Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/176

 148 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [August, WEST PHILADELPHIA, By Henry M. Boyd.* AMBITIOUS enterprise is achiev- ing- great results in West Phila- delphia. Land, that was very lately occupied by pasture and cornfields, is now teeming with the busy industry of hundreds of mechanics ; and dwellings of superior size and style are rising up, as if by enchantment. The building of the Chestnut street bridge brought all the land west of the Schuylkill, between Arch and Spruce streets, for several miles back, into immediate availability ; and that large extent of unimproved property rapidly enhanced in value. Sagacious builders recognizing the fact, that property on the line of the Chest- nut and Walnut street Passenger Rail- way, west of the Schuylkill, is nearer the business centres of our city, than any other, north of Green street, have inaug- urated an immense improvement, by building one hundred and thirty-six ele- gant dwellings, twenty-seven of them at Thirty-fourth and Chestnut, now about being roofed in, and costing from $12,000 to $18,000 each. Seventy-six of them, on Sansom street, between Thirty- second and Thirty-third streets, now in process of erection, with brown stone fronts and French roofs, containing ten rooms and every modern convenience ; and thirty-three first-class, large houses to be built, on the south side of Chest- nut street between Thirty-second and Thirty-third streets, of which a cut of the plan adopted by the writer and builder will appear in the third number of this book. All these improvements will vie with any in Philadelphia, for style of architecture, beauty of design, and excellence of finish The streets in West Philadelphia are kept of a greater width than any east of the Schuylkill. Chestnut street is one hundred feet wide, and the other streets are not less than sixty feet wide. In a very short time, these improvements will be finished, and the streets handsomely ornamented with fine shade-trees, offering a place of resi- dence not inferior to any in our city. The location is high and healthy, as the grade rises rapidly all the way from the Schuylkill to Thirty-ninth street, form- ing excellent drainage, a matter of first importance. Large sewers are now being constructed through the streets, adjacent to these improvements. The soil is a deep bed of gravel, insuring dry cellars and firm foundations. The Chest- nut and Walnut street Passenger Rail- way run cars every three minutes past the property, while the Pennsylvania Cen- tral, New York, Baltimore, West Chester and Media, and Reading railroad depots are very convenient. In fact, West Philadelphia is not a remote suburb ; but really is immediately in the city, within the influence of every throb, aris- ing from the pulsation of its business centre. The Schuylkill river front is assuming vast importance. Wharves are being built and occupied for merchandise and material of every kind. Coal, oil, lumber and stone are demanding the attention of capitalists. Full-rigged vessels, with their masts touching the parapets of the south side of Chestnut street bridge, may be seen loading and unloading every day. The scene presented, look- ing south from the bridge, must con- vince the reflecting mind, that an im- mense business is rapidly centring there ; and, looking from the crowded east side, the observer's eye will rest upon the now comparatively vacant west bank ; and he will find himself uncon- sciously — wonderingly — reasoning, why
 * Builder, No. 146 South Fourth street, Philadelphia.