Locust Street

Locust Street

12–13th & Locust station on Locust Street in April 2017
Part of	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Maintained by	PennDOT and City of Philadelphia
Coordinates	39.948544°N 75.167946°W / 39.948544; -75.167946

Locust Street is a major historic street in Center City Philadelphia. The street is the location of several prominent Philadelphia-based buildings, historic sights, and high-rise residential locations. It is an east–west street throughout Center City Philadelphia and runs largely parallel to Chestnut Street, another major Center City Philadelphia street.

Locust Street is one of several Philadelphia streets bordering Rittenhouse Square, one of the five original parks established by the city's founder, William Penn.

History

Musical Fund Hall at 808 Locust Street, where the first Republican nominating convention for president and vice president was held from June 17 to 19, 1856

Curtis Institute of Music at 1726 Locust Street, one of the nation's most elite conservatories

Locust Street is now a hybrid of commercial and residential buildings. It historically was exclusively a residential street with mansions and home to many of the city's most affluent residents.

The street includes historical building structures designed by some of the Gilded Age's preeminent architects, including a Horace Trumbauer-designed Beaux-Arts limestone building at 1629 Locust Street, a Georgian Revival set of buildings designed by Cope and Stewardson at 1631 and 1633 Locust Streets, a Frank Miles Day-designed Medieval mansion at 17th and Locust Streets, and several John Notman-designed houses and St. Mark’s Church on the 1600 block of Locust Street.

Notable residents

Since the 18th century, Locust Street has been the residence of several prominent Americans.

Edgar Allan Poe

Further information: Edgar Allan Poe

Between 1838 and 1844, the famed author and poet Edgar Allan Poe lived at four different locations in Philadelphia, including one residence at 16th and Locust Streets. While in Philadelphia, Poe authored 31 stories, including "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" in 1841 and "The Gold-Bug" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", both in 1843.

General Robert Patterson

Further information: Robert Patterson

Robert Patterson, a Union Army general during the American Civil War, resided at a three-story Greek Revival mansion at 13th and Locust Streets from 1836 until his death in 1881.

Notable events

First Republican National Convention

Further information: 1856 Republican National Convention

In 1856, the first Republican nominating convention for president and vice president was held at Musical Fund Hall at 808 Locust Street.

1981 police officer shooting

Further information: Commonwealth v. Abu-Jamal

On December 9, 1981, at 3:55am, Philadelphia Police Department officer Daniel Faulkner conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle carrying Marxist political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal's younger brother William Cook at the intersection of 13th and Locust Streets. During the stop, Faulkner and Cook became engaged in a physical confrontation.

Driving his cab in the vicinity, Abu-Jamal observed the altercation, parked, and ran across the street toward Cook's car. Faulkner was shot in the back and face. He shot Abu-Jamal in the stomach. Faulkner died at the scene from the gunshot to his head, and Abu-Jamal was treated for his wounds at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, recovered, and was charged with first-degree murder of Faulkner.

In May 1983, Abu-Jamal was convicted and sentenced to death in May 1983. The death sentence was later dropped, but Abu-Jamal's conviction became a global controversy and subject of extensive attention in popular culture, including four documentaries, multiple books, and multiple songs and references in contemporary music.

Notable buildings and structures

Locust Street is the location of several major Philadelphia-based non-profit and historical organizations, including:

• Academy of Music, one of the city's most prominent concert halls, located at the corner of Broad and Locust Streets.
• Clarence B. Moore House, the former residence of archeologist Clarence Bloomfield Moore, at 1321 Locust Street, designed by Wilson Eyre, built in 1890, and named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
• Curtis Institute of Music, one of the nation's premier music conservatories, founded in 1924, located at 1726 Locust Street.
• Dr. Joseph Leidy House, a historic residence at 1310 Locust Street, built in 1893 and 1894, also designed by Wilson Eyre, and named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
• Equitable Trust Building, a historic skyscraper designed by Horace Trumbauer, is located at 1405 Locust Street.
• Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the primary historical society for Pennsylvania, located at 1300 Locust Street.
• Jefferson Health, a major Philadelphia healthcare network, maintains one of its primary outpatient facilities at 1020 Locust Street.
• Library Company of Philadelphia, the nation's oldest library founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1731, housing approximately 500,000 books and 70,000 other items, including the Mayflower Compact, major Revolutionary-era documents, the first editions of two American literary classics, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville and Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, and 2,150 items that once belonged to Franklin, located at 1314 Locust Street.
• Musical Fund Hall, a historic Philadelphia venue that has hosted notable speakers, including Marquis de Lafayette, an American Revolutionary War ally (in 1825), Charles Dickens, author of A Tale of Two Cities (in 1842), and the first Republican National Convention (in 1856), located at 808 Locust Street.
• St. Mark's Episcopal Church, founded in 1848 as part of the Oxford Movement, located at 1607-1627 Locust Street on Rittenhouse Square.

Subway stations

PATCO Speedline operates three subway station on Locust Street:

• 9–10th & Locust station at 9th and Locust Street
• 12–13th & Locust station at 12th and Locust Street
• 15–16th & Locust station at 15th and Locust Street

In popular culture

• In the opening scene to the 1999 movie The Sixth Sense, psychologist Malcolm Crowe, played by Bruce Willis, and his wife Anna Crowe, played by Olivia Williams, confront an intruder in their home. Willis tells him, "This is 47 Locust Street. You have broken a window and entered a private residence....There are no needles or prescription drugs of any kind in this house."

External links

• "Locust Street" at Philadelphia Walking TOURS