The Smythe Stores, 101 to 111 Arch Street, were built in the 1857 for department store owner Samuel Smythe.
The Tiffany and Bottom Foundry in Trenton produced the cast-iron façade, which stretched across almost half the block of Arch St. The design was inspired by Northern Italian Renaissance palaces, with pairs of arched windows divided by columns, and the five rows decreasing in height as they climb upward.
The original building was painted and sanded in imitation of stone. The design appeared in Samuel Sloan’s The Architectural Review and the American Builders’ Journal of March 1870, so he is assumed to be the building’s architect.
Other tenants over the years included the Aunt Sally Blended Tea Company, the Philadelphia Seed Company, and the Stratford Cigar Company.
In 1913, the central section of the building (107 Arch) was demolished to allow the Arch Street trolley to loop around the building. The easternmost section (101 Arch) was removed when Front St was relocated for the construction of I-95. The midsection was rebuilt by The Devoe Group using fiberglass and molds of the old section in 1984, when the Smythe Stores were converted into apartments. The building was later converted to condos.
The building was placed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places in August, 1976.
1940s 1970s 1980's, eastern end removed
1990s Current
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