Workshop of the World

stories of industry in & around Philadelphia

Pasted Graphic
Northeast corner of Shackamaxon Street & Delaware Avenue (2007).

Edward Corner Marine Merchandize Warehouse, 1921
1100-1102 North Delaware Avenue, Philadelphia PA 19125

© Stuart Paul Dixon, Workshop of the World (Oliver Evans Press, 1990).

The Edward Corner Marine Merchandize Warehouse stands as one of the last vestiges of Fishtown's association with maritime-related industries. Three stories high with a basement, the brick building has four upper bays facing North Delaware Avenue and six upper bays along Shackamaxon Street; it forms an ell that extends north to Allen Street. A change in brick color in the top ten courses may denote a reworking of the original roof line.  Portions of the ground story have been stuccoed. The majority of the structure's window bays exhibit steel industrial sash with hoppers. A limestone quoin on the southwest corner facing Delaware Avenue reads "1921 E. C.", presumably the date that Edward Corner, erected the building. Another limestone quoin that faces Shackamaxon Street has "1870" carved on its surface, possibly the year that Corner first began his business in Philadelphia. An elevator tower tops a shaft in the northeast corner of the building.
 
Advertisements painted on the walls of Corner's Marine Merchandize Warehouse are visual testimony to the building's association with Fishtown's maritime industries. These include such notices as "Rope and Canvas," "Anchors and Chains," "Canvas Covers," "Boat Supplies," "New and Used Rope," "Blocks and Falls," "Blasting Mats," and "We Buy Old Rope."
 
In 1920 and 1921 Edward Corner purchased a number of lots that comprise the current property. However, he was in business in Philadelphia as early as 1874.
1 Corner, in partnership with a Mr. Keighley, operated a scrap iron and steel shop at 1080 Beach Street in Fishtown, employing five men beginning in 1882. This property was torn down shortly before Corner bought the Delaware Avenue sites; the demolition was a result of the construction of Delaware Avenue. The Corner family owned the warehouse on Delaware Avenue until 1960, when the Scandinavian Ship Supply Company acquired it. The supply company subsequently sold the property to Trans World Furniture, Inc., which currently uses it as a furniture warehouse.

1  Kensington; A City Within A City, pp. 541-542.

Update May 2007 (by Torben Jenk):
Survives in poor condition. Plans were floated for a nine-story residential building on the site.