Historic Philadelphia

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Above: Alfred J. Reach bought the franchise of
the Worcester, Massachusetts, Brown Stockings
in the National Baseball League in 1883,
moved the team to Philadelphia and renamed
it the Phillies. The National League had been
founded in 1876, and the league’s first game
was played in Philadelphia between the
Philadelphia Athletics and Boston. But the
Athletics didn’t complete the ’76 season, and
languished until they were revived by Connie
Mack in 1900 to join the new American
League. This photo of the Phillies was taken in
1888, the year after they moved into a new
ball field at Broad and Huntingdon Streets,
later to be named Baker Bowl.
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR.
Right: Just before Christmas in 1888, a lunch
counter with fifteen stools opened on the east
side of Thirteenth Street below Market.
Behind the counter was Joe Horn, and the
cook was Frank Hardart. Although Horn,
twenty-seven, had no restaurant background,
he took a notion to start an eatery and
advertised in a newspaper for an experienced
partner. Hardart, thirty-eight, answered. They
borrowed $1,000 from Horn’s mother, took in
an impressive $7.25 their first day in
business, and soon had a reputation for the
best cup of coffee in town. In 1898 they
incorporated as Horn & Hardart Baking Co.
Eventually there would be dozens of H&H’s
in Philly and New York. The original H&H at
Thirteenth and Market closed in 1925.
COURTESY OF THE URBAN ARCHIVES, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY.
HISTORIC PHILADELPHIA
86
impressed, particularly by the amount Penrose
ate. He was known to order seven different
lunches from a menu at one sitting. Penrose
was six foot four, beefy (and would later be
huge), and an unlikely entry into the gritty
realm of Philadelphia politics. He was wealthy,
descended from Quakers of the William Penn
era, educated at Episcopal Academy at Juniper
and Locust, and was second in the class of ’81
at Harvard. His brother, Richard, was first. His
brothers became a physician, a geologist, and
a mining engineer; he became a national
political power. Penrose lived in the house
where he was born, at 1331 Spruce Street. His
intellect and his cash slid Penrose slowly
toward power alongside the Pennsylvania
Republican bosses, Donald Cameron and
Matthew Quay. He was elected to the state
Senate in 1886 and became president pro tem
in 1889.