The Perfect Square: A History of Rittenhouse Square

Notes

 Notes CHAPTER 1 1. Pennsylvania Historical Commission, Remember William Penn, 78. 2. Quoted in Keels, Forgotten Philadelphia, 11. 3. Corcoran, Thomas Holme, Surveyor, 129. 4. Garvan, “Proprietary Philadelphia as Artifact,” 193. 5. Ibid., 194. As the Holme plan developed, the two western squares were set a little to the west of their original locations, and the original size of eight acres for each square was reduced to six acres. 6. Tatum, Penn’s Great Town, 19. 7. List of purchasers found among papers of William Rawle, Esq., cited in Lewis, An Essay on Original Land Titles, appendix, 248. 8. Thomas, An Account of Pennsylvania, 40. 9. Benson, The America of 1750, 33. 10. Quoted in Scharf and Westcott, History of Philadelphia, 907. 11. The last public execution on Northwest Square took place February 7, 1823, when William Gross was hanged for murder. See Scharf and Westcott, History of Philadelphia, 1609. 12. Commonwealth v. Alburger, in Wharton, “Reports of Cases,” 485. 13. Lewis, The History of an Old Philadelphia Land Title, 137. 14. Edgar Richardson, “The Athens of America,” in Weigley, Philadelphia, 218. 15. Quoted in Cutler and Perkins, 273–276. 16. Richardson, “The Athens of America,” in Weigley, Philadelphia, 218. 17. Morgan, History of Philadelphia, 237. 18. Ibid., 33. 19. Captions of sketches in D. J. Kennedy, Sketches of Goosetown, at Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 20. On the east side of the Square, Nicholas Easling had a frame house and brickyard on the property owned by James Stuarts. On the west, Alexander Miller made bricks on property owned by Charles Biddle and a Dr. Edwards. See Philadelphia tax records from 1800. Notes to Pages 10–24 [ 172 21. Robert D. Crompton, John Dunlap: Publisher of the Declaration of Independence (pamphlet). 22. Rivinus, The Story of Rittenhouse Square, 10. 23. U.S. Gazette, April 20, 1823. 24. Clark, The Irish in Philadelphia, 117. CHAPTER 2 1. Rosenberg, The Cholera Years, 12. 2. Diary of Joseph Sill, August 3, 1832. 3. Christian Advocate and Journal and Zion’s Herald, July 19, 1833, quoted in History of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the Covenant and Salem Memorial Chapel (pamphlet). 4. These were probably Cephalanthus, a small tree or shrub that grows in wet low ground. Charles Cohen calls them buttonball trees. 5. Coombe, A Fifty Years’ Review of the Philadelphia Conference, 13. 6. Quoted in DiPaolo, My Business Was to Fight the Devil, 70. 7. “Work of God among the Brick-makers, in Schuylkill, Philadelphia,” from the Christian Advocate and Journal and Zion’s Herald, July 19, 1833, cited in History of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the Covenant and Salem Memorial Chapel (pamphlet). 8. “AJR,” Letters to Penn column, The Bulletin, September 27, 1913. 9. Flanigen, Old Time Methodism. 10. Christian Advocate and Journal and Zion’s Herald, July 19, 1833, in History of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the Covenant and Salem Memorial Chapel (pamphlet). 11. Gillespie, A Book of Remembrance, 13. 12. Kilns were temporary (built with the bricks themselves) or permanent. Kilns were partially closed and fired at “slow burn,” 250–350°F, to steam off the water. Then the kiln was sealed and the heat raised to a “red heat” (about 1,800°F) for several days. The burning was supervised for five days and nights. Each firing required one acre of wood. Then the kiln was cooled for several days and the bricks were sorted. See Martin, “19th Century Brickmaking,” 31. 13. Flanigen, Old Time Methodism. 14. Ibid. 15. The Cholera Record recorded cases and addresses daily. 16. Ibid. 17. Flanigen, Old Time Methodism. 18. Burke, Sperr, and McCauley, Historic Rittenhouse, 11. 19. Western Methodist Church records, St. George United Methodist Church Archives. 20. Lions of Philadelphia (pamphlet, 1839), 35. 21. See Watson, Watson Annuals, 1857, 232–233, for a description. Notes to Pages 24–27 [ 173 22. David Kennedy, an artist of the time who documented much of Philadelphia, described the lots along Chestnut from Nineteenth to Twentieth streets as lower than street level because they were previously used as brickyards. Spruce Street at Twenty-first Street was graded down by six feet, making old cellar floors level with the pavement. Kennedy drawings show this odd feature. 23. Nicholas B. Wainwright, “The Age of Nicholas Biddle, 1825–1841,” in Weigley, Philadelphia , 285. In 1831 “the boxall,” a single coach driven by its owner, provided hourly service from Chestnut Street to Merchant’s Coffee House on Second Street: The first omnibus line was called Jim Crow after...