Smythe Stores

Smythe Stores

Smythe Stores Photograph by Karen Kingsley
Photo 2 of Smythe Stores Photo 3 of Smythe Stores
1852, attributed to Sloan and Stewart; 1984 restored, Hans P. Stein. 101–111 Arch St.

Around the corner from Elfreth's Alley (PH2) is this richly detailed cast-iron-fronted block whose castings came from Trenton's Tiffany and Bottom foundry. At 101 Arch Street is the building built for Samuel Townsend and listed as the work of Samuel Sloan, the ubiquitous pre–Civil War pattern book author; if this is Sloan's work, he presumably designed the entire row. On the east end, one building was demolished for a trolley turnaround and has been replicated in fiberglass. More typical in the old city are buildings with a first story of iron and upper stories of brick. Cast-iron buildings continued to be constructed into the beginning of the twentieth century. Thomas Stevens of Camden designed the Tuttleman Shirt Factory, now converted to housing, at 56 N. 2nd Street in a later version of Queen Anne in 1900.

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