It is possible to characterize with tolerable accuracy the various sections of Philadelphia. The business life centres around Market Street. The portion north and south of this thoroughfare bordering the Delaware is devoted to wholesale trade, shipping, and warehouses; from Third Street to Eighth, Market, Chestnut, and Walnut may be designated as the financial and banking centre of the city: these streets, with Arch, from Eighth to City Hall, form the great retail shop ping section, where are found the great depart ment stores. The large office buildings cluster about the City Hall. at the junction of Broad and Market. Streets, in the vicinity of which are also found the Pennsylvania and Reading depots and the Baldwin Locomotive Works. Westward from the City Hall, Market Street is lined by smaller wholesale and retail establishments; while be yond the Schuylkill, Lancaster and Woodland avenues dispute its supremacy in retail trade. The northeastern section. comprising Kensington and Frankfort, and certain portions of the north west section form the chief textile centre of the city: the northeast section at Port Richmond is also the location of Cramp's ship-yards. The southern portion. east of the Schuylkill, is de voted to general manufactures and to transporta tion.
The residential portions of the city seem to be as clearly divided by Market Street as are the business interests. South of that thoroughfare, on Chestnut. Walnut. and Spruce streets, centring about Rittenhouse Square, is the aristocratic residential section of the city. North of Mar ket the upper portion of Broad Street. with por tions of other streets between it and the Schuyl kill, forms another important residence area. North of this comes the residential section occu pied largely by textile operatives. South of Market and extending a few blocks below Lom bard is the section occupied by the foreign and colored elements. with the former. consisting largely of Italians and Hebrews. grouped to the east of Broad, and the negroes between Broad and the Schuylkill. In this region arc located most of the slums of the city. though the pecu liarities of the building plan permit them to exist in the rear of the best residential seetious. West of the Schuylkill. Market Street continues to divide West Philadelphia into two distinct residential portions: for the northern the char acter is largely determined by the proximity of the main freight yards of the Pennsylvania Rail road, whose employees. together with employees
from the downtown business district. constitute the bulk of its population. The southern is a more pretentious residence district, with many notable residences and with an academic air im parted to it by the presence of the University of Pennsylvania. Especially noted for their villas and gardens are the attractive sulairbs of Ger mantown and Chestnut Hill; and in the general beauty of its numerous suburban sites Philadel phia is unsurpassed by any city of the world.
By its name Philadelphia suggests its dis tinctive title "The City of Brotherly Love;" its early history renders especially appropriate that of the Quaker City:" but none more truly char acterizes it than that of "The City of Homes." Of 323.783 buildings of all kinds (1903), 298.144 are dwelling houses, with an average of 4.5 per sons per dwelling, and with 22 per cent. Owned by the occupants. There are 800 church build ings, 474 schools. public and private, and 247 buildings used for charitable and benevolent pur poses. In the older portions there are many sur vivals of the long blocks of red brick houses, with white marble steps and trimmings. that early gave Philadelphia the neat appearance for which it is still famous. In the newer portions red brick is still the principal building material. and the residences are commonly built in long blocks of houses of four or more similarly ar ranged rooms. each separated from its neighbors by a brick party-wall, and varying in size with the width of the street. On some of the larger streets the houses are built in pairs, instead of blocks, but the arrangement of the separate houses is the same. There is, however. a more welcome variety in styles of architecture than formerly, and vari ous kinds of building stone, along many streets. are beginning to break the monotony of the cus tomary brick, while in the better suburbs the are almost wholly of stone o• wood. In general, Philadelphia. in its homes and parks. may be said to retain to a greater degree than any other large American city the finer qualities of its town life and to combine with these the best features of modern industrial development.