Know Your Neighborhood: Race Street Pier  

In 1896, Philadelphia initiated a waterfront improvement project to widen Delaware Ave from 50' to 150' and construct piers at the ends of Chestnut, Arch and Race Sts. Delaware Ave was widened by filling in the river to expand the land and building a concrete bulkhead.

The Chestnut & Race Street Piers included public recreation facilities in a pavilion on the upper level and dock space for ships on the lower level. The Chestnut St pier, was completed in 1896 and demolished in 1921. The second pier, at Race Street, opened in 1901 (1st & 2nd photos).

The Race Street Pier served as a recreational site for urban residents where they could enjoy fresh air and a vista without actually leaving the city. From the pier, visitors could watch the coming and goings of the harbor, such as the ferries leaving the Market Street pier for Camden, or the banana boats unloading at the adjacent pier to the south. During the summer, the waterfront offered cooler temperatures than the crowded neighborhoods.

From 1901, when the pier opened, until 1919 when structural problems led the city to close the upper deck, the recreation area of the pier housed a variety of functions. The better documented of these activities are its uses as a recreation center for urban youth and as a summer hospital for infants. Starting in the summer of 1910 (thru 1914), the Department of Public Health created facilities to care for sick infants by converting part of the piers at Chestnut and Race Streets as open air hospitals during the hottest months of summer. In the days before air conditioning, infants suffering from a high fever would have found some comfort with cooling fresh air. The Race St Pier housed the sickest infants in a 60 bed hospital.

In 1914, in response to outbreaks of the plague in Europe and parts of the U.S., the Philadelphia Bureau of Health erected a rat receiving station at the Race Street Pier and offered a bounty: two cents for each dead rat and five cents for live ones. By January 1, 1915, the Bureau reported that 5,238 rats had been turned in to the station. (3rd & 4th photos)

A fire damaged the outshore end of the pier in 1926 (6th photo), and in 1928, the city condemned the entire structure. In the 1930s (7th), however, the City of Philadelphia decided to rebuild the deteriorated structure rather than replace it. What they rebuilt was a stripped down, utilitarian structure (8th), which was used for unloading cargo from ships and later housed police- and fire-marine units, and removed in 1992.

The new Race Street Pier opened on May 12, 2011 as an area for recreation and public enjoyment.

Upper pavilion under construction 1901

1901

1914

Note the dead rats laid out

1922

1926

After the 1926 fire

Evening public ledger.
FIRE DAMAGES RACE STREET PIER

The second or left-hand tower was ruined by flames last night which drew thousands of people.
The blaze crept up from night watchman's
shanty on the second floor.
The entire water front was Illuminated
when flames last night destroyed a
tower on tho upper deck, of the Race
street pier. Hundreds of person attracted by the blaze rushed to the water front and the firemen had difficulty In
clearing a way for their apparatus to
fight the flames.
Every pane of glass at the recreation
end of the pier was broken, while
hundreds of dollars' worth of copper was
ripped from the tops and sides to get at
the flames that were eating the wood
work. Only the prompt action of the
firemen saved four barges on the north
side of the pier from destruction. The
barges were the property of the Trenton
Transportation Company. A tug of the
Merchants and Miners' Transportation
Company threw a strong stream of water
on the boats when the flumes reached
their highest point.
The tug Meteor was lying near the pier,
directly beneath the flames when the
firemen reached the scene, less than ten
pounds of steam was registered on the tug
boilers and the firemen were compelled to
push and pull the boat until it was out
of danger. Freight valued at thousands of dollars
was plied high on tho lower deck of the
pier and for a time it was thought it
would have to be moved to Race street
Deputy Chief Davis, who directed the
firemen. ordered every available stream
of hose on the Tower and soon announced
it was under control.

1931

1970's view 

U.S.S. Olympia at Race St Pier

Before

Today