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of the City Council directs a well there to be filled up. Perhaps these may yet be discovered to the surprise of many.

When the writer was a lad the Centre Square was never named but in connexion with military trainings, or as an object of universal terror to boys, as the gallows ground. Wo to the urchin then that should be found there after evening-fall among the spectres who then possessed that region. The woods were all gone, and a green commons occupied their place all the way out to Schuylkill. As late as the year 1790 the common road to Gray's ferry ran diagonally across those commons, so few then had fenced in their lots.

On page 507 of my MS. Annals, in the Historical Society, is a long article containing facts on the lines and uses in the grants of the Centre Square, not expedient to insert here.

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THE LONDON COFFEE HOUSE, &c.

WHAT was called the old London Coffee House before and after the revolution, now the property of James Stokes, Esq., was originally built about the year 1702, by Charles Reed, who obtained his lot, in the year 1701, from Lætitia Penn-in the same year in which William Penn patented it, with other grounds, to his daughter, to wit: the 29th of 1st mo., 1701. The original lot to Charles Reed contained twenty-five feet upon Front street, and one hundred up High street. This his widow conveyed in 1739 to Israel Pemberton. In December, 1751, he willed it to his son John, and at his death his widow sold it at Orphans' sale to the Pleasant family, who, on the 20th of September, 1796, sold it with but 82 feet of depth of lot for the great sum of £8216 13s. 4d. to James Stokes.

This celebrated house, as a Coffee House, was first introduced to its new employment by William Bradford, the printer, in the year 1754, upon the occasion of the declining of the widow Roberts, who till then had kept a Coffee House in Front street below Blackhorse alley.*

The original petition of William Bradford to the Governor, for his license to keep the house, is somewhat strange to our modern conceptions of such a place, by showing that coffee was ordinarily drunk as a refreshment then, even as spirituous liquors are now. It is dated July, 1754, and reads verbatim thus, to wit: "Having been advised to keep a Coffee House for the benefit of merchants and traders, and as some people may at times be desirous to be furnished with other

At the house now Dixon's, the same which became the store of Rhea and Wikoff, in 1755.

VOL I.-2 Z

liquers besides coffee, your petitioner apprehends it is necessary to have the Governor's license."

At this Coffee House, so begun, the Governor and other persons of note ordinarily went at set hours to sip their coffee from the hissing urn, and some of those stated visiters had their known stalls. It was long the focus which attracted all manner of genteel strangers; the general parade was outside of the house under a shed of but common construction, extending from the house to the gutter-way, both on the Front street and High street sides. It was to this, as the most public place, they brought all vendues of horses, carriages, and groceries, &c., and above all, here Philadelphians once sold negro men, women and children as slaves.

When these premises were rented in 1780, to Gifford Dally, the written terms with John Pemberton, a Friend, the then proprietor, were so unusual and exemplary for a tavern as to deserve a record, to wit: On the 8th of 7mo., 1780, the said Dally "covenants and agrees and promises, that he will exert his endeavours as a Christian to preserve decency and order in said house, and to discourage the profanation of the sacred name of God Almighty by cursing, swearing, &c., and that the house on the first day of the week shall always be kept closed from public use, that so regard and reverence may be manifested for retirement and the worship of God;" he further "covenants, that under a penalty of £100 he will not allow or suffer any person to use, play at, or divert themselves with cards, dice, back-gammon, or any other unlawful game." To secure the fulfilment of these purposes he limits his lease for trial to but one year, and next year he renews a like lease for two years after this, to my knowledge, he solicited Mr. Stokes to occupy it as a dwelling and store, and finally to purchase it for private use-a thing which Mr. Pemberton said he much preferred.

Such religious scruples in regard to a public city tavern, would look strange enough to Europeans accustomed to the licensed gambling and licentiousness practised at the Orleans palace at Paris! The submission to such terms, in such a city as Philadelphia then was, strongly marked the moral feelings of the town.

It might be curious to connect with this article the little history we possess of any anterior coffee houses. The earliest mention we have seen of a coffee house, was that built by Samuel Carpenter on some of his ground at or near to Walnut street. In 1705, he speaks of having sold such a building some time before to Captain Finney, who was also Sheriff. I am much inclined to think it was on the east side of Water street, adjoining to Samuel Carpenter's own dwelling, being probably the same building which in the time of the colony was called Peg Mullen's celebrated beef-steak and oyster house, and stood then at or near the present Mariner's church. The

The Common Council proceedings, of 1704, are dated at Herbert Carey's inn, and, at other times, at "the Coffee House."

water side was the first court end of the town, and in that neighbourhood Carpenter had erected a bakery, crane, public scales,* &c. It is also possible it may have been on the north-west corner of Front and Walnut streets, where was once a frame building, which had once been what was called the first Coffee House, and, at another period, the first Papal chapel. The late owner of that corner, Samuel Coates, Esq., now having a large brick building there, told me he had those facts from his uncle Reynalls, the former owner, who said that at a very early day the coffee house there was kept by a widow, Sarah James, afterwards by her son James James, and lastly by Thomas James, jun. The Gazettes too, of 1744 and 1749, speak of incidents at James' Coffee House.† Mrs. Sarah Shoemaker, who died in 1825, at the age of 95, told me that her father or grandfather spoke of their drinking the first dish of tea, as a rarity, in that coffee house. But I perceive a sale at auction is advertised in the year 1742, as to take place at Mrs. Roberts' Coffee House," which was in Front street below Blackhorse alley, west side-thus indicating that, while she kept her house there, Mr. James was keeping another coffee house at Walnut street. I notice also, that in 1744, a recruiting lieutenant, raising troops for Jamaica, advertises himself as to be seen at "the widow Roberts' Coffee House." There she certainly continued until the year 1754, when the house was converted into a store. I ought to add, that as early as the year 1725, I noticed a case of theft, in which the person escaped from "the Coffee House in Front street by the back gate opening out on Chestnut street;" from which fact I am inclined to think it was then the same widow Roberts' house, or some house still nearer to Chestnut

street.

In the year 1741, John Shewbart makes an advertisement in the Gazette, saying, he is about to remove "from the London Coffee House, near Carpenter's wharf," to the house in Hanover square, about half a mile from the Delaware, between Arch and Race streets, "which is a short walk and agreeable exercise."

I since perceive that Edward Bridges, in 1739, advertises his dry goods store "at the corner of Front and Walnut streets, commonly called the Scales."

†The Philadelphia Mercury, of 1720, speaks of the then Coffee House in the Front

street.

STATE-HOUSE AND YARD.

THIS distinguished building was begun in the year 1729, and finished in the year 1734. The amplitude of such an edifice in so early a day, and the expensive interior decorations, are creditable evidences of the liberality and public spirit of the times.

I have in my possession the original bills and papers, as kept by Andrew Hamilton, Esq., one of the three commissioners charged with the erection of the same. It seems to have cost £5600, and the two wings seem to have been made as late as 1739-40; Edmund Woolley did the carpenter work, John Harrison the joiner work, Thos. Boude was brick mason, Wm. Holland did the marble work, Thos. Kerr, plasterer, Benjamin Fairman and James Stoopes made the bricks; the lime was from the kilns of the Tysons. The "glass and lead" cost £170, and the glazing in leaden frames was done by Thomas Godfrey, the celebrated. The interior brick pavement was made of clay tiles, by Benjamin Fairman.

I may here usefully add, for the sake of comparison, the costs of sundry items, to wit. Carpenter's work at 4s. per day, boys at 1s., master carpenter, E. Woolley, 4s. 6d. ; bricklaying by Thos. Boude, John Palmer and Thos. Redman, at 10s. 6d. per M.; stone work in the foundation at 4s. per perch; digging ground and carting away 9d. per yard; bricks 31s. 8d. per M.; lime, per 100 bushels, £4; boards 20s. per M.; lath wood 18s. per cord; laths 3s. per C.; shingles 20s. per M.; scantlings 14d. per foot; stone 3s. per perch, and 5s. 5d. per load. Laborers receive 2s. 6d. per day; 2100 loads of earth are hauled away at 9d. per load.

Before the location of the State-House, the ground towards Chestnut street was more elevated than now. The grandmother of S. R. Wood remembered it when it was coverd with whortleberry bushes. On the line of Walnut street the ground was lower, and was built upon with a few small houses, which were afterwards purchased and torn down, to enlarge and beautify the State-House square.

The late aged Thomas Bradford, Esq. who has described it as it was in his youth, says the yard at that time was but about half its present depth from Chestnut street-was very irregular on its surface, and no attention paid to its appearance. On the Sixth street side,

about fifteen to twenty feet from the then brick wall, the ground was sloping one to two feet below the general surface-over that space rested against the wall a long shed, which afforded and was used as the common shelter for the parties of Indians occasionally visiting

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