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Eastern Pennsylvania » Philadelphia County » The Downtown of the Eighteenth-Century City » Smythe Stores

Smythe Stores

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1852, attributed to Sloan and Stewart; 1984 restored, Hans P. Stein. 101–111 Arch St.
  • (Photograph by Karen Kingsley)
  • (Photograph by Karen Kingsley)
  • (Photograph by Karen Kingsley)

Around the corner from Elfreth's Alley (PH2) is this richly detailed cast-iron-fronted block whose castings came from Trenton's Tiffany and Bottom foundry. At 101 Arch Street is the building built for Samuel Townsend and listed as the work of Samuel Sloan, the ubiquitous pre–Civil War pattern book author; if this is Sloan's work, he presumably designed the entire row. On the east end, one building was demolished for a trolley turnaround and has been replicated in fiberglass. More typical in the old city are buildings with a first story of iron and upper stories of brick. Cast-iron buildings continued to be constructed into the beginning of the twentieth century. Thomas Stevens of Camden designed the Tuttleman Shirt Factory, now converted to housing, at 56 N. 2nd Street in a later version of Queen Anne in 1900.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
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Data

What's Nearby

Elfreth's Alley
100 Block of Cuthbert Street
Cast-Iron District
Christ Protestant Episcopal Church
St. Charles Hotel

Citation

George E. Thomas, "Smythe Stores", [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-PH11.2.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 2

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence M. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 55-55.

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