Changing Street Names in Old City

Many streets in Old City (and throughout Philly) have had their names changed through the years, some more than once. Market Street was originally High St. up until the 1850's. High Street was the familiar name of the main street in nearly every English town at the time of Philadelphia's founding. The name was changed due to the market stalls that ran in the center of the street starting at Front St and eventually running all the way to 8th Street.

Race St began as Sassafras St and Arch was Mulberry St. Both names changed in the 1850's. Race St was originally a nickname given to the street, as the street was used for horse racing in the early 1800s. Sassafras and Mulberry were two of the original "tree streets", named by Wm. Penn. Another tree street, Cedar, became South St.

The smallest streets have frequently changed their name over time. Lawrence St. (between 4th & 5th St) runs for a few blocks at a time in various parts of the city. At one time, these various stretches had different names, but the names were all changed to Lawrence in 1897. In our area, Crown St. became Lawrence St in 1897. At one point in Philadelphia's history, Crown St. was named Pennington's St., after an early sugar refinery of the same name.

American St (runs between 2nd & 3rd) also comes and goes on the map. Saint John St. ran from Vine Street to Germantown Avenue in Northern Liberties, and was one of 16 street names that was changed to American Street in the 1890's. In south Philadelphia, various blocks of what is now American St were called Baltic, Corn, Strangford, etc.

Orianna St (between 3rd & 4th) also had numerous names in different parts of the city. From Vine St into N. Liberties, Orianna was Kunkle St until 1840 when it then became Dillwyn St. Dillwyn was named for William Dillwyn, who was an early Quaker abolitionist. From Cherry to Race St., it was Sterling's St until 1858 when it became Hillsdale. All the various street names became Orianna in 1897.

Callowhill St was originally New St as it was the first road opened north of Vine St., which was the city's original northern border. Created in 1690, Wm. Penn renamed it for his second wife, Hannah Callowhill in 1701. New St (just south of Vine St) used to change it's name each block from Front to 4th St, running west from Front as Key's, Elm and Story St. respectively.

Map showing Sassafras & 1875 map showing Crown 1860 view of Market St, with

Mulberry Sts & Dillwyn St. the market sheds