Pedestrian matters: The contested meanings and uses of Philadelphia's streets, 1850s--1920s (Pennsylvania)

Through a close examination of social reforms and technological innovations, this study traces evolving understandings of public space in Philadelphia from the introduction of the streetcar through the ascendance of the automobile. A series of case studies shows how conflicts surrounding the streets brought into the most intimate details of everyday life. The fight for racial equality, for instance, took shape in public space when African Americans fought for the right to ride in streetcars. The clash of the rights of individuals and the rights of corporations assumed specific form in disputes between pedestrians and trolleys over the right of way in the streets. Questions of whether and how immigrants could be assimilated into the American body politic became embodied in clashes over street paving and public wastebaskets. Democracy, or “publicness,” as an ideal for streets came under assault during this time, while other values such as efficiency, sanitation, respectability, and child safety gained currency. Despite this shift in values, popular uses of the streets proved remarkably resilient; time and again, reformers, municipal officials, entrepreneurs, and others who sought to change the streets found them very difficult to control. The streets remained contested terrain.