Philadelphia Guide To The City And Environs

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781332797486
Total Pages : 262 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (974 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Philadelphia and Its Environs written by and published by . This book was released on 2016-06-27 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Philadelphia and Its Environs: A Guide to the City and Surroundings Of the wider streets of Philadelphia, the leading north and south example is Broad Street, one hundred and thirteen feet wide, and opened fer a length of some twelve miles. It is paved through sev eral miles of its length with sheet asphaltum, and affords a magnifi cent avenue for carriages and processions. East and west through the centre of the city runs Market Street, one hundred feet wide and six miles long, its eastern portion being devoted to heavy wholesale business. Of the remaining wide avenues may be named Spring Garden Street, lined with handsome residences, and the favorite southern driveway to the Park; Fairmount, Girard, and Columbia Avenues; and Diamond Street, the principal northern carriage-road to the Park. Of the business streets, Chestnut and Eighth Streets stand first in retail trade, while Second Street is said to enjoy the distinction of being the longest street continuously lined with stores in the world. The rectangular character of the streets is broken by a few streets which run diagonally, and there has recently been placed on the city plan a diagonal Boulevard, one hundred and sixty feet in width, to run from the City Hall to Fairmount Park, and designed to be lined with buildings of imposing architecture, and to form an avenue of exceptional beauty. Nearly every important street has its passenger railway - horse or cable - modes of propulsion, which are likely soon to be supplanted by electric motors. The total length of street railway is over three hundred miles. The ease of access which this gives to the centre of the city is added to by the railroads, which now run by elevated tracks to the heart of the business section, giving easy and rapid access from the suburban districts to the vicinity of the City Hall. Philadelphia is notably a city of homes. The tenement-house, so common elsewhere, is scarcely known within its precincts, its pre vailing rule being one house for one family. No other city in the world contains so many comfortable single residences, largely owned by their occupants, great numbers of them being neat two-story structures, suitable for artisans, each with its bath-room and other modern conveniences. These houses are, as a rule, of brick, the abundance of brick-clay in the soil of the city making this the cheap est building material. Its long rows of red-brick walls and white marble steps and sills gave the city formerly a very monotonous aspect. Of recent years, however, the architecture in the business and leading residence streets, and in the newer portions of the city, has greatly improved and become much varied, both in materials and style, so that in examples of striking and effective modern archi tecture Philadelphia can now vie with any city in the country. It is no less notable for the great number of. Charitable institutions, de voted to the most varied purposes, within its limits. A perusal of the following pages will show the existence of a multitude of hos pitals, homes, orphanages, asylums, dispensaries, endowed schools, and other establishments partly or wholly supported by charity, which are but the most prominent among a host of such institutions, and speak well for the quality of mercy in the good city of Brotherly Love. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com