USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Early Philadelphia; its people, life and progress > Part 8
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The route to Baltimore was by boat to New Castle, Delaware, then across the country by stage to the head of the Elk River and so by boat to Baltimore.
In 1796 there were four daily stages to New York, one to Baltimore and one once or twice a week to Lan- caster, Bethlehem, Wilmington, Dover, Harrisburg, Read- ing and Easton. The ride to Lancaster took three days for the round trip and it took two days to get to Reading. The roads to Baltimore were perhaps the worst of many bad ones. Chasms ten feet deep were frequent and it very often took five days to make the trip. Coaches were overturned, passengers killed and horses destroyed so that one can easily see how small the world was for the early settlers. Sometimes there was no stage for two weeks.
The first through line of stages to Pittsburgh was in August, 1804, and it took seven days to get there.
Later canal boats were brought by canal through the Alleghany Mountains from Pittsburgh to Columbia, then by the Pennsylvania Railroad to Philadelphia, entering through Fairmount Park. They were taken down Willow Street on trucks drawn by horses to warehouses on Dela- ware Avenue, where they discharged and loaded their freight.
SQUARES AND PARKS
OLMES' map of 1683 shows Penn's design for the five squares which have already been referred to. They were larger than those we know to-day and the two western ones have been pushed a little westward toward the Schuylkill River. It was originally intended that the centre square should be ten acres and the others eight, " to be for like uses as the moorfields in Lon- don." The Centre Square was planned by Penn to be for public uses, for a Meeting House, a State House, a Market House and a School House.
In 1684 Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting of Friends decided to build a meeting house of brick in the Centre Square, but as it proved inconvenient on account of being so far out of town, it was abandoned not long after its occupation. The square was without any enclosure for more than a hundred years and seems to have been used pretty generally for any important public use of the mo- ment. As early as 1760 it was leased as a common and a race course was constructed with a half mile track where gentlemen of the Jockey Club tried their horses against each other up to the time of the Revolution. This was quite a jump from a Quaker Meeting House to a race course but perhaps was one of the incidents of the " Toler- ation," for which the Quakers were famous. The Common was used as a public hanging ground for the city and county and the gallows was a permanent fixture for many years until the Centre House for the water works was con- structed in 1799. During the Revolution the Common was used for a drill ground and in 1783 Count Rocham- beau and his army of 6000 Frenchmen encamped there.
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THE FIRST WATER WORKS AT CHESTNUT STREET AND THE SCHUYLKILL
THE WATER WORKS IN CENTRE SQUARE
SQUARES AND PARKS
Thousands of visitors flocked to see the foreigners in their white and pink uniforms. After the war General Wayne encamped there upon his return from the western expedi- tion among the Indians by which he opened the middle west for civilization. The militia companies of the city took delight in drilling in the Centre Square and many a parade was held there by the McPherson Blues, Shee's Legion, the First Troop, Captain Morrell's Volunteer Green Cavalry, the Second Troop and others. These parades which at- tracted crowds of people, fairs and the celebration of national holidays at last became a nuisance on account of gambling and carousals and a determined crusade was started in Zachariah Poulson's Advertiser against them so that Mayor Robert Wharton put a stop to them in 1823.
The first pumping works to supply the City with water were at Chestnut Street on the Schuylkill River, but an- other one was finished at Centre Square in January, 1801, after a design by Benjamin Henry Latrobe. The house had a pillared portico with a dome and was long a conspicu- ous object. The grounds were laid out in circular form and picketed with a white fence. Grass was planted and a fountain erected so that the whole made a very pleasing appearance. The fountain was Rush's statue of " Leda and the Swan," for which Miss Vanuxem, a famous beauty and toast, was the model. The original statue was carved in wood and then cast in bronze. It is now in Fairmount Park. This house remained after the water works at Fairmount were built and was used as a storage place for the oil used in the street lamps. In 1829 the name was changed to Penn Square and Market and Broad Streets run through it.
The Northeast Square was an open common for many years and in 1721 was leased to Ralph Assheton for 21
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years at forty shillings per annum. He must have quit the lease, for in 1741 Thomas Penn, the Proprietor, leased the square to the German Reformed Church, John Philip Boehm, pastor. They used it for a burial ground until 1801, when the congregation yielded it to the city. During the Revolution a powder storage house was built there and John M. Irwin, auctioneer, had a horse and cattle market on the western part. This square also was used for a drill ground and had an important place for this purpose during the war of 1812. In 1815 it was improved, levelled and planted with grass. The name was changed to Franklin Square in 1825.
The North West Square was first used for a burying ground and for some executions. In 1825 it was improved and called Logan Square after James Logan. The great Sanitary Fair was held there in 1861 and attracted much attention on account of the relief it brought to the wounded soldiers.
The South West Square escaped the fate of the others as a burying place and was named after David Ritten- house in 1825, when the State House Yard was named Independence Square.
Independence Square was really the first approach to a little square or park the city had. A wall of brick seven or eight feet high was built around it with a central gate on Walnut Street south of the State House door. This was fifteen or eighteen feet high, decorated with a pediment, cornice, entablature and pilasters. Walks were laid out and grass and trees planted. In 1811 the wall was removed with the large gateway and a low brick wall, such as has been recently placed there, was built three feet high, coped with marble. An iron railing surmounted the whole. It was in early times a favourite place for town
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Birch, 1800
STATE HOUSE GARDEN
WASHINGTON AND INDEPENDENCE SQUARES, 1917
RITTENHOUSE SQUARE, 1917
SQUARES AND PARKS
meetings and during the Revolution served as a recruiting place.
South East Square was a perfect square and extended about three-fourths of the distance to Spruce Street and somewhat beyond Seventh Street, so that the latter was shut off entirely. From 1705 to 1795 the square served as a burying place for strangers. Hundreds of soldiers of the Revolutionary War and victims of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 were interred there. The soldiers were buried in unmarked trenches and the sexton told John Adams in 1777 that already two thousand had found their last resting place in the ground under his care. Its sur- face was uneven and a stream from Tenth and Arch Streets ran through the northeast corner to Dock Creek. Timothy Matlack records that as late as 1745 there was a pond where the First Presbyterian Church stands and he used to go there to shoot wild ducks. Luxuriant grass grew about this well watered ground and it was much esteemed for pasturage from the earliest times. The Car- penter and Story family had an enclosure of brick in the middle where they buried their dead and a huge apple tree grew in the centre of it.
Across the street, at the southeast corner, stood the Walnut Street prison of stone, one hundred and eighty- four feet on Walnut Street and the ground extending south to Prune, now Locust Street. It was used as a prison for prisoners of war by both armies during the Revolution and was the main city jail until Moyamensing prison was erected. After people stopped burying there in 1795 noth- ing much was done with the square, although it was pro- posed to establish a market there and also the Medical School of the University. The coloured people of the City found it a favourite place for gathering to sing their native
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songs and give their wild African dances over the graves of the stranger and the soldier.
The name was changed to Washington Square in 1825 and George Bridport, artist and engineer, planned the park for public use. Trees were planted and the Square enclosed with a white paling fence. The attempt to im- prove it seems to have succeeded, for a committee of the Horticultural Society said of it after an inspection in 1831 that " The whole is beautifully kept and well illuminated at night with reflecting lamps until ten o'clock, all showing the correct and liberal spirit of our city." It became the object of controversy when the location of the new City Hall was planned, but the vote of 1870 was against this location.
The show place of Philadelphia is Fairmount Park. It may well be so and here once more we see the wise discern- ment of Penn, who wrote to James Logan in 1701: " My eye, though not my heart, is upon Fairmount." This great area of more than three thousand four hundred acres, so easy of access to the city, has been kept in nearly its natural state. Its wooded hills and vales on each side of the Schuylkill River are traversed by well kept roads and bridle paths which lead out into the country surrounding the city so famous for its beauty as a residential section. In the early days many important people had their country houses on the bluffs overlooking a lovely expanse of river and there retired from the city during the summer months. These fine old Colonial mansions have fortunately been preserved through their acquisition by the City for Fair- mount Park. A visit to one of them will make one under- stand the lure of the place for the old worthies. The two finest, perhaps, are Mount Pleasant, built by Captain John Macpherson in 1761, and Woodford, built by Judge
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FAIRMOUNT WATER WORKS AND BOAT HOUSE ROW AT THE PRESENT DAY
Birch, 1799 GAOL AT SIXTH AND WALNUT STREETS
THE WISSAHICKON CREEK AT VALLEY GREEN, 1917
THE SCHUYLKILL RIVER DRIVE FROM GIRARD AVENUE, 1917
SQUARES AND PARKS
William Coleman about 1756. Mount Pleasant is a coun- try seat of baronial aspect and its occupancy by General Benedict Arnold and his bride, Peggy Shippen, gives it a romantic interest beyond others. Woodford had for its guests important people also and never so many as when Rebecca Franks, a famous belle, lived there. There is, of course, Ormiston, Laurel Hill, Belmont and Glen Fern. Belmont is hardly recognizable as the residence of the cele- brated wit and jurist, Judge Richard Peters, first Secre- tary of War in the young republic. Glen Fern, away up the Wissahickon Valley, was the home of Thomas Livezey and nestled in a romantic glen by the banks of the stream. It is now used as the home of the Valley Green Canoe Club.
Indeed at one time elegant country seats crowned nearly every hill along the river in what is now Fairmount Park and the well recorded James in Virginia could not have sur- passed the loveliness and charm of the Schuylkill winding among rolling highlands on whose summits spacious homes of comely dignity sheltered some of the most distinguished citizens of the metropolis of the Colonies. The upper Wissahickon is still a sylvan wilderness and its romantic scenery beyond the description of the printed word. Auto- mobiles are still refused entrance to its sacred precincts and one may walk or ride along the creek between its wooded slopes and imagine the city and its turmoil far away.
Fairmount Park grew out of purchases for the enlarge- ment of the water works which were suggested by Fred- erick Graff, the engineer of the City Water Works, and John Davis in 1810. The plan grew in popularity and was achieved by successive gifts and purchases. In 1812 Councils passed an ordinance selecting Morris Hill for the
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new reservoir and water works. The committee to carry out the project was fortunately composed of men of taste and William Rush, the sculptor, contributed figures to beautify the Fairmount Gardens which were opened in 1825 and became the show place of the city. All strangers were taken to Fairmount Water Works, which were then only five acres in extent but which presented much the same appearance as they do to-day. The ordinance of Councils creating the Fairmount Park Commission to take over the various tracts secured by gift or purchase was passed in 1867. The great Centennial Exhibition of 1876 was held in Fairmount Park and did much to encourage good taste in this country. Nothing of the kind had ever been held on the Continent before and many people came from all over the country and from abroad to see it.
Many newer parks and squares have been added to the City's riches in later years and form now a total of more than six thousand acres. Many more acres are on the City Plan and the spirit of the people is fortunately toward this development of health and joy and light.
THEATRES
N John Smith's manuscript Journal is the following entry under date of Sixth Month, 22d, 1749:
" Joseph Morris and I happened in at Peacock Bigger's and drank tea there, and his daughter being one of the company who were going to hear the tragedy of 'Cato' acted, it occasioned some conversation, in which I expressed my sorrow that anything of the kind was encouraged."
From whence this little troop of players came and just where they performed is not known but they gave to Phila- delphia the honour of seeing the first Shakespearean repre- sentation in America. They were managed by Murray and Kean and must have found encouragement, for they remained until 1750, as is shown by a minute of the Com- mon Council on the 8th of January of that year as follows:
" The Recorder reported that certain persons had lately taken upon them to act plays in this City, and, as he was informed, intended to make a frequent practice thereof, which, it was to be feared, would be attended by very mischievous effects, such as the encouragement of idleness and drawing great sums of money from weak and inconsiderate persons, who are apt to be fond of that kind of entertainment, though the performance be ever so mean and contemptible. Whereupon the Board unanimously requested the magistrates to take the most effectual measures for suppressing this disorder, by sending for the actors and binding them to their good behaviour, or by such other means as they should think proper."
And so the players moved on to New York, where they played for over a year, and Philadelphia saw no more plays until Lewis Hallam's English Company came in 1754, giving their first performance in the large brick ware- house of William Plumsted, situated in King or Water 8 113
EARLY PHILADELPHIA
Street between Pine and Lombard, where the first company is thought to have played. The house extended through to Front Street on which there was an entrance by means of stairs placed on the outside of the building. The visit of these players was not arranged without opposition and much printed argument on both sides appeared. Governor Hamilton at last granted the license upon the recommen- dation of a number of gentlemen of influence and the com- pany began after distributing in the streets a pamphlet setting forth the harmlessness of their occupation and in- tending to stem the tide of popular disapprobation. Its imposing title was as follows:
" Extracts of Several Treatises, Wrote by the Prince of Conti, With the Sentiments of the Fathers, And some of the decrees of the Councils, Concerning of Stage Plays. Recommended to the Perusal, and Serious Consideration of the Professors, of Chris- tianity, in the City of Philadelphia."
A better argument on behalf of the players was the alacrity with which they gave the proceeds of one night's performance to the Charity School of the newly founded Academy, now the University of Pennsylvania. General interest, however, was not awakened, as few people cared anything about the actor's art. Science was the fashion and young men of education were interested in Franklin and his discoveries and in the lectures of Professor Kinnersley on electricity. Indeed, it was not until the English Army of occupation brought gay and graceless days to the City that science and lectures played a scantier part.
The opening of Hallam's Company was "The Fair
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THEATRES
Penitent," followed by a farce, " Miss in her Teens," played before a full house. The temporary theatre was neatly fitted up with the glittering motto, " Totius mundus agit histrionem " over the stage. The only unpleasant occurrence was the summary ejection of an unfriendly opponent from the pit. Thirty performances were given and the theatre closed on the 24th of June, after a brilliant and profitable season. Hallam's Company came back to Philadelphia in 1759 and a theatre was built for them at Cedar or South and Vernon Streets, on Society Hill, just outside the town limits. Religious organizations protested and the Assembly passed a bill prohibiting plays, but the King repealed it and the theatre was opened June 25, 1759. The Company was careful to avoid announcements that would displease and generally promised a harmless " Con- cert of Music," a moral "Dialogue on the Vice of Gam- bling," or any other vice suitable for the occasion. The word " play " was always avoided and " Hamlet " and "Jane Shore " are described as " moral and instructive Tales."
Electricity and rectitude triumphed, however, and the Company only played one season in the little house.
An insidious germ was working in the College and in 1757 Francis Hopkinson tells us that "Ever since the Foundation of the College and Academy in this City the Improvement of the Youth in Oratory and correct Speak- ing, has always been considered as an essential Branch of their Education." He tells us of the success that has attended the oratorical exercises, the youth having " de- livered proper Speeches " and acted parts before large audiences. The development was rapid and soon a whole dramatic piece was demanded. This laudable ambition was encouraged by the Professors as an easier method of teaching pronunciation. They had some difficulty, we
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find, in choosing an " English Performance " which would include a large number of speakers, exalt the sentiments, engage the passions and better the hearts of the youth. The "Masque of Alfred," by Mr. Thompson and Mr. Mallet was chosen, representing the redemption of Eng- land from the cruelties of the Danish invasion and was adapted by Mr. Hopkinson so as to eliminate the female parts and put their words into other mouths. Hymns, " Pieces of Music " and A Prologue and Epilogue were added by Mr. Hopkinson and the whole presented several times during the Christmas Holidays of 1756 in one of the apartments of the College " as an Oratorical Exercise, by a Sett of young Gentlemen." Mr. Hopkinson says the town was entertained, there were crowded, discerning and applauding audiences and each speaker, young and old, " acquired Honor in his Part." It was repeated in Janu- ary, 1757, before Lord Loudon and the Governors of sev- eral of the Colonies who were in Philadelphia consulting upon plans for common resistance to the Indians who were then ravaging the western frontiers.
It was this performance which inspired Thomas Godfrey, Jr., to write the first American play ever publicly acted in the Colonies. It was a strictly moral drama en- titled the " Prince of Parthia," and was produced on the 24th of April, 1767, by Hallam's Company, who returned in 1766 to occupy a new theatre built for them at South and Apollo Streets and opened on the 12th of November in that year. This theatre was called the Southwark Theatre and Hallam was as much the soul of it as ever Garrick was of Drury Lane. His " American Company " performed in the Southwark Theatre during the winters of 1768, '69, '70, '72 and '73. During the last season the second original American drama ever performed on the stage-
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SOUTHWARK THEATRE, SOUTH AND APOLLO STREETS, 1766
764
THE WALNUT STREET THEATRE, AT NINTH STREET, 1811 The Oldest Existing Theatre in America
CHESTNUT STREET THEATRE ABOVE SIXTH
SECOND CHESTNUT STREET THEATRE, 1822
THEATRES
" The Conquest of Canada; or the Siege of Quebec "- was produced. Soldiers from the barracks and sailors from the King's ships in port gave great effect to the play.
Now came on the troublous times and Congress by resolution in 1774 discouraged all extravagance, dissipa- tion, shows, plays and expensive diversions, as well they might for the little country needed all its treasure and its energy in the tremendous crisis confronting it.
While the British Army occupied the City during 1777-78 the English officers gave all sorts of theatricals in the theatre and Philadelphians found out how delightful it was to be amused. The officers of General Howe's staff did the acting and gave the proceeds to the widows and orphans of the soldiers. Major André and Captain DeLancey were the comedians, scene-painters, costumers, and property men. The famous drop-curtain painted by André, representing a waterfall in a forest glade, is always mentioned in contemporary accounts and was used for years until lost in the burning of the Theatre in 1821. The Continental Army, not to be outdone, on its return in 1778, produced a company of actors whose names are now un- known but who gave some performances in the Southwark Theatre in September and October.
Congress soon renewed its restrictions and was backed up by the Pennsylvania Legislature so that we find no activity until 1785, when Hallam opened the Theatre for miscellaneous entertainments and singing which soon in- cluded parts of plays. The industrious and indefatigable Hallam persisted in finding subterfuges by which he and his players could evade the law and amuse the Philadel- phians. Returning in June, 1789, he opened the " Opera- House, Southwark," with a " concert, vocal and instru- mental," in which he boldly introduced " The Grateful
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Ward; or the Pupil in Love," and " The Poor Soldier," all for the relief of the American captives in Algiers!
Hallam's persistence and evasion of the law brought a crisis in 1789 when a petition signed by 1900 persons was presented to the Legislature asking for the repeal of the law. A remonstrance came at once headed by all the Protestant Ministers in the City and several elders of the Society of Friends. The friends of the theatre were none the less active and a committee consisting of Dr. Robert Bass, General Walter Stewart, Dr. John Redman, Major Moore, John Barclay, William Temple Franklin, Jacob Barge and William West acted for " The Dramatic Asso- ciation." Every means was used to ascertain public opin- ion and it was finally determined that 6000 citizens had signed the petition for the theatre and 4000 against it. The restrictions were accordingly repealed and licenses for three years authorized.
Hallam and Henry immediately opened the Southwark Theatre with " The Rivals " and " The Critic " followed, during the season, by four American plays. The Theatre was fashionable and the return of Congress insured a good attendance. Its popularity was greatly enhanced by the patronage of the President which is thus described:
" The last stage-box in the South Street Theatre was fitted up expressly for the reception of Gen. Washington. Over the front of the box was the United States coat of arms. Red drapery was gracefully festooned in the interior and about the exterior. The seats and front were cushioned. Mr. Wignell, in a full dress of black, hair powdered and adjusted to the formal fashion of the day, with two silver candlesticks and wax candles, would thus await the General's arrival at the box-door entrance, and, with great refinement of address and courtly manners, con- duct this best of public men and suite to his box. A guard of the military attended. A soldier was generally posted at each stage-
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door, and four were posted in the gallery, assisted by the high constable of the City and other police officers, to preserve some- thing like decorum among the sons of social liberty . . "
This was surely not too much dignity or care to take of so great a man and so exalted a position and we may hope that the " Sons of Social Liberty " did not insist upon sharing the box.
The year 1794 was the last season for the old theatre as a place of fashion, as the building was outdone in accommodations by the new Chestnut Street Theatre. A forbidding appearance within and without, oil lamps with- out glasses and pillars were obstacles which could not com- pete with the improvements of the new house, which had two rows of boxes and a gallery above, supported by fluted Corinthian columns highly gilt with a crimson ribbon twisted from base to capital. The tops of the boxes were decorated with crimson drapery and the panels were of rose colour, adorned with gilding. The old theatre struggled along until the last performance there on the 7th of June, 1817, when Higgins and Barnard opened it for a few nights in the tragedy of " Manuel." It was destroyed by fire on the 9th of May, 1821, but its walls remained to house a distillery until a few years ago.
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