"Equal to a Little Gold Mine": A Preliminary Study of the Grocers of Early Port Richmond, 1842-1865

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "The Archaeology of the Delaware River Waterfront Symposium of Philadelphia Neighborhoods" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia arose around a crossroads village along the Delaware River, several miles north of Old City Philadelphia. With the opening of the Reading Railroad’s Port Richmond terminal in 1842, the village was transformed into a boom town with blocks of new buildings and factories rising along the river. Among the many saloons, boarding houses, and hotels that catered to the throngs of sailors and laborers crowding the neighborhood were a number of groceries. While today the term, “grocery,” conjures a familiar image of an establishment selling fresh produce, meats, dairy, and other foodstuffs, in the middle of the 19th century the term’s connotations were more varied, with distinctions drawn between “family groceries” and the less respectable “liquor groceries.” This paper will examine the role that early Port Richmond’s grocers played in the burgeoning neighborhood, using historical research and archaeological examples from the I-95 project area.  

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of the Delaware River Waterfront Symposium of Philadelphia Neighborhoods   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology