Description

Progress photographs of the early construction of City Hall built 1871-1901 on Penn Square after the designs of John McArthur, Jr. Photographs show different stages of the construction of the foundation and lower floor of the building between 1873 and 1875. Includes images of the dirt sub-basement; construction materials, equipment, and workers; and partially completed walls and abutments. Several of the views include scaffolding; horse-drawn carts; pulleys; piles of construction debris; and workers and well-dressed men, probably the commissioners, reviewing and posed on or near constructed parts of the building and construction materials. Views also show surrounding cityscape, including the west and south elevations of Masonic Temple (Broad and Filbert); the Pennsylvania Railroad freight depot (13th and Market); the towers of the gothic-style St. John the Evangelist Church (23-25 South 13th); West Penn Square Academy (s.w. corner of Market and Merrick); the spire of the Arch Street Methodist Episcopal Church (s.w. corner Broad and Arch); La Salle College High School (n.e. corner Broad and Filbert); and dwellings facing Penn Square. Also shows broadsides posted to the fence surrounding the construction site advertising Pugh & Creauthers furniture manufacturers and dealers (228 So. 2nd St.); Fox's New American Theatre; Arion Pianos (1308 Chestnut); and Secor Sewing Machines (Eighth and Walnut).