< PreviousJohn F. Watson’s book Annals of Philadelphia provides first-person accounts, memories, and anecdotes about life and history in Philadelphia during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In the process of compiling material for his book, Watson interviewed many people for a text that is unfortunately short on citations but is still very informative. Watson himself provided his own recollections of Pegg’s Run by drawing a skating scene sketch of the area from memories of his childhood in Northern Liberties (the Pegg’s Run stream basin was filled in by the second quarter of the nineteenth century). According to Watson, the creek’s namesake, Daniel Pegg, had acquired 350 acres—including the land illustrated in the sketch—in 1686 from Jurian Hartsfelder.1 Pegg’s son, Daniel Jr., inherited the land upon the death of his father in about 1703; upon his own death in 1732, his will divided it among relatives. In 1734, carpenter Thomas Green acquired four acres and 74 perches of this land in a sheriff’s sale, and subsequently sold it to tanner Joshua Emlen in May 1737. In his sketch, Watson depicted the land sold to Emlen, approximately bounded to the east by Front Street and to the north by Noble Street.2 John Fanning Watson was born on June 13, 1779, to William Watson and Lucy Fanning in Burlington County, New Jersey. The Watson family moved to Chew’s Landing on Timber Creek in Gloucester County, New Jersey, in 1782. In 1783, after the Revolutionary War, the Watsons moved to the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia. Few specifics about Watson’s childhood are known, but he grew up in Northern Liberties before obtaining employment at the counting house of James Vanuxem.3 During archaeological excavations, we frequently referred to a section of the original 1830 edition of the Annals entitled “Pegg’s Run &c.” Watson’s description of the Pegg’s Run area brings to light detailed accounts of the topography prior to culverting of the stream, infilling, and subsequent development—providing a rare glimpse into the location’s past prior to archaeological excavation. In a description of the landscape on the north side of the Pegg’s Run stream bank in the area that eventually became Noble Street, an asterisk is shown at the end of a sentence referring to a citation at the bottom of the page. The citation reads: “see a picture of this place on page 280 of my MS [manuscript] Annals in the Philadelphia Library.” 4 The page opposite to this citation features a lithograph by Watson’s illustrator William L. Breton depicting Pegg’s Run near its confluence with the Delaware, so it would seem that Watson was referring to another illustration. After looking through Watson’s book and later editions, we found no illustration that matched this citation. Could this refer to a period sketch of the area currently under archaeological excavation? Did the manuscript and the sketch still exist? The possibility was tantalizing.We set out to find this elusive manuscript and hopefully come across the sketch. It was quickly deduced that the “Philadelphia Library” Watson referred to was the Library Company of Philadelphia. A quick search of their catalog turned up an entry for the manuscript and after the presence of a sketch was confirmed, a visit was scheduled.5 When we arrived at the Library Company, we were taken upstairs to view the portion of the manuscript containing the drawing. A folder was opened and before us was the sketch Watson himself had made nearly two centuries ago. When the intrigued curators asked how we had known to look at the Library Company for this image, the answer was simple: “Watson told us where to find it.”Further research has shown that Watson’s insertion of the note regarding the sketch may have stemmed from his dissatisfaction with the lithograph William L. Breton produced for publication. Watson had made rough sketches to accompany his work in the first half of the 1820s, and in 1825 had engaged Breton, a recent English immigrant, to create finished versions of the drawings. Breton often based his works closely on Watson’s sketches, and in every instance excepting this scene, his lithographs met with the author’s approval. Watson had provided two sketches depicting Pegg’s Run—the skating scene and another focused on the stream’s pastoral aspects. It was this latter drawing that Breton based his work upon.6 Watson’s displeasure with the completed work is more directly emphasized later in the Annals. Including his sketch of “Pegg’s run, and scenery in skating there,” in a list of “Relics and Remembrances” in the manuscript, an asterisk indicates another note:The picture, as a skating scene, is more to the ideas in my mind, than the one given in this work. There were difficulties in forming the picture of “things before,” which the present artist could not overcome.7 (Overleaf) “Winter Scene of Danl Peggs Land, No. Libty.,” a circa-1825 sketch by John F. Watson, depicting his recollections of boyhood play in the area along Pegg’s Run. Courtesy of the Library Company of Philadelphia. PART IGeorge Cress Samuel A. PickardWATSON’S sketch10 | Vol 3 | 2018 | River ChroniclesSketch Description Overall, this fanciful drawing or pencil sketch is a depiction of Watson’s personal recollections of the area from when he was a child, and although it is very detailed, it is somewhat crudely executed. The title of the drawing, “Winter Scene on Danl Peggs Lands No Libs” (Winter Scene on Daniel Pegg’s Lands, Northern Liberties), is inscribed near the top right corner, straddling a depiction of a tree. Handwritten vertically along the left side of the drawing is a quote: “We love the play place of our early days / The scene is touching and the heart is stone / That feels not at that sight, and feels at none!” The quote is part of a long poem about childhood William Cowper wrote in 1784.8 The illustration, which is not to scale, provides a view of Pegg’s Run looking north from the south bank as it presumably appeared in the late eighteenth century. By the second quarter of the nineteenth century, this scene was but a memory. Pegg’s Run was enclosed in a brick culvert and the area between the stream banks was gradually filled with soil and debris, raising the stream valley to the level of the north and south embankments (see the section on the geomorphology of Pegg’s Run).The scene in the sketch extends from Front Street, along the east (right) side, to Third Street, along the west (left) edge, with Second Street defining the center of the illustration. The northern boundary is Noble Lane (which later in the nineteenth century became Noble Street) and also a “Public Common.” Pegg’s Run—labeled with its Native American name Choquinoque (or Coach-que-naw-que) Run—defines the southern extent at the bottom of the illustration. Pegg’s Run is identified as “running out to the Delaware River,” with a hand pointing in the direction of the river. “Old Road Back of present Front St. to Frankford etc.” is written vertically along the right or eastern edge. This was the original alignment of Front Street prior to being moved to the east in the second half of the eighteenth century. Footpaths and footways are also depicted traversing “Pegg’s Marsh Meadow,” extending across the low-lying wetland or marsh area. The footpaths are shown oriented parallel to Pegg’s Run, illustrated along the bottom of the drawing. In Watson’s description of Pegg’s Run prior to the area’s development in the nineteenth century, Second Street was a low causeway raised 6 feet to join the two bluffs on each side of Pegg’s Run, and was commonly called “the Hollow.” According to Watson, the footpaths, footways, and roadways in the lower marsh area he labeled “Pegg’s Marsh Meadow” were constructed on top of fill consisting of “refuse earth, shoemaker’s leather, and shavings etc.” 9 Watson describes the Second Street causeway as “something narrower than the present street, and the footway, which was only on the west side of it, was three feet lower than the street.”10 There is a discrepancy between Watson’s descriptions in the book of the footway on the west side of Second Street and the placement on the drawing. On the sketch, the footway is clearly shown on the east side. It seems possible that the sketch is correct, as the footway ends with a bridge over the marsh water and intersects with Front Street—a detail that would be hard to get wrong. Small wooden bridges are also shown where Third Street (left), Second Street (middle), and Front Street (right) cross Pegg’s Run. The bridges traverse the high bluff, the height of which Watson estimated in the sketch at “25 to 30 feet,” along the south side of Pegg’s Run.Archaeologically speaking, the most useful information the sketch provides is the depiction of the sloping topography of the north bank of Pegg’s Run east of Second Street, with reference to the height of the stream bank. Its height is given as being 18 feet on the west side of the “Tan Yard” buildings, which today would be under the I-95 roadway. The rise between the tanyard and the “Old Road” is shown as being 20 feet. This area was the focus of the archaeological excavation and the site of proposed retention basins related to I-95 improvements. At this location, there was also the possibility of finding the foundations of the “first Powder House” (gunpowder storage) that had been constructed on land purchased from Pegg, as shown on the sketch at the top of the bank. According to Watson: In 1724, there was erected on his former premises the first Powder House ever erected in Philadelphia; it was at the expense of William Chancellor, a wealthy sailmaker, who placed it on the northern bank of Pegg’s marsh—say a little south of present Noble Street, and about 60 yards westward of Front Street.11 This put the powder house building in the location of our archaeological excavation, which is described in the second section of this article. River Chronicles | Vol 3 | 2018 | 11The buildings shown along the west side of Second Street to the north of Pegg’s Run are a house labeled “Emlen’s” and a probable outbuilding at the top of the bank, just south of the house. There is a fence extending from the outbuilding down to the bottom of the slope and continuing along the foot of the bank, where a gate provides access to the pond and “Marsh-Meadow.” During Watson’s childhood, the Emlen who owned the land was Samuel Emlen Sr., the son of the aforementioned tanner who had acquired the property in 1737. Though Emlen had inherited the property from his father, he appears to have rented out the dwelling (which was popularly known as a haunted house) to the Methodist minister Dr. Joseph Pilmore. Similarly, as Samuel Emlen was not a tanner but a Quaker minister, he rented out the tannery to William Savery from at least 1791. This tannery is depicted in the sketch as two identical-looking buildings labeled “Tan Yard,” just west of the first powder house, that appear to be cut into the bank with a large tree between the structures.12 Although no archaeological evidence of the tanyard was discovered during excavation, remains of the buildings may still survive under the northbound lanes of the I-95 roadway. The most amusing and charming aspect of Watson’s winter scene is his playful depiction of people and animals. Capturing detailed gestures like a snapshot in time, he portrays children and adults sledding and ice skating, taking full advantage of the snow-covered banks and frozen spring-fed ponds. Two dogs are also joining in on the fun on the ice. Some of the skaters are less successful at staying on their feet and are shown in various stages of falling or having already landed on their backsides. Several people are sledding down the north bank slope between Second Street and the Old Road known as Front Street. On the west side of Second Street, overlooking the scene, two people are sitting on benches behind three large trees. A horse and rider and a small horse-drawn wagon are traveling north on Second Street. Intriguingly, no girls or women appear to be skating or sledding in the sketch. Their absence conforms with late-eighteenth-century mores, when skating was restricted to males and women were relegated to being spectators. “For a girl or woman to have attempted to skate herself, would have been branded as scandalous and disgraceful to the female sex.” In his text, Watson describes sledding as a winter “boy-sport.”13 John Watson’s captivating sketch of Pegg’s Run is a fascinating glimpse into the past, which provides useful information for archaeologists and historians, as well as an indication that everyday life in the eighteenth-century winter was not very different from present-day fun in the wintertime—only now these activities are open to anyone. 12 | Vol 3 | 2018 | River ChroniclestheARCHAEOLOGICALEXCAVATIONof thePEGG’S RUN NORTH SITEPART IIDaniel B. Eichinger IIIThe Pegg’s Run North Site was located south of the intersection of Spring Garden Street and Second Street, beneath the I-95 overpass. The area was investigated because it was the site chosen for a proposed storm water management basin. As can be seen when the basin map is overlaid on the 1859 Hexamer and Locher insurance map, several historic backyards were located within the bounds of the basin.Specifically, Basin 1 encompasses most of the backyards of the former residences at 122 and 124 Noble Street. Based on previous excavations at other sites investigated within the I-95 project area, these open spaces beneath the overpass are surprisingly undisturbed and usually capped by several feet of modern fill soils. These soils acted to preserve portions of intact eighteenth- and nineteenth-century backyards. Detail from Maps of the City of Philadelphia, 1858–1860, vol. 4, plate 45, Hexamer and Locher. Map Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia. Geospatial analysis by Richie Roy.14 | Vol 3 | 2018 | River ChroniclesBefore excavation began, the landscape of Pegg’s Run North consisted of scrub growth and highway trash. In order to remove this surface layer and any accompanying modern fill soils, a trackhoe excavator was brought in. This heavy machine removed approximately 5 feet of modern fill and demolition debris.AECOM project photograph, 2016.AECOM project photograph, 2016.The mechanical excavation revealed historic foundations, features, and deposits in the backyards of 122 and 124 Noble Street. Brick foundation remnants from the original construction of the two residences were located in the northern extent of the excavation and contained basement deposits. Later additions to these structures were built over the eighteenth-century soils. These additions had no basements, which likely helped preserve the earlier soils until the homes were demolished and buried beneath I-95 in the late 1960s. River Chronicles | Vol 3 | 2018 | 15Although several nineteenth-century deposits and features were encountered at 122 and 124 Noble Street, this discussion will focus on eighteenth-century soil layers and the remains of buildings shown on John F. Watson’s early-nineteenth-century drawing of the area as he remembered it from his childhood. The backyard of 124 Noble Street contained the oldest deposits encountered at the Pegg’s Run North Site. Beneath the modern overburden from the construction of I-95 and a later nineteenth-century deposit, an eighteenth-century ground surface was encountered. Archaeological investigation of this deposit was carried out through the placement of five 5-foot-square excavation units (EUs). Excavation of this area exposed two stratified yard deposits that contained distinctive mid-eighteenth- to very early nineteenth-century ceramics, such as decorated creamware and pearlware sherds, as well as tin-glazed earthenware and Philadelphia-made slip-trailed redwares.cmcmOverglaze enameled creamware, 1765–1810, England.China glaze painted pearlware, 1775–1810, England.Photographs by Thomas A. Kutys, 2017.16 | Vol 3 | 2018 | River ChroniclesDetail from Maps of the City of Philadelphia, 1858–1860, vol. 4, plate 45, Hexamer and Locher. Map Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia. Geospatial analysis by Richie Roy.The backyard of 124 Noble Street contained a circular nineteenth-century refuse pit (Feature 1) and a round brick privy (Feature 2), as well as an eighteenth-century yard deposit. The backyard of 122 Noble Street yielded another round brick privy (Feature 3) and a square wooden box privy (Feature 5). A schist wall that could possibly be from Philadelphia’s very first powder house was also located along the property line of 120 and 122 Noble Street at the extreme eastern edge of the project area. The stratigraphic sequence revealed during excavations at Pegg’s Run North exhibited a distinct slope down and towards the south—indicating that these deposits occupied the edge of a landform that followed that same slope direction. This finding matches up with Watson’s drawing of the creek valley. In the upper right quadrant (northeast), Watson depicts the “first Powder House” and a “Tan Yard” upon a “Bank of 20 ft.” When the evidence of the artifact collection, the on-site stratigraphic sequence, and Watson’s map are combined, it becomes obvious that the Pegg’s Run North Site sits atop this “Bank of 20 ft” that overlooks a series of marsh meadows north of Pegg’s Run itself. These marsh meadows were infilled during the first decade of the nineteenth century in order to level the landscape between the north and south banks of Pegg’s Run, providing ground for the construction of streets and housing.1 By 1829, Pegg’s Run was channelized into a brick culvert, with Willow Street constructed on top of the culvert, mirroring the winding alignment of Pegg’s Run.AECOM project photograph, 2016.AECOM project photograph, 2016.18 | Vol 3 | 2018 | River ChroniclesOne of the more interesting structural features encountered at Pegg’s Run North was a section of stone foundation, approximately 15 feet long and 2 feet wide; it was constructed of large blocks of locally mined Wissahickon Schist and mortared in place. This foundation wall does not appear on any of the mid-nineteenth-century historic maps, indicating it is probably related to an earlier structure predating the maps. This foundation was likely the western wall of Philadelphia’s “first Powder House” that appears in the upper right section of Watson’s sketch, next to the “Tan Yards.” William Chancellor, a wealthy sailmaker, built the powder house in 1724. It continued as such until at least 1776, when a new one was built in the northeast corner of Franklin Square. According to Watson, following its use as a powder house, the structure was utilized as a dwelling.2 The excavations also revealed evidence of the southwestern corner and the southern wall of the building believed to be the powder house. Based on AECOM’s overlay of these schist foundations on historic mapping, the structure occupied the open backyard of 120 Noble Street before the construction of homes at 120 and 122 Noble Street. Although no historic maps earlier than 1858 show the row houses, property records indicate that 120 and 122 were occupied as early as 1809, and 124 by 1811.3 AECOM’s excavations documented further clues as to the early-nineteenth-century development of the neighborhood. The southeast corner of 122 Noble Street’s rear brick foundation abuts the stone wall, which is visibly truncated. This detail indicates that the powder house foundation likely once extended farther to the north. It appears that this portion of the powder house, which would have included the northwestern corner of the building, was removed in order to build the two-story brick wing of 122 Noble Street. It is likely that the sturdy stone foundation was reutilized as footer for a later frame addition that extended from the rear of the home.AECOM project photograph, 2016.River Chronicles | Vol 3 | 2018 | 19Next >