8th & Market

8th and Market. On this block in 1898. , In 1893 Samuel and Jacob Lit relocated their dress shop from 45 North Eighth Street to open the Lit Brothers Department Store at the corner of 8th Street and Market Street. They then slowly added seven more buildings along the 700 block of Market Street. In its heyday, Lit Brothers was a block-long department store with fiercely loyal customers., Lit Brothers closed in 1977 due to financial hardships. In 1979, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and survived despite the issuance of two demolition permits, including plans to convert the site into a surface parking lot. Originally designed by Collins and Autenrieth architects, the building was renovated in 1988 with mixed-use retail on the ground floor and office uses on upper floors. Today, it is listed as a National Historic Landmark and is one of the few remaining cast-iron façade buildings in Philadelphia., In 1898 , President: William McKinley (R) , Mayor: Charles Franklin Warwick (R) , Philadelphia population: 1,046,964, Money matters , Marble cutter's daily wage: $4.22 , Stonemason's daily wage: $3.67 , Dandruff cure: $1 , Fountain pen: $1.50 , Bicycle: $34.50 , Nail trimmer: 25¢, Events , April 9, Paul Robeson, actor, scholar, singer, born., June 10, Hattie McDaniel, the first black person to ever win an Oscar, which she won for Best Supporting Actress in "Gone With The Wind" in 1940, was born., June 22, The Public Buildings Commission agreed to contract with the Johnson Temperature Regulator Company, of Milwaukee, for a tower clock for the City Hall, for $27,960., Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company founded., New York Times drops price from 3¢ to 1¢ daily and circulation triples as a result., Pepsi-Cola introduced by pharmacist Caleb D. "Doc" Bradham., Antislavery activist, Underground Railroad leader and champion of black civil rights Robert Purvis died in Philadelphia. He was the child of a wealthy white Southerner and mixed-race mother who refused to "pass" as white.