Philadelphia's Lost Waterfront by Harry Kyriakodis

Author:Harry Kyriakodis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2013-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

CARPENTER’S STAIRS

William Penn conveyed a larger (204-foot-wide) bank lot to Carpenter on August 4, 1684, the day after issuing his decree that bankers could develop their riverbank property as long as they provided for public access to the Delaware River. This Carpenter plainly did. In an undated letter written that year, he informed Penn:

I am willing to make and maintain forever, 2 pair of stairs, viz., 1 pair from the water up to the wharf and the other from the wharf to the top of the bank, for the comodius passing and repassing of all persons to and from the water, free forever.

And so were built Carpenter’s Stairs, mentioned often in literature. The quote confirms that these steps began on the high river bluff and proceeded down past Carpenter’s Wharf and into the Delaware itself. Carpenter’s Stairs were on the line of Norris’ Alley, later Gothic Street, a modest lane that subsequently became part of Sansom Street.

Sailors, merchants, servants and even slaves climbed Carpenter’s Stairs for at least 125 years. Evidence suggests that they lasted until sometime between 1825 and 1847 and that the ground they occupied was incorporated into bordering property tracts. All of this ground is now covered by I-95.

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