Overview of 1700 Block of Market Street from 1810-1914
1727, 1725, and 1723 Street, Philadelphia, PA (left to right).
Watercolor by Taylor (1861). Courtesty of Winterthur Library.
When Taylor sketched 1723, 1725, and 1727 Market Street in 1861, the buildings he depicted were wood-frame mixed-use dwellings, each housing a residence and a store. 1727 Market Street was occupied by a saddle and harness-making business from at least 1850, and 1725 Market Street had been the site of a pottery from as early as 1810. Sometime between 1861-1874, the structure at 1723 Market was demolished and the pottery expanded to occupy the two lots. Although the trade remained the same at both properties, business ownership changed hands several times. The saddle and harness business appears to have been a tenant, rather than an owner, until the building was sold in 1866 to a commissioning merchant partnerhsip. The owners of the various potteries were tenants from 1810 until 1873, when potter James Galloway purchased the lot.
According to the 1860 Hexamer Atlas, the buildings were located in a mixed-use
commerican and residential area. The West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad
Passenger and Freight Depot was located at the western edge of the block
at the northeast corner of 18th and Market Streets. Lining both sides
of 1700 Market were mixed-use retail/residential buildings. Interestingly,
almost all of the other buildings on Market Street were masonry, suggesting
that the wood-framed buildings that Taylor drew were among the last in
the area.
By 1868, the pottery was the last of the three buildings still standing.
1727 Market had been purchased by a commissioning merchant company two
years earlier and consolidated with several neighboring lots to make way
for the construction of large five-story flour and grain warehouse. Tbe
pottery building was probably demolished between 1889, when the pottery’s
last owner, James Galloway, sold the property, and 1890, when Pennsylvania
Railroad began operating a new freight depot on the site.
The freight depot was constructed as part of a major expansion undertaken
by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company during the 1880s and 1890s. In 1880
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company began to acquire land between Filbert
and Jones Streets and Broad Street and the Schuylkill River in preparation
for the construction of large new passenger station at Broad and Market
Streets. Between 1880 and 1890 about 190 buildings were demolished to
make way for railway lines connecting the new station with the existing
West Philadelphia Passenger Station. By 1881, the new rail lines were
in place behind the 1700 block of Market Street (the rail lines are visible
in the 1887 Hexamer map). The company also decided to construct a new
freight depot at 17th and Market, and began work on the building in 1889.
By 1890, the new facility was in operation, and was complete by 1894.
The 1915 Hexamer map shows the freight depot as occupying the entire block
between 17th and 18th Streets and Jones and Filbert Streets.
For more detailed information about 1723, 1725 and 1727 Market Streets, images, and sources, see individual building overviews and timelines.
1723 Market Street: Overview and Timeline
1725 Market Street: Overview and Timeline
1727 Market Street: Overview and Timeline
Maps of 1700 Block of Market Street
Images of Businesses Along the 1700 Block of Market Street
Images of Pennsylvania Railroad Company Development Along the 1700 Block of Market Street