building, to please and gratify a judicious taste and to promote the comfort and accommodation of those entitled to partake of the intellectual feasts that were there presented. In fact, the building is one of the most complete of its kind in the country. According to the annual report of the board for 1876, the library numbered 130,814 volumes, with 9327 unbound pamphlets. The number of persons entitled to the use of the library on January 1, 1877, was 9207. In 1877, owing to the burning of Fox's Theatre, the western end of the building was much burnt and many valuable books were destroyed by water. The Athenæum owes its origin to that taste for literary pursuits which has characterized this city. In the year 1813 half a dozen young men established rooms for reading and resort. By Feb. 9th, 1814, when the articles of association were adopted, the number of members amounted to two hundred; a board of directors was then chosen, and the institution was opened on the 7th of March in a room over the bookstore of Matthew Carey, at the south-east corner of Fourth and Chestnut streets. Mr. Carey afterward bequeathed to the Athenæum a large collection of bound pamphlets on the history and statistics of the country. The first officers of the Athenæum were men eminent in their day president, Chief-Justice William Tilghman; vice-president, Dr. James Mease; treasurer, Roberts Vaux; managers, Samuel Ewing, Nicholas Biddle, John Cole Lowber, George Vaux, William Lehman, Peter Stephen Duponceau. In 1818 the institution was removed to rooms in the Philosophical Hall, on Fifth street below Chestnut, where they remained for almost thirty years, and then removed to their own new building, in Sixth street, corner of Adelphi, below Walnut. The edifice was designed by John Notman, and constructed mainly with funds left by William Lehman; he left $10,000, which by good management of Quintin Campbell, the treasurer, amounted to nearly $25,000 at the time they opened the new structure in : 1847. The Apprentices' Library, founded in 1820, for the free use of books by apprentices and girls, is located in the old building erected by the "Free Quakers," at Fifth and Arch streets. It was first opened in Carpenters' Hall, then in Jayne (formerly Carpenter) street below Seventh, and then in the old Mint, in Seventh street below Arch. The present building is leased to the Apprentices' Library by the descendants of the Free Quakers for a small sum, and the trustees are doing a great deal of good with the free library for boys and for girls and women, and the reading-room, moulding the characters of future worthy citizens. (For account of the Free or Fighting Quakers see under the head of "Friends," p. 435, and Vol. I. 499.) Upon the gable-end on Arch street is a stone tablet with this inscription: "By general Subscription, The last line means that when the building was erected it was the eighth year of the empire composed of independent American States under the Confederation. An empire is a joint government, comprising several nations. The word "empire common one applied to the American States after the Revolution, and before the Federal Constitution made the States a nation. was a TAVERNS. By the middle of the eighteenth century the customs of drinking had taken fast hold of society; rum and beer, Jamaica spirits and Madeira wine, were common in the best houses, and some kind of liquor always stood ready on the sideboard, and was at once handed to every guest. Drinking had become so common as to excite remark and the fears of the judicious. In the Pennsylvania Gazette of 1733 we find the following: "It is now become the practice of some otherwise discreet women, instead of a draught of beer and toast, or a chunk of bread and cheese, or a wooden noggin of good porridge and bread, as our good old English custom is, or milk and bread boiled, or tea and bread and butter, or milk, or milk and coffee, etc., they must have their two or three drams in the morning, by which their appetite for wholesome food is taken away." It was customary at public vendues, funerals, festivities, etc. to provide plenty of liquors. At vendues the drinkers would be excited and bid "fast and furious," thus often paying too much and buying what they should not. In 1729, on the first three nights of October, which was election-time, the Weekly Mercury said there were used 4500 gallons of beer in the city. The Friends were the first to endeavor to stop the practice, and in 1726 the Yearly Meeting adopted a minute against liquor at vendues; and an additional complaint was made against the same from Chester county in 1743. In 1736 the Yearly Meeting issued caution against the too frequent use of drams, and giving children a taste of them. This advice was repeated by the Meeting in 1738, '49, and '50. P. 463.-2d mo. 18, 1704, the governor, attended by several members of Council, met the representatives of the Lower Counties, "where they were met at the Bull's Head in Philadelphia." (Col. Recs., ii. 134.) This was probably in Strawberry street, or the one west of it. Jan. 10, 1748-49, auction to be held "at the sign of the Queen of Hungary, in Front street." The following signs and names of landlords are from a list printed in Penna. Archives, iii. 559, as officers' quarters of Gen. Forbes's Seventeenth Regiment, Nov. 15, 1758: John Groves, Front street; John Biddle, Market street east Capt. Brown, Second street; Mrs. Childs, Arch street; Samuel Soumina, Market street; Mrs. Howell, Second street; Henry, King of Mohawks; Wm. Whitehead, Second street, Mrs. Grant, Walnut street; John Pearson, Second street, The following were tavern-signs in Philadelphia in 1785: Battle of the Kegs, Water street, between Race and Vine; Bird-in-Hand, corner of Penn and Pine streets; Faithful Irishman (Isabella Barry), in Strawberry alley; Golden Swan (Paul Britton, afterward by Cameron), Third street above Arch; Mason and York Arms, Water street, between Chestnut and Market; Sailor's Return, corner of Walnut and Water streets; Ewe and Lamb, Front street, between Vine and Callowhill; Lamb (Francis Oskullion), Second street below Lombard; Dragon and Horse, Walnut street, between Front and Second; Hen and Chickens (Valentine Pegan), Spruce street, between Front and Second; Louis the Sixteenth, South street, between Fifth and Sixth; Ship, Water street, near Chestnut ; Kouli Khan, Chestnut and Front streets; Horse and Groom, Sixth street, between Market and Chestnut; Bunch of Grapes (John Razer), Third street above Market; General Wayne (Tobias Rudolph), Penn and Pine streets; Harp and Crook, Water street, near Spruce; Rising Sun (Sarah Stimble), Market street above Front; Kouli Khan (Robert Stephens), Chestnut street below Second; Horse and Groom, Strawberry alley; Jolly Tar (John Stafford), Water street below Race; White Horse, Second street, between Vine and Callowhill; Organ (William Shedecker), Spruce street above Fourth; Three Jolly Irishmen, Water and Race streets; Cross Keys, Race street, between Sixth and Seventh; United States, Water street, near Spruce; Rising Sun (Samuel Titmus); Wilkes and Liberty, Market street wharf; Boar's Head, Elbow lane; Cumberland, Front street, near Pool's Bridge; Turk's Head (Adam Weaver), Chestnut street above Second; Fox and Leopard, Pine and Penn streets; Cross Keys, Water street, between Market and Arch; Buck (George Yoe), Callowhill street, between Second and Third; The Struggler (Edmund Conner), Water street, between Spruce and Pine; Cork Arms (John Conner), Water street below Walnut; Black Horse (Isaac Connelly), Market street, between Fourth and Fifth; Plough (Matthew Conrad), Third street above Market; Cordwainers' Arms (James Culbertson), Walnut street below Second; Harp and Crown (William Carson), Third street above Market; Dusty Miller and White Horse (John Clemens), Chestnut street above Second; Strap and Block (Cook Lawrence), Arch street wharf; Boatswain Hall, Front street, between Walnut and Spruce; Dr. Franklin (John Fiegele), corner of Race and Second streets; The Rose (Mrs. Fourrage), Race street, between Fifth and Sixth; Sportsman (Charles Gordon), Water street, between Walnut and Spruce; Red Lion (David Gordon), Race street, between Fourth and Fifth; Leopard, Spruce street, between Third and Fourth; General Washington, Front street, between Arch and Race; King of Prussia (Michael Hay), Race street, between Third and The Salute (William Hood), Third street, between Chestnut and American Soldier, South alley, between Fifth and Sixth streets; Red Cow, Water street, between Race and Vine; Blue Ball, corner of Sixth and Market streets; Cross Keys (Israel Israel), Third and Chestnut streets ; Green Tree (Andrew Kesler), Third street, between Arch and Plough, Market street, between Seventh and Eighth; Buck (Michael Kraft), Second street, between Race and Vine; Golden Fleece (Luke Ludwig), corner of Fourth and Lombard streets; Harp and Crown, Front street, between Market and Chestnut; Noah's Ark (Ingellert Minzer), Second street, between Vine and The Oley Wagon, Third street, between Vine and Callowhill; The Black Horse (John Fritz), Second street, corner of Blackhorse alley; The Samson and Lion (John Eisenbrey), south-west corner of Crown and Vine streets. ance. The three latter houses were the only ones remaining and that retained their signs in 1859 as they had them in 1785. The last one, the Samson and Lion, at the south-west corner of Crown and Vine streets, was an old yellow frame house, and has always been used as a tavern. It had a very clean and comfortable appearIt had a sign of Samson slaying the lion, which has often been retouched since placed there, and bore upon its top the date 1813. In 1785 it was kept by John Eisenbrey, who in 1791 was at 110 South Fifth street. In 1800 John Smith kept it, and about the time of "the last war" the keeper of the tavern was Speck, to whom his widow succeeded, and kept the house for many years. This tavern is one of the oldest in Philadelphia, and is one of the very few inns that has not changed its sign to suit modern fashions. The following also were in existence between 1700 and 1750: Vintners' Arms, Front street; Plume of Feathers (George Campion), Front street; Prince Eugene (Matthew Garrigues), Front street; |