Existing comment:
A Street Scene in the Capital City
The building at the corner of Library Street is a quaint and substantial example of the old style architecture where substance and solidity were objects of the first importance.
-- Public Ledger, April 20, 1887
Close by the Pennsylvania State House and other important government buildings were vibrant neighborhoods which mixed the elegant with the mundane.
This historic print depicts the street in front of you in 1799, at the close of the decade when Philadelphia was the capital of the United States. Side by side with the stately public buildings and the brick houses of the wealthy were the small wooden homes of the working class. Next to Library Hall stood the unpainted shanty of a craftsman.
None of the original buildings in the drawing survive. Library Hall, with the statue of Franklin above the door has been reconstructed. |