Pennsylvania Avenue

“ Even Pennsylvania avenue, the grand thoroughfare of the Capital, was lined with little two and three story shops, which in architectural comeliness have no comparison with their ilk of the Bowery, New York. Not a street car ran in the city. A few straggling omnibuses and helter-skelter hacks were the only public conveyances to bear members of Congress to and fro between the Capitol and their remote lodgings. In spring and autumn the entire west end of the city was one vast slough of impassible mud. ”

“ It is the plan to some extent in New York, where just recently the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue have been moved back against the building line on the space formerly occupied by stoops, areaways, and dooryards. Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixteenth Street, in Washington, are both laid out 160 feet wide from building line to building line, although Pennsylvania Avenue is an important business artery and Sixteenth Street is a residence street without heavy traffic and with no commercial business. ”

“ The canal, drained and filled up, no longer breeds pestilence. Pennsylvania avenue has outlived its mud and its poplars, to be all and more than Jefferson dreamed it would be,—the most magnificent street on the continent. Its lining palaces are not yet built, but 74more than one superb building like that of the Daily National Republican soars high above the lowly shops of the past, a forerunner of the architectural splendor of the buildings of the future. Cars running every five minutes have taken the place of the solitary stage, plodding its slow way between Georgetown and the Capital. ”

“ Skt! skt!" And the vehicle rattled out into broad Pennsylvania Avenue, but for the confusion and absurdity of its architectural structures, the handsomest thoroughfare in America. (Some day I am going to carry a bill into Congress and read it, and become famous as having been the means of making Pennsylvania Avenue the handsomest highway in the world.)
Warburton leaned back luxuriously against the faded horse-hair cushion and lighted a cigar, which he smoked with relish, having had a hearty breakfast on the train. ”

“ Monday, March 5th, was a rainy and cloudy day. Despite the prolonged uncertainty as to the result of the Presidential election, and the short time given for arrangements, the city was crowded. It was estimated that thirty thousand persons left New York for Washington on Saturday and Sunday. Pennsylvania Avenue was gayly attired in waving bunting, the striking features being pyramids or arches composed of flags and streamers of variegated colors, suspended across the avenue by strong cords. ”

“ ALTHOUGH Pennsylvania Avenue is several miles long, the mile that lies between the hill on which Congress sits and the slope where the President lives is called in local parlance “the Avenue.” Outside of their formal speeches and documentary literature, members of Congress are wont to refer to the White House and its surroundings as “the other end of the Avenue.” ”

“ The Evening Star has been published there for about 89 years; its home, remodeled from time to time, to-day is a large and beautiful building.
Since the L’Enfant plan provided for giving Pennsylvania Avenue a conspicuous place in the development of the National Capital, Congress decided, by the public buildings act of May 25, 1926, that the necessary land on the south side of the Avenue from the Capitol to the Treasury should be purchased by the Government and monumental buildings erected thereon. In the House of Representatives the bill was sponsored by Congressman Richard N. Elliott. ”

“ We pass through them out into Pennsylvania avenue—this great and yet to be fulfilled expectation. Broadway cannot compare with it in magnificent proportions. It is as wide as two Broadways, and at this hour of the afternoon its turn-outs are metropolitan. Nevertheless, judged by its trees and houses, it has a rural, second-rate look. Though here and there a lonesome building shoots up above its fellows, its average shops are shabby and small, and do not compare favorably with those of Third avenue in New York. ”

“ The capitol commands the streets called the Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania avenues; the President’s House, those of Vermont, New York, and Connecticut; and all these different intersections form eleven hundred and fifty squares. The Pennsylvania Street, or avenue, which stretches in a direct line from the President’s house to the capitol, is a mile in length, and a hundred and sixty feet in breadth. That of the narrowest streets is from ninety to a hundred feet, which will give a fine appearance to the city ”

“ My sister, Mrs. Eames, lived in a house on G Street near Twenty-first Street in what was then known as the First Ward. This general section, together with a part of Indiana Avenue, some portions of Capitol Hill, Sixth and Seventh Streets, and all of that part of the city bounded on the north by K Street, on the south by Pennsylvania Avenue, and westward of Fourteenth Street to Georgetown, was at this time the fashionable section of the city. Like many other places in its formative period, Washington then presented the picture of fine dwelling houses and shanties standing side by side. ”

“ Numerous drives and walks furnish the opportunity of enjoying the unusual experience of rural surroundings in the heart of a great city, since Pennsylvania Avenue, the broad thoroughfare extending from the Capitol grounds to the vicinity of the President's house, lies a square or two north of this park of 230 acres. ”

“ Early in the morning Pennsylvania Avenue is cleared of all street-cars, carriages, and bicycles, and no one is allowed to step off the sidewalk. A strong wire rope is stretched along each side of the avenue, so as to prevent people from getting into the street. ”

“ Hamilton Avenue Extension.—The proposed extension of Hamilton Avenue from Fifth Avenue west to Penn Avenue is certainly desirable. The western end, however, should not be located adjacent to the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks (as planned by the Bureau of Surveys) but should join Frankstown Avenue at Station Street. (Diagram No. 9.) This location provides a more [Pg 66] economical arrangement of streets and lots because it avoids (1) constructing a main thoroughfare with business frontage on only one side, and (2) leaving a building block only 100 feet in total depth between two main streets. ”

“ He points to a handsome red brick structure of modern architecture. "The Pennsylvania folks are long-headed—almost always. But if they had known that Cleveland was to become the Sixth City within ten years they never would have put two hundred thousand dollars in a grade crossing station at Euclid avenue. The way we've grown has sort of startled all of us."
Today Euclid avenue is a compactly built thoroughfare for miles east of that Pennsylvania railroad crossing. ”

“ As the Pennsylvania Railroad freight yards practically prevent linking the ends of the Boulevard by a new street west of Fifth Avenue, the best plan would be to widen Fifth Avenue, from boulevard to boulevard, enough for two roadways, one for pleasure vehicles and the other for business traffic. (Diagram [Pg 69] No. 10.) The west roadway would be best suited for pleasure travel because more than half of the west frontage is occupied by freight yards requiring access at only one or two fixed points.
Diagram No. 10. Beechwood Boulevard connection. A possible section
29. ”

“ West Philadelphia High School, Forty-sixth and Walnut Streets, Tudor Gothic; rough brick and Indiana limestone; built, 1913, by the City Architect. Widener Memorial Home for crippled children, Broad Street and Olney Avenue, Georgian, built, 1906; Harvard brick and marble trimmings; architect, Horace Trumbauer; has a very beautifully designed wrought iron gateway.
To make a “City Beautiful” is to give it wide streets, lined with handsome buildings and houses, plenty of parks, boulevards, and to rid it of rows upon rows of semi-shanty premises, small, ill-kept, and unattractive. ”

“ This picture represents Chestnut Street, the principal retail business street and the avenue on which the leading banking institutions are located. The building on the right is Independence Hall, in which was declared the independence of the United States. The liberty bell is still preserved and found at the entrance of the building. The structure in the background is a banking house. MARKET STREET, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.—Perhaps no street in the world furnishes an avenue for so much business as does Market Street. ”

“ Peter’s German Catholic Church has stained glass windows from Munich, made by Meyer & Company, who also made windows for St. Peter’s Protestant Episcopal Church.
The county has numerous fine, concrete bridges; Butler Viaduct is the largest, 1060 feet between the approaches connecting East Wayne Street with Center Avenue across a deep ravine, built in 1915 by the Fort Pitt Bridge Works. Two miles northeast of town is a pleasure park of natural beauty in a wooded valley, well equipped with dining rooms, ball grounds, lake for boating, etc. ”

“ The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, 219 South Sixth Street; architect, John Notman; has best points of work done in 1850, showing traditions of the past, with developments and characteristics of its own; interior has a most beautiful reading room. The University Buildings, from Thirty-fourth to Fortieth Streets, Walnut Street to Woodland Avenue, add much to the architectural attraction of West Philadelphia; entrances to the campus, near the dormitories, are fine Tudor gateways, wrought iron, with brick and stone piers. (See University of Pennsylvania.) ”

“ Francis de Sales, Forty-seventh Street and Springfield Avenue, Romanesque, with Byzantine details; built, 1907-10; architect, Henry D. Dagit, Philadelphia; the leaded glass is particularly beautiful; windows are of the antique school and extremely rich in color, including four rose windows, designed and made by Nicolo d’Ascenzo, Philadelphia. Four old historic churches rather near together, St. Joseph’s, on Willing’s Alley, south of Walnut, below Fourth Street; built on site of first Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, established by a member of the “Society of Jesus” from Maryland, in 1731 ”

“ Bank of Pittsburgh, Fourth Avenue near Wood Street, classic, Alden & Harlow, architects, has mural decorations, allegorical of Pittsburgh, by Edwin H. Blashfield and the late Francis D. Millet. Iron City Bank, Westinghouse Building, mural decorations by William Willet. Farmer’s Deposit Bank, sculptured frieze by J. Massey Rhind. Chamber of Commerce contains portraits of many prominent citizens. Friendship School, Friendship and Graham Streets, historical paintings of Penn, Washington, and Lincoln, by William Willet. ”

“ Christ Church, Second Street above Market; Hamilton Mansion in Woodlands Cemetery, Thirty-ninth Street and Woodland Avenue; Independence Hall, group, Chestnut Street between Fifth and Sixth; Old Swedes’ Church (Gloria Dei) , Swanson Street near Front and Christian Streets; Pennsylvania Hospital, Eighth and Pine Streets; St. Peter’s Church, Third and Pine Streets.{48}
Egyptian. Synagogue Adath-Jeshurum, Broad and Diamond Streets; Indiana limestone; architects, Thomas, Churchman, and Molitor.
Classic. Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Streets. Interior classic; brick; built, 1850 ”

“ Located as it is at a commanding height on a steep hillside with an impressive outlook over the Allegheny Valley and the hills beyond, and with little chance to develop a commercial frontage, this street seems peculiarly fitted to be a real pleasure way in fact as well as in name. But instead it has been built without even room for shade trees; it is a mere street, in all appearances like any other traffic way of the city, and no more generous in its width than Fifth Avenue or Smithfield Street; and the unkempt, sordid appearance of the slumping hillsides above is an ever-present eyesore. ”

“ Another fact, seen clearly from this larger point of view, is that the essential matter is to secure a radical reduction of the maximum gradients on the three great thoroughfare lines, Sixth Avenue, Fifth Avenue, and Diamond Street, even though the minor streets on the margins of the Hump be skimped. ”

“ This street is now 60 feet in width, and most of the lots on each side are 100 feet deep, except for several blocks on the north side where they are about 120 feet. The street is built up solidly on both sides, but scarcely any of the buildings are new or costly. The property values are almost uniformly a little higher than on Liberty Avenue. If Penn Avenue were widened 10 feet on each side, making an 80-foot thoroughfare, the abutting lots would still be 90 feet or over in depth; and if the street were made 100 feet wide, the lots would still be 80 feet deep. ”

“ On the other side of the Schuylkill, in any of the suburbs, every street became a leafy avenue. There were evenings in that last June I spent in Philadelphia, when, the ugly houses bathed in golden light and the trees one long golden-green screen in front of them, I would not have exchanged Walnut or Spruce Street in West Philadelphia or many a Lane in Germantown, for any famous road or boulevard the world over. ”

“ A few blocks further on one abuts upon Ridge avenue, the Sam Brown belt of Philadelphia. In its long diagonal course from Ninth and Vine up to Strawberry Mansion, Ridge avenue is full of unceasing life and interest. It and South street are perhaps the two most entertaining of the city's humbler highways. Master street crosses it at a dramatic spot. There is a great cool lumber yard, where the piled-up wood exhales a fragrant breath under the hot sun, and lilac-breasted pigeons flap about among the stained rafters. ”