has required very remarkable filling up. A very good three story house at the north- west corner of Filbert street, and several frame ones northward of that street, have been filled up to the sills of the windows.
Miscellanea .- The following facts of sundry changes may be briefly noticed, to wit :
An aged gentleman, T. H., told me he well remembered a fine field of corn in growth on the northwest corner of South and Front streets. He also remembered when water flowed into some of the cellars along the eastern side of Penn street from the river Delaware. The ground there has been made ground. On the western side it was a high steep bank from Front street. On an occasion of digging into it for sand and gravel, two or three boys were buried beneath the falling bank, and lost their lives.
The late aged Mr. Isaac Parrish told me that the square from the Rotterdam inn, in Third above Race street, up to Vine street, and from Third to Fourth street, used to be a large grass lot, enclosed with a regular privet hedge; there he often shot birds in his youth ; and the late Alderman John Baker said he often shot partridges there.
The late aged Thomas Bradford, Esq., told me he remembered when the ground from Arch to Cherry street, lying westward of Third street, had all the appearance of made ground, having heaps of fresh earth, and several water holes.
George Vaux, Esq., has often heard it mentioned among his ancestors, that Richard Hill, commissioner to Penn, was once pro- prietor of the land extending from Arch and Third streets to Vine and Fifth streets, which he used as a kind of farm; and when the Presbyterian church was built on the northwest corner of Third and Arch streets, it was called " on Doctor Hill's pasture."
The row of good houses on the south side of Arch street, between Fourth street and the church ground, was, forty years ago, the area of a large yard, containing a coachmaker's establishment on a large scale.
At Pine and Front streets, the former hill there has been taken down below the former pavement full six feet deeper, about sixteen years ago.
What used to be called Fouquet's inn and bowling green, is now
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much a tered in its appearance; it used to be very rural. Many trees, of various kinds, surrounded it. It was so much out of town, in my boyhood, that the streets running north and south were scarcely visible; there being nowhere sufficiency of houses to show the lines of the streets, and all the intervening commons marked with oblique footpaths. It stood on rising ground, (a kind of hill,) and towards Race street it had a deep descent into that street, which was quite low in that neighbourhood. I now find that Cherry street (not then thought of) is extended through the premises close to the house. [The old house, still standing, is seen near the south- west corner of Cherry and Tenth streets. It was famous in its day-with many surrounding outhouses.]
Timothy Matlack, when he came to Philadelphia, in 1745, could readily pass diagonally from Third to Fourth street, through the square formed from Chestnut to High street ; the houses being only here and there built.
Mrs. Riley, who if now alive would be about 108 years of age, said she could well remember when Sekel's corner, at the north- east corner of High street and Fourth, was once a cow lot which was offered to her father at a rent of £10. She could then walk across from that corner diagonally to Third street by a pathway.
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