Friday, July 31, 2020

Miss Cora J. Alexander - Janitress, George L Horn School Harrowgate - 1880-1945


2016 E. Castor Ave. 







Previous family address 3733 Frankford Ave..

Clippings: Inquirer 3 Mar 1945, Inquirer 2 Mar 1945




Proposed New Century Theatre - Front Street and Kensington Ave. - Nixon and Zimmerman - Inquirer 25 Dec 1900





Comment on Kensington by Nixon and Zimmerman Theater Management on the proposal to build a new theatre at Kensington and Front - Inquirer 25 Dec 1900

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Thursday, July 30, 2020

J. K. Emmet in "Fritz In A Mad House" - People's Theatre, Kensington Ave and Cumberland St. - Inquirer 14 Oct 1894



Manager Bradenburgh, whose greatest ambition is to give the patrons of the popular People's Theatre the highest class and best attractions at popular prices, offers a most delightful bill for this week, when J. K. Emmet, assisted by lovely little children and a company of players of exceptional ability, will present the latest, funniest and best of his plays, "Fritz in a Mad House."

The name of Emmet is a sufficient guarantee of the most delightful entertainment and need no further comment. All that could be said in praise of him has been said, many times before. Who has not heard the sweet songs or been made happy by his quaint German humor and his bright magnetic personality? Those who have not should take advantage of the present opportunity, for they will find that there has beeh a little more sunshihe and pleasure brought into their hearts and memories by "Fritz" Emmet's tender songs and inimitable comedy. The play is at all times enjoyable and presents "Fritz" in new adventures and brim full of amusing and ludicrous situations. The third act, when Fritz imagines he is a lunatic asylum, uproariously funny from beginning to end. Mr. Emmet sing many charming songs, one of which is the "Bubble Song", to which he produces some wonderful affects with the bubbles which the little tot "Schneider" blows while Emmet sings. The company is excellent, every member of the cast being entitled special commendation.



George S Gandy - Long Forgotten Philly Based Builder


Philadelphians in Cartoons 1906


Worked his way up at Disston Saw, married the boss's daughter etc. 

Built the People's Theatre, Kensington and Cumberland, later remodeled into the Kent Theatre. 

Dabbled in the acquistion and mergers of street car lines in Philadelphia. 

Built the Gandy Bridge, six miles long, in Florida, 1924

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gandy


Clinton NY Courier 24 Sept 1924




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Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Germantown Passenger Railway Co.'s Car House and Stables (Philadelphia Rapid Transit) - 8th and Dauphin - Heximer Plate 1033 - 1876


8th and Susquehanna





8th and Dauphin

Germantown Passenger Railway Co.'s Car House and Stables N, 9th Street, Dauphin St, N. 8th St, and Susquehanna Ave (SE Corner)



1895 Bromley Map






Store Room Practice of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co., Excerpt: Electric Railway Journal V.33 Page 650 - April 3, 1909


Philadelphia Worker Trolley -
EBay (no date)



STORE ROOM PRACTICE OF THE PHILADELPHIA RAPID TRANSIT COMPANY

The Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company owns about 3800 cars, which are operated on the surface lines from 19 operating car houses. Inspection and light repairs to cars are carried out at all of these depots, but heavier repairs are made at one of the two general shops of the company. One of these shops is located in the north eastern part of the city, at the corner of Kensington and Cumberland Avenues, and the other is located in the old car house at Eighth and Dauphin Streets. The methods employed by this company in distributing equipment supplies from the general storeroom, which is also located in the building at Eighth and Dauphin Streets, to the 19 operating depots and to the Kensington Avenue shops presents a number of interesting features.

The general storeroom at Eighth and Dauphin Streets handles all supplies for the mechanical department, the operating department and the general offices. All heavy material for the track department is stored in and distributed from five division store yards, which also carry the maintenance and construction supplies of the department of lines and cables. The distribution of supplies for these two departments is entirely separate from the jurisdiction of the general store keeper and will be referred to briefly later on. Small supplies for the power house, including nuts, bolts, washers and similar manufactured parts, are drawn from the general storehouse when required; but coal, lubricating oil, waste and packing are delivered direct to the power houses, which make monthly requisitions for these supplies to the purchasing department.

The supplies of all kinds for the Market Street elevated and subway division are purchased through the office of the purchasing agent of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, but as this line is a leased property its accounts are kept entirely separate from the accounts of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, and its supplies are han dled through a separate storehouse.

The Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company carries on its books only two accounts for supplies. One of these is the general supply account covering all of the material handled through the general storehouse at Eighth and Dauphin Streets; the other is a similar maintenance of way supply account covering all track material, also material used by the department of lines and cables. As material is purchased and placed in stock in the general storeroom, its cost is entered under the general supply account, which is carried as a capital liability on the balance sheet. Each month the disbursements from the general storehouse are deducted from this general supply account and charged directly to operating expenses, being divided among the several sub-headings of this general account, according to the use to which the material drawn out was put. The cost of coal, oil and other power-house supplies is charged directly to operating expenses as delivered. At certain times, when a shortage of coal is threatened, large surplus stocks of coal are purchased ahead of requirements and a special capital account is opened on the books. As the surplus coal is used up its value is charged off to operatingexpenses against this special coal account.

The general storeroom at Eighth and Dauphin Streets is the central distributing point for all supplies required by the mechanical and operating departments. It is in charge of a general storekeeper, who reports to the purchasing agent. At the Kensington Avenue shops a branch storeroom is maintained under the direction of a storekeeper. This branch storeroom carries a stock of all supplies needed for the manufacturing and repair work carried on in the shop, but no supplies are issued from it direct to any of the operating depots. No stocks of such material as armature and field coil wire, paint and other supplies used solely in manufacturing and heavy repairwork are carried in the Eighth Street storehouse. A complete stock of manufactured parts, however, is kept on hand at this place ready to be issued when required to any of the operating depots. All these rolling stock supplies and miscellaneous car house and office supplies, such as brooms, fire buckets, stationery, ink, etc., are kept in stock at Eighth Street, and here also is kept the paper supply, which is issued from time to time to the printing department for use in printing transfers, tickets and office stationery.

An effort is made to limit the stock carried at each of the operating depots to an amount required for ordinary maintenance for not more than one week. Such supplies as are issued are charged to the car house foreman, who is responsible for their proper care and use. Each depot is provided with its own supply car, and a schedule has been arranged for the cars of all depots so that they make regular trips once each week, arriving at the EighthStreet storeroom at a fixed day and hour. When supplies are needed for an emergency these cars, of course, make special trips. The storehouse has a special freight car for its exclusive use. This car, which has a capacity of 30 tons and is mounted on double trucks, resembles a standard railroad box car, and is used for hauling the supplies from the railroad freight yards, with which the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company has track connections, to the storehouse and for distributing supplies from the Eighth Street storehouse to the branch at the KensingtonAvenue shops.

The keynote of the system of issuing supplies on this road is the requirement that for each new article delivered one worn-out or broken article of the same description shall be returned to the storeroom. ...


The Philadelphia Strike - Philadelphia Rapid Transit - Electric Railway Journal - June 5, 1909




THE PHILADELPHIA STRIKE

On Saturday, May 29, 2100 of the 6500 surface car men of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company went on strike in an attempt to force the acceptance of the following demands: Grievances to be adjusted between company officials and its employees, or by arbitration in important cases; privilege of purchasing uniforms anywhere; not less than nine hours or more than 10 hours within 12 consecutive hours to constitute a day's work, with time and a half for periods of more than 10 hours; regular wages, 25 cents an hour.


In reply to these demands the company stated that it could not afford to submit the management of its affairs to committees of employees, or, rather, of the union, and stated that it would treat with its employees only as individuals. The rule with regard to purchasing uniforms was necessary for the protection of the men themselves, as inferior goods were furnished by outside clothiers selling on credit at extortionate prices. The conditions involved in the practical operation of street railways in Philadelphia made it impossible to arrange the working time as desired by the car men. As to the demand for 25 cents an hour, the management pointed out that the directors had voluntarily arranged to increase wages from 21 cents an hour to 22 cents an hour, beginning July 1. It could not 
go beyond this figure in view of financial conditions.

Of the 2100 men who went out on Saturday not more
than one-third were members of the union. Many of the others who joined them were intimidated or feared violence and abuse. A great many of the older employees remained loyal to the company. Although the demands of the platform men were voiced as early as last December, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company did not anticipate that the threatened strike would assume serious
proportions. No special efforts, therefore, were made to secure the services of strike breakers in advance. When the strike was declared, however, the employment bureau in Philadelphia was immediately thrown open and another bureau established in New York City. In Philadelphia ex-employees and other men are also being engaged at the rate of 180 to 200 a day, and several hundred experienced men from New York and vicinity have also been hired. The employees thus secured are not professional strikebreakers, but are chiefly unemployed men who have applied for permanent positions with the company. That the great majority of them are experienced in the operation of cars is very evident to observers.

Several hundred men are quartered at the Lancaster Avenue and Forty-third Street car house, where a complete commissariat has been provided. The company has agreed to care for any man who is injured in the performance of his duty by strikers or others.

Owing to the ease in getting new men so rapidly and the number of loyal men, it was possible to operate 50 percent of all cars on Saturday, 40 per cent on Sunday, 40 per cent on Monday and 60 per cent on Tuesday. It will be understood, of course, that the schedule demands for Saturday, Sunday and Monday were extraordinarily account of holiday business; in fact, the strike had been timed to come at the period most embarrassing to the railway management. Nevertheless, fully 516 cars were in service on Tuesday at 8:30 a. m. By 12:30 p. m. of the same day 615 cars were on the lines, and in the evening a total of 707. As on the previous nights, no attempt was made to operate cars after 8 p. m.

Despite the fact that the people of Philadelphia and the railway company are engaged in a controversy about the abolition of the six-for-a-quarter fare tickets, the strikers did not meet with much material encouragement from the public. It was apparent that the people were willing to ride wherever cars were placed in service. About the only visual evidence of a strike was an occasional "I walk" sign carried in the caps of boys or by striking employees in uniform. Many of the latter arc selling newspapers and others are collecting money by playing street organs. During the first three days of the strike a large number of trucks were impressed to carry people for 5 or 10 events each, but by Tuesday they were doing very little business. Most of the suburban traffic temporarily lost by the electric railway is being diverted to the steam railway lines, especially in the travel to Willow Grove.

The strikers have been cautioned by their leaders not to participate in any form of disorder. There have been a few slight disturbances here and there, incited by strike sympathizers, but in general the city is remarkably quiet. This must be ascribed largely to the prompt action of Mayor Reyburn in furnishing policemen for all cars and ordering that all saloons should be closed between the hours of 6 p. m. and 6 a. m. It has not been necessary to swear in any railway employees as deputies. By Tuesday conditions had become so much better that the saloons were permitted to remain open until 8 p. m.

Despite the most strenuous efforts on the part of the strikers, not a single employee of any other department of the railway company has left the service. Leaders of other unions have arranged for a parade on Thursday, June 4, mass meetings and the like, but there is little prospect that these will have any effect, as the company is securing all the men it wants, is enjoying sufficient police protection and is getting all the traffic it can handle. The leader of the strikers is C. O. Pratt, who in the past has incited strikes in Knoxville. Chicago, Dayton, San Francisco and other cities.


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People's Theatre - Kensington Ave and Cumberland St - circa 1900





[[Kent Theatre, 2649 Kensington Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa.]]
Peoples Theatre, Philadelphia, Penn.
(Bell, D. Sargent, Photographer)
Irvin R. Glazer Theater Collection, Athenaeum of Philadelphia.
Local ID #: 43-P-110-010


Typo - 2469 Kensington Ave.


Later remodel - no date - post "el" train installation. Pre-Kent Theatre update.


Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Frankford and Southwark Fifth and Sixth Street Car Barns and Stables Kensington and Cumberland Hexamer Plates 1297 1298 -1878


What would appear to be surviving elements of car barns of Frankford and Southwark, Philadelphia Rapid Transit and P.T.C. (and with improvements - minus stables) - Kensington and Cumberland. Heximer plates 1297-1298, 1878.

https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/13497

















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Friday, July 17, 2020

Samuel Sanquin Sanford 1821-1905 - - New York Dramatic Mirror - 13 Jan 1906



Samuel S Sanford in Racial Drag
(Harvard Theatre Collection)

SAMUEL S. SANFORD. 

Samuel S. Sanford, the oldest of the minstrel performers and managers, died at his home in Brooklyn on Dec. 31, 1905. He leaves a widow and a son, Walter, who is now in Australia. Mr. Sanford, who was one of the originators of modern minstrelsy, was eighty-four years old and his sudden death was due to a stroke of paralysis. 

Samuel S. Sanford was born on Jan. 1, 1821, and made his debut at the age of nine as a singer in Dan Neuman's ballroom, located at what is now know as Eighth and Willow streets, Philadelphia. Until his sixteenth year he traveled with his uncle, Hugh Lindsay, who was then a popular clown. In 1840 he entered the minstrel business as a solo singer, lie soon became a popular favorite as an impersonator of the plantation darky and made an especial hit as one of the first men to sing "Lucy Long." His debut as a manager was on Feb. 10, 1843, when he was associated with Jenkins, Diamond, Wynn and Lull at the old Southwark Hall in Philadelphia. The company was successful and moved to Temperance Hall, but after a short engagement there S. S. Sandford's Minstrels went on the road, returning to Philadelphia in the following season of 1844. In November of that year the company went South and Sanford attracted attention by singing " Cynthia Sue," " Lucy Neal," " Ole Bull and Dan Tucker" and "Whar Did You Come From ?" In the same year Sanford joined the New Orleans Serenaders and crossed the ocean with them, remaining in England, Ireland and Scotland for sixteen prosperous months. In November, 1848, this company reopened in New York, Sanford's salary being doubled, and the New Orleans Serenaders played an engagement of one hundred nights at the Broadway Theatre. In Philadelphia the troupe engaged Masonic Hall and there began producing burlesque parodies on Cinderella, La Somnambula, The Bohemian Girl and such pieces, all of these travesties being arranged by Kueass. Shortly afterward the New Orleans Minstrels disbanded, and Sandford, having returned to Philadelphia, organized a new company under his own name. This company appeared in New York at the Astor Place Opera House, opening on April 19, 1852. In 1853 the Sanford Minstrels played a remarkably successful six months engagement at Concert Hall on Chestnut street, Philadelphia. He then leased the Edwards Building, which was opened as Sanford's Opera House on Aug. 10, 1853, but was unfortunately destroyed by fire on Dec. 9 of the same year. In 1854 the company appeared again in New York and found a second permanent home in Philadelphia at Carter's Lyceum, which was rechristened Sanford's Opera House and where the company appeared continuously until 1862. During this period the minstrel troupe increased its roster from six to eighteen members and Sanford added some of his own compositions to the list of old burlesques, notably a travesty on Pocahontas. Each summer the troupe went on the road and one of his most successful engagements was for eight weeks at the Boston Museum, opening on July 7, 1856. 

During the Civil War Mr. Sanford suffered financial reverses which temporarily crippled his enterprises, though he never withdrew from the field. On July 4, 1863, he was married in Philadelphia to Appoline M. Bond. On July 6, 1866, Sanford and a minstrel troupe appeared again in New York city at Tony Pastor's Opera House, having played a short time at Barnum's Museum exactly three years previous. In 1870 he leased an old church in Philadelphia, which he opened as a minstrel hall on Dec. 17, but this hall also was burned during a return engagement in 1871. In 1874 he was at the Eleventh. Street Opera House, Philadelphia, and in 1878 he made another short stay in his favorite city. From Dec. 4 to Dec. 9, 1871, Sanford appeared nn New York at Tony Pastor's in a darky sketch entitled Old Josh. 

Besides his appearances as a minstrel Mr. Sanford sometimes assumed legitimate roles, his greatest hit being as Uncle Tom in the original production of that play. He also acted Wool in The Hidden Hand. Job in The White Slave, Happy Tom in Kentucky Home, and Pete in The Octoroon. For the past twenty years he had practically been In retirement. 


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Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Friendship Hall - SE Corner Norris and Sepviva Streets - 1895





Society for Ethical Culture of Philadelphia. (Bulletin for February, 1895)



1895 Bromley City Map




Historical Sketch - St. Laurentius Church and Parish - 1895





HISTORICAL SKETCHES .

St. LAURENTIUS', 1882.

THE first Polish congregation of Philadelphia was organized in 1882, and for quite a time after that date worshiped in Friendship Hall, at Norris and Sepviva Streets. 


It was in 1885 that their first pastor, the late Rev. Emil Kattein, having secured ample ground at the corner of Vienna and Memphis Streets, built the basement of the present church . It was dedicated on Sunday, December 20, 1885, by Archbishop Ryan, who, in addition to the sermon by the rector, Father Kattein, made an address in which he paid a warm tribute to the Poles as the martyr nation. From that time Divine service was held in it until the dedication of the handsome superstructure, which was built during the pastorate of the second rector, Rev. Adalbert Malusecki, who succeeded Father Kattein in June, 1887, and remained in charge until March, 1895, when he was succeeded by the present rector, Rev. Father Tarnowski. 

Father Malusecki in eighteen months raised the sum of $24,000, and had the church dedicated by Archbishop Ryan on September 21, 1890, his Grace also preaching. The basement was then fitted up as a parochial school.

The new building thus completed and set aside for the service of God is 60 feet wide and 122 feet long, with a height from the floor of the main church to the vaulted ceiling of 60 feet. The walls are of stone, and over the front rise two spires, each of which ascends to a height of 150 feet from the side walk. The adornments of the temple are handsome, rich and tasteful.


(Historical sketches of the Catholic churches and institutions in Philadelphia -1895)

Thursday, July 9, 2020

Rafael Guastavino - 1842 / 1908 - The Brickbuilder February 1908





RAFAEL GUASTAVINO, Originator of the cohesive tile construction which bears his name, died at his home in Asheville, N. C., February 2, 1908. He was born in Valencia, Spain, in 1842. Coming from a family of musicians, a portion of his early life was spent in the study of music. At seventeen he entered the office of D. José Nadal, an architect of Valencia, and from there he went to Barcelona, where he took the full University course, and afterwards entered the School of Architecture.

Having embraced the profession of a builder as well as architect, as was then customary in Spain, he was largely engaged for many years in the erection of mills,factories, and other types of buildings, in which the necessity of fireproof construction was evident, and while erecting these he had every opportunity to experiment with concrete and tile for floor and roof constructions. He was guided by the study of the architecture of the Byzantines and Persians, whose influence had been felt in Spain from the third to the fourteenth century.

At the time of the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876, a number of photographs of his work as an architect and inventor were exhibited in the Spanish government section; and having received a medal for these. he felt encouraged by that alone to visit this country as soon as he could find it convenient to do so. This did not occur until 1881.

His first work in this country was done in 1886 in a four-story private house on 78th Street, New York, and later in the Arion Club, 59th Street, whose building committee accepted his proposition, when they ascertained that with his arches they could make a saving of over $5,000 in two floors alone, largely on account of the amount of iron that was omitted.

With this experience and a series of experiments that he undertook in New York, he commenced the study of his art along scientific lines, and endeavored to adduce formulas based on constants, which for the first time in his experience he was able to obtain.

Mr. Guastavino was appointed architect for the Spanish Government Pavilion at the World’s Fair, in 1893, at Chicago, which was a replica of “La Lonja" at Barcelona, Spain, which was built in 1492.

At the invitation of the president of the American Institute of Architects, he read a paper before the International Congress of Architects, which was held at Chicago in 1893, on “Masonry Construction,” which created a considerable amount of interest and discussion, and was considered one of the ablest papers presented. He was also appointed one of the international judges on a jury of awards for the Architectural exhibit in the Exposition.

Perhaps no better estimate of the man could be given than that by William E. Blodgett, who for twenty years has been associated with Mr. Guastavino in his work. He says:

“I distinctly remember my first meeting him some twenty years since, at the time he was starting on his first really large and interesting task in the line of construction which he originated and developed, the Boston Public Library. This building is still in some ways the best illustration of the possibilities of the timbrel vault
construction, because of the diversity of its problems,the barrel arches, groined arches, and domes, all of them structural in their character, carrying the floor load, and also because of the fact that it was the first instance, in this country at least, of the use of that finished repressed and glazed tile development which latterly has become so largely a component part of the development of the system.

“Contrary to the general impression as to the Spanish character, I found him an extraordinarily alert and active man, both physically and mentally; in fact, I never met a quicker man in all my experience; a very hard worker day and night himself, he demanded the same kind of service from those associated with him always industrious and never idling. While these characteristics softened very slightly with the passing of the years, they obtained up to the time of his decease, and though recently he did not devote himself so exclusively to the business of the company with which his name is identified, he always maintained a supervisory oversight, and spent the remainder of his time, not in ease, but in other forms of activity, to which his very versatile mind easily lent itself.

“ Mr. Guastavino was an ardent lover of the truthful and the beautiful in the arts, and felt that his chosen profession of architecture was one of the noblest callings of man, and to it he gave all the wealth and energy of his resourceful nature."

As the personality of Mr. Guastavino was so largely identified with the type of construction which he originated, the inquiry naturally arises as to whether there are those left who can successfully carry on and develop the system with which his name has been so long associated. Some ten or a dozen years ago, the business was put into a corporate form, and his son, bearing the same name, has been vice-president and general superintendent of the company, having in charge the laying out and designing of the work and the superintending of the larger and more difficult problems, so practically the burden of this technical work has fallen on him during these years. He has stepped into his father's place as presi­dent of the company. Mr. Blodgett, who for the past twenty years has been the business man of the concern, and treasurer of the company, will still have charge of these affairs as before. With the company retaining the personnel which has been a part of the equipment for many years, so far as the execution of contracts and the interests of the profession are concerned, but little, if any, change will be noted.



Franklin Building, South 12th Street - Furness, Evans & Co. - The Brickbuilder November 1895


FRANKLIN BUILDING, PHILADELPHIA; Furness, Evans & Co., Architects.


PHILADELPHIA.—The dwelling builders have had things their own way for the few weeks just passed. There were many operations, and some large ones; but, as usual, there seems to be no desire to improve the dwelling-house architecture of the city by those who build three fourths of the dwellings, — the operative builders.

It would seem that there should be some desire to do better when there are new conditions imposed upon them by the revised building laws and the increased force of inspectors; but there is still the same bad wall, and the usual amount of half-burned bricks are yet to be seen. Artistically, they are worse than before, for some few strive for variety by changing the design (as they call it) every few houses; there will be four with Pompeian fronts, then four with red, and so on in alternation, all of them frightfully bad in design, and capped with the same very cheap galvanized cornice. We fear it will ever be thus.

In the larger contracts, however, there is a desire for something very much better than usual; and what is even more noticeable is the desire for speed. It no longer takes two years to put up a large building, as was clearly demonstrated in the erection of the Franklin Building, which is now pretty fully occupied, upon a site where eight months ago stood a number of old and very insignificant buildings.

Eight months, however, does not mark the time required for the erection of this building, for it has been ready for occupancy for some time. The demolition of the old buildings commenced on the 12th of last March, the first concrete for the foundations was laid on the 14th of the following April, and the work progressed so quickly from that time until the completion of the building that one could see it grow; and it seemed to grow without much effort, well was the work managed. On September 14th one of the stores was occupied for business.

The entire building, from the time of the laying of the first concrete, was completed and thrown open to the public in the surprisingly short period of five months.

It is well erected, thoroughly fire-proof, and equipped with every modern device known to the profession, making it one of the largest and best office buildings in the city.

The building was erected for W. W. Frazier, Esq,. is situated upon the corner of Twelfth and Lawson Streets, and is entirely occupied by offices, except the first story. which contains stores; it is constructed from iron, terra-cotta, and cement, the entire fronts being of terra-cotta, which is beautifully modeled, and is the work of Stephens & Co. The caryatids which support the second story are especially effective, and were designed by the eminent sculptor, Carl Bitter; the terra-cotta balcony around the entire

building at the fourth floor is also a very nice feature and serves to relieve the monotony of that part of the design. The interior, as before said is strictly fireproof, the flooring is of cement concrete and twisted steel rods, a patent construction controlled by the Fireproof Flooring Co., of this city, while the elevators are the work of Morse, Williams & Co.

To the architects, Messrs. Furness, Evans &Co., is due the credit for the management of the work; it was entirely under their supervision from the beginning, even to the letting of the contracts, which, it is well to say, were all restricted to Philadelphia firms.

This, we think, should go a great way toward removing the untrue stigma of slowness from Philadelphia, if we consider the marvelously short time consumed in the erection of such an elaborate building as the one in question. Can cosmopolitan New York or hustling Chicago beat this time record?


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Wednesday, July 8, 2020

OFFICE BUILDING, 1031 CHESTNUT ST., Albert W. Dilks, Architect - The Brickbuilder - Sept 1895

OFFICE BUILDING,  1031 CHESTNUT ST., PHILADELPHIA.
Albert W. Dilks, Architect.

P H I L A D E LP H I A . 
—-A building thoroughly adapted to present uses and rivaling in beauty and utility some of its much more extensive competitors is the one recently finished at 1031 and 1033 Chestnut Street,  Architect Albert W. Dilks; it shows more than ordinary study in the planning of the eight floors composing the building, and has an
abundance of light and air.

It is constructed with a steel frame between extra heavy party walls, care being taken to thoroughly protect every part of the frame from fire and rust. The stories are very high, probably higher than necessary for the ordinary uses to which they will be put, but were made so in order that there might be freer light and ventilation. Aside from the stairways, which are of iron with aluminum finish, the front on Chestnut Street is the only place upon which any ornamentation could be attempted, and here there has been a combination of stone, brick, and terracotta very neatly and carefully designed and executed. 

The detail especially is better than the usual work of this class, and in the building looks very much more interesting than in our sketch, the position of the building being such that it is almost impossible to get a good photograph of the front at present.

A very noticeable feature is the large vestibule or entrance to the building, which is faced from floor to ceiling with faience in specially designed pattern. The novelty of the material attracts the attention of the passing public, and is quite favorably commented upon. It was furnished by the Grueby Faience Company, of Boston, Mass, and is of the most extensive and finest of their executions which we have seen.

The brick and terra-cotta is from the New York Architectural Terra—cotta Company, while the terra-cotta arches and blocks are from the Staten Island Terra-cotta Company. The elevators are of very high speed, and were erected by the Stokes & Parrish Company. The steel work was made by the Phoenix Iron Company.

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Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Robert H Foederer's Residence - 1246 Broad Street - Hazelhurst & Huckel Architects - The Brickbuilder February 1895






MR. ROBERT H. FOEDERER‘S RESIDENCE, PHILADELPHIA.

HAZELHURST & HUCKEL, ARCHITECTS.


This is the latest of the many elegant residences built on North Broad Street.It is constructed of buff Roman-size brick and white terra-cotta, with first story of Indiana limestone. The columns to front entrance and loggia above third story, also spandrel over the main door, are Pabanazza marble. The terra-cotta work was made by Stephens, Armstrong & Conkling of Philadelphia, and the brick by the Eastern Hydraulic-Press Brick Co.


The color tone of the building is exceedingly pleasing, and, with the details and modelling, has been carried out with great care and fidelity, and is another example of the use in combination of brick and terra-cotta in Philadelphia buildings of recent date.




For elevations and plans see Plates 12, 13, and 14.

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