Growth of Industry in Philadelphia

During the 19th century Philadelphia grew from a colonial-scale city into a gritty, industrial metropolis of almost 2 million people. Its red brick row houses spread across the urban space between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. This urban area quickly expanded north and south in a half-moon shape along the Delaware River, which was the major transportation route during the city’s early years.

( Delaware River )
By 1854 these outer boroughs or districts were incorporated into the present city and county of Philadelphia. The boroughs became future neighborhoods such as Germantown, Chestnut Hill, Overbrook, Fishtown, and Southwark.

Transportation was vital to the city's destiny. Philadelphia competed with Baltimore, Maryland, and New York to develop a transportation system westward, and imitated New York in initially focusing its attention on canals.

In 1856, however, the Pennsylvania Railroad replaced the Main Line Canal as Philadelphia’s primary western link, tying Philadelphia not only to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but also to Chicago, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri.

A diversified specialty manufacturing economy emerged based on high quality goods from hosiery to ships. Industrialization transformed neighborhoods such as Kensington into hubs of textile and metal manufacturing, but also into areas of social conflict.

In the 1830s and 1840s English handloom weavers battled unskilled Irish Catholics who threatened their jobs.

Violence against blacks also flared during the same period. Angry whites attacked an abolitionist rally in 1838 and burned Pennsylvania Hall, the meeting place for Philadelphia’s antislavery reformers. Three years later a white mob fired on a meeting of blacks who advocated either temperance or the banning of alcohol. Despite this violence, Philadelphia’s blacks and Quakers built a sizeable antislavery movement, and Philadelphia became the home to several prominent figures in this crusade, including Lucretia Mott.

In 1854 Philadelphia hosted the first convention of the Republican Party. The party’s platform not only opposed slavery, but also favored a high protective tariff or tax on imported goods, a policy popular with the city’s business community. During the Civil War, Philadelphia manufacturers supplied the northern Union with uniforms, ships, canons, and other war material.

War energized Philadelphia's already bustling economy and added to the importance of rail transportation. The Pennsylvania Railroad dominated Philadelphia in the late 19th century. Its tracks drove into the heart of the city, shifting downtown activity from the State House and Independence Square to Center Square and Broad Street Station, the railroad’s massive redbrick terminal. At the city’s new urban core, department stores were built along with great hotels, banks, and other civic landmarks.

At the same time business tycoons built an extensive streetcar system that was electrified by the 1890s.

During the 1920s Philadelphia dug a subway on Broad Street. The city's textile and metal manufacturing economy remained vigorous through World War I (1914-1918), although the textile industry began to show signs of weakening soon after the war ended.

Yet, Philadelphia remained an optimistic city in 1926 when it hosted the nation's Sesquicentennial Exposition, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The exposition gained some fame because it hosted the first heavyweight championship match between boxers Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney, but rain and poor attendance marred its overall success.