Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/404

 390 PHILADELPHIA street. The line of street lights from the S. W. corner of the gas mains at Darby, on the border of West Philadelphia, to the N. E. corner, near Holmesburg, is about 13m. Chestnut street, the first E. and W. street S. of Market, is the fashionable thoroughfare. "Walnut, Locust, Spruce, and Pine streets succeed each other on the south, and are occupied mainly by wealthy residents; further southward are Lombard, South, Shippen, Fitzwater, Christian, and Washington streets. N. of Market there are, first, Arch, Race, and Vine, leading and weal- thy streets; next Callowhill, Spring Garden, and Green. The banking and financial centre is in 3d and Chestnut streets ; the dry goods and other jobbing trade in 3d and Market; the commission houses in Front and Chestnut ; the shipping and provision trade on Water street and Delaware avenue; the newspaper offices on 3d, Chest-nut, and 7th streets. The style of building has always been principally of brick, the vicinity pro- ducing very superior pressed brick at a low cost. Numbers of brick buildings remain stand- ing and in good preserva- tion which were erected before 1760; those built since 1800 have marble facings and marble steps, and are remarkably uni- form in height and gen- eral character. All are conspicuous for neatness and durability ; even the cheaply built blocks and suburban streets intend- ed for laborers' resi- dences are distinguished for neatness, and differ externally from those of the wealthier class more in size than in anything else. Tenement nouses are almost unknown. This is largely due to the building and loan associations, monetary insti- tutions peculiar to Philadelphia. For the best residences marble and brown stone have been much used. An improved style of cheaper dwellings, recently introduced, may be seen in Madison square and St. Alban's place near the Schuylkill, just S. of the original city. Here two rows of houses face each other across a wide street, through the middle of 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 by a Mansard roof. The chief business streets are now occupied with a large number of costly and superior buildings of marble, granite, iron, and sandstone. The custom house and sub- treasury, formerly the second United States bank, stands on the S. side of Chestnut street, between 4th and 5th streets. It is of marble, and was completed in 1824, at a cost of $500,- 000 ; it has two fronts, one on Chestnut and the other on Library street, each ornamented with eight fluted Doric columns supporting a heavy entablature. The United States mint, of brick with marble facings, is in Chestnut above 13th street; it is of the Ionic order, and was erected in 1829. The post office, of white marble, is just above the custom house. A new building for this use is in course of construction at the corner of 9th and Chest- nut streets, which will also be occupied by the United States courts and other government offices. It is to be of granite in the French renaissance style, four stories high, with an iron dome. The length is to be 428 ft., depth 152 ft., height to top of main cornice 90 ft., to top of dome 184 ft. The merchants' exchange ifilitr Public Ledger Building. is a fine structure of marble, with an ornamen- tal front on Dock street, a semicircular colon- nade of eight pillars, and a spacious rotunda within, on that side. The commercial exchange, built in 1870 of brown stone in the Roman- Gothic style, is in 2d street S. of Chestnut, on the site of the "slate-roof house," once the residence of William Penn. In Broad street, N". of Pine, is horticultural hall, a handsome building, in which the Pennsylvania horticul- tural society holds its annual fairs. The six- story publishing house of J. B. Lippincott and co., in Market street above 7th, and the building erected by Mr. George W. Childs for the "Public Ledger," on the corner of 6th and Chestnut streets, of brown stone, five stories high with Mansard roof, are notewor- thy structures. The building of the American Sunday school union, erected in 1854, is in Chestnut between llth and 12th streets. Here are the headquarters of the mission work of