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. III > Part 42
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
33 *
390
Annals of Philadelphia.
FIFTY YEARS AGO
IN THE SOUTH-WESTERN PART OF THE CITY.
A contributor to the Sunday Dispatch wrote as follows about Moyamensing :
How well I remember the long, dusty walk, fifty years ago- about the year 1830-over the unpaved streets, past the old Almshouse, which occupied the whole square between Tenth and Eleventh and Spruce and Pine streets! How often have I peeped through a knot-hole in the old whitewashed fence to see the living curiosity of those days-an "idiot with a horse's head " ! Then down Eleventh, by the "Black Lodge"-a building below Pine street celebrated for holding grand balls and parties for ladies and gentlemen not considered by any means respectable-to Lombard street, where I looked at the city car- penter-shops. They were upon the south side of that street, on a lot running from Tenth to Eleventh street, and they occupied in depth at least one-third of the square to South street. The remainder of the square was enclosed with a low, dilapidated board fence. Adjoining the carpenter-shop there was an old whitewashed frame stable, which was opposite Johnson's ink- factory. There was an old graveyard on the south side of Lom- bard street, which extended from Ninth to Tenth street. Here the skulls and bones of the dead were kicked about the street during the process of digging cellars for a row of houses after- ward built upon the lot. I remember that an old man happened to be passing at the time, and he said to the laborers, "Some years ago an aged Revolutionary hero died in the poor-house and was buried with the honors of war. His grave was just about where you are digging ; I shall wait and see you remove it." In a few moments a coffin was exposed. "That's it! that's it!" said the old gentleman ; and the lid was removed, but no soldier was to be seen. The coffin contained two logs of wood. "Well ! well!" said the old man, "this is the way we are taxed to bury wood. What wickedness ! what wickedness !" And he passed on.
On the south-east corner of Tenth street and the first little street below Lombard there stood an old whitewashed two-story frame house. This was the schoolhouse of Billy O'Morrin. On the north-east corner of South and Tenth streets, there was a double yellow frame tavern. On the opposite (south-east) orner of South street, running through to Shippen, and occupying one- third of the square toward Ninth, was "Lebanon." The South street front, and Tenth street for about one hundred feet to 2
391
Fifty Years Ago.
shed, were enclosed by an open fence; a row of elni trees was inside, and another row was on the line of the curb on Tenth street. From this point to Shippen street there was a high board fence, and large buttonwood trees were growing on both sides of the road. The first building was a two-story brick, which stood about eighteen feet back from the line of Tenth street. Attached to it, on the same line on the south, there was a one-story frame house, with a door that opened under the shed, which reached to Tenth street, where there was a gateway opening on said street opposite to a pump. From this door in the frame house there was another gate in the shed and a brick pavement five feet wide, which led around to the front door of the brick house, which was the main entrance of the hotel. On the east of this brick house there was a two-story frame building, and another, making the fourth, connecting all in one square building, with communicating doors and staircases inside and out. On the east side of this cluster of houses, near the northern line, a door opened under a huge "candle tree," which shaded this part of the yard. Behind this tree there was a high open fence, which ran across some forty feet or more to a brick house three stories high, built on the east line of the property, but facing the other buildings. There was a large double gateway in the fence close to the house on the east, which, when closed, separated the gar- den from the front yard. This yard was used for stabling, having sheds and posts for fastening horses. Attached to this brick house there was a long row of sheds, composing a soup- house, kitchen, wash-house, shuffle-board, and tenpin-alleys. În the soup-house there was a door which opened on a large vacant lot, where the poor of the district of Moyamensing were supplied through the winter season with soup, bread, and wood. The flower-garden was back of the main buildings, between the row of sheds and Tenth street. It consisted of two pieces of ground neatly enclosed with a low, open paling fence. The gardens were prettily laid out with gravelled walks and beds of flowers. Large clusters of lilacs, snowballs, and a variety of fruit trees were growing there. Beyond these two little gardens there was an open green space nicely shaded with white mulberry, a few willows, and a row of high cherry trees. On the back end of the lot, back of the tenpin-alley, there stood a famous old locust tree, measuring twenty-four feet around the base
From the main entrance to the brick house (first referred to) there was a gravelled walk five feet wide extending to the gate, about fifty feet north, on South street, several plank steps above the grade. Over this gate there was, forty years ago, a plain sign -" Lebanon." Over the door in the brick house was a half- circle sign. The letters were in gold, and the background was painted blue sprinkled with glass dust. Twenty feet to the east of the steps there was a large oak tree which stood on the foot-
3
392
Annals of Philadelphia.
way. It had attached to a limb, reaching out to the street, por- tions of an old-and no doubt the original-sign.
Leaving Lebanon and passing out the gate on Shippen street, we noticed several blue frames on the opposite side of that street, and a little row of blue frames fronting on Ninth street near Fitzwater. The other part of this square was enclosed with a post-and-rail fence, where cattle were grazing. With the excep- tion of a row of houses on Tenth street, this lot is now surround- ed by the brick wall and iron railing which enclose Ronaldson's Cemetery. On South street, between Tenth and Eleventh, south side, about halfway between the two streets, there was also a little row of frame houses, stabling, etc. One of these frames was the " Wren's Nest." Over the doorway a square sign was nailed to the house, upon which was a tolerably well-executed picture of a wren perched on the top of a little house-like box, holding in its bill a worm, while a brood of young birds were stretching their open mouths out of the doorway of the bird-house. This tavern or shop was noted for selling cordials, sweetened wines, and beer at one cent per glass. The other portion of this square, except Jacob Sherman's carpenter-shop on Eleventh street, was partly enclosed, and had upon it, near to Shippen street, a large, deep pond of water, where the idle boys of the neighborhood floated about on rafts in summer-time and skated in winter.
Beyond Shippen street, extending from Tenth street west to Thirteenth and south to Christian, was a small farm. A board fence surrounded it. In the centre there stood a yellow frame house, with outbuildings, cow-sheds, stables, a pump, and water- troughs for cattle.
A crowd of fifty or one hundred persons once assembled near a little one-story stone house surrounded by decayed apple trees to the east of Tenth street, where Catharine street now crosses, to witness two dirty negro wenches fight out an old quarrel. They " stripped to the buff," having nothing on them but skirts tied around their waists. They took their positions by the side of their seconds (two negro men) inside of a ring composed of negroes and Irish, and began the battle. Such thumping, scratching, and pulling were never surpassed. Several times they separated, took long drinks of gin, and then returned to their brutal work, until they cut and bit each other most fright- fully, and until the blood was flowing from their many wounds. Finally, they clenched and fell to the earth, tearing each other like savages. One of them then, in an agonizing voice, cried, "Enough ! enough !" They were then lifted up and assisted by their friends to clothe themselves, after which they moved off toward their miserable dens in Small street. After witnessing this horrid sight I crossed over the common to Tidmarsh (now Carpenter) street. A whitewashed fence ran along the south side from Eleventh street to beyond the line of Tenth. On the line
393
Fifty Years Ago.
of Tenth street there was a small open space and a gate, behind which stood a small brick spring-house and an old-fashioned pump. To the west a short distance, say twenty feet, there was a large brick building surrounded with old pear trees, apple trees, and other varieties of fruit, presenting a beautiful appearance. This was the residence of Mr. John Githen, manufacturer of worsted fringe and pompons for the army and navy of the United States. In after years it was called "New Lebanon." Below the line of Tenth street, on the north side of Tidmarsh (Carpenter), were two neat yellow frames. One of them was oc- cupied by "Old Field " the "resurrectionist," superintendent of Potters' Field. In the shed attached to his stable were piles of boards and broken coffins. The bodies having been sold, the coffins were used for firewood.
Potters' Field took in one half of the square fronting on Tid- marsh street from Eleventh to Twelfth street. There was a deep ditch or stream of dirty water running down Thirteenth street, which was crossed at Tidmarsh street by a plank bridge. From this bridge I looked toward the city. I saw large flocks of crows on the common, where all the old and worn-out horses were turned out to die. The skeletons of many horses lay bleaching in the sun, while lame horses were limping about, and others which had but lately died were half devoured by dogs and crows.
It was on this common that long rows of sheds, weatherboarded, partitioned, and with a door to each compartment, were erected to accommodate the miserable inmates of Small street and St. Mary street with healthy summer residences during the great cholera season of 1832. Small street and St. Mary street were cleaned out, and fences were put across to prevent persons from going into them. I shall never forget that grand moving-day. Oh what a sight! -men, women, and children, black and white, barefooted, lame, and blind, half-naked and dirty, carrying old stools, broken chairs, thin-legged tables, and bundles of beds and bedclothing to their summer retreat on the common!
But a few steps from the bridge, on Thirteenth street, running through to Broad, was the back entrance of the old " Lagrange Hotel." There was a gateway, and a gravel-walk six or eight feet wide, with a row of old fruit trees on both sides, to a yellow frame house surrounded with a porch, grapevines, summer-houses, and a garden. From Broad street the house stood back some twenty or thirty feet. Lilac bushes reached far above the open fence, and the entrance was through a gateway. An arbor, in connection with numerous willow and other trees, made a dense shade. On either side of the gravel-walk, back, there was a beautiful field of grass, dotted here and there with an old apple or pear tree. It was on these beautiful grounds that the archery club of ladies and gentlemen frequently congregated in the sum- mer season, with beautiful bows and arrows, and wearing long
394
Annals of Philadelphia.
white and yellow gloves, to amuse themselves shooting at a target of black and white circles. And it was here also that crowds of persons thronged to see a bear-fight. A large black bear, muz- zled and chained to a tree, was encircled by a rope fence seventy or eighty feet in diameter. The dogs were held by short cords or bandana handkerchiefs, and their old-country masters were allowed to remain within the ring. The fight did not amount to much. The dogs could bite and the bear could hug, but seldon was any blood shed. A few nips, a few hugs, a roll or two on the grass, and plenty of growling and barking, and the battle was ended.
Love lane (now Washington avenue) was but a few hundred feet south. It was shaded on both sides with large sycamore trees. On the north side, between Eleventh and Twelfth streets, back of Potters' Field, there was a large square pit-a receptacle for the filth of the city. To pass this magazine I held my nose between the thumb and forefinger and ran for my life. From Eleventh street, south side, there was a hedge, and a fence as far down as Passyunk road. Parker's Garden ran across Tenth street. In front of it there was a double row of linden trees, an open slat fence, a hedge of evergreens, etc. The house was concealed by vines, trees, and shrubbery. A puzzling garden, laid out with narrow paths, edged with dwarf boxwood, twisting and turning in all sorts of shapes, with beds of tulips, hyacinths, flags, and other varieties of flowers and plants, tastefully arranged, made it one of the most lovely spots near the city. A double box tree, fifteen or twenty feet high, trimmed in squares, ovals, spires, etc. -which he valued at five hundred dollars-was one of the great curiosities of Parker's Garden.
On the opposite side of Love lane, back about two hundred feet from it, there was a long ropewalk, reaching from Tenth street to Seventh street. Boys were turning large wheels, and men were walking to and fro with their waists largely expanded with flax, which gradually diminished while the cords were being made under this long shed.
Turning up Passyunk road, and into Eighth street, the next prominent building was Mrs. Mazarin's (Smith's) private garden. On the opposite side was the Rialto House, a small yellow frame building with side-entrance back to the tenpin-alleys.
Along Eighth street one vacant lot succeeded another, with intervening ponds of stagnant water, reaching to South street. Where the schoolhouse now stands at Eighth and Fitzwater streets a huge sycamore tree stood, rising from the centre of a pond. It was to this tree, on one St. Patrick's Day in the morn- ing, that many sons of Erin waded knee-deep to pull down a pair of old trousers and a coat stuffed with straw, which made up the effigy called in those days "a stuffed Paddy."
The next point of interest was at the south-west corner of
395
Fifty Years Ago.
Eighth and South streets, where was "the Willow Pond," a deep pool of water-the termination of a ditch that ran across South street near Ninth-with rows of willow trees on the edge of it, near to which was the depository of street dirt, etc.
Pritchett's Garden took in all the lot from Ninth street to Tenth street, and from South street to within a hundred feet of Lombard street. Then, on the west side of Eighth street, half- way to Pine street, was "Strahan's Garden." The house stood back, and was shaded with large white mulberry and other trees. Greeves & Andrews' board-yard was on the opposite side, and ran north from Lombard to Pine street. The lots between Seventh and Eighth, Pine and Spruce, Eighth and Ninth, Pine and Lombard streets (except above one hundred square feet appro- priated to "Strahan's Garden"), and the lot from Ninth to Tenth and from Spruce to Pine street, were neatly enclosed with open fences, painted white. Within these beautiful green lots the cows belonging to the Pennsylvania Hospital grazed and made their milk. The door of entrance to the hospital was to the east of the railing and the statue of William Penn. The dead-house was to the west of the railing. On Ninth street there was a square brick building, separate from the main building, with prominent green blinds, to prevent the insane occupants from looking down into the street. One of these upper rooms was inhabited by a vo- calist. I have frequently stood under her window when the sun was setting and listened to her sweet songs, which she sang one after another till her voice died away like a dream. I have heard that the late J. B. Booth was, while on a visit to the hospital, exceedingly interested in her from hearing her sing, and he sup- posed from her splendid voice that she must be beautiful. His surprise and disappointment on seeing the vocalist-whose homely features and appearance bade Romance begone-can be better imagined than described.
And here, at Ninth and Spruce streets, I rest from this journey, which took me from this neighborhood in a circuit which was wild and unimproved fifty years ago, but almost every foot of which is now occupied by houses, churches, factories, and mills, and cut through by streets where, when I was a boy, there were fields, meadows, gardens, trees, and ponds. LACROIX.
The Nicholson Mansion .- The deserted-looking mansion at the south-west corner of Tenth and Bainbridge streets has often attract- ed attention. It was probably finished about the year 1837-38, and was built for Thomas Nicholson. It was paid for with money which he had stolen from his employer, Thomas Hewitt, sugar- refiner, whose manufactory was in Zane street, west of Seventh. Nicholson was clerk of Hewitt, and the latter was doing so large a business that Nicholson was enabled to easily embezzle considerable sums of money. He was finally detected, was
396
Annals of Philadelphia.
prosecuted, and after conviction was sent to prison. By way of restitution Hewitt became owner of this house, in which he lived for many years, until the time of his death. It is a fine, large house, and is greater in size than is necessary for the use of an ordinary family. If it had been built on the western portion of Chestnut, Walnut, or Spruce street, it would always have been occupied. It is too big for the neighborhood in which it is placed. After Hewitt's death it was used for some years as a children's asylum.
Waln's House, p. 486 .- Built by William Waln, son of Nich- olas Waln (?). This house was afterward purchased and occu- pied by Dr. Swaim, the fortunate vendor of the famous Panacea. He built several houses at the north-east corner of Seventh and Sansom streets (formerly George) streets, one of which was for several years used as a bathing establishment, then for a hotel. The northern house was, and now is, the office for the sale of the Panacea. The Waln building, afterward the Swaim mansion, was pulled down and four stores erected on its site. The upper part of these was occupied by Barnum for a museum for several years. This was burned down from fire being communicated to the scenery of the theatre portion of the museum on the evening of Dec. 30, 1851, injuring very much the next building, owned and occupied by George Harrison, and after his death by his widow. Mr. Swaim erected three fine stores on the ruins of Barnum's Museum with granite fronts, which still stand. The Harrison Mansion and lot fell into the hands of J. Francis Fisher, who built three fine brownstone-front stores, extending to Sansom street. One of the stores, while occupied as Orne's carpet store, was not long after destroyed by fire, and again re- built. These two blocks of stores fill up the lots from Seventh street to where Jones's Hotel was.
From the west side of Fourth street, etc., p. 486 .- There was a row of buildings on the west side of Fifth street known as the " Fourteen Chimneys," which have been pulled down and re- built, owned perhaps by Dr. Philip Mayer's congregation on Race street above Fifth.
Bush Hill, p. 487 .- At Bush Hill, when digging foundations for Macauley's oil-cloth factory in 1832, about thirty graves were discovered. (Reg. Pa., ix. 240.) For some notice of Bush Hill Hospital, see the Christian Observer, 1856. The Hamilton man- sion was used as a hospital in 1793, during the yellow fever. The estate was sold for $600,000 on speculation, but the buyers not carrying out their agreements, they forfeited all they had paid, and it reverted to the Hamiltons. It became a tavern, and was burnt in 1808. Isaac Macauley used the walls for his oil-cloth factory. It was finally torn down, and in 1875 the row of houses on the north side of Buttonwood street, between Seventeenth and
397
Old Fairmount and the Park.
Eighteenth was erected on its site. We remember Bush Hill as an open common and hangman's ground.
OLD FAIRMOUNT AND THE PARK.
P. 488 .- Fairmount was formerly called Quarry Hill. The first waterworks of the city consisted of pumping-engines at Chest- nut street, and a distributing-reservoir in a large circular tower at Broad and Market streets, and were commenced in 1799, but larger works were soon needed. In the report of Fredrick Graff and John Davis, who were directed by the Water Committee in 1811 to examine the best modes of procuring water for the city, they suggested "that water-power machinery could be erected near to Morris Hill (Fairmount) to pump or elevate the neces- sary water into reservoirs constructed on said hill." A stone building was erected at the foot of Fairmount to pump by steam machinery into the basin. The works were commenced August 1st, 1812, and started September 7th, 1815. James S. Lewis was chairman of the Water Committee in 1817 and 1818. He saw that by the erection of a dam at Fairmount the navigation of the Schuylkill could be improved, and works could be erected to throw water into the basins by water-power alone, thus saving the expense of steam-works. Councils passed the resolution to build the present works April 8th, 1819. Contracts were awarded accordingly. The dam was finished in July, 1821. The first wheel and pump were put in operation July 1st, 1822. When Fairmount was fully finished the Schuylkill works at the foot of Chestnut street were abandoned. The Centre House was torn down in the year 1828. At the present time there are annually about 15,000,000,000 gallons, or about 50,000,000 gallons per day, supplied by the Fairmount, Delaware, Schuylkill, Belmont, and Roxborough works, through about 700 miles of pipe.
It has been said goldfish were very abundant in the Schuylkill about 1790, near Robert Morris's place-afterward Henry Pratt's -called Lemon Hill. My father, who was in a counting-house on the wharf from 1800 to 1806, said that captains of Dutch ves- sels, or others coming from Holland, etc., used to bring goldfish in glass globes as curiosities ; and as Mr. Pratt was then exten- sively engaged in business with those countries, it has appeared probable they may have been furnished to him at first by some of these captains. He had no recollection of their being found in the Schuylkill till after their escape, as he supposed, from Mr. Pratt's pond.
The first purchase made by the city of Philadelphia within the bounds of Fairmount Park was in 1812, when the Fairmount Hill and adjoining ground-five acres in all-were bought for
34
398
Annals of Philadelphia.
$16,666.66. Other ground was bought at various times, so that in 1828 there were twenty-four acres in Fairmount owned by the city, which cost $116,834. Lemon Hill-forty-five acres-was bought in 1844, and cost $75,000. Lemon Hill and the Water- works grounds were formally opened as Fairmount Park by ordi- nance of 28th of December, 1855. In 1857 citizens of Phila- delphia bought Sedgely-thirty-four acres-between Lemon Hill and Spring Garden Waterworks for $125,000. They subscribed and paid $60,000, and then offered it to the city on condition that it should assume and pay the mortgage for the balance. This ground was accepted by the city and made a part of Fairmount Park. Lansdowne-140 acres-was bought in 1866 by four citizens for $84,953.30. They offered it to the city for the same price, and it was accepted. In 1868 and 1869 the Park was further increased by extending the territory to the present bounds. There are in Fairmount Park, exclusive of the Wissahickon, 34,700 large trees, between eighteen inches and twenty-seven feet in girth. The trees of less size are about 68,000. The hard- wood shrubs and vines are estimated at 200,000. There is no public park in London that is as large as Fairmount Park in this city. Phoenix Park, Dublin, contains about 1700 acres ; Hyde Park, London, about 400 acres; and Regent Park about 403 acres. New York Central Park contains 843 acres. The Ep- ping Forest, in county Essex, contains 12,000 acres, and the Windsor Forest, in county Berks, 3800 acres. The Prater of Vienna, Austria, has 5120 acres. Fairmount Park has 2791 acres. Epping and Windsor are reserved for park purposes, but they are scarcely parks in the modern sense of the word. They are woods in which Nature is allowed to take care of herself. The Prater is a park, as we understand the word in this country, Art and Nature being combined to render it beautiful and attractive.
During the first five years of the Park Commission $1,114,713 was expended in the improvement of the people's pleasure- ground. This was an average of $222,942 a year. The area of the Park they fix at 2791-2% acres, which are divided up-in the Old Park, 117 acres; East Park, 510; West Park, 1232; Wissa- hickon, 416 ; water-surface, 373; area of the Park proper, 2648 acres ; area of outlying plots, paid for out of Park loan, 143,2% acres.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.