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WORKSHOP OF THE WORLD—A Selective Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Philadelphia

The Philadelphia of To-Day, The World’s Greatest Workshop: America’s largest Home City with more home owners than any other City in the world. (W.T. Littig & Co., N.Y., 1908).

 

Anyone familiar to the City of Brotherly Love has most likely encountered the impossibility of averting anything historical, especially in regard to architecture.  Whether it’s your favorite coffee shop or the loft you visited the previous weekend, Philadelphia as an industrial epicenter of the past is rapidly changing.  Luckily, the change is being acknowledged and documented so that not everything is lost.

 

Workshop of the World are historical surveys of over 150 industrial sites in Philadelphia, PA.  It examines the city through seventeen neighborhoods and provides examples of their found industries based on the following criteria:

• cultural significance (architecture, engineering, industrial)
• prominent representation of their industry
• vulnerability to demolition or collapse

The following are some of their examples documenting the more popular vantage points of Philadelphia:

 

Reading Terminal Market, 12th and Market, Philadelphia ,PA  (Center City)

Headhouse, northeast corner, 12th & Market Streets, (1892) 

“The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was originally built in 1838 as a coal road, extending from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia.  The eight story headhouse was designed by Francis H. Kimball and built by Wilson Brother & Company in an Italianate style.  The headouse facade on market Street was constructed using granite, brick and terra cotta with a copper cornice. The train shed behind it extended north to Arch Street.“

 

southeast corner, 12th and market

 

 

Ben Franklin Bridge, Philadelphia, PA (Center City)

 

Caption reads: The Philadelphia-Camden Bridge during construction

“In 1921, an Act of the United States Congress authorizing the bridge was passed and the Board of Engineers produced an estimate for the construction cost of $28,871,000.  Work on the bridge commenced on January 6, 1922, and the bridge was formally opened to traffic on July 1, 1926 on schedule.  When completed, the almost two-mile expanse was the longest suspension bridge in the world.”

 

 

Globe Dye Works, 4500 Worth Street, Philadelphia, PA (Frankford)

Globe Dye Works Advertisement, 1864

 

“Globe Dye Works, Greenwood & Bault, Owners” (1895), Hexamer General Survey #2843-2844

“The original building built in 1867 by Greenwood & Bault still stands at the corner of Torresdale and Kinsey Street.  It received its water supply for dyeing and bleaching of textiles from the Little Tacony Creek, a large tributary of Frankford Creek.”

 

“Today, Globe Dye Works has been remade to support art studios, craftsman studios, offices and stores. Public spaces within will serve as areas to exhibit art, communicate with fellow tenants, and give residents an opportunity to collaborate.” (Frankford Gazette)

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To read more on the historical context of Philadelphia’s Industrial History:  www.workshopoftheworld.com