Kater and Rosewood Streets | Photo: Mike Szilagyi
The trails that radiated out from the built-up part of colonial Philadelphia were either converted into streets (like Ridge Avenue and Passyunk Avenue) or they were subsumed by the street grid as the city expanded gradually over the years. An example of an early trail that didn’t survive is Irish Lane. The skewed wall of an old house on the 1400 block of Kater Street (bounded by Broad, 15th, South, and Bainbridge Streets) is the only vestige of what shows up in an 1795 map as Irish Tract Lane.
Irish Lane near Broad and South | 1796 map image: Mike Szilagyi
Broad and South, southwest corner | Image: Googlemaps
About the author
Mike Szilagyi was born in the Logan neighborhood of Philadelphia, and raised in both Logan and what was the far edge of suburbia near Valley Forge. He found himself deeply intrigued by both the built landscape and by the natural “lay of the land.” Where things really get interesting is the fluid, intricate, multi-layered interface between the two.
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