Oh, boy. Where to start?
Philadelphia doesn't have a Midtown like they do in Manhattan. What we have is Center City, the commercial district that includes office buildings, department stores, an urban mall, shops, City Hall, other city offices, hospitals, bars, restaurants, cafes, delis, theaters, historic buildings and sites, and a surprising number of residents. It is approximately 2.3 square miles and ranges (depending on whose definition you use) from the Delaware River to the Schuylkill River and from Vine Street to South Street.
Included in this area is Independence National Historic Park, considered to be the most historic square mile in the United States. Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Carpenters Hall, and a host of other historic places are included in the park. There are gardens and lawns in the park that make you feel like you left the narrow streets of colonial Philadelphia and entered an arboretum where you can spend time envisioning what life was like 250 years ago.
Most of Center City is based on a grid system with numbered streets running north and south and the named streets from east to west. We can thank the Quakers who founded the city in 1682 for the grid, and they were clever sorts. Each square block bordered from one numbered street to the next and from one main named street to the next is ten acres. Each linear block is one-eighth (1/8) of a mile. This grid system is so ingrained in Philadelphians’ minds, that some people still call them squares instead of blocks. (I’m looking at you, Grandmom.)
One of the features of Center City is the four (remaining) squares laid out by the Quakers. They wanted to keep open spaces for the residents and workers in what they assumed correctly would become a heavily urban area. They thought that the city of Philadelphia would never exceed the boundaries of the squares. You can identify them on the map by the green areas in the four corners. Each square has a unique characteristic and vibe, and Maxwell has been in each one of them at some point in his career. There was a fifth square, right in the center of the area. It is the site of City Hall, having outlived its original purpose as a reservoir.
Mike Maxwell spends most of his time in this area. He grew up just on the southwest fringe of Center City in a neighborhood called the Devil’s Pocket, and he had to walk every day to Broad and Vine to attend Roman Catholic High School for Boys. His office is in the Fidelity building at Broad and Walnuts Streets, the Union League is across the street, and there are at least two police district stations in Center City that he is familiar with.
(Ctrl-Click the link to see the map)
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Charlie Jones writes Philadelphia crime fiction featuring detective Mike Maxwell. You can find him on Facebook at Charlie Jones Writer.
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