In the early 1900s, construction has just finished at Philadelphia City Hall (completed in 1901), with the clock tower dominating Center City. The skyline was not yet filled with massive towers. Instead, low- and mid-rise buildings made up the urban landscape. At the time, the city was growing rapidly, and a new generation of notable buildings was completed by the turn of the 20th century, including City Hall and the Masonic Temple. Today Philly YIMBY presents massing renderings of the Philadelphia skyline as it appeared all the way back in 1905.
Philadelphia skyline 1905 looking west. Photo by Thomas Koloski
Philadelphia skyline 1905 looking southwest. Photo by Thomas Koloski
Most of the tallest buildings in the skyline featured flat tops with roof access structures. The skylines of neighborhoods outside of Center City were very flat, mostly filled with rowhouses, wit church steeples and factory smokestacks popping out all around. In these neighborhoods, some of the largest buildings lined Broad Street, which leads to City Hall.
Philadelphia skyline 1905 looking northeast. Photo by Thomas Koloski
Philadelphia skyline 1905 looking southeast. Photo by Thomas Koloski
At the top of the skyline stood the William Penn statue atop City Hall at a height of 548 feet tall. Large structures lined the south side of Market Street, with two major buildings sharing the skyline with City Hall. At 121 South Broad Street, the North American Building was finished in 1900 and stands at a height of 267 feet and 21 stories. Two years later, the Land Title and Trust Building was completed at a height of 347 feet and 23 stories.
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Wow does City Hall standout at that point in time. It’s also pretty amazing and how much City Hall still stands out today, just in a different way. Philly has made some real strategic mistakes along the way, but the construction of City Hall was not one of them.
Not mentioned:
It all started with the Subway-Surface Lines (10, 11,13, 34 & 36) in 1906.
The historic Market-Frankford Line opened in 1907.
The historic Broad Street Line opened in 1928.
The PATCO high-speed Line was opened in 1969.
There is ALLOT of history with the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (PRT).
I encourage the Philadelphia YIMBY group to write about the history of the PRT and all of the various changes over the past decade.
There were trolleys serving the area before the Frankford-Elevated Line was built.
This looks great but the spire of 10th Presbyterian would be on there; but I can’t find it. The church use to have a spire but it was taken down the year an aunt of mine was born; the same year the Titanic sunk.
It would be cool to include contemporaneous photos from the era with this series.
Not many tall buildings to muffle the distant sound of ATV engines revving in the night