19th & Walnut

19th and Walnut. On this block in the 1840s. , Dr. Phillip Syng Physick, considered the father of American surgery built this house at the northwest corner of 19th and Walnut Streets, far from the fashionable center of the city, in 1839., Architect John Haviland, who also designed Eastern State Penitentiary, designed "Physick's Folly." The house was demolished in 1925 to make way for the Rittenhouse Plaza., In the 1840s , President: William Henry Harrison (Whig), John Tyler , Mayor: John Morin Scott, Peter McCall , Philadelphia population: 93,665, Money matters , Bacon: 10¢/pound , Butter: 6¢/pound , Coffee: 10¢/pound , Rum: 3¢/gallon , Tea: 49¢/pound , Whale oil: 39¢/gallon , Whiskey: $2.25/gallon , Wine: $2.25/gallon , Wool: 43¢/pound , Value of an 1840 dollar in 2002 dollars: $20.00, Events , The 1840s were a period rocked by a series of anti-Catholic riots in Philadelphia, Boston and New York. In Philadelphia, the so-called "Bible riots" began as a dispute over the type of the Bible used for required readings in the city's public schools, putting Nativist (Protestant) groups against the growing Irish Catholic immigrant population of Kensington and Southwark (now Queen Village). These riots ultimately resulted in the establishment of the Archdiocesan Catholic School System and hastened the incorporation of Philadelphia county into Philadelphia city., 1840, Riots in Kensington. The Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad torn up on Front Street and Emery's tavern burned., August 1, 1842, Abolition riots. African Presbyterian Church, St. Mary's Street, and Smith's Hall, Lombard Street, burned., January 11, 1843, Weaver's Riots in Kensington, (Germantown Ave. and Master St). Sheriff's posse assailed and beaten., May 6-8, 1844, Riots resulting in deaths. St. Michael's Church (2nd and Jefferson Sts) with the Female Seminary adjoining, St. Augustine's Church (4th and New Sts) burned and totally destroyed., July 7 (Sunday), Riots in Southwark; Church of St. Philip de Neri attacked. Fight at night between the military and the rioters; several persons killed., April 12, 1845, By act of assembly, the city of Philadelphia and the incorporated districts of Spring Garden, Northern Liberties and Penn, and the township of Moyamensing were required to establish and maintain police forces of "not less than one able-bodied man for one hundred and fifty taxable inhabitants"; for the prevention of riots and the preservation of the public peace.