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PHILADELPHIA , the third See also:city in See also:population in the See also:United States. the See also:chief city of See also:Pennsylvania, and a See also:port of entry, co-extensive with Philadelphia See also:county, extending W. from the See also:Delaware See also:river beyond the Schuylkill River, and from below the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill See also:rivers N.E. about 23 M. along the Delaware river and Poquessing See also:Creek. See also:Independence See also: The corner See also: In See also:Germantown (q.v.), a suburb Memorial Church of the See also:Advocate (1897), on North 18th and which was annexed in 1854, are several other historic buildings.
See also:Diamond streets, is a See also:reproduction on a smaller See also:scale of See also:Amiens The dominant feature of the domestic architecture is the See also:long
Cathedral. rows, in street after street, of See also:plain two-See also:storey or three-storey
Perhaps the most famous See also:historical See also:monument in the United dwellings of red (" Philadelphia ") pressed brick with See also: On See also:Lemon See also: The building has been set apart bqustsofaJamesuA. See also:Garfield bycAugustus St manueGaudenst; st ruesoof by the city, which purchased it from the state in 1816, as a See also:Columbus, See also:Humboldt, See also:Schiller and See also:Goethe; a See also:Tam 0' Shanter See also:group museum of historical See also:relics. On the north-west corner of of four figures in red See also:sandstone by James Thom; John J. See also:Boyle's Independence Square is old Congress hall, in which Congress " Stone See also:Age in America "; See also:Cyrus See also:Edwin See also:Dallin's " See also:Medicine See also:Man
sat from 1790 to 'Soo, and in which Washington was inaugurated Wilhelm See also:Wolff's "Wounded Lioness " (at the entrance to the in r and See also: Not I (1871; reorganized in 1888 and 1906).
added to its park See also:system in 1891; in it is the stone house, with ivy-covered walls, which the famous botanist built with his own hands. Through the efforts of the City Park Association, organized in 1888, a number of outlying parks, connecting parkways and small triangular or circular parks, have been placed on the city See also:plan. Among these are See also:League See also:Island Park (300 acres), opposite the United States See also:navy yard on League Island; See also:Penny See also:Pack Creek Park (about 120o acres), extending 62 m. along Penny Pack Creek, in the north-east; See also:Cobb's Creek Park, extending about 4 M. along the west-ern border; Fairmount Parkway, 300 ft. wide on a See also:direct See also:line south-east from Fairmount Park to Logan Square and somewhat narrower from Logan Square to the city-hall; and Torresdale Parkway (300 ft. wide and rol m. long), from See also:Hunting Park, 41 M. north of the city-hall, along a direct line north-east to the city limits. A plaza at the intersection of Broad and See also: The collection is an outgrowth of the museum, the first in the United States, opened by See also: See also:Samuel See also:Preston of See also:London and of William See also:Mackenzie of Philadelphia. Among the rarities in the latter was a copy of See also:Caxton's See also:Golden See also:Legend (1486). In 1869 the Library Company was made the See also:beneficiary, under the will of Dr James Rush (1786–1869), of an estate valued at about a million dollars, and with this See also:money the Ridgway See also:branch was established in 1878. The library has owned its building since 1790; the building on the present site was opened in 188o and was enlarged in 1889. The American Philosophical Society, founded by Franklin in 1743, is the oldest and the most famous academy of science in America. Its organization was the immediate consequence of a circular by Franklin entitled, A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge among the British Plantations in America. In 1769 it united with (and officially took the name of) " The American Society held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge." Among its early presidents were Franklin, Rittenhouse and See also:Jefferson. It has a valuable library—about 50,000 vols.—containing the great See also:mass of the See also:correspondence of Franklin; here, too, are many interesting relics, among them the See also:chair in which Jefferson sat while See also:writing the Declaration of Independence and an autograph copy of the Declaration. The society has published 27 See also:quarto vols. of Transactions (1771–1908); its Proceedings have been published regularly since 1838, and in 1884 those from 1744 to 1838, compiled from the See also:manuscript minutes, were also published. The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, founded in 1812, has been noted for its collection of birds since it acquired, in 1846, the collection of the duc de Rivoli numbering more than 12,000 specimens; several smaller collections have since been added. The academy has a notable collection of shells and fossils and the " types " of See also:Leidy, Cope, Say, See also:Conrad and other naturalists, and a library. It is composed of the following " sections ": biological and microscopical (1868), entomological (1876), botanical (1876), mineralogical and See also:geological (1877) and ornithological (1891). It has published a See also:Journal since 1817 and its Proceedings since 1841, and See also:periodicals on See also:entomology, conchology and See also:ornithology. To a few See also:young men and See also:women it gives training in scientific investigation without See also:charge. The Pennsylvania Historical Society, organized in 1824, has a valuable collection of historical material, including the papers of the Penn family and the See also:Charlemagne Tower collection of American colonial See also:laws, and many early American printed handbills and books (especially of See also:Bradford, Franklin and See also:Christopher Saur), portraits and relics. With the proceeds of the society's publication fund the Pennsylvania Magazine of See also:History and See also:Biography has been published since 1877. The Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, organized in 1858, is the oldest numismatic organization in the United States; it has a collection of coins, and since 1865 it has published its Proceedings. The College of Physicians and Surgeons has an excellent medical library. The free library of Philadelphia (established 1891) includes a main library and several branches. Other important libraries are that of the university of Pennsylvania, the Mercantile, that of Franklin See also:Institute, that of the See also:Law Association of Philadelphia, the See also:Athenaeum, that of the German Society of Pennsylvania, and Apprentices'. The free museum of science and art of the university of Pennsylvania has valuable archaeological collections, notably the American and the Babylonian collections made by university expeditions.
Schools.—William Penn in his frame of See also:government provided for a committee of See also:manners, See also:education and art. The assembly, in See also: But schools were See also:left almost wholly to private initiative until 1818. The first See also:grammar school, commonly known in its early years as the See also:Friends' free school, was established in 1689 under the care of the celebrated George See also:Keith; although maintained by the Friends it was open to all, and for more than sixty years was the only public place for free instruction in the See also:province. It was chartered by Penn in 1701, 1708 and 1711, in time became known as the William Penn Charter School, and is still a secondary school on Twelfth Street. In 1740 a building was erected for a " charity school " and for a " house of See also:worship," but the school had not been opened when, in 1749, Franklin published his Proposals See also:relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania. Under the See also:influence of this publication a new educational association was formed which purchased the building and in See also:January 1751 opened in it an institution that was chartered as an " academy and charitable school " in 1753, was rechartered as a college and academy in 1755, and became the university of Pennsylvania by act of the state legislature passed in 1791. The university occupied the site of the present See also:post See also:office from 1802 until 1872, but was then removed to grounds near the western bank of the Schuylkill. The See also:foundation of the present public school system was laid in 1818 by an act of the legislature which constituted the city and county of Philadelphia the first school district of Pennsylvania and provided for the See also:establishment therein of free schools for indigent orphans and the children of indigent parents; the same act authorized the establishment of a See also:model school for the training of teachers, which was the See also:pioneer school for this purpose in America. In 1834 free elementary schools were authorized for all children of school age, and since then the system has See also:developed until it embraces the Central High School for boys, which has a semi-collegiate course with a See also:department of pedagogy and confers the degrees of B.A. and B.S.; a Normal High School for girls, into which the model school was converted in 1848, in which most of the teachers of the city are trained and which only graduates of the Girls' High School are permitted to enter; the William Penn High School for girls (opened 1909) with See also:academic, commercial, applied arts, See also:household science and library See also:economy departments; a School of industrial arts; two See also:manual training schools; about one See also:hundred See also:night schools (attended mainly by adults) ; several See also:special schools for habitual truants or insubordinate and disorderly children; and a number of vacation schools and playgrounds for the summer See also:season. In 1909 district high schools were planned as a part of the public school system. The city has also many private high schools and See also:academies. Besides the university of Pennsylvania and the Central High School for boys the collegiate institutions are La Salle College (Roman Catholic; opened in 1867) and the Temple University (non-sectarian; chartered in 1888 as Temple College after four years of teaching; in 1891 received the See also:power to confer degrees); which is designed especially for self-supporting men and women and was founded by See also:Russell See also:Hermann Conwell (b. 1842), a lawyer and journalist, who entered the Baptist See also:ministry in 18i9, was pastor of the See also:Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia in 1881–1891, became pastor of the Grace Baptist Temple, in 1891, and was a public lecturer. He was the first See also:president of the Temple College, which was begun in connexion with the See also:work of his church. Temple University offers instruction both day and evening, has classes from the See also:kindergarten to the highest university grades, and courses in business, civil See also:engineering, domestic art and domestic science, See also:physical training, pedagogy and music; it has a theological school (1893), a law school (1894), a medical school (1901) and a school of See also:pharmacy(19o2); and in 1907 the Philadelphia Dental College, one of the best known dental schools in the country, joined the university. In 1893 a See also:trust fund left by Hyman Gratz was used to found the Gratz College for the education of teachers in Jewish schools and for the study of the See also:Hebrew See also:language, and Jewish history, literature and See also:religion; the college is under the control of the Kaal Kidosh Mikoe See also:Israel of Philadelphia. Bryn Mawr College (q.v.), one of the leading institutions in America for the higher education of women, is a few miles beyond the city limits. Schools of medicine, for which Philadelphia has long been noted, include the department of medicine of the university of Pennsylvania (opened in 1765); Jefferson Medical College (1825) ; the Woman's Medical College (1850), the first chartered school of medicine for women to confer the degree of M.D.; the Medico-Chirurgical College (1881) ; Flahnemann (homoeopathic) Medical College (1888); and the department of medicine of Temple University (1901). Among other professional schools are the department of law of the university of Pennsylvania (1790), the law school of Temple University (1894); the divinity school of the Protestant Episcopal Church (1862) ; the Lutheran theological See also:Seminary (1864) ; See also:Saint See also:Vincent's (Theological) Seminary (R.C., 1868) ; the theological school of Temple University (non-sectarian, 1893); Pennsylvania College of Dental See also:Surgery (1856); Philadelphia Dental College (1863; since 1907 a part of Temple University); the department of See also:dentistry of the university of Pennsylvania (1878); the department of dentistry of the Medico-Chirurgical College (1897); the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (1821); the department of pharmacy of the Medico-Chirurgical College (1898) ; and the school of pharmacy of Temple University (1902). Girard College (see GIRARD, STEPAEN) is a noted institution for the education of poor white See also:orphan boys. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, founded in 1805 in Independence Hall, was the first art school in America; it occupies a fine building on Broad and See also:Cherry streets, with a See also:gallery of about 500 paintings, including examples of early American masters (especially See also: Its building houses a library, a collection of rare prints and See also:autographs, and a museum with a picture gallery and exhibits of See also:embroidery, textiles, See also:ceramics, See also:wood and See also:metal work, &c. The Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art founded in 1876 and opened in 1877, has schools at Broad and See also:Pine streets--the museum is housed in Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park. The school is a pioneer in America; it was originally a school of applied art, but in 1884 the Philadelphia textile school was established as another department. The See also:Wagner Free Institute of Science, founded by William Wagner in 1855, has a library and a natural history museum, provides free lectures on scientific subjects, and publishes Transactions, containing scientific See also:memoirs. The Franklin Institute for the promotion of mechanic arts (1824) has a technical library (with full patent records of several nations); since 1324 it has held exhibitions of manufactures; it has published since 1826 the Journal of the Franklin Institute; the institute provides lecture courses and has night schools of See also:drawing, See also:machine See also:design and naval architecture. The Spring Garden Institute (1851), with day classes in See also:mechanical drawing, handiwork,and applied See also:electricity, and night classes in those subjects and in freehand and architectural drawing; the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (1836), of which Emily See also:Sartain, a daughter of John Sartain, became principal in 1886; and a school of horology (1894) are other manual and industrial training schools within the city, and not far beyond the city limits is the See also:Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades (1888), endowed by See also:Isaiah Vansant Williamson (18o3–1889) with more than $5,000,000 for the free training of bricklayers, machinists, carpenters, See also:pattern makers, stationary See also:engineers and other See also:mechanics. The Lincoln Institution and Educational Home until 1907 was devoted mainly to the education of Indians. See also:Newspapers and Periodicals.—The American Weekly See also:Mercury was the first newspaper published in Philadelphia and the third in the colonies. It was first issued on the 22nd of See also:December 1719 by Andrew Sowle Bradford, a son of William Bradford, the first printer in the See also:Middle Colonies, and was the first newspaper in these colonies. The second newspaper in the city and in the province was the Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences and Pennsylvania See also:Gazette. It was established in 1728 by Samuel Keimer, but less than a year afterwards it became the property of Benjamin Franklin and See also:Hugh See also:Meredith, who shortened its See also:title to the Pennsylvania Gazette. The only one of the newspapers established during the colonial era which survived the 19th See also:century was the Pennsylvania Packet or General Advertiser, which was started in 1771 by John Dunlap, and during the War of Independence was published semi-weekly, with occasional " postscripts " of important See also:news; in 1839 it was absorbed by the North American (1829), with which the United States Gazette (1789) was united in 1847 and which is still published as the North American. The See also:Aurora and General Advertiser, established in 1790 by Benjamin Franklin See also:Bache (1769-1798), a grandson of Franklin, was a notorious See also:anti-Federalist See also:organ in its early years. A pioneer among newspapers at modern prices is the Public See also:Ledger, founded in 1836, and in 1864 purchased by George William See also:Childs. Other prominent daily papers now published are the Inquirer (Republican; 1829), the See also:Press (Republican; 1857), the See also:Record (See also:Independent Democrat; 1870), the Demokrat (German; 1838), the Evening Bulletin (Republican; established in 1815 as the American See also:Sentinel), the Evening See also:Item (1847), the Evening See also:Telegraph (Independent Republican; 1864), and the Tageblatt (Labour; German; 1877). Many of the earlier See also:literary periodicals of America were published in Philadelphia; among them were the American Magazine (1757–1758 and 1769), Thomas See also:Paine's Pennsylvania Magazine (1775-1776), the Columbian Magazine (1786–1790; called the Universal Asylum in 1790) which was edited by See also:Matthew See also:Carey and by A. J. See also:Dallas, the excellent American Museum (1787–1792 and 1798), with which Carey was connected, the Port See also:Folio (1801–1827; edited until 1812 by See also:Joseph Dennie) and the Analectic (1802–1812) which succeeded Select Reviews and Spirit of the Foreign Magazines (1809), of which Washington See also:Irving was editor in 1813–1814, and to which See also:Paulding and Verplanck contributed, and the American Quarterly See also:Review (1827–1837). Among others were: Godey's See also:Lady's See also:Book (1830-1877), for which See also:Poe, Irving, See also:Longfellow, See also:Willis and others wrote; and See also:Graham's Lady's and See also:Gentleman's Magazine (1840-1859), with the contributors just named and See also: The See also:Farm Journal (1877) is a well-known agricultural monthly. See also:Trusts, Charities, &c.—Girard College and See also:thirty-eight other charities are maintained out of the proceeds of as many trusts, which are administered by a board of See also:directors composed of twelve members, appointed by the courts of See also:common pleas, and the See also:mayor, president of the select council, and president of the common council as ex-officio members. In 1907 the invested See also:capital of the Girard Trust alone amounted to $24,467,770 and the income from it was $1,988,054. The See also:total capital of all the See also:minor trusts in the same year was $1,583,026 and the income from this was $56,730. Among the minor trust funds are: See also:Wills See also:Hospital (established in 1825) ; Benjamin Franklin Fund (1790) for aiding young married artificers; Thomas D. Grover Fund (1849) for providing the poor with See also:fuel and See also:food; See also:Mary See also:Shields Almshouse Fund (1880); and the John See also:Scott See also:Medal Fund (1816) for bestowing medals upon young inventors. To Franklin Philadelphia is largely indebted for the Pennsylvania hospital, the first hospital in the United States, which was projected in 1751 and is one of the foremost of nearly one hundred such institutions in the city. The municipal hospital for contagious diseases and hospitals for the indigent and the insane are maintained by the See also:municipality, but most of the other institutions for the sick are maintained by medical schools and religious sects. Municipal charities are under the supervision of the department of public See also:health and charities. Philadelphia is the seat of the state See also:penitentiary for the eastern district, in which, in 1829, was inaugurated the " individual " system, i.e. the See also:separate imprisonment and discriminating treatment of criminals with a view to effecting their reform. Transportation and Commerce.—Nearly every street in the business centre and about one-third of the streets throughout the built-up portion of the city have a single track of electric railway (overhead trolley), and most of the wider ones, except Broad Street, which has none, have a See also:double track. A subway line has been opened for a short distance under See also:Market Street, and other subway lines, as well as elevated lines, have been projected. The entire system, embracing in 1909 a total of 624.21 m., is operated by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. Several inter-See also:urban electric lines afford cheap service to neighbouring towns and cities. The extensive railway system under the control of the Pennsylvania railway together with the Baltimore & See also:Ohio railway affords transportation facilities north to New York, south to Baltimore, Washington and the south, west to the bituminous coalfields of Pennsylvania, the See also:grain See also:fields of the Middle West, and to See also:Pittsburg, See also:Cleveland, Cincinnati and Chicago. The Philadelphia & Reading railway connects the city with the great See also:anthracite See also:coal region, and both the Philadelphia & Reading and the Pennsylvania control a line to Atlantic City. The Schuylkill is navigable for small See also:craft to the " Fall line," about 74 m. above its mouth and for vessels drawing 26 ft. to the oil refineries at Point See also:Breeze, 3 m. from the mouth; from Point Breeze to the head of See also:navigation the channel See also:depth varies from 14 to 22 ft. The Delaware river is navigable to Trenton, New See also:Jersey, about 3o m. above the upper end of the port of Philadelphia, and although in its natural condition this river was only 17 ft. deep at See also:low See also:water in its shallowest part below the port this depth was increased between 1836 and 1899 to 26 ft. (except in three shoal stretches), and a project of the Federal government was adopted in 1899 for increasing the depth to 30 ft. and the width to 600 ft. In 1905 the city of Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania appropriated $750,000 for the improvement of the river between the city and the southern boundary of the state.' Steamships ply regularly between Philadelphia and several See also:European ports, ports in the West Indies, and ports of the United States.
The port extends from the Pennsylvania railway terminal at See also:Greenwich Point up the Delaware River to the Philadelphia & Reading terminal at Port See also:Richmond, a distance of about 8 m., and there are minor See also:harbour facilities on the Schuylkill. The natural facilities, together with the improvements that have been made, were long offset by an inefficient port See also:administration under an antiquated law of 1803 which permitted the wharves to pass largely under private control; but in 1907 the old board of port wardens was abolished and in its place wa$ created a municipal department of wharves, docks and ferries.
Until the opening of the See also:Erie See also:Canal, in 1825, Philadelphia was the See also:emporium of the United States; it was then displaced by New York. Some years later Philadelphia lost its lucrative See also:China trade, and its decline in commercial importance continued until 1883, when the value of its imports amounted to only $32,811,045, the value of its exports to only $38,662,434, and the city was out-ranked in foreign trade by New York, Boston, See also:San Francisco and New See also: By 1900, however, the value of its imports had risen to $49,191,236 and the value of its exports to $81,327,704; in 1909 the value of the imports was $78,003,464, an amount less than one-See also:eleventh that of New York, but exceeded only by New York and Boston, and the value of the exports was $80,650,274, an amount less than one-eighth that of New York, but exceeded only by New York, See also:Galveston and New Orleans. The principal imports are See also:sugar, drugs and chemicals, goatskins, See also:wool, See also:tobacco, jute and burlap, and See also:cotton goods, See also:iron ore, manufactured iron, hides and bananas; the principal exports are iron (manufactured), steel, See also:petroleum, See also:wheat, See also:flour, See also:lard, See also:cattle and See also:meat See also:pro-ducts. The proximity of the city to New York, whence many of its products are shipped, makes the See also:statistics of its direct imports and exports no true See also:index of its commercial importance. Manufactures.—Philadelphia has always been one of the foremost manufacturing centres in the United States, and in 1905 it was outranked only by New York and Chicago.' The total value of its factory product was $519,98I,812 in 1900, and $591,388,078 in 1905. Measured by the value of the products, Philadelphia ranked first among the cities of the country in 1905 in refining sugar and See also:molasses ($37,182,504; 13.4% of the total of the country) and in the manufacture of carpets and rugs ($25,232,510; 41 % of the total of the country), See also:leather ($23,903,239; 9'5% of the total of the country), See also:hosiery and knit goods ($15,770,873; 11.5% of the total of the country), woollen goods ($12,239,881; 8.6% of the total of the country), and See also:felt hats ($5,847,771; 16% of the total of the country) ; second in the manufacture of worsted goods ($26,964,533 16 % of the total of the country) and in See also:dyeing and See also:finishing textiles ($4,371,006; 8.6% of the total of the country); and third in the manufacture of clothing ($31,031,882; 5.1% of the total of the country) and See also:silk goods ($5,079,193; 3.8% bf the total of the country). Other large See also:industries are the manufacture of foundry and machine-See also:shop products, cotton goods, See also:malt liquors, iron and steel, chemicals, cigars and cigarettes, See also:soap, See also:confectionery, furniture, The city had previously expended $1,555,000 on the improvement of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. 2 The Philadelphia Museums claim that excluding slaughter-house and sweat-shop products the value of Philadelphia's manufactured products is greater than that of any other city in the country.paints, boots and shoes, See also:electrical apparatus, and cordage and twine, and among notable individual establishments are the Baldwin Locomotive Works, the See also:Cramp See also:Ship-Yards and the Disston or Keystone Saw Works. There are petroleum refineries at Point Breeze near the mouth of the Schuylkill; petroleum is piped to them from the north-west part of the state. Water See also:Supply.—The first municipal waterworks, installed in 1799–1801, pumped water by See also:steam power from the Schuylkill into an elevated tank in Centre Square, where the city-hall now stands; this was one of the earliest applications of steam to municipal water pumping. In 1812–1815 new steam works were installed on See also:Quarry Hill, or Fairmount; in 1819–1822 pumping works operated by water power were substituted for those operated by steam; and it was in great part for the preservation of the purity of the water supply that Fairmount Park was created. The park, however, did not serve its purpose in this respect. The water was impure and inadequate: additional works were installed from time to time, mostly on the Schuylkill, whence water was pumped by steam to reservoirs from which See also:distribution was made by gravity; and to meet the increasing demands new filtration works and accessories were installed in 1901–1908. These take the water mainly from the Delaware river. Government and Finances.—Inasmuch as it has been proved that in 1683 there was in use in Philadelphia a See also:seal bearing the inscription " Philadelphia .83. William. Penn. Proprietor. and. Governor " and in all respects different from the provincial seal or the county seal, it seems that there was then a distinct government for the city. In July 1684 the provincial council, presided over by William Penn, appointed a committee to draft a See also:borough charter, but there is no record of the work of this committee, and it is uncertain what the government of Philadelphia was for the next seventeen years .3 In 1701 Penn himself issued a charter creating a close See also:corporation modelled after the English borough and under this the city was governed until the War of Independence. Upon the annulment of the Penn charter by the Declaration of Independence, government by commissions was established, but in 1789 a new charter was granted and, although the government has since undergone many and great changes, it is by virtue of this charter that the city remains a corporation to-day. The Consolidation Act of 1854 extended the boundaries to the county lines without destroying the county government, changed the corporate name from " Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of Philadelphia " to " the City of Philadelphia," created the offices of controller and See also:receiver of taxes, and considerably modified the See also:powers and duties of the corporation and its officers. The Bullitt Act, passed in 1885. to go into effect in 1887, and since 1885 amended and supplemented, is a new charter except in name; particularly notable is its See also:transfer of the See also:balance of power from the See also:councils and various self-perpetuating commissions to the mayor. The mayor is elected for a See also:term of four years and is not eligible to the office for the next succeeding term. With the See also:advice and consent of the select council he appoints the directors of the departments of public safety, public works,' health and charities, supplies and (since 1907) wharves, docks and ferries, and the three members of the civil service See also:commission. He may appoint three persons to examine any department and for reasons given in writing may remove any officer whom he has appointed. His See also:veto power extends to items in See also:appropriation bills, but any item or See also:ordinance may be passed over his veto within five days of such veto by an affirmative See also:vote of three-fifths of the members elected to each council. The select council is composed of one member from each of the 47 wards, and in the common council each See also: The city's yearly See also:expenditure increased from $5,170,680 in 1856 to $14,640,479 in 1880, to $30,628,246 in 1900, and to $48,012,630 in 1909. The principal items of expenditure in 1909 were: for public schools $8,242,218; for the bureau of water, $2,827,200; for streets and highways, $4,219,260; for police, $3,810,535; and for See also:protection against See also:fire, $1,873,720. The receipts for the same year were $44,372,927, of which $18,851,442 were from the property tax (municipal and state), and $4,396,124 were from the water tax. The city's indebtedness increased rapidly for a period of twenty-five years following consolidation. At the beginning of 1856 the funded See also:debt was $16,781,470, by the beginning of 187o it had grown to $42,401,933, and by the beginning of 188o to $70,970,041. By the new state constitution adopted in 1873 no municipality is permitted to create a debt exceeding 7% of the assessed value of its taxable property,' in 1879 the state legislature passed an act to prevent the city from living beyond its income, and as a consequence of these restrictions the funded debt, less loans held by the sinking fund, was reduced by the beginning of 1895 to $33,139,695. The great expense of installing the new See also:filter plant, developing the park system, and making other improvements has, however, caused it to grow again; at the beginning of 1910 the total funded debt was $95,483,820 and the See also:net funded debt was $84,901,620.
History.—The patent granted to William Penn for the territory embraced within the present See also:commonwealth of Pennsylvania was signed by Charles II. on the 4th of March 1681 and Penn agreed that " a quantity of land or ground plat should be laid out for a large town or city in the most convenient place upon the river for health and navigation," and that every purchaser of 500 acres in the country shall be allowed a See also:lot of 10 acres in the town or city, " if the place will allow it." In September Penn appointed William See also:Crispin, Nathaniel See also:Allen and John Bezan a commission to proceed to the new province and See also:lay out the city, directing them to select a site on the Delaware where " it is most navigable, high, dry and healthy; that is where most See also:ships can best ride, of deepest See also:draught of water, if possible to load or unload at the bank or See also: During nearly the whole of this period it was also the most important city commercially, politically and socially in the colonies. Quaker influence remained strong in the city, especially up to the be-ginning of the 19th century; and it was predominant in Philadelphia long after it had given way before the Scotch-Irish in the See also:rest of Pennsylvania. But even in Philadelphia the academy (later the university of Pennsylvania) soon came under the control of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The first Continental Congress met in Carpenters' Hall on the 5th of September 1974; the second in the old state house (Independence Hall) on the loth of May 1775; and throughout the War of Independence, except from the 26th of September 1777 to the 18th of June 1778, when it was in See also:possession of the British,2 Philadelphia was the virtual capital of the colonies; it was a brilliant social city, especially during the British possession. The national convention which framed the present constitution of the United States sat in Philadelphia in 1787, and from 1790 to 1800 the city was the national capital. Here Benjamin Franklin and David Rittenhouse made their great contributions to science, and here Washington delivered his farewell address to the See also:people of the United States. Here, in July and See also:August 1789, the clerical and lay delegates from the Protestant Episcopal Churches in the United States met and formally organized the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. Here the first bank in the colonies—the Bank of North America—was opened in 1781, and here the first See also:mint for the coinage of the money of the United States was established in 1792. The city was visited with an epidemic of yellow See also:fever in 1793 and again in 1798; and in 1832 nearly boo inhabitants died of See also:Asiatic See also:cholera. The original boundaries remained unchanged for 172 years, but the adjoining territory as it became populated was erected into corporated districts in the following See also:order: Southwark (1762), Northern Liberties (1771), Moyamensing (1812), Spring Garden (1813), See also:Kensington (1820), Penn (1844), Richmond (1847), West Philadelphia (1851) and Belmont (1853). In 1854 all these districts, together with the boroughs of Germantown, Frankford, Manayunk, White Hall, Bridesburg and Aramingo, and the townships of Passyunk, Blockley, Kingsessing, Roxborough, Germantown, See also:Bristol, See also:Oxford, See also:Lower See also:Dublin, Moreland, Byberry, Delaware and Penn was abolished and the boundaries of Philadelphia were extended to the county lines by a single act of the state legislature. The consolidation was in part the outcome of a demand for efficiency in preserving order. There had been occasional outbreaks of disorder: on the 17th of May 1838 an anti-abolition See also:mob had burned Pennsylvania Hall, which had been dedicated three days before to the discussion of abolition, See also:temperance and equality; in May 1844 anti-Catholic rioters had burned St See also:Michael's and St See also:Augustine's churches, and minor riots had occured in 1835, 1842 and 1843. Philadelphia was from the first strongly anti-See also:slavery in sentiment, and it was here in December 1833 that the American Anti-Slavery Society was organized, and in 1856, on the anniversary of the See also:battle of Bunker Hill, that the first national convention of the Republican party met. During the Civil War the See also:arsenal and the Southwark navy yard were busy manufacturing material for the Federal armies, the city was crowded with wounded soldiers, and here in 1864 was held the great sanitary fair for the benefit of the United States sanitary commission, an organization for the See also:relief and care of wounded and sick soldiers. In 1876, the centennial year of American independence, a great exhibition of the industries of all nations was held in Fairmount Park from the loth of May to the loth of See also:November, and about fifty buildings were erected for the purpose. In October 1882 the city celebrated the bi-centennial of the landing of William Penn, and in October 1908 the 225th anniversary of its foundation. 2 See also:Lord See also:Howe, who had been in command of the British, embarked for England on the 24th of May, and on the 18th of this month was held for his farewell entertainment the famous Mischianaa, a feast of gaiety with a See also:tournament somewhat like those common in the age of See also:chivalry, which was in large part planned by Captain John Andre. Penrose, Philadelphia 1681–1887; a History of Municipal Development (Philadelphia, 1887) ; J. H. Young (ed.), Memorial History of the City of Philadelphia (New York, 1895) ; Lillian I. Rhoades, The See also:Story of Philadelphia (New York, 1900) ; T. See also:Williams, " Philadelphia," in L. P. See also:Powell's Historic Towns of the Middle States (New York, 1899) ; F. M. Etting, An Historical See also:Account of the Old State House (Philadelphia, 1891); E. K. See also:Price, History of the Consolidation of Philadelphia. (Philadelphia, 1873); and See also:Agnes Repplier, Philadelphia, the Place and People (New York, 1898). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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