There are many notable structures in Philadelphia. The United States
Mint, opposite the City Hall, and fronting on Chestnut Street, has
executed nearly all the coinage of the country since its establishment
in 1792, the present building having been completed in 1833. It
contains a most interesting collection of coins, including the
"widow's mite." A fine new mint is now being erected on a much larger
scale in the northwestern section of the city. The Bourse, on Fifth
Street near Chestnut, erected in 1895 at a cost of $1,500,000, is the
business centre, its lower hall being the most spacious apartment in
the city, and the edifice is constructed in the style of Francis I.
The white marble Custom House, with fine Doric portico, was originally
erected in 1819, at a cost of $500,000, for the second United States
Bank, this noted bank, which ultimately suspended, having been for
many years a political bone of contention. On the opposite side of the
street, covering a block, is a row of a half-dozen wealthy financial
institutions, making one of the finest series in existence, granite
and marble being varied in several orders of architecture. The
Post-office building, also on Chestnut Street, a grand granite
structure in Renaissance, with a façade extending four hundred feet,
cost over $5,000,000. The plain and solid Franklin Institute, designed
to promote the mechanical and useful arts, is not far away.
Down nearer the river is the venerable Christ Church, with its tall
spire, built in 1727, the most revered Episcopal church in the city,
and the one at which General Washington and all the Government
officials in the Revolutionary days worshipped. William White, a
native of the city, was the rector of this church and chaplain of the
Continental Congress, and in 1786 was elected the Episcopal Bishop of
Pennsylvania, being ordained by the Archbishop of Canterbury at
Lambeth in February, 1787. He presided over the Convention, held in
this church in 1789, which organized the Protestant Episcopal Church
in the United States. Christ Church still possesses the earliest chime
of bells sent from England to America, and the spire, rising nearly
two hundred feet, is a prominent object seen from the river. Bishop
White died in 1836, aged 88. He was also, in his early life, the
rector of St. Peter's Church, another revered Episcopal church at
Third and Pine Streets. In its yard is the grave of Commodore Stephen
Decatur, the famous American naval officer, who, after all his
achievements and victories, was killed in a duel with Commodore Barron
in 1820, his antagonist also dying. The most ancient church in
Philadelphia is Gloria Dei, the "Old Swedes'" Church, a quaint little
structure near the Delaware River bank in the southern part of the
city, built in 1700. The early Swedish settlers, coming up from Fort
Christina, erected a log chapel on this site in 1677, at which Jacob
Fabritius delivered the first sermon. After he died, the King of
Sweden in 1697 sent over Rev. Andrew Rudman, under whose guidance the
present structure was built to replace the log chapel; and it was
dedicated, the first Sunday after Trinity, 1700, by Rev. Eric Biorck,
who had come over with Rudman. Many are the tales told of the
escapades of the early Swedes in the days of the log chapel. The
Indians on one occasion undermined it to get at the congregation, as
they were afraid of the muskets which the men shot out of the
loopholes. The women, however, scenting danger, brought into church a
large supply of soft-soap, which they heated piping hot in a cauldron.
When the redskins made their foray and popped their heads up through
the floor, they were treated to a copious bath of hot soap, and fled
in dismay. This is the "Old Swedes'" Church at Wicaco of which
Longfellow sings in _Evangeline_. The poet, in unfolding his story,
brings both _Evangeline_ and Gabriel from Acadia to Philadelphia in
the enforced exodus of 1755, and thus graphically describes the Quaker
City:
"In that delightful land which is washed by the Delaware's waters,
Guarding in sylvan shades the name of Penn, the Apostle,
Stands on the banks of its beautiful stream the city he founded.
There all the air is balm, and the peach is the emblem of beauty,
And the streets still re-echo the names of the trees of the forest,
As if they fain would appease the Dryads whose haunts they molested.
There, from the troubled sea, had Evangeline landed an exile,
Finding among the children of Penn a home and a country.
Something, at least, there was, in the friendly streets of the city,
Something that spake to her heart and made her no longer a stranger;
And her ear was pleased with the Thee and Thou of the Quakers,
For it recalled the past, the old Acadian country,
Where all men were equal, and all were brothers and sisters."
In Philadelphia it is said Evangeline lived many years as a Sister of
Mercy, and it was thus that she visited the ancient almshouse to
minister to the sick and dying on a Sabbath morning:
"As she mounted the stairs to the corridors, cooled by the east
wind,
Distant and soft on her ear fell the chimes from the belfry of
Christ Church,
While intermingled with these, across the meadows were wafted
Sounds of psalms that were sung by the Swedes in their church
at Wicaco."
There she found the dying Gabriel, and both, according to the
tradition, are buried in the yard of the Roman Catholic Church of the
Holy Trinity, at Sixth and Spruce Streets:
"Still stands the forest primeval; but far away from its shadow,
Side by side, in their nameless graves, the lovers are sleeping.
Under the humble walls of the little Catholic churchyard,
In the heart of the city, they lie unknown and unnoticed.
Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing beside them,
Thousands of throbbing hearts, where theirs are at rest and
forever;
Thousands of aching brains, where theirs no longer are busy;
Thousands of toiling hands, where theirs have ceased from their
labors;
Thousands of weary feet, where theirs have completed their
journey."
In the ancient graveyard of "Old Swedes" is buried Alexander Wilson,
the American ornithologist, who was a native of Scotland, but lived
most of his life in Philadelphia, dying in 1813. The largest church
in the city is the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul,
fronting on Logan Square, an imposing Roman Corinthian structure of
red sandstone, two hundred and sixteen by one hundred and thirty-six
feet, and crowned by a dome rising two hundred and ten feet. The chief
institution of learning is the University of Pennsylvania, the most
extensive and comprehensive College in the Middle States, dating from
1740, and munificently endowed, which occupies, with its many
buildings, a large surface in West Philadelphia, and has three
thousand students. This great institution originated from a building
planned in 1740 for a place in which George Whitefield could preach,
which was also used for a charity school. This building was conveyed
to trustees in 1749 to maintain the school, and they were in turn
chartered as a college in 1753 "to maintain an academy, as well for
the instruction of poor children on charity as others whose
circumstances have enabled them to pay for their learning." This
charitable feature is still maintained in the University by free
scholarships.
Philadelphia is eminently a manufacturing city, and its two greatest
establishments are the Cramp Shipbuilding yards in the Kensington
district and the Baldwin Locomotive Works on North Broad Street, each
the largest establishment of its kind in America. The city has spread
over a greater territory than any other in the United States, and
sixteen bridges span the Schuylkill, with others in contemplation, its
expansion beyond that river has been so extensive. The enormous growth
of the town has mainly come from the adoption of the general principle
that every family should live in its own house, supplemented by
liberal extensions of electrical street railways in all directions.
Hence, Philadelphia is popularly known as the "City of Homes." As the
city expanded over the level land, four-, six-, eight-and ten-room
dwellings have been built by the mile, and set up in row after row.
Two-story and three-story houses of red brick, with marble steps and
facings, make up the greater part of the town, and each house is
generally its owner's castle, the owner in most cases being a
successful toiler, who has saved his house gradually out of his hard
earnings, almost literally brick by brick. There is almost unlimited
space in the suburbs yet capable of similar absorption, and the
process which has given Philadelphia this extensive surface goes on
indefinitely. The population is also regarded as more representative
of the Anglo-Saxon races than in most American cities, though the
Teuton numerously abounds and speedily assimilates. The greatest
extent of Philadelphia is upon a line from southwest to northeast,
which will stretch nearly twenty miles in a continuous succession of
paved and lighted streets and buildings.