Biggest Response to the Historic Phoenixville Photo Ever

Hats off to those who correctly guessed this week's historic photo location. 

This was a new record for Phoenixville Patch, . Kudos to Kevin R. Pound, Ed Jones, Matt Fink, Peter C. Brown, BW, Erdna, Margie Wallace, Ed Villanova, Joe Korzec, Jaxxon, George Mansur, Brad Gubanich and David L. Smith. 

I particularly liked the recollection of David L. Smith, who wrote: 

That photo was taken from the third-floor window of a building where the empty lot next to the mural is now on the northwest corner of Bridge and Main streets. The photo shows the Phoenix Hotel on the southeast corner of the same streets.

The photographer was a man named Sigman. He was THE photographer in this area for many years during the first half of the 1900s. One of his last photos was of me in 1948.

Here's the offiical word from The Historical Society of the Phoenixville Area, which has a flea market coming up on Jan. 21:

At the southeast corner of Main and Bridge, the Phoenix Hotel was built in 1836. This photo is of “General Hastings and Party” in 1894.

Daniel Hartman Hastings was governor of Pennsylvania from 1895 to 1899. The visit to Phoenixville was no doubt a stop on the campaign trail. Note that there are very few women in the crowd, since at that time women did not have the right to vote.

The hotel remained a landmark at the town’s main intersection until 1948, when it was razed and replaced by the former W. T. Grant building (also pictured above, circa 1984).