Marshall Street Pushcarts Mural
The mural depicts the lively atmosphere once generated by Marshall Street's "pushcartnicks." Immigrants of all backgrounds and creeds shopped at this open-air market. Although in violation of the city's "Blue Laws," prohibiting commerce on the Christian Sabbath, the authorities looked the other way as Marshall Street merchants and shoppers conducted a bustling business on Sunday mornings. "…Sunday morning was one of the busiest times. Shoppers packed the bakeries for bagels, salt sticks, pastries … Somehow no city official bothered the storekeepers…By 2 o'clock, when traffic died down, store owners would turn off the lights." (Voices from Marshall Street, p. 50) Most residents shopped daily, sometimes two and three times a day, for fresh meat and produce. This constant, lively street activity kept the neighborhood safe and vital until the early 1960s.
References
- Ellison, Elaine Krasnow and Elaine Mark Jaffe. Voices From Marshall Street: Jewish Life in a Philadelphia Neighborhood, 1920-1960. Philadelphia: Camino Books, Inc., 1994.
- Whiteman, Maxwell. "Philadelphia's Jewish Neighborhoods." in The Peoples of Philadelphia: A History of Ethnic Groups and Lower Class Life, 1790-1940, edited by Allen F. Davis and Mark H. Haller, 231–254. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1973.
Map
Map
Address
on the left of the 900 block, looking south
