Philly 1911

Northeast Manual High School

Delaware Avenue

Opera House on N. Broad Street

Waterfront

Waterfront

Delaware Ave and Race Street NW - 1922

http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/cdm4/bridges_viewer.php?



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Pennsylvania R.R. Ferries Building - Market Street and Delaware Avenue - Philadelphia

Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives, circa 1899

Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives, circa 1899

Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives, circa 1899

Library of Congress - Circa 1900

Circa 1920s

Circa 1899

Philadelphia Geo Maps 1895

Philadelphia Geo Maps 1910

Philadelphia Geo Maps 1942

Doing some research and magnification of old photos I started to look for the name of the architect of old Pennsylvania Railroad R.R. Ferries Terminal building built around 1899 or so it would seem to me.  I also searched for some interior photos hoping for some grand lost architectural gem from the so-called Gilded Age at the turn of the Twentieth Century.

Looking further at the photos of what I thought was some lost cast iron façade of a lost grand building, I decided that cast iron may be involved, but more likely a lumber and tin covered façade, facing to a bunch of old piers and docks may be the likely answer to the old ferry terminal.

Maybe it was a temporary measure.  Maybe the envisioned new building never got built. I do not know at this time without further research.  I am guessing that the Hollywood like temporary sets of the Columbian Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, was the inspiration of the ferry terminal in transition and in connection with the widening of Delaware Avenue along with other port improvements never got past a quick façade stage of transitional building. More research needed.

Below the photos above for your inspection are three port maps 1895, 1910 and 1942 to show how four ferry docks eventually got reshaped into five docks and maybe the reason for a temporary façade in the late 1890s.

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Harbor Master's House – Delaware Avenue – 1898/1899

Here is what I think is an interesting story told in pictures on Delaware Ave. in Philly. Here are some general details to tell this story. The specifics, details from further research, a lot of it is on the Internet.

Background, Congress passed an improvement package to east coast U.S. ports in 1888 in order to compete and accommodate newer and bigger ocean liners and freighters on the world’s shipping lanes.

One of the first appropriations from Congress was to negotiate a price for Smith’s and Windward Island in the Delaware.  Once condemned and bought by the government, the Army engineers began removing these obstacles to modern navigation by around 1893-1894 as well as dredge the river from something like a 26 foot depth to a 30 foot depth.  

The debris from dredging and the condemned island was transported as land fill to League Island further south on the river.

The overall plan was also to increase the width of Delaware Avenue to 150 feet along the downtown area, the target area for ocean liners and such and traditionally the busiest part of the port of Philadelphia. This widening began in earnest around 1897 and was finished by around1899.

The work itself on the widening of Delaware Avenue was financed, the majority of it, from the Girard Estate Trust to the tune of close to $500,000 and the City took out loans for the rest to pay dock and wharf owners for condemnation and revenues lost due to upgrades required to stay in business in the port redo.  Don’t know if there was anything like municipal bonds back then to finance city project etc.

One of the interesting photos of the transformed or nearly complete Delaware Avenue is below, an 1899 photo.

Upon closer examination, I saw this structure, building that looks like it has a glass observation tower. 

Saw this photo below on the old photos thread and then I looked and decided that this building was important enough to be moved across Delaware avenue from the city archive photo (1898) below to the Temple Library photos (1899) above.  The building changes it position in photos in relation to the Chester and Wilmington Steamboat building on the wharf.

I am assuming here and labeling the structure the “Harbor Master’s Building”. Anybody have better suggestions or better documentation than my historic speculation?

Since I am not a nautical person, further research on my part got me running into two terms that might be interchangeable. Those two terms are Port Warden and Harbor Master.

Harbor Master

Port Warden

I think that the Port Warden is an inspector of boats and manifests once they are docked and needs to report cargoes to the Customs House to collect Federal tariff and excise taxes. That’s how they ran the government back before income taxes among other things.

The budgets described in some Pennsylvania budget reports would indicate that the Harbor Master job had to do with navigation traffic on the river as well and assigning docking space etc. with the two water fronts of Philly and Camden.

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Delaware Avenue As Art - Philadelphia

Penn's Treaty - Frieze - U.S. Capitol

Delaware Avenue - Pier 21 North - at Callowhill - 1899 - Steamer Annie L. Vansciver

http://www.phillyhistory.org/PhotoArchive/Detail.aspx?assetId=5002

Northern Liberties Market & Co. Pier 21

Phila. Rancocas & Mt. Holly Trans. Co.

Steamer 

Annie L. Vanschiver

at Centreton N.J. - circa 1907

http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/the-aserdaten-tract-location.8252/page-3

Centreton Bridge (Swing Open Bridge) at Rancocas Creek, Burlington County, NJ 

Samoset (American Ferry Steamship, 1897)

Photographed prior to her World War I Naval Service, with the ferry steamer Norumbega tied up astern. Both belonged to the Maine Central Railroad Company.
Formerly named Annie L. Vansciver, this ship was acquired by the Navy on 20 March 1918 and subsequently served as USS Samoset (ID # 2000). She was sold on 16 June 1922.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-civil/civsh-s/samoset.htm

Annie L. Vansciver, a 294 gross ton ferry steamship, was built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1897 for commercial service. Later renamed Samoset, she was purchased by the Navy in March 1918 and placed in service under that name. During the remaining months of World War I she transported personnel and cargo around Boston harbor. The vessel was transferred to New York harbor duty following the conflict's end and remained active there until March 1922. USS Samoset was sold in June 1922. She subsequently had civilian employment until about 1934.

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/01/exhibit-looks-time-when-steamer-was-way-go

Depending on where you live, a trip from the Inner Banks to the Outer Banks takes between 30 and 90 minutes - today.

At the start of the last century, when there were no bridges to speed the trip, it took about four hours.

Passengers could take the trip on the Annie L., officially the Annie L. Vansciver, named after a prominent family in New Jersey.

Today, you can take a look at a miniature of the Annie L. and learn about it at the Museum of the Albemarle, where another nautical exhibit is on display telling the story of the battleship North Carolina.

Before the Annie L. plied the Albemarle region, it was used for commercial service and then acquired by the Navy during World War I and renamed the Samoset. Later it was used to transport freight and personnel in Boston Harbor. Its next harbor home was New York City.

According to museum literature, the craft headed south in the 1920s, homeported in Jarvisburg after its acquisition by the North River Line. Its original name was restored.

Its owners were a group of Camden and Currituck County farmers and businessmen who recognized the need for its services and recognized the possibilities of profit.

The steamer had several staterooms, and separate salons, bathrooms and eating quarters for whites and blacks.

The Annie L.'s freight deck could hold as many as 1,700 barrels of produce, but it is best remembered for its Sunday passenger service. Passengers paid $1.75 for a one-way trip, which began at 8 a.m. in Elizabeth City.

In 1930, the Wright Memorial Bridge was opened to traffic, a death knell for the Annie L., which made its final trip in 1934. It was moved to Norfolk and Mobjack, Va., and converted into a fishing vessel.

"The ultimate fate of the vessel is unknown," according to the museum.