The Middle-Class City
The Middle-Class City
Transforming Space and Time in
Philadelphia, 1876–1926
John Henry Hepp, IV
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia
Copyright © 2003 University of Pennsylvania PressAll rights reserved
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Published by University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hepp, John Henry, IV.
The middle-class city : transforming space and time in Philadelphia, 1876–1926 / John Henry Hepp, IV.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8122-3723-4 (acid-free paper)
1. Middle class—Pennsylvania—Philadelphia—History. 2. Cities and towns—Pennsylvania—Philadelphia—Growth. 3. City planning—Pennsylvania—Philadelphia—History. 4. Department stores—Pennsylvania—Philadelphia—History. 5. Urban transportation—Pennsylvania—Philadelphia—History. 6. Newspaper reading—Pennsylvania—Philadelphia—History. 7. Philadelphia (Pa.)—History. 8. Philadelphia (Pa.)—Social life and customs. I. Title.
HT690.U6H46 2003
974.8′11041—dc21
2003041001
Contents
Introduction: A Revised and Enlarged Philadelphia
PART I LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY PHILADELPHIA
Prelude: I Went Out to the Centennial
1 The Most Traversed City by Railways in This Country, If Not the World
2 Such a Well-Behaved Train Station
3 A Pretty Friendly Sort of Place
Interlude: Went to Willow Grove
PART II EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY PHILADELPHIA
The New Century: The Magnificent Metropolis of Today
5 If Dad Could Not Get … the Evening Bulletin It Was Practically the End of the World
6 We Never Realized That Department Stores Had an Upstairs
7 One Great Big Stretch of Middle Class
Postlude: Albion and I Went to the Sesqui
Conclusion: The Trouble with History
Preface
Historians have often viewed the reaction of the American middle class to the sweeping changes wrought by industrialization and urbanization as negative or, at best, ambivalent. The classic interpretation of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries sees this period as a political “search for order” by the bourgeoisie. My book examines transformations in everyday middle-class life in Philadelphia between 1876 and 1926 to discover the cultural roots of this search for order. By looking at the complex relationships among members of that city’s bourgeoisie and three largely middle-class commercial institutions (newspapers, department stores, and railroads), it finds that the bourgeoisie consistently reordered its world along new, rational lines during the late nineteenth century. At first, these changes were largely internal to the middle class, only affecting institutions that it used and controlled. Later, during the early twentieth century in particular, the bourgeoisie began to expand this new cultural sense of order to encompass politics as well.
In Philadelphia, these changes in middle-class world view were less inspired by a fear of the future than by a faith in continued progress. Although this confidence was not always unbounded and was occasionally tinged with a sense of nostalgia, the city’s bourgeois men and women saw the region’s transformation as positive. They believed, by and large, that the Philadelphia of tomorrow would be better than that of their day, which in turn was an improvement on the city of twenty years before. This is not surprising, as they were, for the most part, beneficiaries of these changes. Not only could they see tangible economic, scientific, and technological advancement with, at least for many of them, few costs, but their class was largely a product of this new order.
Writing is a highly collaborative process. In the course of this work’s long gestation period, I ran up a lot of debts: emotional, financial, and intellectual. Now is the time to repay some of them, however inadequate these words may be.
First and foremost, special thanks are due my family: my grandparents (the people who first introduced me to late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Philadelphia), my parents, my long-suffering wife, Julie, and most recently my son John (who has developed at quite a young age a love for department stores, newspapers, and trains). Without them and their interests in history, this project would have never happened.
Next, special credit is owed to my friends and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Peter Filene, William Barney, Peter Coclanis, Jacquelyn Hall, and John Kasson were all supportive, challenging, and engaged throughout the entire process. In addition, many others suffered through parts of the work and helped me think more clearly about key concepts: Stacey Braukman, Gavin Campbell, Sean Doig, Natalie Fousekis, Gary Frost, Kelly Hughes, Kathy Newfont, Steven Niven, Mike Ross, Robert Tinkler, and Michael Trotti.
A large number of