On the west side of Broad Street, between Race and Vine Streets, are the Hahnemann College and Hospital, one of the chief homœopathic institutions of the kind. To the right, at the corner of Spring Garden Street, is the Spring Garden Institute for instruction in drawing, painting, and the mechanic arts. Opposite are the Baldwin Locomotive Works, a highly interesting industrial establishment.
A little farther on is the Boys’ Central High School, an unusually large and handsome structure, and the Synagogue Rodef Shalom, in a Moorish style.
Farther up Broad Street are numerous handsome private houses, churches, and other edifices. At the northwest corner of Broad Street and Girard Avenue is the handsome Widener Mansion, presented to the city and used as a branch of the Free Library. Beyond Master Street, to the left, is the elaborate home of the Mercantile Club. Beyond this Broad Street runs out to Germantown, six miles from the City Hall.
Girard Avenue runs west from North Broad Street to Girard College, one of the richest and most notable philanthropic institutions in the United States. It was founded by Stephen Girard, a native of France, for the education of male orphans. The original bequest of over five million dollars has increased to about thirty-five million dollars.
The main building is a dignified marble structure in the Corinthian style, resembling the Madeleine at Paris. In the vestibule are a statute of Stephen Girard, and his sarcophagus. A room on the ground floor contains several relics of him.
Market Street is the chief wholesale business thoroughfare of the city. A little to the east of City Hall Square it passes the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Station, a tall Renaissance building with a train shed little smaller than that of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The department store of Gimbel Brothers, on the south side of the street, between Eighth and Ninth Streets, is one of the largest in the world. The Penn National Bank, at the corner of South Seventh Street, occupies the site of the house in which Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.
South Broad Street leads to the south from City Hall Square. Its intersection with Chestnut Street, just to the south of the City Hall, is environed with tall office buildings. To the right is the annex of the Land Title Building, extending to Sansom Street. Opposite, adjoining the Real Estate Trust Co., is the North American Building, named after the newspaper which occupies it. Below is the Union League Club, the chief Republican club of Pennsylvania. On the same side is the large Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, the leading hotel of Philadelphia, and one of the great hostelries of the country. Farther on, to the right, is the Art Club, in the Renaissance style, in which exhibitions of paintings, concerts, and public lectures are held. At Locust Street, to the right, is the Academy of Music, while to the left is the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art, incorporated in 1876, with a special view to the development of the art industries of Pennsylvania. A characteristic feature is the department of weaving and textile design. The Industrial Museum Hall is connected with this excellent institution.
Below Pine Street, Broad Street contains few important buildings. Of special note, however, is the Ridgway Library, which stands to the left, between Christian and Carpenter Streets, nearly one mile from the City Hall. This handsome building was erected with a legacy of one million five hundred thousand dollars left by Dr. Rush in 1869, as a branch of the Philadelphia Library. Adjoining the main hall is the tomb of the founder.
Broad Street ends, four miles from the City Hall, at League Island Park, three hundred acres in extent. League Island itself, in the Delaware, contains a United States Navy Yard.
West Philadelphia, the extension of the city beyond the Schuylkill, contains many of the chief residence streets and several public buildings and charitable institutions.