The “Zoölogical Society” was incorporated in 1859; and in Fairmount Park, north of the Spring Garden Water Works, began the first zoölogical garden in the United States. They later moved across the river to their present site, and the new buildings and grounds were opened to the public July 1, 1874.
April 8, 1861, John Wanamaker opened a men’s clothing store at Sixth and Market Streets. Fifteen years later, 1876, having been removed to Thirteenth and Market Streets, it had “six departments for the outfitting of men and boys.” On March 12, 1877, it was resolved into a general store having sixteen departments covering all classes of dry goods. This is believed to have been the first “department store” in the United States, probably in the world. This same store, in 1865, made the first announcements of the “one price system,” and that anything sold could be brought back for refund of money. The Wanamaker store at Thirteenth and Market Streets was lighted by electricity on the night after Christmas, 1878, being the first store ever so lighted.
First bank chartered under the National Banking Act, the “First National Bank of Philadelphia,” June 20, 1863. The first “National Currency” was issued by this bank.
The first Stock Exchange Clearing House in the United States was established here in August, 1870.
The first organization in the world for the insurance of real estate titles was “The Real Estate Title Insurance Company of Philadelphia,” chartered March 28, 1876. By an amendment to the charter, under date of December 3, 1881, the title was changed to “The Real Estate Title Insurance and Trust Company of Philadelphia.”
The first international fair held in this country was the Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia, May 10 to November 10, 1876. It is the only fair of its kind that has paid its own expenses, and received no appropriation from Congress.
Philadelphia is known as the city of the Easter lily. It was brought from Bermuda in 1879 by Mrs. Mary Rogers, who propagated it until in three years there were 100 specimens; then William K. Harris, a florist, Fifty-sixth Street and Springfield Avenue, introduced it in both Philadelphia and New York.
The Philadelphia Bourse, the first and, as yet, the only one in the United States, was chartered June 25, 1891, and completed and opened for business October 1, 1895.
The “Wistar Institute of Anatomy,” founded in 1892, by General Isaac Wistar, and connected with the University of Pennsylvania, is the first anatomical and neurological institute established in the United States.
Philadelphia was the first city to inaugurate a service by pneumatic tubes for the general carriage of firstclass mail. A six-inch tube connecting the Bourse station with the Central Post Office at Ninth Street was put in service February 17, 1893, and is still in operation. Eight-inch tubes have been used in lines since installed, and have a capacity of 7,200,000 letters per day each way.