628 



PHILADELPHIA. 



fare. Walnut, Locust, Spruce, and Pine Streets 

 succeed each other on the south, and are occu- 

 pied mainly by wealthy residents ; farther 

 southward are Lombard, South, Shippen, Fitz- 

 water, . Christian, and Washington Streets. 

 North of Market there are, first, Arch, Eace, 

 and Vine, leading and wealthy streets ; next 

 Oallowhill, Spring Garden, and Green. The 

 banking and financial centre is in Third and 

 Chestnut Streets ; the dry-goods and other job- 

 bing trade in Third and Market ; the commis- 

 sion-houses in Front and Chestnut ; the ship- 

 ping and provision trade on Water Street and 

 Delaware Avenue; the newspaper-offices on 

 Third, Chestnut, and Seventh Streets. The 

 style of building has always been principally of 

 brick, the vicinity producing very superior 

 pressed brick at a low cost. Numbers of brick 

 buildings remain standing and in good preser- 

 vation which were erected before 1760 ; those 

 built since 1800 have marble facings and mar- 

 ble steps, and are remarkably uniform in height 

 and general character. All are conspicuous for 

 neatness and durability ; even the cheaply-built 

 blocks and suburban streets intended for la- 

 borers' residences are distinguished for neat- 



ness, and differ externally from those of the 

 wealthier class more in size than anything else. 

 Tenement-houses are almost unknown. This is 

 largely due to the building and loan associations, 

 monetary institutions peculiar to Philadelphia. 

 For the best residences marble and brown-stone 

 have been much used. An improved style ot 

 cheaper dwellings, recently introduced, may be 

 seen in Madison Square and St. Alban's Place 

 near the Schuylkill, just south of the original 

 city. Here two rows of houses face each other 

 across a wide street, through the middle ot 

 which stretches a park adorned with flowers 

 and fountains, with ample room on either side 

 for a walk or play-ground for children. These 

 streets are not designed for carriages, alleys 

 in the rear of the houses being provided for 

 teams. The houses are two stories high, and 

 in St. Alban's Place are surmounted with 

 Mansard roofs. 



The chief business streets are now occu- 

 pied with a large number of costly and su- 

 perior buildings of marble, granite, iron, and 

 sandstone. The Custom-House and Sub-Treas- 

 ury, formerly the second United States Bank, 

 stands on the south side of Chestnut Street, 



PUBLIC LEDGER BUILDING. 



between Fourth and Fifth Streets. It is of 

 marble, and was completed in 1824, at a cost 

 of $500,000 ; it has two fronts, one on Chest- 

 nut and the other on Library Street, each or- 

 namented with eight fluted Doric columns sup- 

 porting a heavy entablature. The United States 

 Mint, of brick with marble facings, is in Chest- 

 nut above Thirteenth Street; it is of the Ionic 

 order, and was erected in 1829. The Post- 

 Office, of white marble, is just above the Cus- 

 tom-House. A new building for this use is in 

 course of construction at the corner of Ninth 

 and Chestnut Streets, which will also be occu- 

 pied by the United States Courts and other Gov- 

 ernment offices. It is to be of granite, in the 

 French Kenaissance style, four stories high, with 



an iron dome. The length is to be 428 feet, 

 depth 152 feet, height to top of main cornice 90 

 feet, to top of dome 184 feet. The Merchants' 

 Exchange is a fine structure of marble, with an 

 ornamental front on Dock Street, a semicircu- 

 lar colonnade of eight pillars, and a spacious ro- 

 tunda within, on that side. The Commercial 

 Exchange, built in 1870 of brown-stone in the 

 Roman-Gothic style, is in Second Street south 

 of Chestnut, on the site of the " Slate-Roof 

 House," once the residence of William Penn. In 

 Broad Street, north of Pine, is Horticultural 

 Hall, a handsome building, in which the Penn- 

 sylvania Horticultural Society holds its annual 

 fairs. The six-story publishing-house of J. B. 

 Lippincott & Co., in Market Street, above Sev- 



