New Market

New Market (also called Headhouse Market) is a reminder that, from the start, Philadelphia was defined by commercial realities as well as political ideals. William Penn’s 1684 plan included a 100-foot wide High Street (today Market Street), designed to accommodate a central row of market stalls (“shambles”). By 1741, the city had grown southward, and City Council ordered the widening of Second Street, south of Pine Street, to create a “New Market.” Roofing was erected over the market stalls between Pine and Lombard in 1745 at the expense of Mayor Edward Shippen and Joseph Wharton, who managed the site. 

In 1772 the city took control, and the market was subsequently extended from Lombard south to South Street and modified by the addition of a “headhouse” at the south end in 1799. The headhouse accommodated the Southwark Hose Company, one of the growing number of private fire brigades whose creation Benjamin Franklin had championed starting in 1736. A second, similar structure was erected at the north end in 1805 for the Fellowship and Hope Hose Companies. The southern fire station was demolished in 1860, followed by the market stalls south of Lombard Street in 1956, but the northern headhouse and the adjacent brick-piered market building were preserved and restored in 1960-1963. 

The heavy cornices and other old-fashioned details of the surviving headhouse suggest that it is older than it is. Firefighting equipment was stored in the two rooms on either side of the archway on the ground floor, a meeting room occupied the second floor, and a fire alarm bell hung in the cupola. 

A weekly farmers market now operates in the shambles.

Address: 401 S 2nd St Suite 4A + 4B, Philadelphia, PA 19147

Photo Credit: R. Kennedy for VISIT PHILADELPHIA®