Society Hill / The New Market and Head House

Society Hill grew from Pennsylvania’s founding in 1682, when William Penn envisioned the colony as a “Holy Experiment” and the Free Society of Traders, formed by more than 200 London backers, established industries and a trading house on the rise from the Delaware that gave the area its name. Although the Society failed by 1723 under competition from Philadelphia merchants, “Society Hill” remained the community’s name through the 18th century. During the Revolutionary War era, Philadelphia was America’s largest and most cosmopolitan city, with settlement stretching along the Delaware River from north of Vine Street to below South Street in Southwark. In the 19th century, rail transportation shifted commerce westward away from the river, residents moved to newer neighborhoods and suburbs, and many colonial buildings were converted to warehouses, wholesale establishments, small businesses, residences, or boarding houses for immigrants. Interest in Philadelphia’s past revived the neighborhood after the creation of Independence National Historical Park in the 1950s, leading to the restoration of hundreds of historic structures, the construction of contemporary houses, and the renewed use of the name Society Hill. Within this neighborhood, the New Market and Head House formed one of America’s oldest colonial market complexes. The covered colonnaded market, built in 1745 and called “the shambles,” served the growing population of Society Hill and Southwark with open-air food sales on Tuesdays and Fridays, and vendors continued selling there into the 20th century. At its north end, the three-story Head House, built in 1805, housed fire engines and equipment for the Fellowship, the Hope, and the Southwark Hose Companies, provided meeting rooms for firefighters, and used its clock and bell to signal fires and announce market days. Owned by the City of Philadelphia, the property was saved from demolition, repaired in 1962-63, and preserved again in the 1990s by the Head House Conservancy.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States