Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/827

1869.] Penn Square for the Municipal Buildings. 669 will always be where the plunder is. Around the patriotic shades of Inde- pendence Hall will cluster an immense mercantile interest. The retail trade will be pushed farther west ; and what many men now deprecate as disaster, would crown our fair city with profit and glory. Instead of decreasing the value of property about Sixth and Chestnut streets, it would increase it, through the demand of and for commercial houses. The heavy wholesale business would be done between Sixtli street and the river. The space is small enough for the future business of the city. The Penn S.quare buildings would increase the value of their surroundings, raise the assessments upon the surrounding property, and largely increase the revenues of its owners as well as those of the city. The greatest interests of this city are its investments in manufacturing and real estate. It is the revenues derived from these that sustain our metropolis, and will pay for the new buildings. Now, the erection of these buildings at Penn Square will be more central, for these interests, than at any other point. There has been no sound argument urged by any against this location. All the clamor, that has been raised is a blindly self-interested one ; for, if the parties making this opposition, would pause for a moment and reflect, looking calmly into the future, they could not fail to apprehend the immense benefit, that, not only the city, but they them- selves would derive by the increased values of real estate. Now I might enumerate many more and weightier reasons why our build- ings should be upon Penn Square. The most important is the ample room there. No able architect can say that Inde- pendence Square is large enough. There is not in it space sufficient to erect a grand and massive structure, suitable to the wants of generations to come. The Pennsylvania Centi'al Railroad, with their mammoth improvements on the Schuylkill, concentrating the business of a whole country, tends largely to make this location central. We are building three thousand houses per annum, be- sides many factories, stores, &c. In twenty }'ears, at the same ratio of in- crease, with that of the last five years, we shall have built over sixtj^ thousand houses, and who can define the limits of business then ? All these houses will be built north and south of Market street, and west of Broad street. Shall we, either to answer our own selfish ends, or, to satisfy our narrow and contracted vision, fail to grasp the immensity of this undertaking, fall short of our duty, and give the people a hovel for Lillipu- tians, when Ave might have erected a temple for Giants ? These four squares seem to have been laid out expressly for this purpose. If William Penn could have foreseen the gigantic strides his infant city would ultimately take, he could have made no wiser provision for its future conveni- ence. Shall we, then, throw away this, valuable gift, and erect narrow and con- tracted buildings upon a comparatively small lot, when we have these spacious squares ? The opportunity we now have of combining utility with grandeur is too important for us to pass over lightly. Let us consolidate these four squares into one, with an avenue, as wide as Broad street, surrounding them ; and erect a building, in the centre, massive, grand, and towering. Let our ambition be to excel all other cities in this im- provement. A noble structure, with a dome rivaling Saint Peter's, gathering, under its shadows, the wings of an edi- fice, unequaled for its convenience, beau- tiful in its proportions, and magnificent in its architecture — the ornament and pride of our city, the wonder of all be- holders, and the greatest achievement of the a°e. In London, all the judges, without exception, are said to be in favor of the new Thames Embankment for the site of the new building for the Law Courts.