Historic Philadelphia

lit up again on October 24 because of word
from Canada of General William Henry
Harrison’s defeat of the troops of British General
Henry Proctor and Shawnee General Tecumseh.
A forty-foot arch over Eighth and Race Streets
shone with transparencies depicting the battle.
Word of Andrew Jackson thrashing the
British at New Orleans hit Philadelphia on
February 5, 1814, and the streets filled with
huzzahing people. Next night, there was an
illumination of the Schuylkill bridges. Paul
Beck’s shot tower on the Schuylkill near Arch
Street had 160 lamps on top. Arches were
erected over Eighth Street at Callowhill,
Market and Locust. Both public buildings and
private residences were aglow. Another general
illumination was organized on February 15
because a peace treaty had been signed.
The capital had moved south to the new
federal city, but some government activity was
still in town; a United States arsenal was
developed on Gray’s Ferry Road near the
Schuylkill, starting in 1800. Joshua
Humphreys was hired in 1806 to set up “a
building yard and dock for seasoning lumber
for the use of the navy of the United States,”
the first step toward a Navy Yard.
Some forty Philadelphia ships traded in the
East Indies, sailing from Delaware River docks
between Chestnut and Walnut Streets. Starting
about 1815, several importers relocated to
New York, because the salty harbor there was
open year round, while the Delaware was ice
clogged in winter. That didn’t upset the
hundreds of men, women, and children who
sledded, skated, and sleighed nightly on the
frozen Delaware. In February, carriages often
could cross to Jersey on the foot or so of ice.
Suburban towns were growing. Frankford
borough was incorporated in 1799, Northern
Liberties district in 1803, Moyamensing
district in 1812, Kensington district in 1820.
Parts of the Woodlands, Powel, and
Lansdowne estates were sold for development
as West Philadelphia started to enlarge, even
though the area between about Twelfth Street
and the Schuylkill was still largely
undeveloped.
Six local doctors, chemists, and
pharmacists got together in 1812 to exchange
information. They began meeting regularly in
such agreeable locations as Mercer’s Cake
Shop on Market Street, and others joined
them. Dr. Samuel Jackson suggested the
organization’s name, the Academy of Natural
Sciences. The members began accumulating
the beginnings of the academy’s collection:
some insect specimens, some shells, and a
stuffed monkey. After several moves, they
would erect a brick building in 1840 at the
northwest corner of Broad and Sansom.
During the War of 1812, English prisoners
were housed “on parole” in Philadelphia
homes, and enemy officers, some as young as
sixteen, were welcome at the parties in fashionable
homes. They knew the latest
European dances, such as the waltz. Many
men objected to the new dances that allowed
✧
Top, left: Oliver Evans.
COURTESY OF THE DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN PORTRAITS.
Top, right: Curious Philadelphians gathered
at Centre Square in July 1805, to watch a
great clanking machine roll around the
square under its own power. It was the first
self-propelled land vehicle in America, and
perhaps the world. The inventor was Oliver
Evans, who called it the Orukter
Amphiboles, more or less Greek for
Amphibious Digger. He had proposed to
build, for the city board of health, a steam
powered dredge that would roll through the
streets and down the river bank totally
horseless, flop into the water and then
proceed by means of a paddle wheel at the
rear. On the first attempt to run the
Orukter, the axles broke. Evans was also
broke, so he took advertisements in the
newspapers announcing a demonstration.
Evans and his workmen passed the hat and
collected twenty-five cents from each
spectator, the astonishing self-powered
vehicle circled Centre Square as advertised,
paid for itself, and then rumbled out Market
Street and into the Delaware.
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR.
CHAPTER III
55