Free Philadelphia's Lost Waterfront by Harry Kyriakodis Page A

since they led to Clifford’s Wharf on the Delaware. Ships left for Boston, Savannah and other coastal ports from this place. The alley and wharf were named after Thomas Clifford, whose business was at 29 North Water Street. He and his family were shipowners and importers of hardware from Liverpool.
    A corner of Clifford’s dock had collapsed into the Delaware in the early nineteenth century. Nicknamed “the broken wharf,” it became a convenient place for boys to go swimming. This was an early leisure activity done amid Philadelphia’s busy working waterfront.
    S TEPHEN G IRARD ( AND H IS T OWNHOUSE )
    Bordering Clifford’s Wharf were the wharves of sailor, shipping magnate and banker Stephen Girard (1750–1831). Other Girard properties surrounded his docks, including his home and attached office (i.e., “counting house”) at 23 North Water Street and his warehouse at 31 and/or 33 North Water Street. Girard was previously at 43 North Front, as Ritter records:
    In 1791, and long before, No. 43 [North Front], at the south corner of another flight of steps to Water street, our late opulent Stephen Girard, was proprietor of a greengrocery, where edibles to all tastes, from an onion to an apple and a bean to a slice of pork, could be had for the money. He occupied through to Water street, and could sell at No. 31 there as at No. 43 above .
    Stephen Girard resided at his Water Street town house overlooking the Delaware River for almost forty years. He lived with several young housekeepers, perhaps some of whom were mistresses, after he committed his wife to Pennsylvania Hospital in 1790. The daughter of a Philadelphia shipbuilder, Mary Lum (1758–1815) had suffered a debilitating mental illness after several years of marriage, causing her to be prone to emotional outbursts and fits of violence. She spent the rest of her life in the hospital’s insanity ward. The situation caused Girard great sadness, since he professed to love her and especially since he never had an heir.
    As a result, the French émigré focused his efforts on working and making money. At his house, he managed his investments and land acquisitions to accumulate a vast fortune. Here, he devised ways to use his money and personal credit to finance the War of 1812 for the United States. He entertained Talleyrand, Louis Philippe, Joseph Bonaparte (Napoleon’s brother and ex-king of Spain and Naples) and many distinguished French diplomats and refugees.
    Girard and his servants could gaze south from the tall mansion’s windows and rooftop balcony, searching for his cargo-laden vessels as they made their way up the Delaware from around the world to dock at his wharves. He owned some eighteen ships, and his packets—ships that sailed on a regular schedule—were the foremost line afloat at that time.
    Girard spent much time at his mahogany desk, drinking imported wine and orchestrating his various commercial activities or reading the works of Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau. He also contemplated ways to bequeath his money, including the founding of a school for “poor, white, male orphans,” and ways to improve his adopted city of Philadelphia.
    Girard grew old and lonely at his waterside home, with only the wants of his business dealings to keep him occupied. Here, he passed away at age eighty-one the day after Christmas 1831, the richest man in America—his estate was about $7.5 million. And here, his infamous thirty-five-page will was read for the first time to his relations and others while his body lay in repose in the parlor.

    Drawing of Stephen Girard’s house on Water Street. From The Life and Character of Stephen Girard of the City of Philadelphia (1886) .

    Site of Stephen Girard’s house today. The Philadelphia Anchorage of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge is in the background. Photo by the author .
    The four-story house stood until the 1840s, when it was torn down and replaced