On the 300 block of North Front Street, a set of colonial era stone steps leads between houses down to Water Street. This ten-foot-wide stairwell is a passageway to the lower street on the line where Wood Street used to be an alley in this riverfront neighborhood.
The Wood Street Steps are the last of at least ten public stairways on alley streets from Callowhill to South Streets, built over three centuries ago at the direction of William Penn. Penn directed these stairs be installed on the Delaware River’s western embankment to ensure public access to Philadelphia’s waterfront.
Penn knew the Delaware River was vital for the commercial health of the City and in the late 17th century decreed that a set of steps be built on every east-west street fronting the wharfs on the Delaware.
The stairway was once an extension of Wood Street. The steps were built in the early 1700's, though the treads originally were probably wooden. The stone treads were there for sure in 1737, when Wood Street was first registered as a public street.
1950 Current
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