The streets are regular, fine, and most of them are fifty foot, English measure, broad; [[34]]Arch-street measures sixty six feet in breadth, and Market-street or the principal street, where the market is kept, near a hundred. Those which run longitudinally, or from north to south are seven, exclusive of a little one, which runs along the river, to the south of the market, and is called Water-street. The lanes which go across, and were intended to reach from the Delaware to the Skulkill, are eight in number. They do not go quite from east to west, but deviate a little from that direction. All the streets except two which are nearest to the river, run in a straight line, and make right angles at the intersections. Some are paved, others are not; and it seems less necessary since the ground is sandy, and therefore soon absorbs the wet. But in most of the streets is a pavement of flags, a fathom or more broad, laid before the houses, and posts put on the outside three or four fathom asunder. Under the roofs are gutters which are carefully connected with pipes, and by this means, those who walk under them, when it rains, or when the snow melts, need not fear being wetted by the dropping from the roofs.
The houses make a good appearance, are frequency several stories high, and built either of bricks or of stone; but the [[35]]former are more commonly used, since bricks are made before the town, and are well burnt. The stone which has been employed in the building of other houses, is a mixture of black or grey glimmer, running in undulated veins, and of a loose, and quite small grained limestone, which run scattered between the bendings of the other veins, and are of a grey colour, excepting here and there some single grains of sand, of a paler hue. The glimmer makes the greatest part of the stone; but the mixture is sometimes of another kind, as I shall relate hereafter under the article, eleventh of October. This stone is now got in great quantities in the country, is easily cut, and has the good quality of not attracting the moisture in a wet season. Very good lime is burnt every where hereabouts, for masonry.
The houses are covered with shingles. The wood for this purpose is taken from the Cupressus thyoides, Linn. or a tree which Swedes here call the white juniper-tree, and the English, the white cedar. Swamps and Morasses formerly were full of them, but at present these trees are for the greatest part cut down, and no attempt has as yet been made to plant new ones. The wood is very light, rots less than any other in [[36]]this country, and for that reason is exceeding good for roofs. For it is not too heavy for the walls, and will serve for forty or fifty years together. But many people already begin to fear, that these roofs will in time be looked upon as having been very detrimental to the city. For being so very light, most people who have built their houses of stone, or bricks, have been led to make their walls extremely thin. But at present this kind of wood is almost entirely destroyed. Whenever therefore in process of time these roofs decay, the people will be obliged to have recourse to the heavier materials of tiles, or the like, which the walls will not be strong enough to bear. The roof will therefore require supports, or the people be obliged to pull down the walls and to build new ones, or to take other steps for securing them. Several people have already in late years begun to make roofs of tiles.
Among the publick buildings I will first mention churches, of which there are several, for God is served in various ways in this country.
1. The English established church stands in the northern part of the town, at some distance from the market, and is the finest of all. It has a little, inconsiderable [[37]]steeple, in which is a bell to be rung when it is time to go to church, and on burials. It has likewise a clock which strikes the hours. This building which is called Christ church, was founded towards the end of the last century, but has lately been rebuilt and more adorned. It has two ministers who get the greatest part of their salary from England. In the beginning of this century, the Swedish minister the Rev. Mr. Rudmann, performed the functions of a clergyman to the English congregation for near two years, during the absence of their own clergyman.
2. The Swedish church, which is otherwise called the church of Weekacko, is on the southern part of the town, and almost without it, on the river’s side, and its situation is therefore more agreeable than that of any other. I shall have an opportunity of describing it more exactly, when I shall speak of the Swedes in particular, who live in this place.
3. The German Lutheran church, is on the north-west side of the town. On my arrival in America it had a little steeple, but that being but up by an ignorant architect, before the walls of the church were quite dry, they leaned forwards by its weight, and therefore they were forced [[38]]to pull it down again in the autumn of the year 1750. About that time the congregation received a fine organ from Germany. They have only one minister, who likewise preaches at another Lutheran church in Germantown. He preaches alternately one sunday in that church, and another in this. The first clergyman which the Lutherans had in this town, was the Rev. Mr. Muhlenberg, who laid the foundations of this church in 1743, and being called to another place afterwards, the rev. Mr. Brunholz from Sleswick was his successor, and is yet here. Both these gentlemen were sent to this place from Hall in Saxony, and have been a great advantage to it by their peculiar talent of preaching in an edifying manner. A little while before this church was built, the Lutheran Germans had no clergyman for themselves, so that the every-where beloved Swedish minister at Weekacko, Mr. Dylander, preached likewise to them. He therefore preached three sermons every sunday; the first early in the morning to the Germans; the second to the Swedes, and the third in the afternoon to the English, and besides this he went all the week into the country and instructed the Germans who lived separately there. He therefore frequently preached sixteen [[39]]sermons a week. And after his death, which happened in November 1741, the Germans first wrote to Germany for a clergyman for themselves. This congregation is at present very numerous, so that every sunday the church is very much crowded. It has two galleries, but no vestry. They do not sing the collects, but read them before the altar.
4. The old Presbyterian church, is not far from the market, and on the south-side of market-street. It is of a middling size, and built in the year 1704, as the inscription on the northern pediment shews. The roof is built almost hemispherical, or at least forms a hexagon. The whole building stands from north to south, for the presbyterians do not regard, as other people do, whether their churches look towards a certain point of the heavens or not.
5. The new Presbyterian church was built in the year 1750, by the New-lights in the north-western part of the town. By the name of New-lights, are understood the people who have, from different religions, become proselytes to the well known Whitefield, who in the years 1739, 1740, and likewise in 1744 and 1745 travelled through almost all the English colonies. His delivery, his extraordinary zeal, and [[40]]other talents so well adapted to the intelects of his hearers, made him so popular that he frequently, especially in the two first years, got from eight thousand to twenty thousand hearers in the fields. His intention in these travels, was to collect money for an orphans hospital which had been erected in Georgia. He here frequently collected seventy pounds sterling at one sermon; nay, at two sermons which he preached in the year 1740, both an one sunday, at Philadelphia, he got an hundred and fifty pounds. The proselytes of this man, or the above-mentioned new-lights, are at present merely a sect of presbyterians. For though Whitefield was originally a clergyman of the English church, yet he deviated by little and little from her doctrines; and on arriving in the year 1744 at Boston in New England, he disputed with the Presbyterians about their doctrines, so much that he almost entirely embraced them. For Whitefield was no great disputant, and could therefore easily be led by these cunning people, whithersoever they would have him. This likewise during his latter stay in America caused his audience to be less numerous than during the first. The new-lights built first in the year 1741, a great house in the western part of the [[41]]town, to hold divine service in. But a division arising amongst them after the departure of Whitefield, and besides on other accounts, the building was sold to the town in the beginning of the year 1750, and destined for a school. The new-lights then built a church which I call the new Presbyterian one. On its eastern pediment is the following inscription, in golden letters: Templum Presbyterianum, annuente numine, erectum, Anno Dom. MDCCL.
6. The old German reformed church is built in the west north-west part of the town, and looks like the church in the Ladugoordfield near Stockholm. It is not yet finished, though for several years together, the congregation has kept up divine service in it. These Germans attended the German service at the Swedish church, whilst the Swedish minister Mr. Dylander lived.—But as the Lutherans got a clergyman for themselves on the death of the last, those of the reformed church made likewise preparations to get one from Dordrecht; and the first who was sent to them, was the Rev. Mr. Slaughter, whom I found on my arrival. But in the year 1750, another clergyman of the reformed church arrived from Holland, and by his artful behaviour, so insinuated himself into the favour of the Rev. Mr. [[42]]Slaughter’s congregation, that the latter lost almost half his audience. The two clergymen then disputed for several sundays together, about the pulpit, nay, people relate that the new comer mounted the pulpit on a saturday, and stayed in it all night. The other being thus excluded, the two parties in the audience, made themselves the subject both of the laughter and of the scorn of the whole town, by beating and bruising each other, and committing other excesses. The affair was inquired into by the magistrates, and decided in favour of the rev. Mr. Slaughter, the person who had been abused.