PHILADELPHIA. 



629 



enth, and the building erected by Mr. George "W. 

 Childs for the Public Ledger, on the corner of 

 Sixth and Chestnut Streets, of brown-stone, 

 live stories high, with Mansard roof, are note- 

 worthy structures. The building of the Ameri- 

 can Sunday-School Union, erected in 1854, is in 

 Chestnut between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets. 

 Here are the headquarters of the mission-work 

 of the Union, and here its publication business 

 is carried on. Nearly opposite the Mint is the 

 handsome new building of the Presbyterian 

 Board of Publication. Near each other in 

 Fourth Street, not far from Walnut, are the 

 offices of the Pennsylvania and the Philadel- 

 phia & Reading Railroad Companies. The 

 former, built in 187l-'72, is a spacious edifice 

 of brick, with an elegant front of Quincy 

 granite. The latter is a handsome building, 

 enlarged and improved in 1871. In Third 

 Street, near the former, is the spacious build- 

 ing of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. 

 The new Masonic Temple is on the corner of 



MASONIC TEMPLE. 



Broad and Filbert Streets ; it is built of granite 

 in the Norman style, and is 150 feet broad by 

 250 feet in length, the sides being 90 feet above 

 the pavement, with a tower at one corner 230 

 feet high. The temple is richly ornamented, 

 and contains several large halls finished in 

 various styles of architecture Corinthian, 

 Doric, Egyptian, Ionic, Oriental, etc. The 

 Union League Club-House, at the corner of 

 Broad and Sansom Streets, was built in 1865 ; 

 it is of brick, in the French Renaissance style, 

 with facades of granite, brick, and brown- 

 stone. Its cost, including furniture, was about 

 $200,000. The club was formed toward the 

 close of 1862, for the purpose of aiding the 

 Federal cause in the civil war. The Reform 



Club has a fine marble-front building in Chest- 

 nut, near Sixteenth Street, handsomely fur- 

 nished. The Girard National Bank (built in 

 1795-' 98 for the first United States Bank) 

 in Third Street, the building of the Fidelity 

 Insurance, Trust & Safe Deposit Company, 

 and the Farmers' & Mechanics' National 

 Bank in Chestnut Street, of marble ; the new 

 building of the Provident Life & Trust Com- 

 pany in Fourth Street, of iron; the Trades- 

 man's National Bank in Third Street, the 

 Philadelphia National Bank, and the Penn- 

 sylvania Life Insurance & Trust Company's 

 building, in Chestnut Street, of granite ; and 

 the Bank of North America, in Chestnut 

 Street, of brown-stone, are handsome struct- 

 ures. The Bank of North America, chartered 

 by Congress in 1781, was the first bank estab- 

 lished in the United States. 



The largest hotel is the Continental, in 

 Chestnut Street, with fronts also on Ninth 

 and Sansom Streets. It was opened in 1860, 

 is six stories high, and covers 41,536 square 

 feet. The Chestnut Street front is of Albert 

 and Pictou sandstone, and the others of fine 

 pressed brick. On the opposite side of Chest- 

 nut Street is the Girard House, and in Broad 

 Street near Chestnut, the La Pierre House; 

 both are fine architectural structures, built 

 in part of brown-stone. The Colonnade Ho- 

 tel, recently erected on the corner of Fifteenth 

 and Chestnut Streets, is six stories high, with 

 a Mansard roof. Other hotels are the Mer- 

 chants', in Fourth Street; theBingham House, 

 in Market Street; the St. Cloud, in Arch 

 Street ; the Irving House, in Walnut Street ; 

 the American, Guy's, the Market House, the 

 St. Lawrence, and the Washington House, in 

 Chestnut Street. Very many hotels exist in 

 various parts of the city, with the signs, arms, 

 and insignia of Revolutionary times. 



The " Old Swedes' " Church, built in 1700, 

 is the oldest church edifice in the city. It 

 is of brick, and stands in an ancient ceme- 

 tery, fronting on fewanson Street near Chris- 

 tian. In the cemetery is the tomb of Wil- 

 son, the ornithologist. Christ Church (Epis- 

 copal), in Second Street near Market, begun 

 in 1727, is still a fine building and in per- 

 fect preservation. The spire is 196 feet high, 

 and contains a chime of bells cast in London in 

 1754. The graveyard on the corner of Fifth 

 and Arch Streets contains the remains of 

 Franklin. St. Peter's Church (Episcopal), in 

 Third and Pine Streets, built in 1758-'61, has 

 a tower containing a chime of bells. In the 

 churchyard is a monument to Commodore De- 

 catur. The Friends' Meeting-House, secluded 

 in a broad graveyard, in Arch Street near 

 Third, deserves mention ; it was built in 1808. 

 Among Episcopal churches, St. Mark's, in the 

 later or English-Gothic style, in Sixteenth and 

 Locust Streets ; the Church of the Holy Trin- 

 ity, in the Norman style, in Nineteenth and 

 Walnut Streets; and the Church of the Incar- 

 nation, in Broad and Jefferson Streets, are fine 



