adjoined by the Bowling Green Building (sixteen stories), designed by
English architects. Other conspicuous business buildings in the lower
part of Broadway are the large Welles and Standard Oil Co. Buildings,
Nos. 18, 26, the 42 Broadway Building, twenty stories, and Aldrich
Court, on the site of the first habitation of white men on Manhattan
Island. At Nos. 64-68 is the Manhattan Life Insurance Co., the tower of
which is three hundred and sixty feet high. To the left, at the corner
of Rector Street, is the imposing Empire Building, twenty stories, the
hall of which forms a busy thoroughfare between Broadway and the Rector
Street “L” station.
[Illustration: =FAR-FAMED BROADWAY AT NIGHT=]
Wall Street diverging from Broadway to the right, at this point, is the
great financial street of New York, the financial barometer of the
country. On this street stands the United States Sub-Treasury, a marble
structure with a Doric portico, occupying the site of the old Federal
Hall, in which the first United States Congress assembled, and
Washington was inaugurated as President; the Drexel Building, a white
marble structure in the Renaissance style, occupied by J. Pierpont
Morgan & Co.; the National City Bank, largest in the country, occupying
the old Custom House.
Trinity Church, on the west side of Broadway, is a handsome Gothic
edifice of brown stone, with a spire two hundred and eighty-five feet
high. The present building dates from 1839-1846, but occupies the site
of a church of 1696. The church owns property to the value of at least
twenty million dollars used in the support of several subsidiary
churches and numerous charities.
Just above Trinity Church are the enormous Trinity and United States
Realty buildings, two dignified structures, the former with an admirable
facade in a modified Gothic style, and nearly opposite are the Union
Trust Co. and the twenty-three story building of the American Surety
Co., the latter containing the United States Weather Bureau (“Old
Probabilities”). On the same side, between Pine Street and Cedar Street,
is the office of the Equitable Life Insurance Co.
The block to the left, between Liberty Street and Cortland Street, is
occupied by the buildings of the Singer Manufacturing Co., the City
Realty Co., and the City Investing Co. The tower of the Singer Building,
with its forty-one stories, rises to a height of six hundred and twelve
feet. Between Broadway and Park Row is the Post Office, a large
Renaissance building.
City Hall, containing the headquarters of the Mayor of Greater New York
and other municipal authorities, is a well-proportioned building of
marble in the Italian style, with a central portico, two projecting
wings, and a cupola clock tower.
To the north of the City Hall is the Court House, a large building of
white marble, with its principal entrance, garnished with lofty
Corinthian columns, facing Chambers Street. The interior, which contains
the State Courts and several municipal offices, is well fitted up. This
building, one of the “Tweed ring” structures, is said to have cost
twelve million dollars. Opposite the Court House, in Chambers Street,
are various City Offices. These include the new Register Office or Hall
of Records, a handsome building in the French Renaissance style, erected
at a cost of six million dollars and faced with granite. The facade is
adorned with sculptures, and the interior is also elaborately decorated.
To the southwest of the City Hall, facing Broadway, is a statue of
Nathan Hale.
Park Row, bounding the southeast side of the City Hall Park, contains
the offices of many of the principal New York newspapers, the Pulitzer
Building, with the World office, Tribune Building, New York Press, and
Park Row Building with its lofty towers. Opposite the newspaper offices,
in Printing House Square, is a bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin, and
in front of the Tribune Building is a seated bronze figure of its famous
founder, Horace Greeley.
Beyond Astor Place, Broadway passes the large building occupied by John
Wanamaker, but originally erected for A. T. Stewart & Co. With its new
annexes, it is heralded as the largest department store in the world.
Broadway now inclines to the left. At the bend rises Grace Church,
which, with the adjoining rectory, chantry, and church-house, forms one
of the most attractive ecclesiastical groups in New York. The church is
of white limestone and has a lofty marble spire. The interior is
well-proportioned, and all the windows contain stained glass.
At Fourteenth Street Broadway reaches Union Square, which is beautified
with pleasure grounds, statues, and an ornamental fountain. At the
corner of East Sixteenth Street is the massive office building of the
Bank of Metropolis. Near the southeast corner is a good equestrian
statue of Washington, in the center of the south side is a bronze
statue of Lafayette, in the southwest corner is a statue of Abraham
Lincoln, and on the west side is the James Fountain.
Broadway, between Union Square and Madison Square, is one of the chief
shopping-resorts of New York, containing many fine stores for the sale
of furniture, dry goods, etc. At Twenty-third Street it intersects Fifth
Avenue and at the point of intersection stands the daring Fuller
Building, generally known as the “Flat-iron Building” on account of its
strange triangular shape. It is two hundred and ninety feet high, has
twenty stories, and cost four million dollars.
Broadway now skirts the west side of Madison Square, a prettily laid out
public garden, containing a bronze statue of Admiral Farragut, an
obelisk to the memory of General Worth, a statue of Roscoe Conkling, a
statue of President Arthur, and a statue of William H. Seward. The
statue of Farragut is among the finest in New York, and the imaginative
treatment of the pedestal is very beautiful. On the west side of the
square is the new Fifth Avenue Building.
On the east side is the new Appellate Court House, a handsome building,
perhaps somewhat overloaded with ornamentation.
On the east side of the square, between Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth
Streets, is the enormous building of the Metropolitan Life Insurance
Co., the tower of which has fifty stories and reaches a height of six
hundred and ninety-three feet. Two elevators run to a height of five
hundred and forty-four feet. Adjacent is the Madison Square Presbyterian
Church, with its massive dome. At the southeast corner of Twenty-sixth
Street stands the Manhattan Club, and at the northeast corner is the
huge Madison Square Garden, with its Moorish tower capped by a fine
statue of Diana.
The Herald Office, a Venetian palace, stands at Broadway and
Thirty-fifth Street, in Herald Square.
West of Herald Square, at Seventh Avenue and Thirty-third Street, is the
magnificent station of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, covering an
area four hundred and fifty by one thousand eight hundred feet, the
largest structure of the kind in the world, connected by tunnels under
the Hudson River with New Jersey, and under the East River with Long
Island. The tracks are forty feet below the level of the city streets.
The Metropolitan Opera House, opened in 1883 and rebuilt ten years
later, after a fire, stands between Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Streets.
At Forty-second Street and Broadway is the Times Building, an ornamental
structure sixteen stories high, upon a triangle of ground.
To the east of Madison Avenue is the Grand Central Station, the terminus
of the New York Central, the New York, New Haven and Hartford, and the
Harlem Railways. Opposite the station is the Belmont Hotel, twenty-two
stories high.
The corner at Broadway and Forty-second Street is the recent heart of
the theatrical and hotel district, for clustered there are a dozen
hotels, the immense Astor and Knickerbocker among them, and there are
twenty theaters within half a mile, six of them almost side by side on
Forty-second Street.
Beyond Times Square, Broadway is rather uninteresting, but there are
some lofty specimens of apartment houses or French flats farther up.
From Forty-fifth Street on, Broadway is largely occupied by automobile
stores and garages. At the corner of Fifty-sixth Street is the new
Broadway Tabernacle and at Fifty-ninth Street Broadway reaches the
southwest corner of Central Park and intersects Eighth Avenue.
At the intersection, the so-called Circle, stands the Columbus Monument
by Gaetano Russo, erected in 1892, and consisting of a tall shaft
surmounted by a marble statue, in all seventy-seven feet high. Beyond
Seventy-eighth Street, Broadway, now a wide street with rows of trees,
is usually known as the Boulevard. From One Hundred and Eighth Street to
One Hundred and Sixty-second Street it coincides with Eleventh Avenue,
at One Hundred and Sixteenth Street it passes Columbia University, and
from One Hundred and Sixty-second Street it, as Kingsbridge Road, runs
on to Yonkers.
Fifth Avenue, the chief street in New York from the standpoint of wealth
and fashion, begins at Washington Square to the north of West Fourth
Street and a little to the west of Broadway, and runs north to the
Harlem River, a distance of six miles. Below Forty-seventh Street the
Avenue has now been largely invaded by shops, tall office buildings, and
hotels. The avenue has been kept sacred from the marring touch of the
street railway or the elevated railroad, and is traversed by a line of
motor omnibuses. The avenue is wide and well-paved, and many of the
buildings are of brown sandstone. On a fine afternoon Fifth Avenue is
alive with carriages and horsemen on their way to and from Central Park
and it is, perhaps, seen at its best on a fine Sunday.
At Twenty-third Street the Avenue intersects Broadway and skirts Madison
Square. To the right is the Flat-iron Building. At Twenty-sixth Street
is the Café Martin.
The whole block between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Streets, to the
left, is occupied by the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, a huge double building
of red brick and sandstone in a German Renaissance style. The
restaurants and other large halls in the interior are freely adorned
with mural paintings by American artists.
The Union League Club, the chief Republican club of New York, is a
handsome and substantial building at the corner of Thirty-ninth Street.
Between Fortieth Street and Forty-second Street, to the left, on the
site of the old reservoir of the Croton Aqueduct, stands the New York
Public Library, a very dignified and imposing structure of white marble,
built at a cost of ten million dollars.
A little to the east of this point, in Forty-second Street, is the Grand
Central Station already referred to. At the southeast corner of
Forty-second Street rises the tasteful Columbia Bank. The Temple
Emanu-El, or chief synagogue of New York, at the corner of Forty-third
Street, is a fine specimen of Moorish architecture with a richly
decorated interior.
At the northeast corner of Forty-fourth Street is Delmonico’s
Restaurant, a substantial building with elaborate ornamentation; and at
the southwest corner is Sherry’s, a rival establishment, equally
patronized by the fashionable world.
The Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas (Dutch Reformed), at the corner of
Forty-eighth Street, is one of the handsomest and most elaborately
adorned ecclesiastical edifices in the city. It is in decorated Gothic
style and has a spire two hundred and seventy feet high. Just below
Fiftieth Street, on the right, is the Democratic Club, the stronghold of
Tammany and popularly known as “Tamany Hall” or the “Wigwam.”
Between Fiftieth and Fifty-first Streets, to the right, stands St.
Patrick’s Cathedral, an extensive building of white marble in the
decorated Gothic style, and the most important ecclesiastical edifice in
the United States. It is four hundred feet long, one hundred and
twenty-five feet wide and one hundred and twelve feet high, and the two
beautiful spires are three hundred and thirty-two feet high. The
building, which was designed by James Renwick, was erected in 1850-1879,
at a cost of three million five hundred thousand dollars.
Adjoining the cathedral, to the right, is the handsome Union Club, and
at the corner of Fifty-fourth Street is the University Club, adorned
with carvings of the seals of eighteen American colleges. The library
contains admirable mural paintings, adapted from Pinturicchio’s work in
the Borgia apartments of the Vatican. At the corner of Fifty-fifth
Street are the St. Regis Hotel and the Gotham Hotel. The Fifth Avenue
Presbyterian Church has one of the loftiest spires in the city.
Between Fifty-ninth and One Hundred and Tenth Streets Fifth Avenue
skirts the east side of Central Park, having buildings on one side only.
Among these, many of which are very handsome, is the Metropolitan Club.
At Fifty-ninth Street, where Fifth Avenue reaches Central Park, are
three huge hotels: the New Plaza, the Savoy, and the Netherland. In the
middle of the Plaza rises a bronze-gilt equestrian statue of General
Sherman, of fine artistic merit.
Mt. Sinai Hospital is between One Hundredth and One Hundred and First
Streets.
In Central Park, close to Fifth Avenue at Eighty-second Street, is the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
At One Hundred and Twentieth Street Fifth Avenue reaches Mount Morris
Square, the mound in the center of which commands good views. Beyond Mt.
Morris Square the Avenue is lined with handsome villas, some of them
surrounded by gardens. It ends in a district of tenements and small
shops at the Harlem River.
New York has many public parks, the finest of which is the Central Park.
The district in which it is located was once a wilderness of rocks and
swamps. Plans by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux were so
admirably carried out as to make the Central Park in ten years one of
the most beautiful pleasure-grounds in the world.
Of its eight hundred and forty acres, four hundred are wooded. There are
nine miles of drives, with thirty miles of paths, several lakes used for
boats in summer and for skating in winter, immense lawns for baseball,
tennis, etc., a zoological garden, and conservatories.
The chief promenade is the Mall, near the Fifth Avenue entrance, which
is lined with fine elms and contains several statues and groups of
sculpture, including Shakespeare, Scott, Burns, Halleck, Columbus, and
the Indian Hunter. From the Terrace, at the north end of the Mall,
flights of steps descend to the Bethesda Fountain and to the Lake, used
for boating in summer and skating in winter. The most extensive view in
the park is afforded by the Belvedere, which occupies the highest point
of the Ramble, to the north of the Lake.
The North Park, beyond the Croton Reservoir, has fewer artificial
features than the South Park, but its natural beauties are greater, and
the Harlem Mere, of twelve acres, is very picturesque. Near the
southeast corner of the park (nearest entrance in Sixty-fourth Street)
are the Old State Arsenal and a small Zoological Garden. On the west
side of the park is the American Museum of Natural History, and on the
east side is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. To the west of the latter
museum rises Cleopatra’s Needle, an Egyptian obelisk from Alexandria,
presented by Khedive Ismail Pasha to the City of New York in 1877. The
obelisk is of red syenite, is sixty-nine feet high and weighs two
hundred tons. Among the other monuments in the park are statues of
Webster, Bolivar, Hamilton and Morse, allegorical figures of Commerce
and the Pilgrim, and several busts and animal groups. Just outside the
park, beside the Sixth Avenue entrance, is a statue of Thorwaldsen.
In Manhattan Square, on the west side of Central Park, between
Seventy-seventh and Eighty-first Streets, stands the American Museum of
Natural History, which contains collections of natural history,
paleontology and ethnology.
[Illustration: =CENTRAL PARK TERRACE, NEW YORK=]
The Metropolitan Museum contains paintings, statuary, ivories,
tapestries, porcelains, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian antiquities.
Beginning with one structure erected by the city at a cost of five
hundred thousand dollars in 1880, it now comprises a series of buildings
which cost several million dollars. The collections of paintings,
sculpture, antiquities, porcelains, jades, armor, etc., are valued at
ten million dollars, most of which has been contributed by art lovers of
the city. In 1903 the institution received a bequest of six million
dollars from the well-known locomotive builder John T. Rogers, which has
enabled it to compete with other great museums.
At the corner of Morningside Avenue and One Hundred and Twelfth Street
is the new Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, designed by Heins
and La Farge, the corner-stone of which was laid in 1892, but the
building of which has not progressed very far. The Crypt, including the
curious Tiffany Chapel of mosaic glass, and the Belmont or St. Saviour’s
Chapel are the only portions completed. To the north of this, in the
block bounded by Morningside Avenue, Tenth Avenue, One Hundred and
Thirteenth Street, and One Hundred and Fourteenth Street, is the large
building of St. Luke’s Hospital, constructed of white marble and white
pressed brick, with a tower and clock over the main entrance.
To the northwest of this point, on a magnificent site extending from One
Hundred and Fourteenth Street to One Hundred and Twenty-first Street,
one hundred and ten to one hundred and fifty feet above the Hudson
River, are the new buildings of Columbia University, the oldest,
largest, and most important educational institution in New York. The
finest building in the center of the group is the Low Memorial Library,
built at a cost of one million dollars.
On a commanding site bounded by One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Street,
Amsterdam Avenue, One Hundred and Fortieth Street, and St. Nicholas
Terrace, are the imposing new buildings of the College of the City of
New York, erected in 1903-1908 by Mr. George B. Post, in the low-arch
Gothic style, at a cost of nearly five million dollars, and notable for
their uniformity of design and symmetry of grouping.
Among other educational institutions are the Normal College, at
Sixty-ninth Street and Park Avenue; the College of Physicians and
Surgeons; the New York University; Cooper Union, in which nearly all the
courses are free; St. John’s (Fordham), Manhattan, and St. Francis
Xavier, Roman Catholic colleges; the National Academy of Design; Society
of American Artists; the Art Students’ League; Chase Art School; New
York Institute of Music, and various theological schools.
Riverside Drive or Park, skirting the hills fronting on the Hudson from
Seventy-second Street to One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Street, affords
beautiful views of the river and is one of the most striking roads of
which any city can boast. It has become, perhaps, the most attractive
residential quarter of New York, though a great architectural
opportunity has been lost in the buildings that border it, these
consisting largely of apartment hotels, remarkable mainly for their
size.
Near the north end of the drive, on Claremont Heights (West One Hundred
and Twenty-second Street), is the Tomb of General Ulysses S. Grant, a
huge and solid mausoleum of white granite, erected in 1891-1897 at a
cost of six hundred thousand dollars, from a design by J. H. Duncan. The
monument consists of a lower story in the Doric style, ninety feet
square, surmounted by a cupola borne by Ionic columns. The total height
is one hundred and fifty feet.
John Verrazani, a Florentine navigator, was the first European who
entered New York Bay (1525). In 1614 the Dutch built a fort on Manhattan
Island, and in 1623 a permanent settlement was made, named Nieuw
Amsterdam. In 1674 Manhattan Island came into the possession of Great
Britain. At the Revolution the population was less than that of
Philadelphia or Boston. It was evacuated by the forces of Great Britain
in 1783, and from 1785 to 1789 was the seat of government of the United
States. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 gave a vast impetus to New
York City’s growth. The city by 1874 had extended beyond the Harlem
River and a part of Westchester County was incorporated in it. In 1896 a
law was passed consolidating with New York City, Brooklyn (Kings
County), Long Island City, Staten Island, Westchester, Flushing,
Newtown, Jamaica, and parts of Eastchester, Pelham, and Hempstead. By
the charter adopted in 1897 this territory was divided into the boroughs
of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Richmond, and Queens. A new charter was
secured in 1907 under which the mayor presides over the entire city,
with absolute power of appointment and removal of the heads of all city
departments. In 1911 a new charter was drawn up which evoked
considerable opposition, as it seemed to place still greater powers in
the hands of the mayor.
[Illustration: =GRANT’S TOMB, RIVERSIDE DRIVE, NEW YORK=]
=Philadelphia= (_fĭl-ȧ-del´fĭ-ȧ_), =Pa.= [The “Quaker City”; named from
two Greek words meaning “loved or friendly,” and “brother,” applied as
“brotherly love.” The Indian name of the locality was _Coaquannok_,
“grove of tall pine trees.”]
The chief city of Pennsylvania and the third city in population and
importance of the United States, it is situated on the Delaware River,
about one hundred miles by ship-channel (via Delaware Bay) from the
Atlantic Ocean, ninety miles by railroad southwest of New York City, and
one hundred and thirty-six miles northeast of Washington.
The city occupies mainly a broad plain between the Delaware and the
Schuylkill Rivers. It is twenty-two miles long from north to south and
five to ten miles wide, covering one hundred and thirty square miles,
and is laid out with chessboard regularity. The characteristic
Philadelphia house is a two-storied or three-storied structure of red
pressed brick, with white marble steps. The two rivers give it about
thirty miles of water-front for docks and wharfage, and it is the
headquarters of two of the greatest American railways--the Pennsylvania
and the Reading.
The great wholesale business thoroughfare is Market Street, running east
and west between the two rivers, while Chestnut Street, parallel with it
on the south, contains the finest shops, many of the newspaper offices,
etc. Broad Street is the chief street running north and south. Among the
most fashionable residence quarters are Rittenhouse Square and the west
parts of Walnut, Locust, Spruce, and Pine Streets. Eighth Street is the
great district for shops and amusements.
The City Hall (or Public Buildings) is in the center of the city at the
intersection of Broad and Market Streets. The structure is the largest
exclusively municipal building in the world. It is built of white marble
upon a granite base, in French Renaissance style, and covers an area of
four hundred and eighty-six by four hundred and seventy feet. The height
of the tower and dome is five hundred and thirty-seven feet four and
one-half inches; or five hundred and seventy-three feet four and
one-half inches with the colossal figure of Penn (thirty-six feet), to
surmount the whole. The entire cost, when completely furnished for
occupancy, was estimated at twenty-five million dollars.
The broad pavement round the City Hall is adorned with statues of
General Reynolds, General McClellan, Stephen Girard, John C. Bullitt,
President McKinley, and Joseph Leidy, the naturalist, and with the
“Pilgrim” by Saint-Gaudens.
On the west side of City Hall Square, opposite the City Hall, is the
enormous Broad Street Station of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The
waiting-room contains a large allegorical relief, while one wall is
covered with a mammoth railway map of the United States. On the north
side of the square, at the corner of Broad Street and Filbert Street, is
the Masonic Temple, a huge granite structure with a tower two hundred
and fifty feet high and an elaborately carved Norman porch.
On the east side of the square, occupying the block bounded by the
square, Market Street, Thirteenth Street, and Chestnut Street, is
Wanamaker’s Store, one of the largest in the United States. On the south
side of the square is the Betz Building, with heads of the Presidents of
the United States in the bronze cornice above the third-story windows.
Chestnut Street is the chief street of Philadelphia, containing many of
the handsomest and most interesting buildings. To the left, at the
corner of Broad Street and adjoining the Betz Building, is the Franklin
National Bank, while to the right rises the fine office of the Real
Estate Trust Co. At the corner of Twelfth Street is the tall
Commonwealth Trust Building, and at the corner of Tenth Street, on the
same side, is the New York Mutual Life Insurance Co.
Between Tenth and Ninth Streets, to the left, are the Mortgage Trust
Co., the Penn Mutual Life Building, with an elaborate facade, and the
office of the _Philadelphia Record_. At the corner of Ninth Street,
extending on the north to Market Street, is the Post Office, a large
granite building in the Renaissance style, erected at a cost of five
million dollars. It also contains the United States Courts and the
offices of various Federal officials. In front of the Post Office is a
colossal seated figure of Benjamin Franklin. Between Eighth and Seventh
Streets is the ornamented front of the Union Trust Co. This
neighborhood contains several newspaper offices. At the corner of Sixth
Street, on the Public Ledger Building, is another statue of Franklin.
In Seventh Street, a little to the north of Chestnut Street, is the
Franklin Institute with a library, museum and lecture-hall.
Between Fifth and Sixth Streets is Independence Hall, or the old State
House, a modest brick edifice (1732-1735), which is in some respects the
most interesting building in the United States. Here the Continental
Congress met during the American Revolution (1775-1781), and here, on
July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted. In
1897-1898 the whole building was restored as far as possible to its
original condition.
The Custom House, with a Doric portico, was originally erected in
1819-1824 for the United States Bank. It is copied from the Parthenon,
and considered one of the best examples of Doric architecture in the
world.
A lane diverging to the right between Fourth and Third Streets, opposite
the Fidelity Trust Co., leads to Carpenters’ Hall, where the First
Colonial Congress assembled in 1774. It contains the chairs used at the
Congress, various historical relics, and the inscription: “Within these
walls Henry, Hancock, and Adams inspired the delegates of the colonies
with nerve and sinew for the toils of war.” Chestnut Street ends at the
Delaware River.
Walnut Street runs parallel to Chestnut Street, one block to the south.
In this street, at the intersection of Dock Street and Third Street, is
the Stock Exchange, formerly the Merchants Exchange, with a
semi-circular portico facing the river. Near it, in Third Street, is the
Girard Bank, built for the first United States Bank and long owned by
Stephen Girard. At Fourth Street is the building of the Manhattan
Insurance Co.
Walnut Street now crosses Broad Street, to the west of which it consists
mainly of private residences. Between Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets
we pass Rittenhouse Square, a fashionable residence quarter.
At the corner of Broad and Chestnut Streets are the white marble
building of the Girard Trust Co., with a rotunda, and the tall Land
Title Building.
North Broad Street, beginning on the north side of the City Hall Square,
a handsome street one hundred and thirteen feet wide, contains in its
upper portion many of the finest private residences in Philadelphia. To
the right, at the corner of Filbert Street, is the Masonic Temple, which
is adjoined by the Arch Street Methodist Episcopal Church. On the
opposite side of the street are the tall buildings of the United Gas
Improvement Co. and the Fidelity Mutual Life Association. To the right
is the Odd Fellows’ Temple.
To the left, at the corner of Cherry Street, is the Pennsylvania Academy
of the Fine Arts, a building in the Venetian style of architecture. The
Academy was founded in 1805. Besides its collections it supports an
important art-school, the lecture hall of which is adorned with
effective decorations by the pupils. Its collections include five
hundred paintings, numerous sculptures, several hundred casts, and fifty
thousand engravings. The early American school is especially well
represented.
On the west side of Broad Street, between Race and Vine Streets, are the
Hahnemann College and Hospital, one of the chief homœopathic
institutions of the kind. To the right, at the corner of Spring Garden
Street, is the Spring Garden Institute for instruction in drawing,
painting, and the mechanic arts. Opposite are the Baldwin Locomotive
Works, a highly interesting industrial establishment.
A little farther on is the Boys’ Central High School, an unusually large
and handsome structure, and the Synagogue Rodef Shalom, in a Moorish
style.
Farther up Broad Street are numerous handsome private houses, churches,
and other edifices. At the northwest corner of Broad Street and Girard
Avenue is the handsome Widener Mansion, presented to the city and used
as a branch of the Free Library. Beyond Master Street, to the left, is
the elaborate home of the Mercantile Club. Beyond this Broad Street runs
out to Germantown, six miles from the City Hall.
Girard Avenue runs west from North Broad Street to Girard College, one
of the richest and most notable philanthropic institutions in the United
States. It was founded by Stephen Girard, a native of France, for the
education of male orphans. The original bequest of over five million
dollars has increased to about thirty-five million dollars.
The main building is a dignified marble structure in the Corinthian
style, resembling the Madeleine at Paris. In the vestibule are a statute
of Stephen Girard, and his sarcophagus. A room on the ground floor
contains several relics of him.
Market Street is the chief wholesale business thoroughfare of the city.
A little to the east of City Hall Square it passes the Philadelphia &
Reading Railway Station, a tall Renaissance building with a train shed
little smaller than that of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The department
store of Gimbel Brothers, on the south side of the street, between
Eighth and Ninth Streets, is one of the largest in the world. The Penn
National Bank, at the corner of South Seventh Street, occupies the site
of the house in which Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.
South Broad Street leads to the south from City Hall Square. Its
intersection with Chestnut Street, just to the south of the City Hall,
is environed with tall office buildings. To the right is the annex of
the Land Title Building, extending to Sansom Street. Opposite, adjoining
the Real Estate Trust Co., is the North American Building, named after
the newspaper which occupies it. Below is the Union League Club, the
chief Republican club of Pennsylvania. On the same side is the large
Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, the leading hotel of Philadelphia, and one of
the great hostelries of the country. Farther on, to the right, is the
Art Club, in the Renaissance style, in which exhibitions of paintings,
concerts, and public lectures are held. At Locust Street, to the right,
is the Academy of Music, while to the left is the Pennsylvania School of
Industrial Art, incorporated in 1876, with a special view to the
development of the art industries of Pennsylvania. A characteristic
feature is the department of weaving and textile design. The Industrial
Museum Hall is connected with this excellent institution.
Below Pine Street, Broad Street contains few important buildings. Of
special note, however, is the Ridgway Library, which stands to the left,
between Christian and Carpenter Streets, nearly one mile from the City
Hall. This handsome building was erected with a legacy of one million
five hundred thousand dollars left by Dr. Rush in 1869, as a branch of
the Philadelphia Library. Adjoining the main hall is the tomb of the
founder.
Broad Street ends, four miles from the City Hall, at League Island Park,
three hundred acres in extent. League Island itself, in the Delaware,
contains a United States Navy Yard.
WEST PHILADELPHIA, the extension of the city beyond the Schuylkill,
contains many of the chief residence streets and several public
buildings and charitable institutions.
The University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1740, and removed to West
Philadelphia in 1872, occupies a group of more than thirty buildings
scattered over an area of sixty acres bounded by Woodland and Cleveland
Avenues and Pine and Thirty-second Streets.
The College, the Medical School, Dental School, and Law School, are all
provided with spacious and well-equipped buildings. Houston Hall, behind
College Hall, is the social center of the University student life. The
Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology is recognized as the
headquarters of anatomical research in the United States and contains
the first museum of human anatomy founded in America. The Morgan
Laboratory of Physics, the Harrison Laboratory of Chemistry, the
Gymnasium, and the Dormitories are all notable structures. Franklin
Field, adjoining Thirty-third Street, is the athletic ground of the
University and contains a large stadium.
The Museum of Science and Art occupies a tasteful building in South
Street, owing part of its inspiration to the Certosa at Pavia, and is
divided into five sections. Its value is largely due to the fact that
many of its contents were found by expeditions organized by the
University itself.
A little to the northeast, at the corner of Chestnut Street and
Thirty-second Street, is the Drexel Institute, founded by A. J. Drexel,
and opened in 1892. The total cost of buildings and equipment was four
million five hundred thousand dollars.
Fairmount Park, the chief park of Philadelphia, is one of the largest in
the world, and covers an area of three thousand three hundred and forty
acres. The park proper extends along both banks of the Schuylkill for
about four miles, and the narrow strip along the Wissahickon, six miles,
and one of the noted drives of the world, is also included in the park
limits. The principal entrances are at the end of Green Street, which is
connected with the City Hall by the wide Park Boulevard, and at Girard
Avenue.
In this park, in 1876 was held the Centennial Exhibition; and in its
environs are the Zoological Garden, the Fairmount Waterworks, which
supply to the city one hundred million gallons of water daily, the
beautiful Horticultural Hall and Memorial Hall, built as part of the
Centennial Exhibition of 1876 at a cost of one million five hundred
thousand dollars, and now containing a permanent collection of art and
industry known as Pennsylvania Museum of Industrial Art.
At Sackamaxon, in Beach Street, is the small Penn Treaty Park, supposed
to occupy the spot where Penn made his treaty with the Indians in 1682,
under an elm that has long since vanished, a treaty, in the words of
Voltaire, “never sworn to and never broken.”
In its manufacturing products Philadelphia ranks next to New York. There
are upward of twenty thousand manufacturing establishments, the combined
output of which amounts to more than eight hundred million dollars. The
chief products are locomotives, sugar and molasses, men’s clothing,
foundry and machine-shop products, carpets and rugs, hosiery and knit
goods, woolen and cotton goods, malt liquors, morocco, chemicals, packed
meat, refined petroleum and silk, and silk goods. The great Cramp
ship-building yards are on the Delaware River. The Baldwin Locomotive
Works are the largest in the world.
Philadelphia was founded by William Penn in 1682, the year after was
made the capital of Pennsylvania, and soon became a place of importance.
It was the central point in the War of Independence, where the first
Continental Congress met, September 4, 1774, and where the Declaration
of Independence was adopted in 1776. At Philadelphia, also, the Federal
Union was signed, in 1778; and here, too, the Constitution of the United
States was framed, in 1787. An interest of another kind attaches to the
fact that the Protestant Episcopal Church of North America was organized
here in 1786. From 1790 to 1800 Philadelphia was the Federal Capital;
and the first mint was established here in 1792. Later events have been
the holding of the Centennial Exhibition, in 1876, and the commemoration
of Penn’s landing in 1882.
=Pittsburgh, Pa.= [The “Smoky City,” “Iron City”; named in 1758, when
the French had been driven out by Washington; Fort Pitt, after William
Pitt, Earl of Chatham, the name Pittsburgh being adopted in 1769.]
It is the second city of Pennsylvania and one of the chief industrial
centers of the United States, and occupies the tongue of land between
the Monongahela and the Allegheny, which here unite to form the Ohio,
and also a strip of land on the south side of the Monongahela. The
sister city, Allegheny, situated on the north bank of the Allegheny and
extending down to the Ohio, was incorporated with Pittsburgh in 1907 and
is now known as the North Side. The rivers are crossed by numerous
bridges.
Smithfield Street, diverging from Liberty Avenue, not far from the Union
Station, leads to the river Monongahela, on the other side of which,
from Washington Heights, may be obtained a fine view of the city. On
Liberty Avenue, to the right, is the City Hall a fine structure of white
sandstone. A little farther on, to the left, is the Post Office. At the
bridge are the Monongahela Hotel and the Baltimore & Ohio Station.
Crossing the Smithfield Street Bridge, Mt. Washington (three hundred and
seventy feet) may be ascended by one of the three inclined railways on
this side. These interesting, but at first somewhat startling, pieces of
apparatus are worked by cables and transport horses and carriages as
well as persons.
The finest building in Pittsburgh is the Allegheny County Court House,
in Grant Street, a splendid example of H. H. Richardson’s treatment of
Romanesque, erected in 1888 at a cost of two million five hundred
thousand dollars. The massive Prison is connected with the Court House
by a finely handled stone bridge. The main tower is three hundred and
twenty feet high. The government building cost one million five hundred
thousand dollars.
Other buildings of importance are the Frick Building, a granite office
structure of twenty stories at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Grant
Street; the Carnegie Building and the Farmers’ Bank Building (these two
also in Fifth Avenue); the Union National Bank Building and the
Commonwealth Trust Co. Building, in Fourth Avenue; the First
Presbyterian Church, in Sixth Avenue; the Fulton Building, and the
Bessemer Building (the last two at the corner of Sixth Street and
Duquesne Way).
More to the east are the Academy of Our Lady of Mercy and the new
Calvary Episcopal Church (at the corner of Shady Avenue and Walnut
Street), a beautiful example of thirteenth century Gothic. The Roman
Catholic Cathedral of St. Paul stands in Fifth Avenue, at the corner of
Craig Street.
To the east of the city lies Schenley Park, containing the fine Phipps
Conservatory and the Hall of Botany. Near the Forbes Street entrance to
the Park is the great central building of the Carnegie Library of
Pittsburgh, in which are housed not only the main collection of the
library, but also two of the three departments of the Carnegie
Institute. The structure, originally built in the Italian Renaissance
style at a cost of eight hundred thousand dollars, was remodeled and
enlarged in 1904-1907 at an additional cost of five million dollars. The
city is also the seat of Pittsburgh University, Holy Ghost College, and
Penn’s College for Women. The great iron and steel works have made the
prosperity and reputation of Pittsburgh. Among these are the Edgar
Thomson Steel Works, the Homestead Steel Works, the Duquesne Steel
Works, the American Bridge Co., the Jones & Laughlin Works, the Oliver
Iron & Steel Co., the Crescent Steel Works, and the Pressed Steel Car
Co.
Its manufactures include everything, indeed, which can be made of iron,
from a fifty-eight-ton gun to nails and tacks; steel in its various
applications; electrical machinery and appliances; all descriptions of
glass and glassware; silver and nickel-plated ware; Japan and Britannia
ware; pressed tin, brass, copper, bronzes; Portland cement, earthenware,
crucibles, fire-pots, bricks; furniture, wagons and carriages; brushes,
bellows, mechanical supplies of all kinds; natural-gas fittings, and
tools for oil and gas wells. Pittsburgh has, also, the largest
manufactory of cork, and the largest pickling and preserving
establishment in the world.
In 1754 a few English traders built a stockade here, but were driven
away by the French. The latter replaced the stockade by a fort, which,
in honor of the Governor of Canada, they called Duquesne. In 1758 it was
taken by the English, who next year commenced a large and strong
fortification, which, in honor of the elder Pitt, then Prime Minister,
they called Fort Pitt. The settlement became a borough in 1804, and in
1816 was incorporated as the city of Pittsburgh. In 1872 the limits of
the city were extended across the Monongahela, and by 1906 it extended
over twenty-eight square miles. In 1907 Allegheny City (in spite of the
opposition of a large majority of its inhabitants) was annexed; the
Supreme Court of the United States declared the act valid, and thus
Allegheny became the North Side of the present Pittsburgh.
=Richmond, Va.= [Named from Richmond-on-the-Thames, a suburb of London;
the name suggested owing to analogy in situation.]
It is the capital of Virginia, on the left bank of the James River, at
the head of tide water, one hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, and
one hundred and sixteen miles by rail south of Washington. It is a port
of entry, and vessels drawing sixteen feet of water can come up to the
lower end of the city, where there are large docks. Richmond is
picturesquely situated on a group of hills, and fine water power is
afforded by the James River, which descends one hundred and sixteen feet
in nine miles.
Near the center of the city, on Shockoe Hill, is Capitol Square, a
tree-shaded area of twelve acres. The Capitol, or State House, partly
designed after the Maison Carrée at Nîmes, France, occupies the highest
point of the square and dates from 1785. The wings were added in 1906.
In the Central Hall, surmounted by a dome, are Houdon’s statue of
Washington (which Washington himself is said to have seen in its present
position) and a bust of Lafayette by the same artist. The Senate
Chamber, to the right, was used as the Confederate House of
Representatives during the Civil War. The House of Delegates, to the
left, contains portraits of Chatham and Jefferson, and was the scene of
Aaron Burr’s trial for high treason in 1807, and of the State Secession
Convention in 1861.
Capitol Square also contains a fine equestrian statue of Washington,
with figures of Patrick Henry, George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas
Nelson, Andrew Lewis, and Chief Justice Marshall round the pedestal; a
statue of Stonewall Jackson; a statue of Hunter Holmes McGuire, the most
noted surgeon of the South; and a statue of Henry Clay. At the
northeast corner of the square stands the Governor’s Mansion.
On the north side, in Broad Street, is the City Hall, a handsome Gothic
structure with a clock-tower. To the east of the Capitol is the State
Library. In Twelfth Street, at the corner of Clay Street, a little to
the north of Capitol Square, is the Jefferson Davis Mansion, or “White
House of the Confederacy,” occupied by Mr. Davis as President of the
Southern Confederacy. It is now fitted up as a Museum of Confederate
Relics.
St. John’s Church, erected in 1740, but since much enlarged, is at the
corner of Broad and Twenty-fourth Streets. The Virginia Convention was
held in this church in 1775, and it was here that Patrick Henry made his
famous “give me liberty or give me death” speech.
On Monument Avenue (a prolongation of Franklin Street) is the equestrian
statue of General Lee. Adjacent is an equestrian statue of General J. E.
B. Stuart, and a half mile farther on, at the west end of the avenue, is
the Jefferson Davis Monument, consisting of a semi-circular colonnade
with a pillar supporting an allegorical female figure and inscribed “Deo
Vindice,” with a heroic statue of the ex-president in front. A little to
the east of the Lee Statue is Richmond College, a leading educational
institution of Virginia.
Among other points of interest in Richmond are the Westmoreland Club, at
the corner of Grace and Sixth Streets; the Commonwealth Club, at the
corner of Franklin and Madison Streets; the Virginia Club, 2311 East
Grace Street; Chief Justice Marshall’s House; the Tobacco Exchange,
Shockoe Slip; the University College of Medicine; the Medical College of
Virginia; the National Cemetery, two miles to the northeast of the city;
the Sheltering Arms Hospital, and Idlewood Park, a favorite
summer-resort, close to the city on the west.
Hollywood Cemetery is the most interesting of the cemeteries. Near the
west gate of the cemetery is the Confederate Monument, a rude pyramid of
stone ninety feet high, erected as a memorial to the sixteen thousand
Confederate soldiers buried here. On President’s Hill, in the southwest
corner of the cemetery, overlooking the river, are the graves of Monroe
and Tyler, two of the seven presidents born in Virginia. John Randolph,
Jefferson Davis, General Pickett, General J. E. B. Stuart and Commodore
Maury are also buried here. Patrick Henry is buried in St. John’s
Churchyard.
During the last three years of the Civil War (1862-1865) battles raged
all round Richmond, and remains of the fortified lines constructed to
protect the city are visible in various parts of the environs.
The leading industry is the manufacture of tobacco. Other important
products are lumber and planing-mill supplies, foundry and machine-shop
products (including locomotives), fancy and paper boxes, packing boxes,
saddlery and harness, carriages and wagons, confectionery, flavoring
extracts, patent medicines and compounds, etc. There are also large
railroad repair shops, establishments for grinding and roasting coffee,
etc. Richmond was formerly noted as a center of the flour-milling
industry.
Richmond was settled in 1733 and incorporated in 1742. Captain John
Smith’s settlement of “None Such” in 1609 and Fort Charles, erected in
1645, were both near the site of the present city. In 1779 it became the
capital of the state. During the American Revolution the place was taken
by a British force under Benedict Arnold, January 5, 1781, and the
warehouses and public buildings were burned. The following year the city
was chartered. Richmond, as the capital of the Confederacy, was the main
objective of Federal operations during the Civil War. It was evacuated
April 2, 1865. The warehouses and a considerable part of the business
section of the city were burned by the Confederates.
=Salt Lake City, Utah.= [The “City of the Saints;” named for the famous
lake of that state.]
It is the chief town and ecclesiastical capital of the State of Utah,
and is situated on the river Jordan, eleven miles from Great Salt Lake.
It is built at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, four thousand three
hundred and thirty-four feet above sea-level. The valley is world-famed
for its beauty, resources, climate, and health-giving properties. By
rail it is thirty-six miles south of Ogden, on the Union Pacific
Railroad; eight hundred and thirty-three miles from San Francisco, and
one thousand and thirty-one miles from Omaha.
The city is regularly laid out and the streets are wide and shaded with
trees. Each house in the residence quarters stands in its own garden.
Temple Block, “the sacred square of the Mormons,” covering ten acres, is
the center of the city. Here are the Great Temple, and the Tabernacle,
the latter one hundred and fifty by two hundred and fifty feet, with a
self-supporting roof shaped like a tortoise shell, supported by
forty-four sandstone pillars, and having a seating capacity of eight
thousand, accommodations for twelve thousand, and one of the finest pipe
organs in America.
A little to the east of the Tabernacle is the Temple, a large and
handsome building of granite, erected at a cost of over four million
dollars. At each end are three pointed towers, the loftiest of which, in
the center of the east or principal facade, is two hundred and ten feet
high and is surmounted by a colossal gilded figure (twelve and one-half
feet high) of the Angel Moroni, by C. E. Dallin. The interior is
elaborately fitted up and artistically adorned.
The Assembly Hall, to the south of the Tabernacle, is a granite building
with accommodation for three thousand people, intended for divine
service.
At the corner of North Temple and Main Streets stands the Latter-Day
Saints University. At the southeast corner of Temple Square is the
Pioneer Monument, surmounted by a copper statue of Brigham Young, which
was unveiled in 1897.
On South Temple Street towards the east is the Deseret News Block, a
large brown-stone building where the oldest newspaper to the west of the
Missouri is published. To the left are the Tithing Office and Tithing
Storehouse where the Mormons pay their tithes in kind. A little farther
on, also to the left, are the Lion House, one of the residences of
Brigham Young; the office of the president of the Mormon Church; and the
Beehive House, another of Brigham Young’s houses. On the opposite side
of the street are the huge shoe-factory and warehouse of Zion’s
Coöperative Mercantile Institution; the office of the Juvenile
Instructor; the office of the Historian of the Mormon Church; and the
Gardo House, or Amelia Palace, opposite the Beehive House.
A little farther to the northeast, through the Eagle Gate, is Brigham
Young’s grave, surrounded by an ornamental iron railing.
The imposing City and County Building is in Washington Square, and the
Federal Building is in Main Street, between Third and Fourth South
Streets. A new Capitol is in contemplation in Capitol grounds, near
Prospect Hill. Among the educational establishments are the Utah State
University, to the east of the city, near Fort Douglas, and the High
School, in Union Square. The Roman Catholic Cathedral and several other
religious edifices also are represented, including Presbyterian,
Congregationalist, and Methodist churches. St. Mark’s Cathedral is a
handsome building. Other noteworthy edifices are those of the museum,
the Mining Institute, St. Mary’s Hospital, the University of Utah, and
the theaters and opera house.
The city is more important as a trading center than for manufactures.
The leading industries are beet-sugar refining, smelting, salt making,
and the manufacture of boots and shoes, glass, woolens, paper, cutlery,
pottery, etc. A large business is done in bullion and mining stocks. The
city has a large jobbing trade, being the distributing center for an
immense mining agricultural and stock raising region in Utah, West
Wyoming, South Idaho, and East Nevada.
Salt Lake City was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young and incorporated in
1851. Until 1870 it was almost wholly a Mormon city.
=San Antonio= (_săn ăn-to´nĭ-ō_), =Texas=. [Named for the Roman Catholic
mission, San Antonio de Valero, otherwise the Alamo.]
After Dallas it is the largest city in the state, and is located on the
San Antonio River, two hundred and ten miles by railroad west of
Houston, one hundred and eighty-eight miles west of Galveston, on both
banks of the San Antonio Creek, at the mouth of San Pedro River. Built
on a level plateau, with an elevation of six hundred and sixty feet
above the sea, it includes the old Mexican town of San Fernando, west of
San Pedro Creek, inhabited chiefly by Americans and largely rebuilt
since 1860. The San Antonio River winds for thirteen miles through the
city, and San Pedro Creek for ten miles. These are spanned by numerous
little bridges. It is one of the most interesting in the United States.
The first object of interest in San Antonio is the Church of the Mission
del Alamo, situated in the Alamo Plaza, in the quarter to the east of
the San Antonio River. The church, which seems to have derived its name
from being built in a grove of alamo or cottonwood trees, is a low and
strong structure of adobe, with very thick walls. It was built in 1744,
but has lost many of its original features. It is now preserved as a
national monument for its historical interests.
At the north end of the Alamo Plaza, in Houston Street, is the handsome
Federal Building. On the west side of the plaza is the building
containing the San Antonio Club and the Grand Opera House.
Houston Street towards the west crosses the San Antonio and reaches
Soledad Street, which leads to the left to the Main Plaza (Plaza de Las
Yslas), pleasantly laid out with gardens. On its south side rises the
imposing Court House and on its west side stands the Cathedral of San
Fernando, dating in its present form mainly from 1868 to 1873, but
incorporating parts of the earlier building, where Santa Ana had his
headquarters in 1836. To the west of the Cathedral is the Military Plaza
(Plaza de Armas), with the City Hall.
The Military Post (Fort Sam Houston), on Government Hill, one mile to
the north of the city, costing over two million dollars, is one of the
largest in the United States and deserves a visit. The tower
(eighty-eight feet high), in the center of the quadrangle, commands a
splendid view of the city and its environs.
The old Spanish Missions near the city most often visited are the First
and Second Missions, but, the Third and Fourth Missions have much
interest also.
The Mission of the Conception, or First Mission, lies about two and a
quarter miles to the south of the city (reached via Garden Street),
dates from 1731 to 1752, and is well preserved. The church has two
towers and a central dome. The Mission San Jose de Aguayo, or Second
Mission, four miles to the south of the city, dates from 1720 to 1731
and is the most beautiful of all.
[Illustration: =OLD SPANISH CHURCH OF THE ALAMO, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS=
During the war of Texan independence, the Alamo, then converted into a
fort, was the scene of an extraordinary conflict, the fort being held by
Colonel David Crockett and Colonel James Bowie. Though almost
continually assailed from February 23 to March 6, 1836, it only yielded
when the defenders were all slain but five; these were captured by the
Mexicans and cruelly slain. “Remember the Alamo,” thereafter became a
war cry, and the place itself has been called the “Thermopylæ of
America.”]
Among the educational institutions are St. Louis College (Roman
Catholic), St. Mary’s Hall, St. Mary’s College, Wolfe Memorial School,
and the Ursuline Convent and School.
San Antonio is the natural trading center for an immense area, its
jobbing houses have an extensive trade in Mexico as well as in Texas.
The industrial establishments are machine shops, foundries, breweries,
flour mills, binderies, cotton presses, ice plants, tanneries, marble
works, cement works, and manufactories of brooms, carriages and wagons,
candy, soda and mineral waters, mattresses, bricks and tiles. It is a
leading cattle, horse, and mule market, ships large quantities of
cotton, wool, and hides; and is the financial center of the largest
stock raising interests of the Southwest. The surrounding district,
irrigated by water, obtained from deep artesian wells, is extensively
engaged in truck farming for Northern markets.
Although the Spaniards built a fort at San Antonio in 1689, its real
settlement began in 1714. In 1718 the Franciscan mission of San Antonio
de Valero was founded, and, about 1722, on another site was built the
Alamo, the “cradle of Texans’ liberty,” in which in 1836 a garrison of
about one hundred and eighty men, among them Davy Crockett and James
Bowie, for eleven days resisted General Santa Ana’s Mexican army,
numbering thousands of men. Eight battles for independence were fought
in or near San Antonio between 1776 and 1836, successively under
Spanish, French, Mexican, and Texan flags. It received a city charter in
1873.
=San Francisco, Cal.= [The “City of the Golden Gate”; said by some to
have been named for the old Spanish mission of San Francisco de Assisi,
by others to have been named for the founder of the order to which
Father Junipero, the discoverer of the bay, belonged.]
It is grandly situated at the north end of a peninsula thirty miles
long, separating the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay, two thousand
four hundred and thirty-four miles west of St. Louis, and three thousand
four hundred and fifty-two miles from New York. The city lies mainly on
the shore of the bay and on the steep hills rising from it, but is
gradually extending across the peninsula (here six miles wide) to the
ocean. On the north it is bounded by the famous Golden Gate, the narrow
entrance (one mile across and about five miles long) to San Francisco
Bay. The commercial part of the town is fairly level and lies along the
bay. The chief business thoroughfare is Market Street, three and
one-half miles long, with which the streets from the north and west
hills intersect. This feature gives the city a striking skyline.
San Francisco Bay, a noble sheet of water, gives San Francisco one of
the finest harbors in the world and affords numerous charming
excursions. It gives the city much of its commercial importance, also,
and extends from Fort Point past the city in a southerly direction for
about fifty miles, varying in width from six to twelve miles. Northward
this bay connects by a strait with San Pablo Bay, ten miles in length,
having at its northerly end Mare Island and the United States Navy Yard.
Across the bay are Oakland, Alameda, and Berkeley.
In 1906 a large part of the city was destroyed by earthquake and fire,
the estimated loss reaching over three hundred million dollars. The
business district has since been largely rebuilt, and many costly
buildings of marble, granite, and terra cotta, and iron and steel-framed
“skyscrapers” have been constructed. Before the earthquake of 1906 the
most conspicuous public buildings were the City Hall, erected at a cost
of six million dollars, and which occupied twenty-five years in
building; the Post Office, completed at a total cost of five million
dollars; the Hall of Justice, the Custom House, a Mint and a
Sub-treasury; the building of the Society of California Pioneers, and
stock and merchants’ exchanges; and the Ferry Building containing a
display of the mineral resources of California.
[Illustration: =NIGHT VIEW, SHOWING ILLUMINATION OF SOUTH GARDENS AND
MAIN ENTRANCE, PANAMA-PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION, SAN FRANCISCO,
1915=
The Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco was open
from February 20 to December 4, 1915. The total attendance was
18,871,957. The last day made the record, 458,558 persons having passed
through the turnstiles. The Fine Arts Palace remained open until May 1,
1916.]
Market Street, the chief business thoroughfare, extends to the southwest
from the Union Ferry Depot, a handsome structure, with a tower two
hundred and fifty feet high, to a point near the twin Mission Peaks, a
distance of about three and one-half miles.
Following Market Street towards the southwest, at the intersection with
Battery Street is the Labor Monument, a vigorous bronze group dedicated
to the memory of Peter Donahue of the Union Iron Works. At the southwest
corner of Market and Montgomery Streets stands the Palace Hotel,
opposite which is the Union Trust Building, the first of the buildings
whose steel and concrete frame withstood the fire. Close by, at the
corner of Montgomery and Post Streets, are the Crocker Building, another
survivor, and the new stone structure of the First National Bank.
At the corners of Kearney and Third Streets rise the Chronicle Building
and the tall Spreckels or Call Building, the top of either of which
affords a good bird’s-eye view of the city.
Market Street, towards the southwest from the Chronicle Building,
contains many large office buildings, including the tall Humboldt
Savings Building. At the corner of Fourth Street is the Pacific
Building, a huge structure of re-enforced concrete, with a facade of
green and brown tiles. In the same block is the Emporium, which has been
rehabilitated since the disaster of 1906. On the right, at the corner of
Powell Street, is the large Flood Building, another survivor of the
fire. It is chiefly occupied by railway offices.
Powell Street leads to Union Square, with the St. Francis Hotel and a
Naval Monument commemorating the exploits of the United States fleet in
the Philippines during the war with Spain (1898).
At the junction of Market Street with Mason Street is a monument
commemorating the admission of California to the Union (1850). To the
left, at the corner of Seventh Street, we catch a glimpse of the long
frontage of the Post Office with its fine granite carvings. Just beyond
this corner, in a small triangular park, is the large Californian
Monument, presented to the city by James Lick. The stately monument
erected in honor of the achievements of the navy in the Spanish-American
war remains uninjured.
The district containing the United States Appraisers Stores and the
large new Custom House was spared by the great fire.
The United States Branch Mint, in Fifth Street, at the corner of Mission
Street, contains interesting machinery and a collection of coins and
relics. The effect of the fire may be clearly seen on the granite at the
north end of the building.
Montgomery Street and the southern part of Sansome Street, form the
center of the banking district. On the former is the Union Trust
Building, and a series of large office buildings, of which the most
important are the Mills Building, corner of Montgomery and Bush Streets;
the Merchants Exchange, California Street, near Montgomery Street; Kohl
Building, corner Montgomery and California Streets; Italian-American
Bank, a one-story building with Doric columns, corner Montgomery and
Sacramento Streets; and the Bank of Italy, corner Montgomery and Clay
Streets. At the northeast corner of Sansome and California Streets rises
the tall Alaska Commercial Building, with the handsome Bank of
California opposite.
Nob Hill was the name given about 1870 to that section of California
Street, between Powell Street and Leavenworth Street, containing many of
the largest private residences in San Francisco. Most of these were of
wood, and no expense was spared to make them luxurious dwellings, but
with unfortunate architectural results. Few relics of these are now
extant. The hill is crowned by the huge Fairmont Hotel, opposite which
is the Hopkins Institute of Art.
The present fashionable residential quarter is on Pacific Heights,
including the western parts of Jackson Street, Washington Street,
Pacific Avenue, and Central Avenue.
The educational institutions of San Francisco, include the Academy of
Sciences, endowed by James Lick; the Hopkins Art Academy, situated on
Nob Hill; Memorial Museum, in Golden Gate Park; Mechanics’ Institute,
which contains property valued at two million dollars, and a library of
seventy thousand volumes. Other fine libraries are the Sutro library of
two hundred thousand volumes, the public library of one hundred thousand
volumes, while the California Historical Society, San Francisco Medical
Society, the San Francisco Law Library; the French and Mercantile
libraries all have collections of more than thirty thousand volumes. The
California School of Mechanical Arts, Cooper Medical College, Cogswell
Polytechnic School, College of Notre Dame, Sacred Heart Academy, Irving
Institute, the medical and law faculties of the University of
California, are also located here.
The city was always conspicuous for its fine churches. The most
prominent of these were the Roman Catholic Cathedral, the Jesuit Church
of St. Ignatius, and the Mission Dolores, a survival of Spanish
occupation.
The largest of the city parks is Golden Gate Park, covering more than
one thousand acres and redeemed from a waste of sand-dunes, now one of
the most beautiful in the country. It extends from Stanryan Street to
the Pacific Ocean, a distance of three miles. Its fine trees and
shrubbery, semi-tropical plants and flowers, artificial lakes and
Japanese tea gardens combine to make it a veritable wonderland. Through
the park a broad, smooth, and well-kept speedway runs out to the ocean
beach, and the famous old Cliff House, the Sutro Heights, on the hills
of the west or ocean side, from which is a magnificent view of the Seal
Rocks and Pacific Ocean.
To the north of the park, beyond the intervening Richmond district, lies
the Presidio, the United States military reservation. Here are the
harbor fortifications with their big and powerful rapid fire machine
guns, the officers’ quarters with picturesque gardens and hedgerows, and
the hospital and barracks for the soldiers, while down at the water’s
edge is old Fort Mason, a circular brick structure now used as a
storehouse.
The population is very heterogeneous, every European nationality being
represented here, to say nothing of the Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese,
Negroes (relatively few), Filipinos, Hawaiians, and other non-European
races.
The Chinese Quarter, rebuilt since the fire, is still one of the most
interesting and characteristic features of San Francisco. It lies,
roughly defined, between Stockton, Sacramento, Kearney, and Pacific
Streets, and now consists mainly of large modern store buildings in a
modified Oriental style, and of tall tenements, swarming with Chinese
occupants. Chinatown contains about ten thousand inhabitants.
To the north of Chinatown, spreading about the base of Telegraph Hill,
is the so-named Latin Quarter, peopled by Italians, Greeks and Mexicans.
Their houses, shops, and restaurants are most characteristic. The
Japanese Quarter is bounded by Van Ness, Fillmore, Geary, and Pine
Streets.
In the pretty park that separates busy Kearney Street from Chinatown,
the beautiful golden galleon monument to Robert Louis Stevenson still
stands.
San Francisco as the western terminus of the great continental railroads
and of many short lines, has important steamship communication with the
ports of the world. The bay is accessible to the largest vessels. It is
one of the most important grain ports in the United States; and gold and
silver, wine, fruit, and wool are exported. There are large sugar
refineries, foundries, shipyards, cordage works, wood factories, woolen
mills, and many others.
A Spanish post and mission station were established on the site of San
Francisco in 1776. The mission was secularized in 1834, and a town was
laid out in 1835. A United States man-of-war took possession of it in
1846, and it became an important place in 1849 on account of the
discovery of gold (1848). It was devastated by fires, 1849-1851. In 1850
it was incorporated as a city. The original name of the place was Yerba
Buena (Spanish, “good herb”). It was changed to San Francisco in 1847.
In 1869 railway connection was established with the eastern United
States. In 1877 Denis Kearney began a violent agitation against the
competition of Chinese labor. This was known as the “sand lots”
movement, from the name of the place where the meetings were held. On
April 18, 1906, the city was visited with a severe shock of earthquake,
and the resultant fires destroyed much of the business section and
one-third of the residence portion of the city.
Berkeley, across the Bay from San Francisco, is the seat of the Colleges
of Letters and Science of the University of California. The University,
founded in 1868, has played a very important part in the educational
development of California and of the Pacific Slope. Its other
departments are at San Francisco and the Lick Observatory, with the
great telescope, is at Mt. Hamilton.
A number of the buildings at Berkeley are handsome, and the picturesque
grounds, two hundred and fifty acres in extent, command a splendid view
of the Golden Gate and San Francisco. The very interesting open-air
Greek Theater, built in 1903 on the general type of the theater at
Epidaurus, accommodates twelve thousand spectators and is used for
university meetings, commencement exercises, and concerts. The museums,
the library, and the laboratories are admirably adapted to their uses.
At Palo Alto, thirty-four miles south of San Francisco, one mile from
the station is the Leland Stanford, Jr. University, founded by Mr. and
Mrs. Leland Stanford in memory of their only son and endowed by them
with upwards of thirty million dollars. The buildings were mainly
designed by H. H. Richardson, who took the motif of their architecture
from the cloisters of the San Antonio Mission. The material is buff,
rough-faced sandstone, surmounted by red-tiled roofs, producing
brilliant effects of color in conjunction with the live oak, white oak,
and eucalyptus trees outside, and tropical plants in the quadrangle, and
the blue sky overhead. In the earthquake of 1906 the buildings suffered
severely, the damage done being estimated at nearly two million dollars.
Much, however, has been restored or rebuilt. The buildings include a low
quadrangle, enclosing a court five hundred and eighty-six feet long and
two hundred and forty-six feet wide, with a beautiful colonnade on the
inner side; an outer, two-storied quadrangle, with cloisters on the
outside; a Chapel; various dormitories; an Art Museum; a mechanical
department; and a village of professors’ houses.
=Seattle= (_sē-ăt´t´l_), =Wash.= [Named for the chief of the Duwamish
tribe of Indians, _See-aa-thl_.]
It is finely situated on Elliot Bay, an arm of Puget Sound, one thousand
eight hundred and twenty-eight miles from St. Paul. It occupies a series
of terraces rising from the shore of the Sound, with steep hills rising
from the water, the heights commanding superb views of the snow-crowned
Olympic Mountains and the Cascades, including Mounts Rainier and Baker.
The residence streets run up the slope of a hill, with the business
portion built on the level ground at the foot, stretching along the
excellent harbor, with its many wharves.
Among the finest edifices are the Roman Catholic Cathedral, the Union
or King Street Passenger Station, with Carnegie Library, the American
Bank, and the Alaska, Lowman, White, Central, and Empire Buildings.
Its notable buildings include, also, the County Court House, County
Almshouse, Opera House, High School, and Hospital. The city is
beautified with monuments and statues, unique among which is the Totem
Pole, in Pioneer Square, near the Union Station, which was brought from
Alaska and is one of the best examples of its kind. There is a good
statue of Wm. H. Seward, by Richard Brooks, and in the campus of the
University of Washington is a colossal statue of Washington, by Lorado
Taft.
The University has grounds three hundred and fifty-five acres in extent,
and furnished the site for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909.
Other leading educational institutions are Seattle Seminary (Methodist),
Seattle Female College, College of the Immaculate Conception and Academy
of the Holy Name (both Roman Catholic).
There are several fine parks connected, together with the lakes, by a
system of boulevards. Fort Lawton, a military post, is within the city
limits.
The harbor, which is in Lake Washington and is four miles long and two
miles wide, admits the largest vessels at all times. As the terminal of
two transcontinental railroads and as an oceanic seaport, Seattle has
extraordinary commercial advantages. It has direct steamship lines to
Japan, China, the Philippines, and to Honolulu, and is also connected
with European and South American ports. It is the chief outfitting port
for the Yukon and Alaskan gold fields, and the chief trading center for
the numerous ports on the extensive coast-line of Puget Sound. It has
abundant electric power generated by falls in the rivers of the Cascades
at a very low cost. Snoqualnite Falls, nineteen miles distant, are one
hundred and twenty-six feet higher than Niagara, and supply an immense
power.
Seattle largely owes its phenomenal growth to the lumber trade. The
manufactures include beside, flour, iron and steel products, boots and
shoes, beer, etc. Other industries are bridge-works, shipyards,
meat-packing, and fish-canning. The city has also smelting and refining
works, and a United States assay office. The chief exports are lumber,
coal, meats, fruits, wheat, and hops.
Seattle was first settled in 1852. The place was laid out in 1853 and
was incorporated in 1865 as a town and in 1880 as a city. In 1889 it was
almost wiped out by fire, but one business building escaping
destruction. From June 1 to November 30, 1909, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific
Exposition was held here, the average daily attendance being
twenty-eight thousand. In the spring of 1910 a Municipal Plans
Commission of twenty-one members was created by an amendment to the city
charter of Seattle, and in 1911 their report was issued containing
sketches and plans illustrating their proposals for the beautification
and future growth of the city.
=St. Louis= (_sānt lōō´ĭs_ or _lōō´ĭ_), =Mo.= [Named in honor of Louis
XV. of France; the name originally applied to a depot established at
this point February 15, 1764, by Pierre Láclede Liguest.]
It is the principal city of Missouri, and is located on the west bank of
the Mississippi River, twenty-one miles south of the mouth of the
Missouri River, and by rail one thousand one hundred and eight miles
southwest of New York, two thousand four hundred and thirty-four miles
east of San Francisco, and six hundred and ninety-six miles north of New
Orleans. It has a frontage of nearly twenty miles on the river and rises
from it in three terraces, the third of which is about two hundred feet
above the river level.
The city is regularly laid out, on the Philadelphia plan, Market Street
running east and west, being the dividing line between north and south.
The streets running north and south are numbered, though many of them
are also known by names. Broadway or Fifth Street is the chief shopping
thoroughfare, while other important business streets are Fourth Street,
Olive Street, Washington Avenue, Third Street, and First Street (or
Main) and Second Streets. The city is also divided into a north and
south section by the valley of Mill Creek (now filled in), which is
spanned by seven bridges. The city has recently extended greatly to the
west, and commerce is steadily encroaching on the residential quarters.
The Court House, in Broadway, between Market and Chestnut Streets, is a
substantial building in the form of a Greek Cross. It is surmounted by a
dome, one hundred and seventy-five feet high, the gallery of which
commands an excellent view of the city and river. A little to the east,
in Third Street, corner of Chestnut Street, is the Merchants’ Exchange,
the main hall of which, with a painted ceiling, is two hundred and
twenty feet long. The grand ball of the Veiled Prophet is held here. The
Cotton Exchange is at the corner of Main and Walnut Streets.
By following Market Street to the west from the Court House, the square,
named Washington Park, is reached, and also the City Hall. A little to
the south, in the square enclosed by Clark Avenue and Spruce, Eleventh
and Twelfth Streets, are the so-called Four Courts, built on the model
of the Louvre, in Paris, with a large semi-circular jail at the back. A
little to the north of the City Hall runs the busy Olive Street, which
toward Broadway, passes the Post Office on the left. Among the numerous
substantial business buildings in this part of Olive Street are the
Star, Century, Frisco, Chemical, Missouri Trust, Commercial, Laclede,
Commonwealth Trust, National Bank of Commerce, and Third National Bank,
a large and very fine structure. In Broadway, at the corner of Locust
Street, is the Mercantile Library, which contains one hundred and fifty
thousand volumes, statues by Harriet Hosmer, and others.
Other important buildings in this business section of the city are the
Security Building (at the southwest corner of Fourth and Locust
Streets); the Mercantile Trust Co., at the northeast corner of Eighth
and Locust Streets (with vaults closed by a circular steel door of
marvelous mechanism weighing four and one-half tons); the St. Louis
Union Trust Co., at the northwest corner of Fourth and Locust Streets;
the Mercantile Club, southeast corner of Seventh and Locust Streets; the
Public Library, Locust Street, corner of Ninth Street; the Lincoln Trust
and Wainwright Buildings, corner of Seventh and Chestnut Streets; and
the Missouri Pacific Building, northwest corner of Market and Seventh
Streets.
On the block between Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Olive and St. Charles
Streets is the new Carnegie Central Library, erected at a cost of one
million dollars.
At the corner of Locust and Nineteenth Streets is the handsome School of
Fine Arts, which is connected with Washington University.
The Episcopal Cathedral, the Roman Catholic Cathedral, old and new, and
many of the new Protestant churches in the West End are architecturally
striking.
The parks of St. Louis are among the most notable in the United States,
and their area (two thousand three hundred acres) is exceeded by those
of Philadelphia alone. The finest are Forest Park (one thousand three
hundred and seventy acres); Tower Grove Park (two hundred and sixty-six
acres); Carondelet Park, O’Fallon Park, and the Missouri Botanical
Garden, which is one of the foremost in North America.
To the west of Forest Park is the new home of Washington University,
forming one of the most successful and appropriate groups of collegiate
buildings in the New World. They were designed by Messrs. Cope &
Stewardson in a Tudor-Gothic style and enclose several quadrangles. The
material is red Missouri granite. Among the buildings already completed
are University Hall, the Chemical and Physical Laboratories, the
Architectural and Engineering Buildings, the Chapel (resembling King’s
College Chapel at Cambridge, England), the library (with a fine reading
room), various dormitories, and the gymnasium. The university grounds
are one hundred and ten acres in extent.
The other institutions of higher education are St. Louis University, the
College of the Christian Brothers, Maria Consilia Convent, training
school for nurses, several medical colleges, dental college, the
theological seminaries, manual training school, the State School for the
Blind, and the St. Louis Day School for Deaf Mutes.
In Forest Park, not far from the University, is the handsome Museum of
Fine Arts, originally erected as the Fine Arts Building of the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition. In front of the entrance is a colossal equestrian
bronze statue of St. Louis.
The great St. Louis or Eads Bridge, across the Mississippi, is
deservedly one of the monuments of the city. It was designed by Capt.
James B. Eads and was constructed in 1869-1874 at a cost of ten million
dollars. It consists of three steel spans (center five hundred and
twenty feet, others five hundred and two feet each) resting on massive
limestone piers. The total length is two thousand and seventy yards. The
bridge is built in two stories, the lower for the railway, the upper for
the roadway and foot passengers. Trains enter the lower track by a
tunnel, one thousand six hundred and thirty yards long, beginning near
the corner of Twelfth and Cerre Streets. The highest part of the arches
is fifty-five feet above the water.
The Merchants’ Bridge, three miles farther up the river, is a steel
truss bridge, and was built in 1889-1890, at a cost of three million
dollars. It is used by railways only. It has three spans, each five
hundred feet long and seventy feet high.
St. Louis ranks fourth among the manufacturing cities of the United
States. It is the largest tobacco manufacturing city in the world, and
also has a large production of malt liquors, flour, boots and shoes,
hardware, stoves, railways and electric cars, woodenware, brick,
biscuit, crackers, etc. The city is also the largest mule mart in the
world, and noted as a drug market.
Founded from New Orleans in 1764, by Pierre Làclede-Liguest and Auguste
Chouteau, St. Louis remained a fur-trading post until the Louisiana
Purchase of 1803. Its first era of marked development began with the
arrival of the first steamboat, 1817. Steam navigation of its river
connection made it the most important point in the settlement of the
trans-Mississippi West. It had repeatedly doubled its population before
the first period of German immigration, following the German revolution
of 1848. In 1875 St. Louis was separated from the County of St. Louis
and given an independent government of its own. In 1896 the city was
swept by a destructive tornado. In 1903 an exposition was held in St.
Louis to celebrate the Louisiana Purchase.
Its population of American birth heavily predominates, but its German
population is large and every element of European population is
represented, with a recent increase from Southern Europe and Russia in
excess of all other elements.
=St. Paul, Minn.= [Named from the Chapel of St. Paul, a log chapel
erected here by Roman Catholics. Indian name, _imnijaska_, “white rock,”
a reference to the sandstone bluff on which the city stands.]
It is the capital of Minnesota, and located on both banks of the
Mississippi River, immediately below Minneapolis, the suburbs of the
“Twin Cities” being contiguous.
It has a picturesque site at an elevation of six hundred and seventy to
eight hundred and eighty feet above sea level on a series of terraces,
the highest of which is two hundred and sixty-six feet above the river.
The two divisions of the city are connected by three municipal bridges.
In addition to these there are a number of railway bridges and scores of
smaller bridges over ravines, valleys, railway crossings, etc. The
municipal limits include the suburbs of Merriam, St. Anthony, Union,
Groveland, Macalester, and Desnoyer Parks, Arlington Hills, and others.
Of the three plateaus, the first contains the railway yards, Union
Station, wholesale houses and factories. Above the flats are the
business section and part of the residential district; still higher are
the bluffs, the most fashionable residential quarter, with extensive
views of the river and the lower terraces.
The business part of the town is well built and regularly laid out, and
the suburban quarters contain many fine streets and handsome residences.
The new State Capitol, erected in 1898-1906, at a cost of four million
five hundred thousand dollars, is a large and handsome edifice of
granite and Georgia marble, with an unusually successful central dome.
The most impressive parts of the interior are the central rotunda, the
two great staircases, the Supreme Court, and the Senate Chamber. The
dominant note in the color scheme is furnished by Minnesota yellow
limestone. The mural paintings are by La Farge, Simmons, Blashfield,
Garnsey, Kenyon Cox, and H. O. Walker. In the Governor’s reception room
are paintings by F. P. Millet, Howard Pyle, Douglas Volk, and others.
The State Law Library and that of the State Historical Society are both
housed in the Capitol.
Four blocks to the south of the Old Capitol are the Custom House and the
City Hall, the latter a handsome building erected at a cost of one
million dollars. Among other important buildings in the business quarter
are the Public Library; the Auditorium, a hall for meetings and
theatrical performances; the new Y. M. C. A. Building; the New York Life
Insurance Building, corner Sixth and Minnesota Streets; the Roman
Catholic Cathedral of St. Paul, Sixth Street, corner of St. Peter
Street; the High School, corner Tenth and Minnesota Streets; the Globe
Building, Fourth Street, corner Cedar Street; the Germania Life
Insurance Office; the former Bank of Minnesota, now used for various
offices; the Manhattan Building, corner of Fifth and Robert Streets; the
Gilfillan Building; the Endicott Arcade; the Central Presbyterian
Church; the Bethel Hotel, resembling the Mills House of New York; the
Minnesota Club House; the People’s Church; the Field, Mahler & Co.
Building, Fourth Street; and the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific
Railway Offices.
The finest residence street is Summit Avenue. It begins at Wabasha
Street and runs from Summit Park along a high ridge. The most prominent
dwelling is the large brown stone mansion of the late James J. Hill,
containing a good collection of paintings by Corot, Delacroix, Courbet,
Troyon, Decamps, etc.
A Roman Catholic Cathedral is being erected at Summit Park; and to the
west of the town, near the west end of Summit Avenue, by the river, is
the extensive Roman Catholic Seminary of St. Thomas Aquinas. On the
bluff above, at the end of Grand Avenue (parallel to Summit Avenue) are
the various buildings of the Hill Seminary.
It is also the seat of Hamline University (Methodist Episcopal),
Concordia College (Lutheran), Macalester College (Presbyterian), several
medical colleges, a State Reform School, and an Academy of Natural
Sciences.
St. Paul has a park system of remarkable beauty. Como and Phalen Parks
have picturesque lakes, and Indian Mound Park is said to have views
unsurpassed anywhere else on the Mississippi River. Harriet Island, in
the river opposite the business district, is provided with public baths.
There are twenty-two miles of park and boulevard driveways, not
including the River Boulevard. The total park area is one thousand two
hundred and four acres. Fort Snelling, attractively located at the mouth
of the Minnesota River, occupies a large tract adjacent to the city on
the southwest.
The manufactures of St. Paul include machinery, farming implements,
furniture, carriages, boots and shoes, and malt liquors. Here also are
located the extensive meat packing plants of Swift & Co., and quarries
of fine limestone. It is the center of the wholesale grocery and
dry-goods business in Minnesota. It is also an important printing and
publishing center, and has large car shops, lumber and planing mills,
and breweries.
In 1841 Father Galtier, a French Canadian, induced the settlers, chiefly
French Catholic hunters and traders in furs and whiskey, to build a log
church which was dedicated to St. Paul. In 1849 the town became the
capital of the newly organized territory of Minnesota, and was
incorporated. It received its city charter in 1854.
[Illustration: =WASHINGTON, AMERICA’S CITY BEAUTIFUL=