Windmill, or smith's, island.

[CHIOSSO]

There was once an island right off Center City where Philadelphians went to bathe and frolic.
Rising in the middle of the river, Smith’s Island was about a block wide and extended a half-mile from Arch Street to a point below South Street. It was originally known as Windmill Island for an octagonal 1746 windmill at its northern end. In May 1800, three men were hanged on the island for piracy aboard the schooner Eliza, leading to fanciful stories that it was a haven for pirates.
By the late 19th century, the island was a summer resort. Steam ferries left the Walnut Street wharf every ten minutes, carrying day-trippers to visit baths on the island. “The island has long been used as a bathing-ground and pleasure-garden,” one author wrote in 1887, “mostly for the lower classes.” According to Jackson, Smith’s Island featured a bathhouse, restaurant, beer garden, live music and occasionally a hot air balloon ascension or tight-rope walker to entertain the crowds. Great old willow trees made it an inviting retreat from the summer heat. In 1838, a canal was cut through the island at Walnut Street to facilitate ferry traffic to Camden. In 1878, shipping interests began a campaign to remove the island altogether, calling it an impediment to larger vessels. The campaign succeeded in 1891, when the Federal government began a six-year project to remove the islands. No trace of them exists today.
Sources: Jackson, Joseph. Encyclopedia of Philadelphia, 1931.
Watson’s Annals, 1887

Philly H2O

Philly H2O

http://www.phillyh2o.org/backpages/D...ll_Surveys.pdf

[CHIOSSO]

In the 1800's, there was an island in the middle of the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Camden, NJ. The island was known as Windmill Island because of a windmill built on it in 1746 by a John Harding. The Phila.-Camden ferries would go around the island until 1838 when a channel was dredged right through it to accomodate the increased traffic. The south half kept the name Windmill Island, but the north half was re-named Smith's Island for the owner, John Smith. In the 1880's, Jacob Ridgway built an amusement park on Smith's Island and ran ferries to it from Camden. In 1890, the islands were declared a menace to navigation, and in 1891, an operation was begun to remove them by dredging. By 1897, they were completely gone.

[CHIOSSO]

Watson’s Annals of Philadelphia

In 1683-85, according to Holme's map, there were two mudbanks in the Delaware—one opposite Spruce and Pine streets, and the other in front of Southwark. They kept on increasing gradually by deposits by the current, until the two became united by a shoal and were uncovered at high water. In 1746, Harding and his son built a wharf and windmill at an expense of six hundred pounds. It was an unfortunate enterprise, for the father died, and the son sold their interest to George Allen, a shipwright ; he sold his interest in it to William Brown, who purchased a lease on the island in 1759 for ninety-nine years, at one shilling sterling per annum, from the Proprietaries, and it was confirmed to him in 1761 by Governor Hamilton. (See Secretary Peters's letter to Councils in their published minutes, 1704—1776, p. 651.) There was a ferry from the city to Windmill Island.

The size of the island was so small that the windmill and a small house nearly covered it. The mill had a curious hexagon cap upon it, rising in three tiers to an ornamental top-piece. The building itself was hexagon, much larger at the base, gradually sloping smaller to the middle of its height, and then rising straight above it. It was stayed by ropes to the wharf.

The position of the island seems to be gradually changing, and it is increasing at the northern end. In 1750 the island extended southwardly nearly to Christian street, with a small island adjoining it on the south. Now it is much above that point. There was a mudbank north of it, part of which has become fast land.

The island has long been used as a bathing-ground and pleasure-garden, mostly for the lower classes. As early as 1826 it was so used. Floating baths were then kept there by one Coglan, and they were spoken of as " a well-conducted and most useful establishment."

Floating baths on the Delaware were the predecessors of the use of Smith's (or Windmill) Island as a bathing-place. The first of them, we believe, was originated by Heppard, who afterward kept the Pennsylvania Hotel, in Sixth street below Arch street, afterward James Douglass's hotel. The floating baths lay upon the water like low houses, with white or yellow sides and green Venetian window shutters. Rabineau's floating baths at the Battery, New York, give a good idea of these structures.


Sometimes these floating baths were moved on or near the bar above the island, and Coglan's baths were either there or at the island, as the services of boatmen to convey the bathers were necessary.

An act of Assembly, passed 14th of February, 1838, authorized Councils to make a canal and other improvements on Windmill Island. (Ordinances, 1843, p. 819.)

See Memorial of Edwin A. Stevens in relation to Windmill Island, 1852; as also several pamphlets of George N. Tatham, who purchased it and obtained a patent from the Legislature 1856. One end of the island is now used as a bathing-place and pleasure-garden, small steamboats running to it. The southern end is a coal depot for the Lehigh Navigation Company. It is better known now by the name of Smith's Island than its original one of Windmill Island. An attempt was started in 1878 to have the island removed from the Delaware as an impediment to navigation for large vessels.

Windmill Island belongs to the State of Pennsylvania, and is a part of the city of Philadelphia, being attached to the Fifth Ward. Petty's Island, opposite Kensington, belongs to the State of New Jersey. The ownership of the islands in the river Delaware between Pennsylvania and New Jersey was settled by agreement or treaty between the two States soon after the Revolution. It was stipulated that they should be taken alternately by each State as they lay upon the river. By this arrangement Windmill Island went to Pennsylvania, the first island below to New Jersey, and so on, down to the Capes.

[CHIOSSO]

A plan to provide under-privileged city children with summer entertainment and a hot bowl of soup has been a success for 127 years.

That idea, according to Gloucester County Historical Society records, originated in 1877 when a Philadelphia type-founder named John F. Smith began transporting Philadelphia children to Windmill Island in the Delaware River for a day of fun and a bowl of hot soup and crackers.

Eventually, Windmill Island couldn't accommodate the hundreds of children that flocked to the small island during the warm months. The park was moved to Depford N.J. and was known as Soupy Island. And served intercity children till the 1950s.

[CHIOSSO]

New York Times April 19,1890

pennsylvania, Philadelphia for the removal of Smiths Island Windmill Island and Pettys Island( provided that no part of this sum shall be expended untill the title of the lands forming said islands shall be acquired and vested in the United States without charge to the latter $200,000.
The mud and rocks from Smith Island was used to fill in the marsh in what is now FDR park.

[CHIOSSO]

Petty's Island: A Sacred Part of America’s Story reveals the legacy of an island with a unique place in the historic encounter between Africans, Europeans and Native Americans in the Philadelphia region. Situated in the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Camden, Petty’s Island was Lenni-Lenape land before colonial European slave traders utilized it as a depot for enslaved Africans in the 1600s. The 292 acre island is now a defunct oil terminal owned by the Citco Corporation. Its fields and forests harbor delicate ecosystems that environmental activists are trying to protect. It also has an important place in local African American history as a primary entry point for slaves.

Petty's Island examines the island’s role in the colonial slave trade and examines the Quakers’ efforts to secure safe passage for escaped slaves, a precursor to the Underground Railroad. It portrays the present-day efforts of activists and environmentalists to transform the island into a historic site and wildlife refuge, despite a billion-dollar proposed development plan. Combining elements of community history, race history, colonial history, slavery and ecology, Petty’s Island is a valuable tool for educators seeking to emphasize the links between the diverse people and social forces that shaped the Philadelphia and Camden regions.

Petty's Island: A Sacred Part of America?s Story | Scribe Video Center

Petty's Island, or Shackamaxon Island as it was originally known and patented in 1684 by Thomas Fairman, who lived opposite to it at "Pyne Point" (between cooper's Pint and Cooper's Creek). At Friend Fairman's house very frequently meetings of the Society of Friends were held, and in this house William Penn spent his first winter. "Pyne Point," while little known by Philadelphians, is also memorable as the landing place of Benjamin Franklin before he entered Philadelphia. Landing at Burlington by foot, from New York, walking by the shore, a boat came by, on its way to Philadelphia, with several people aboard. As there was no wind they rowed all the way down, and during the night they entered the cove. The tide was the strongest on the New Jersey side. About midnight, not seeing the city, probably obscured by Petty's Island, some of the company were confident that they passed the city of Philadelphia, and would row no further; so they put toward the shore, getting into Cooper's Creek at "Pyne Point." In the they weighed anchor and landed at Market Street Wharf on a Sunday morning.

Petty's Island


According to documents kept by the Camden Historical Society, it was the property of the Lenape Indians until 1678, when a Quaker woman bought it for $240 and annual payments of 16 barrels of gunpowder and 16 barrels of rum. It was later owned by William Penn, and it received Benjamin Franklin on his first trip to Philadelphia. At times, Petty's Island was a place for parties, duels, slave ships and, on at least one occasion, a lynching. (It took its name from John Petty, who owned it briefly in the 18th century.)




In the winter of 1877 the river was frozen over the numerous persons crossed to New Jersey, or skate, or frolicked on the ice. A number of yachtsmen from Allen's Slip rigged up ice-yacht's, sailing around the cove, especially in the part between Cooper's Point and the island. One notorious character of Fishtown, known as "Dad Flick," who kept a saloon at the head of Allen's Slip, opened a booth on the ice, for the sale of liquid refreshments; another "Fishtowner" came up and said jestingly, "Dad, give me a glass of ale." "Can't do it, Sam, I've got water in the cellar.' (Ale was always kept in the cellar).


1880, John F. Betz, the brewer, rented that portion between the point (northern) and the thoroughfare, planting numerous willow trees there and calling it "Willow Grove." A resort mainly for dancing and drinking, frequented only by a certain class of sports from Richmond, there were too many brawls there, and the better class of young people stayed away. After a couple of seasons the project was given up, leaving behind a shady grove, used by boating parties as a camp to cook their meals.

[CHIOSSO]

SJEJA - Petty's Island Initiative

http://www.sjenvironmentaljustice.or...tty_island.gif


There's Petty's Island, for instance, which lies just north of the Ben Franklin Bridge. Owned by the Southland Corp., Petty's now holds a marine terminal, an asphalt plant and petroleum storage tanks. Part of the island, however, is still wild and serves as a migratory bird stopover and a songbird nesting area.

But long before the heavy equipment came in, Petty's Island was a focal point for activity on the water.

Beating Ed Rendell by about 300 years, the Quakers used the island for riverfront gambling. And because the Quakers opposed slavery, Philadelphians interested in purchasing slaves could meet with traders on Petty's.

Pittsburgh may be home to the National League's Pirates, but the real buccaneers called Petty's Island home.

[CHIOSSO]

Hog Island was a sizable piece of land -- about a thousand acres -- between Philadelphia and Chester, south of what was known then as League island, with a frontage along the Delaware River. The land was sold to the AIC in June 1917, well before the awarding of the Hog Island contract, after the transaction was in the government-business negotiation machinery in May], but well before public awareness [in August]. Hog Island landowners, jacked up the price to $2000 an acre, versus the $100 price that was previously the going rate.

Hog Island was built in just 10 months, under the shadow of scandal. The Yard was built on the glorified bog six miles southeast of the Philadelphia City Hall, its surface raised by fill dredged from the Delaware River. The yard laid its first keel on 12 February 1918. The keel of Quistconck was laid in a half completed berth and plant construction interfered with ship assembly, so that ship carpenters remained idle for weeks until constructions workers had completed the groundwork. At that time the sum of $23,313,362.68 had already been spent on Hog Island, $19,029,972.42 on the shipyard, and the remainder on ships and materials for building ships, with 12 of the 50 ways now completed. Hog Island was projected by the well-known firm of Stone and Webster, contracting engineers.

Hog Island

[CHIOSSO]

When author Christopher Morley sauntered around "the Neck" one hot summer evening in the early 20th century, to his surprise he found Philadelphians living an almost rural existence amid the marshes, ash heaps and junk yards. But Morley saw that the boggy land where the Delaware met the Schuylkill - "the canal country of South Philadelphia" - held great promise. He longed to see the "wonderful Dutch meadows of the Neck reclaimed into one of the world’s loveliest riverside parks."

The Olmsted Brothers' Artificial Nature: South Philadelphia's League Island (F.D.R) Park

[seand]

Cool thanks for the informative thread.

For father's day I recently recieved a framed printed map from 1896 and it depicted this island (actually two) in the middle of the Delaware, just off Center City and was curious about it. The smaller one is labeled "Ridgway Park" and the larger one to the south is labeled "Windmill Island"

The lower one was always industrial, depicted in this map with a wharves for coal boats and a lead works, while the one upstream had a hotel and was a park-like setting (and then park) for entertainment.


Here's an image of the northern island more frequently known as "Smith's Island" as a summertime destination in the middle of the river. Please note the big ferry boat going between the smaller northern island and the larger southern one. On my map one of the main ferry lines between Camden and Philly cut through this narrow channel as its normal route.


Here's an actual photo showing how close they were to the Philly shore.


Very, very cool.

Images courtesy of Philly H2O.
Philly H2O: Delaware River Images - Smith Island

[seand]

Here's an image of the northern island more frequently known as "Smith's Island" as a summertime destination in the middle of the river. Please note the big ferry boat going between the smaller northern island and the larger southern one. On my map one of the main ferry lines between Camden and Philly cut through this narrow channel as its normal route.

[seand]

So anyway slight formatting problem, but what cool piece of Philly history.

[CHIOSSO]

wow great images on smith island. i love it when people add stuff to the threads. thanks,
chiosso

[desolate]

how come the text isn't wrapping?

[CHIOSSO]

Philly H2O: Delaware River Images - Smith Island

[DocAwesome]

You can actually look at maps from different time periods and see the island move.

[Dayman]

My friend's dad told me stories about Soupy Island.

Any info on what island that was? Is that what we call No Name Island these days?

Bing Maps - Driving Directions, Traffic and Road Conditions

[Voodoo]

My friend's dad told me stories about Soupy Island.

Any info on what island that was? Is that what we call No Name Island these days?

Bing Maps - Driving Directions, Traffic and Road Conditions

Originally Windmill Island, then later New Jersey.

PhilaPlace - Soupy Island: Fresh Air and Hot Soup at a Delaware River Playground

[Dayman]

Yeah was wondering where in Jersey since it was in Red Bank, so figured maybe something to do with No Name as well.