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William Priest - Travels in the United States of America
Farewell, &c.
March 3d, 1794.
Dear friend,
Philadelphia, the present seat of government, both of the state of Pensylvania, and of the whole federal
union, consisted, in the year 1681, of half a dozen miserable huts, inhabited by a few emigrants from
Sweden; when the celebrated William Penn obtained a charter from king Charles the Second, for a
certain tract of unsettled country in North America, extending from twelve miles north of Newcastle,
along the courses of the Delaware, and a meridian line from its head, to the 43d degree of north latitude,
and westward, 5 degrees of longitude from its eastern bounds.
In the year following, he arrived, and in 1701 the city was finally laid out from Cedar-street to
Vine-street, forming an oblong square of two miles in length, from the river Delaware to the Scuylkill;
and about a mile in width. It was the wish of the founder, that the fronts facing the two rivers
should be equally built upon; by which means the city would naturally meet in the centre; but
they have not only deviated from the original plan, by running the city along the banks of the
Delaware, beyond the aforesaid streets, which formed the bounds in that direction, but have left
the Scuylkill front without a single street.
Philadelphia is situate in latitude 39 deg. 56 min. north, and long. 75 deg. 8 min. west from Greenwich,
on a narrow neck of land, between the rivers Delaware and Scuylkill, on the Pensylvania banks of the
latter, where this river is about one mile wide, and one hundred and twenty (following it's course) from
the Atlantic Ocean. This noble river affords a safe navigation for vessels of a thousand tuns burden up to
the wharfs of the city. The Scuylkill (though by no means so wide) has nearly the same depth of water.
Philadelphia is the first port in the Union. The total value of it's exports in the year 1793, was 695736
dollars; the total of flower shipped in the year 1792 was 420000 barrels, and in the spring only of 1793 it
exceeded 200000 barrels.
The total of inward entries at Philadelphia, in 1793, was 1414 vessels of different sizes, of which 477
were ships or brigs.
It is foreign from the subject of this city, but I cannot help informing you, that the imports of the
United States from Great Britain alone, in the year 1791, were stated at 19502070 dollars,
(chiefly of manufactured articles) and have been considerably increasing every year since.
By a slight inspection of the plan, you will perceive the great regularity observed in laying out this city;
the streets intersect each other at right angles, the centre street, north and south, is 113 feet wide; that east
and west 100 feet; and the other principal streets 50 feet wide. Had equal care been taken to build the
houses uniformly, and their height in proportion to the width of the streets, this city would have been
uncommonly beautiful; but except that the fronts of the buildings were not permitted to extend beyond
the line laid down in the plan, every man built his house (to use the language of the first settlers,) "as it
seemed good in his own eyes."
The first object of an industrious emigrant, who means to settle in Philadelphia, is to purchase a lot of
ground in one of the vacant streets. He erects a small building forty or fifty feet from the line laid out for
him by the city surveyor, and lives there till he can afford to build a house; when his former habitation
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