This series of the History of Philadelphia Streets is over a year in the making. It began with a remarkable conversation with Professor Michael Kahan from Stanford University. I had stumbled across his PhD dissertation at Penn while researching Philadelphia’s streetcar integration fight in the 1860s. Our conversation happened while life was still pretty much locked down in Philly. I hope that Episode 9 gives you some of the same revelations that I had in talking with Professor Kahan. It was like having a new pair of eyeglasses. Everything looked crisper after our conversation. I had lots of ideas about how a podcast might tackle this big topic. I thought it might take up to 2 or 3 episodes to do it justice.
But then, I hit a wall. Something had to give, and the podcast got scraped into a bag, tearfully labelled, and put in the freezer for the future.
But my talk with Professor Kahan stuck with me. I started to gather up the threads again. If the podcast was going to talk about the history of streets, we’d need a modern perspective. Through some connections, I met up outside with Lily Reynolds, Deputy Director of Complete Streets at the City of Philadelphia, and part of the team implementing the City’s Vision Zero plan. This was a delightful nerd fest about traffic safety on our streets today. I was back into the podcast. I was thinking that 3 or 4 episodes would really be needed to integrate the past and the present.
On a whim, I reached out to Professor Elijah Anderson at Yale University, who had done a lifetime of ethnographic research in Philadelphia’s streets, and is author of Code of the Street, Streetwise, The Cosmopolitan Canopy, and Black in White Spaces. I never thought I would get a response. But Professor Anderson not only responded, he has been extremely generous with his time and expertise over a series of conversations at the end of 2021. This felt like such a gift.
So, this Found in Philadelphia podcast series on the History of Philadelphia’s streets is currently planned for 10 episodes. I mean it.
Gallery: Episode No. 9 – A Guide to Why Streets Matter, plus Philly’s Early Streets
Native American paths across Pennsylvania based on the work of Paul Wallace in 1952. Wallace, Paul A. W. “Historic Indian Paths of Pennsylvania.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 76, no. 4, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1952, pp. 411–39, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20088407. 
The Great Minquas Path highlighted on Paul Wallace’s map of Native American paths in Pennsylvania, based on his work in 1952. Wallace, Paul A. W. “Historic Indian Paths of Pennsylvania.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 76, no. 4, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1952, pp. 411–39, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20088407. 
Thomas Holme’s Portrait of the City of Philadelphia from 1683 (Haverford College Quaker and Special Collections) 
Detail from Thomas Holme’s map of the improved parts of Pennsylvania c. 1687 (Library of Congress) 
Surveyor Edward Pennington’s plan showing unimproved lots belonging to William Penn and his daughter Laetitia c. 1698 at Front and Market Streets. Existing structures are outlined in red. Everything else is still being worked out. (Library of Congress)
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