9th & Market

9th and Market. On this block in 1909. , Located at 913 Market Street, the Victoria Theatre, also known as the Nicklette Theatre, was an entertainment hub for East Market Street and one of many movie palaces that used to exist in Center City. Renowned for showing the latest western films, the Victoria Theatre was designed in 1909 by Stearns and Castor, a Philadelphia architectural firm., Located just to the west of Strawbridge and Clothier department store, it was sandwiched between a Horn and Hardhart and Woolworth's., Originally designed as a vaudeville theatre with seating for 987, the Victoria soon began showing moving pictures by 1910. The last show was July 10, 1949 after which the building was demolished and replaced by a new store building., In 1909 , President: Theodore Roosevelt (R); William Howard Taft (R) , Mayor: John Edger Reyburn (R-Jeffersonian) , Philadelphia population: 1,293,697, Money matters: , Farm laborer's annual salary: $328 , Public school teacher's annual salary: $476 , Eggs: 35¢/dozen , Milk: 8¢/quart , Sugar: 5¢/lb , Kodak camera: $50 , Trimmed hat: $6.95 , New York Times: 1¢/daily issue , Trolley: 5¢, Events , February 12, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded., June 9, Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22-year-old housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey, became the first woman to drive across the United States. Ramsey traveled with three female companions, none of whom could drive a car, for fifty-nine days. She drove a Maxwell automobile the 3,800 miles from Manhattan, New York to San Francisco, California., In 1909, Shibe Park was completed in Philadelphia. It was the first modern major-league baseball park. Completed at a cost of $300,000, the park only took a year to build. The Philadelphia Athletics played their first game there on April 12, 1909. Shibe Park set the standard for future ballparks during the first half of the 20th century. It was renamed Connie Mack stadium in 1953 and demolished in 1976., The College of Physicians and Surgeons, the oldest existing medical society in the nation completed a building at 19 South 22nd Street in Philadelphia. Today, its imposing façade remains unchanged and preserved.