#phillyhistory

Philadelphia engineer and architect Frederick Graff worked with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe to design the city’s water works at Centre Square and became their superintendent in 1805. This plan with its many notations made over the span of more than two decades shows how the water works became integrated into the fabric of the lives of the city’s residents.

Unsurprisingly, Graff included information about the length, width, and circumference of various walkways in the square, but we also learn through these additions of the presence of a gambling house and the discovery of a murder victim’s body.

To celebrate #WorldPhotographyDay we are sharing this albumen print taken of the North side of the 500 block of Market Street in Philadelphia.

Looking for something to do this weekend? How about a round of the Game of Philadelphia Buildings?

Comprised of a series of photomechanical prints on flashcards with a separate answer key, the game was copyrighted in 1899 by Mary S. Holmes, a Philadelphia area teacher and later principal of the Germantown High School for Girls.

Have your gotten your tickets for the Philadelphia Flower Show yet?

The first Flower Show was in 1829, shortly after the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society was founded in 1827. This ticket is from 1855, and would admit the bearer to regular meetings and the annual exhibition.