The Stranger's Guide in Philadelphia to All Public Buildings, Places of Amusement, Commercial, Benevolent, and Religious Institutions, and Churches, P (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1864 edition. Excerpt: ...about one hundred and fifty feet on Pine Street, which is furnished with an iron railing. About seven-eighths of the square was purchased in 1755, by the managers, for 500; the remaining portion was presented to the Institution, by Thomas and Richard Penn, in 1762. The Hospital, surrounded on the borders of the square by majestic trees, exhibits a south front of venerable aspect, and considerable architectural beauty, extending east and west two hundred and eighty-one feet. It consists of a centre building, united by two long wards, three stories in height, to two wings, extending north and south. These wings are surmounted by cupolas, and finished so as to present fronts on Eighth and Ninth Streets. The centre building is sixty-four feet front, by sixty-one in depth, and, to the top of the balustrade surrounding the oupola, seventy-two in height. That portion of the Hospital first erected, was the east wing, the corner-stone of which was laid May 28th, 1755, by John Key, the first European born in Philadelphia. It was finished and opened for the reception of patients, the following year. The west wing was erected in 1796, and the centre in 1805. In addition to the main edifice, there are various outhouses, together with a building on Spruce Street, erected for the exhibition of West s celebrated painting of Christ Healing the Sick. The net proceeds from the exhibition of this picture, from 1818 until 1848, when it was removed to the Academy of Fine Arts, where it still remains, was nearly $24,000. A well-executed statue of William Penn, presented by his grandson, John Penn, Esq., stands in the beautiful lawn facing Pine Street. (See page 138.) The attention paid to neatness and ornament in the exterior and...