Route 26—Philadelphia's Oldest Industries—63.5 m. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S PRINTING PRESS "PUBLIC LEDGER AND NORTH AMERICAN” PRESS It is owned by the Franklin Printing Company, who Owners also of the “Saturday Evening Post," the represent the unbroken continuation of Franklin's printing Curtis interests now represent the unbroken continuation business, begun in 1728. of Franklin's publishing business. Mileage 1.4 Ludlow St., directly opposite the Philadelphia Bourse, on right. Stop; walk to No. 518 Ludlow St., Franklin Printing Company, 1728. 1.4 Continue on 5th St. to 1.4 Market St.; turn right. 1.5 4th St.; turn right. 1.6 Chestnut St.; turn left. 1.7 Bank of North America and Trust Co., chartered 1781; No. 307 Chestnut St.; standing on the original site. 1.7 3rd St.; turn left. No. 12 North 3d St., J. E. Rhoads & Sons, leather, 1702. 2.0 Arch St.; turn right. 2.2 Delaware Ave.; turn left. Pier 10, North Wharves, George W. Bush & Sons Co., transportation, 1774. Reverse to 2.5 Arch St.; turn right, crossing Broad St. at 3.8. 4.2 18th St.; turn right. No. 124 North 18th St., Christopher Sower Co., publishers, 1738. 4.2 Turn diagonally left on Parkway, curving completely around Logan Circle to 4.5 19th St.; turn right. Academy of Natural Sciences on right. 5.0 Walnut St.; turn right. 5.2 Pass No. 2032 Walnut St., home of the late John Wanamaker. 5.6 Facade of the Commercial Museum (34th below Spruce Sts.) far on left. 5.7 30th and Walnut Sts. (Westinghouse Electric Co.); stop. Walk down bridge steps on right to No. 126 South 30th St., Wetherill & Brother, white lead, 1762. 5.7 Continue on Walnut St. to 6.0 33d St.; turn right. 6.1 Turn sharp right into Chestnut St. 6.2 32nd St.; turn left. 6.2 Ludlow St.; turn right. 6.3 Job T. Pugh, augers, 1774, 31st and Ludlow Sts. 6.3 31st St.; turn left by R. R. track to 6.4 Market St.; turn left. 6.5 Bear right onto Lancaster Ave., and immediately right onto 32nd St. Route 26–Philadelphia's Oldest Industries—63.5 m. until 1843 as George R. Graham and Com- England, who came to America in 1699, and pany, when it was sold to Samuel D. Patter- first established his tanyard in Chester son & Co., who in five years turned it over County in 1702. Members of the family to Edmund Deacon and Henry Peterson. possess ancient ledgers showing the early These proprietors moved the plant to No. transactions in hides, bark, and leather, with 66 South Third Street, Peterson at the time entries as early as 1723. When the old editing the “Saturday Evening Post” so suc- homestead and tannery were sold, a tannery cessfully as to reach a circulation of 100,000 was purchased and operated in Wilmington, weekly. The “Post” passed through various Del. The firm first opened its store in Philavicissitudes and various hands, and finally delphia at Nos. 229-33 North Third Street was bought in 1898 by the Curtis Publish- in 1889, and after various changes finally ing Company. After the retirement of established the headquarters of the business Henry Peterson and the death of Edmund at No. 12 North Third Street. Deacon, E. Stanley Hart took over the busi- At Pier 10 North Wharves (2.3) is the ness in 1877, continuing it as the Franklin office of the George W. Bush & Sons ComPrinting House, and in 1889 the present pany, transportation and coal shippers, who Franklin Printing Company was incorpor- have operated boats between Philadelphia ated. Among the historic relics still cher- and Wilmington, Delaware, since 1774. ished by the firm is Franklin's old printing From 1774 until 1790, Samuel Bush, the press. Another Franklin foundation, trace- son of an old West India trader, made able back to his "Pennsylvania Gazette," was weekly trips between Wilmington and Philathe North American, the oldest daily news- delphia in the “Arm," a sloop of thirty paper in America, recently purchased by tons burden. Then came larger boats, and the Curtis interests, and merged with the more frequent service, until by 1865 daily Public Ledger. trips were made to take care of the increased The Bank of North America, No. 307 freightage. The business has been enlarged Chestnut Street (1.7), founded in 1781, is from time to time by the addition of departnot only one of Philadelphia's oldest cor- ments for coal and lumber. The firm is porations but it is the oldest bank chartered now rounding out one hundred and fifty on the American continent. years of history under the continuous The present bank building occupies the management of direct descendants of the site of the bank's first home, originally the founder. commodious store of its first cashier—Tench At No. 124 North Eighteenth Street (4.2), Francis. Forerunner of the banking system Albert M. Sower, president of the Chrisof the United States, this famous old bank topher Sower Company, incorporated in was the direct outcome of the plan pre- 1888, carries on the publishing business essented to Congress by Robert Morris, May tablished in 1738 by his ancestor, the great 17, 1781, and is a monument to his financial Germantown pioneer printer and publisher, genius. The Bank of North America by Christopher Sower. virtue of its historic pre-eminence enjoys a In 1739 Christopher Sower established a unique distinction—it is the only national newspaper in Germantown, and between bank in the United States which does not 1743 and 1777 printed three editions of the have the word “National” in its title. The Bible and seven editions of the New Testabank has recently changed its corporate ment. Christopher Sower in 1770 printed title to the Bank of North America and Christopher Dock's famous Schul-Ordnung, Trust Company, and now has an up-town the earliest American treatise on school manoffice in the Commercial Trust Building. agement, and the only picture we have of a At No. 12 North 3rd Street (1.9), J. E. colonial school. Sower cast his own type, Rhoads & Sons, lineal descendants, carry on made his own paper and printers' ink, and the business in leather and leather goods es- bound the books he printed. Christopher tablished by John Rhoads, of Derbyshire, Sower the second continued the business Route 26—Philadelphia's Oldest Industries—63.5 m. THE FIRST BANK OF NORTH AMERICA, 1781 TITLE PAGE OF THE SOWER BIBLE, 1743 The Bank still occupies the site of its original building, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania preserves this copy the commodious store of its first cashier, of the handiwork of the pioneer Germantown printer. Mileage 6.9 Powelton Ave.; turn right and immediately left on 31st St. Skyline of skyscrapers and industries on right; tracks of Pennsylvania Railroad. 7.1 Spring Garden St.; turn right onto Spring Garden bridge over the Schuylkill River. 7.6 Keep left curving onto Spring Garden St., and passing the Art Museum on left. 7.8 23rd St.; turn left. 8.3 Poplar St.; turn left. Girard College visible on right. 8.5 West College Ave.; turn right. 8.7 North College Ave.; turn right. 9.0 22nd St.; turn left. 10.1 York and 22nd Sts., R. A. & J. J. Williams Co., lumber, 1751: Turn right onto York St., and immediately left onto Glenwood Ave. 11.0 Pass North Philadelphia Station, Pennsylvania Railroad, on left. Along Glenwood Avenue are big manufacturing industries—furniture, baking, lace, knitting, etc. 11.7 Allegheny Ave.; turn right; noteworthy for its great modern textile mills—woolens, worsteds, silk, ribbons, hosiery, upholstery, tape, tapestries, rugs, and carpets. 13.3 Pass under Frankford L, bearing right and keeping on Allegheny Ave. 13.7 Amber St.; turn right. 13.9 No. 3047 Amber St., W. H. & F. Jordan, Jr., Mfg. Co., chemicals and oils, 1778. 14.0 Elkhart St.; turn right. 14.1 Frankford Ave.; turn right. 16.5 Turn diagonally left onto Oxford Ave., joining trolley. 17.5 Castor Circle; curve right around, crossing Roosevelt Boulevard, onto Castor Road. 20.6 Bear left with trolley onto Bustleton Pike. 22.0 3-corners; bear right. 22.2 Bustleton, right-hand street; turn right onto Grant Ave. 24.1 4-corners; turn left onto Academy Road. 26.4 Right-hand road; turn right onto Andalusia Road. Route 26— Philadelphia's Oldest Industries—63.5 m. pany in 1888. and became minister and bishop of the an- early members of the firm, including John cient Church of the Brethren, or Dunkards, Price Wetherill. The firm possesses comstill existing at No. 6613 Main Street, Ger- plete office files extending back to 1762. In mantown. The firm has occupied various 1847 the plant was established in its present buildings in Philadelphia since 1844, and the site on Thirtieth Street below Chestnut. One firm name has also undergone various of the historic features of the equipment is changes until the incorporation of the com- the original walking-beam engine, installed in 1847, probably the oldest stationary enThe old firm of Wetherill & Brother, gine in the United States, still in active daily white lead manufacturers, at No. 126 South service, and doing its work well. Thirtieth Street (5.7), traces its history to At Thirty-first and Ludlow Streets, north1762 when Samuel Wetherill, the great west corner, occupying its original site (6.3), grandson of one of Penn's first settlers in is the auger manufactory of Job T. Pugh, 1683, established himself as a builder in founded in 1774, two years before the signPhiladelphia. ing of the Declaration of Independence. Samuel Wetherill, one of the founders of This old firm prides itself on the fact that the Religious Society of Free Quakers, of Free Quakers, the holes in the yoke of the old Liberty known as the Fighting Quakers, whose meet- Bell were bored with a Pugh bit. The origing house is at the southwest corner of Arch inal Job T. Pugh was not only the first and Fifth Streets, was read out of meet- auger manufacturer in the United States, ing by the Society of Friends for his busi- but also the oldest manufacturer of tools in ness dealings with the government during the country. the country. Seventy-four operations are the Revolution. Drugs, paints, and chem- required in making an auger, and all the icals were added to his other business activ- work is done by hand. When the business ities in 1778, and from 1783 until 1809 he was started, all augers were for hand use ; imported white lead from London. Samuel today, the greater number are for machine Wetherill & Son in 1804 erected the first use. The first Job Pugh invented the first white lead works in the United States, which double-twist auger, which saves time by stood at the northwest corner of Broad and conveying chips the full length of the twist. Chestnut Streets, on the site now occupied The second Job Pugh, a grandson, invented by the Girard Trust Company. This first the coarse single-screw auger, which is the white lead works in the United States was only auger that will bore the hardwood of destroyed by fire under circumstances con- the tropics. The Pugh augers and bits have ducive to the belief that this means since had a world-wide reputation. adopted by the foreign manufacturers to de- The R. A. & J. J. Williams Co., Twentystroy competition. When the new white second and York Streets (10.1), carry on the lead works were built in 1808, at Twelfth lumber business founded in 1751 by Samuel and Cherry Streets, the Wetherills were Williams, who came from Cornwall, Engwarned to construct their works so that they land, in 1733, and first set up his business might be easily altered into a brewery, as the on Walnut Street, when much of even old agent of the foreign manufacturers had in- Philadelphia was wooded wilderness. The structions to crush the "infant industry" by lumber yard has moved from time to time cutting prices. The Wetherill business is in following the "frontier line” as represented teresting as one of the "infant industries” in the growth and development of the city, that was saved after the War of 1812 by finally being established in its present locathe institution of tariff measures and the tion in 1882. The business was incorporated principle of protection. in 1907, but, with one exception, the corIn the office of William H. Wetherill, the poration is still owned and managed by venerable surviving head of the firm, are direct descendants of Samuel Williams. numerous portraits and prints commemora- The house of W. H. and F. Jordan, Jr., tive of the founder and of distinguished chemicals and oils, located at No. 3047 Am was OLD LANDRETH NURSERIES, 1788-1847 A modern schoolhouse at Twenty-third and Federal Streets occupies the site of this old Philadelphia in dustry, now transplanted to Bristol, Pa. Mileage 28.2 Cornwell Heights. 4-corners; turn left; meeting trolley. 29.7 Through Eddington. At 30.0 cross R. R. switch. 31.4 Fork; bear left with trolley. Through Croydon 31.5. 31.8 Bear right with trolley. 33.3 Bear right under R. R. onto Otter St., Bristol. 34.2 Pond St., Bristol, turn left. 34.4 Turn left on Beaver St. across R. R. tracks. 34.5 Keep right to 34.6, D. Landreth Seed Co., seeds, 1784. Visit office and warehouse. Reverse to 34.9 Pond St.; turn right. 35.1 Otter St.; turn right; crossing iron bridge at 35.2. 35.9 Pass under R. R., leaving trolley, and at Fork turn right; sign “Hulmeville"; cemetery on left. 37.5 Small tree in fork; bear right across stone bridge at 38.2. Baldwin Locomotive Works, on right. 63.5 City Hall, PHILADELPHIA. |