Historic Resource Study, Independence Mall, The 18th Century Development, Block One, Chestnut to Market, Fifth to Sixth Streets

Toogood, Anna

On April 8, 1999 Independence National Historical Park officially accepted the deed for the three-block landscaped Independence Mall stretching north from Independence Hall to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Constructed between 1950 and 1968, Independence Mall replaced three dense blocks of urban architecture. Its design, planning and execution by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and City of Philadelphia ran simultaneously with the creation of Independence National Historical Park. Together they culminated a four-decade effort to preserve and properly display the birthplace of the nation, Independence Hall. The history of this planning has been well documented by the National Park Service in Cultural Landscape Report, Independence Mall (1993), Constance Greiff, Independence The Creation of a National Park (Philadelphia 1987), and Kathleen Kurtz Cook, "The Creation of Independence National Historical Park and Independence Mall," Master of Science Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1989. By 1954 the buildings on Block One of the Mall, from Chestnut and Market Streets between Fifth to Sixth Streets, had been torn down and the new landscaping completed on a block narrowed by the widening of all its surrounding streets. The plan trimmed 65 feet from the east-west measurement of the block by widening Fifth and Sixth Streets, while the north-south measurement lost 53 feet by widening Market and Chestnut Streets. Market Street gained 16 feet in the widening, which presumably meant eight feet from Block One and eight from Block Two. Chestnut Street widened from 26 to 44 feet curb to curb, taking 18 feet from the Mall's southern end. Fifth and Sixth Streets each gained around 33 feet: the street widened from its original 26 feet for vehicles with 12-foot sidewalks, to 45 feet with 18 and 20-foot sidewalks. This street widening, as with block two, put some of the 18th century ground under pavement and outside of the current Mall acreage. The exact location where these street widenings occurred - only on the Mall property, or also on the opposite side of Market, Fifth and Sixth streets, is not indicated on the available site plans. This information will be needed to make accurate archaeological calculations for the lots along Sixth Street on block one. In 1992 a general management plan for Independence National Historical Park identified Independence Mall as the future site for a Gateway Visitor Center. After years of public meetings, the city, national park, state and local planners approved a plan that locates a new Liberty Bell Pavilion on the first block, at the corner of Sixth and Chestnut Streets. The design runs along Sixth Street the length of the block to Market Street. ,This report documents the 18th century history of the construction site, and will be useful in identifying archaeological objects in the eventuality that any artifacts from that early period have survived nineteenth century construction. The foundations of the new pavilion, however, are not expected to reach a depth that will contain 18th century features, except, perhaps, in the court and alleys which appear to have dated from the 18th century. These open spaces possibly were created for one or two of the large stables established prior to the Revolution for the visitors to the State House and the inn opposite. These same stables, advertised as "nearly opposite the State House" and "on Sixth Street above Chestnut Street," serviced both American and British troops during the war.

Historic Resource Study, Independence Mall, The 18th Century Development, Block One, Chestnut to Market, Fifth to Sixth Streets

Series

Collections