streets brought shoppers from the New Jersey ferries, from many of the outlying train depots, and from the middle-class residential areas of West Philadelphia. On Eighth Street, one axis of the department store district, ran the only double-tracked north south street railway in the central business district. This line connected Center City with the bourgeois sections of North Philadelphia and Germantown. Where these two transit corridors crossed, at Eighth between Arch and Chestnut, by 1900 could be found five of the city’s largest department stores: Cimbel Brothers, Lit Brothers, Marks Brothers, Partridge & Richardson, and Strawbridge & Clothier.
Figure 5. The Center City department store district in 1901. Based on a 1876 John L. Smith map of Center City in collection of author.
| Key: | ||
| A | John Wanamaker | Thirteenth and Market |
| B | Nathan Snellenburg | Twelfth and Market |
| C | Joseph Darlington | Tenth and Chestnut |
| D | Blum Brothers | Tenth and Market |
| E | Gimbel Brothers | Ninth and Market |
| F | Partridge & Richardson | Eighth and Chestnut |
| G | Strawbridge & Clothier | Eighth and Market |
| H | Lit Brothers | Eighth and Market |
| I | Marks Brothers | Eighth and Arch |
| 1 | City Hall | Broad and Market |
| 2 | Reading Terminal | Twelfth and Market |
| 3 | Old State House | Fifth and Chestnut |
| 4 | Market Street ferry |
The street and steam railroads did not just expand the customer base for the major Center City stores but they also spurred the development of a number of neighborhood shopping districts. The result was a series of nodes throughout the city, none as large as the central business district, but nonetheless important to local shoppers. These smaller shopping precincts first began to develop in the late nineteenth century as space in the heterogeneous “walking city” started to become more specialized in use. Local shopping evolved from corner stores scattered throughout the neighborhood to shops grouped along major thoroughfares. In West Philadelphia, Lancaster Avenue became a regional shopping center, as did Girard Avenue in North Philadelphia and Main Street in Germantown. Main Street in Germantown not only had streetcar service but also was served by two steam railroad lines. In the late 1880s, Mrs. Tucker C. Laughlin regularly took the train from her home in Chestnut Hill to the stores in Germantown. On a Friday he had off from school, Leo Bernheimer spent the morning shopping for his mother in North Philadelphia: “This morning I was first to the Globe market; then to 13th and Columbia Av., and then to the Girard Avenue market.”24
The trains and trolleys helped people to create these various retail districts not just by bringing customers to the shops but also by hauling the merchandise to the businesses and the purchases home. This largely unseen network of freight trains and express trolleys, along with the mail trains and trolleys, tied the expanding metropolis together as one market and linked it to the national one. They made it possible for Mrs. Tucker C. Laughlin in Chestnut Hill to have a carpet sweeper delivered from Wanamaker’s, her new stove brought from North Philadelphia, and her buttermints to arrive safely. They also allowed for strawberries grown in Florida to be sold on the streets of Philadelphia during a blizzard.25
None of these shopping locations—whether Wanamaker’s in Center City or a shoe store on Main Street in Germantown—served exclusively the middle class. The men and women of the bourgeoisie shared the streets and the stores (and the trains and trolleys) with both the elite and the working classes. Many of these businesses, however, consciously pitched themselves at the new “mass” market, which during the Victorian era consisted largely of the middle class. The downtown dry goods stores were in the forefront of this and, as we shall explore in more detail later, evolved into key nodes in the “bourgeois city.” The reality of many middle-class men and women shopping in certain locations coupled with the bourgeois tone and marketing of the stores helped to reinforce their perception of the bourgeois city.26
Beyond work, school, and shopping, middle-class Philadelphians used the streetcars and the trains to reach a variety of locations at which they hoped to have fun. Recreation could take many forms: visiting an amusement park or museum, exploring the city or region, calling on relatives or friends, or simply riding the train or trolley to escape the heat or boredom. Through these journeys of leisure, middle-class men and women helped to further expand and define their space in the region.27
Middle-class men and women used the trolleys and the trains to visit the various cultural institutions that began to develop in late nineteenth-century Philadelphia. Many of these, such as the theater district and the Academy of Fine Arts, were in Center City, while others were located in Fairmount Park (an area particularly well served by public transit because the Centennial had been held there), and still others, such as sporting venues and amusement parks, tended to be located along rail lines in the fringes of the city.
The area with the greatest concentration of cultural and entertainment attractions was Center City, and middle-class Philadelphians went there often during the late nineteenth century to be amused, enlightened, or informed. The fringes of the business and retail districts quickly developed into the city’s leading culture zone. Mary Smith’s parents and siblings were regular theatergoers; they would take the same streetcar routes that her father used to commute to work to see a play in the evening. Members of her family also took the trolley to attend the art shows and other special exhibitions that took place in the large halls located in Center City. The Smiths’ frequent weekend and evening visits to downtown cultural institutions were typical of many other middle-class women and men who lived in West and North Philadelphia and could quickly and easily reach Center City by street car. For people living farther away, in Germantown, the suburbs, and the outlying portions of the region, the steam trains provided the same access. Edwin Jellett from Germantown regularly used both the Reading’s and Pennsylvania’s Chestnut Hill trains to hear opera at the Academy of Music or to attend various shows downtown. These excursions to Center City were an important part of Jellett’s social life; for the twenty-five-cent train fare and the admission fee, he could meet other young middle-class Philadelphians.28
Other special events also brought bourgeois Philadelphians from the neighborhoods to downtown by trolley and train. The regular occurrence of such celebrations helped establish central Philadelphia as a ceremonial space for the entire region. In the days of politics as spectacle, both parties staged parades and mass meetings in Center City. Edwin Jellett took the train in after supper on September 23, 1884, in order to stand “in front of the Union League” on Broad Street “to see the Republican Parade.” He spent the entire evening at the parade, reaching home at 1:30 A.M. on the last train. Events like the Constitution Centennial in 1887 and the “Peace Jubilee” in 1898 (celebrating the end of the Spanish-American War) drew great crowds to Center City. One middle-class man living in lower North Philadelphia
