Struggle over the Streets: Industrialization and the Fight over the Corporate Control of Street Space in Philadelphia, 1830–1860

Between 1830 and 1860, Philadelphia's streets became the focus of a series of physical and legal disputes as new infrastructure technologies transformed the streets from a social to a corporate space. Early in the nineteenth century the city gave its residents control and responsibility for the streets creating what amounted to an urban commons. In the 1830s, city ordinances and state charters gave the companies building large infrastructure technologies like streetcar systems and telegraph lines rights to the streets. These new laws effectively made street space a corporately owned public space. Many residents of Philadelphia resisted these changes and their resistance highlights the incompatibility of residentially and corporately controlled public space.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2013.823052
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/25851022
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission from Taylor and Francis.
• Authors:
  • Zylstra, Geoff D
• Publication Date: 2013-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 3-19
• Serial:
  • Journal of Urban Technology
  • Volume: 20
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISSN: 1063-0732
  • EISSN: 1466-1853
  • Serial URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjut20/current

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Businesses; Infrastructure; Ownership; Streetcars; Streets; Technology; Urbanization
• Uncontrolled Terms: Industrialization; Public spaces
• Geographic Terms: Philadelphia (Pennsylvania)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01494725
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 30 2013 10:37AM