Know Your Neighborhood:  The Bourse   

The Philadelphia Bourse, founded in 1891 by George E. Bartol, was the first commodities exchange in the United States. The Philadelphia Bourse was unlike other exchanges in existence at the time because it served as a stock exchange, a maritime exchange (for contracting for the shipment of goods to and from overseas), and a commodities exchange all in one. Bartol was a grain and commodities exporter, who modeled the building after the Bourse in Hamburg, Germany (1st photo).

The Philadelphia Bourse Building was built from 1893 - 1895 and was one of the first steel-framed buildings in the world (2nd). The red stone facade was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by G.W. & W.D. Hewitt, who would go on to design the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel at Broad & Walnut Streets.

It featured a three-story atrium above the main trading floor plus six more floors of offices above the atrium. In addition to the trading floor and maritime exchange, the building originally contained dining rooms, a music room, a commercial library and meeting rooms.

Trading at the Bourse continued until sometime in the 1960s. After that, it remained an office building until its sale in 1979. The Kaiserman Company acquired the building and converted its basement and lower three floors into a high end shopping mall with a food court on the top floor. Kaiserman also removed "Philadelphia" from the buildings name, rechristening it as "The Bourse", though it still says "Philadelphia Bourse" on the building (last photo).

The high end mall proved to be a failure, so the 2nd and 3rd floors were converted to additional office space and the ground floor reconfigured for a more pedestrian food court and souvenir stands.

The building was sold to MRP and the first floor reopened in 2018 with a more upscale food court. Only time will tell how that fares.

Hamburg Bourse

Under construction

1896

1900's ad

1901

1904

Today