|
|
|
Flashback: 1894 Harper's describes North Philly as the "most beautiful section" of city
It goes on to call Kensington "paradise," where "every laboring man is a landed proprietor and every woman the mistress of her own house."
Flashback: 1894 Harper's describes North Philly as the "most beautiful section" of city
A 1894 Harper's magazine article that City Paper discovered (via Philly Speaks) describes North Philly as "by far the largest and most beautiful section of Penn's city" and "like Chicago on a very small scale, with the important advantage that it is much cleaner." It goes on to call Kensington "paradise," where "every laboring man is a landed proprietor and every woman the mistress of her own house," and nicknames Philadelphia "The City of Homes."
You can read an original clip of the piece here. Or here:
"North Philadelphia, which was referred to in the early part of this article as New Philadelphia, is by far the largest and most beautiful section of Penn's city, but it is for the most part of very recent date, and it has, I believe, no history.
I can describe it generally no better than to say that it is like Chicago on a very small scale, with the important advantage that it is much cleaner. The men who have made money in North Philadelphia have, for the most part, preferred to there live out their lives and have, with few exceptions, shown a desire to be accounted members of the society of old Philadelphia. They have built beautiful homes and great blocks of massive business houses. They have gone away from their own town and brought back all those things which give a home individuality and beauty.
There may be much that is showy and ostentatious in this new town, but its display is not of tinsel. In their homes, as in their offices and places of amusement, they have spent money with a lavish hand, and they have done it wisely.
North Broad Street has its own society and its own amusements. Theatrical companies move from the theatres of old Philadelphia to those of the new town with the knowledge that they will play to as different a community as if they had taken a railway journey of many hours. And yet the theatres may not be ten blocks apart. It is simply because they are on the opposite sides of that great dividing line — Market Street.
Still further north of this modern city lies Kensington, the paradise of small houses where every laboring man is a landed proprietor and every woman the mistress of her own house. There are miles and miles of these little brick homes, encircling the old town on all sides, with their white facings and marble steps. Here is the first cause of the prosperity, the vast magnitude, and, above all, the health and happiness of this great manufacturing city, in which the skilled laborer with small pay must necessarily play so important a part. Here also is to be found the inspiration for that name which so aptly tells the secret of the Philadelphian's love for his Philadelphia — 'The City of Homes.'"
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
