Drexel in Philly: The Founder’s Old City
Drexel University’s founder, Anthony J. Drexel (1826–1893), lived his entire life in Philadelphia. He worked in the Drexel & Co. banks in Old City, where he was born; helped develop an iconic institution in Center City, where he lived as a teenager and young husband; presided over a groundbreaking public art organization to beautify Fairmount Park; and raised his family in West Philadelphia, where he founded the then-Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry in 1891.
More than 130 years after his death, Anthony’s impact and legacy can still be felt across the city — and you can see it, too. This “Drexel in Philly” series explores some of the historic buildings, institutions, public art and other places that Drexel’s founder — and his large family — built and supported.
This story explores his Old City connections, and you can also read about his ties to West Philly, Center City and Fairmount Park.
Drexel University’s founder, financier and philanthropist, Anthony J. Drexel, was born in Old City in 1826. Starting at the age of 13, he worked in three Drexel & Co. banks in the neighborhood until his death at age 67 in 1893.
There are several places you can visit today that bear some trace of Anthony and/or his family members:
- Third Street’s two Drexel & Co. banks (one is a souvenir shop, and one is a parking lot)
- The “Drexel Building” razed for the Independence National Historical Park
- The Philadelphia Public Ledger building on the founder’s birthplace
- The first ethnic parish in America co-founded by his maternal grandfather
The Drexel & Co. Bank That’s Still Standing: Then
Anthony’s father Francis Martin Drexel,, who was born and raised in what is now Austria, worked as a painter on three continents before he used his financial acumen to open a currency office in Philadelphia.
He rented office space in the city’s financial district, which was then spread out on Third Street from Market to Walnut streets. After a year, he took his two eldest sons — 15-year-old Francis “Frank” Anthony and 13-year-old Anthony — out of school to work there; both would remain at the company for the rest of their lives.
Nine years later, when Anthony and Frank were made partners, the firm changed its name to Drexel & Co. and Francis purchased the office’s building. His business had become a major brokerage house, helping the U.S. finance the Mexican War by selling $49.2 million of the Treasury’s bonds (worth about $1.9 billion in 2025).
The historical marker honoring Anthony J. Drexel that the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission placed in front of the original 1838 location of Drexel & Co. (48 South Third St.) in 2003. This picture was taken in August of 2023 — note the red of the building that has since been painted navy.
The Drexel & Co. Bank That’s Still Standing: Now
In 1854, Drexel & Co. moved from its original 1838 location to a new building on Third Street — and inadvertently started a centuries-old mystery. After the city’s street numbering system changed in the 1850s, the 1838 building at 34 South Third St. was renumbered as 48 South Third St.; coincidentally, the address for the 1854 Drexel & Co. building became 34 South Third St. When the 1854 building was demolished in the 1970s (more on that below), it was believed to have been the site of both buildings.
While conducting research for his 2001 book “The Man Who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance,” author Dan Rottenberg realized that the 1838 building had been hiding in plain sight at its updated address. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission then erected a historical marker on the sidewalk in honor of Anthony.
“The Man Who Made Wall Street” noted that a curved dormer on the roof was the sole identifiable marker from the 1838 building. The building was recently repainted navy and yellow — similar to the University’s signature navy and gold colors.
The top floors are residential, but the ground floor is occupied by Rocky Philly Souvenirs, which opened in the spring of 2024. It’s fitting that a store selling Philadelphia-branded items is connected to two institutions that helped build up the city: Drexel & Co. and Drexel University.
An undated lithograph promoting the 1854 Drexel & Co. building. The public domain image was digitized by the Free Library of Philadelphia.
The Other Drexel & Co. Bank on Third Street: Then and Now
The four-story 1854 building at 34 South Third St. was the largest building on the block. It was designed by the German architect Gustavus Runge, who later co-designed Philadelphia’s Academy of Music.
The building was razed in 1976 to become a parking lot, which it remains to this day. Nuns from the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament order founded by Frank’s daughter, Saint Katharine Drexel, picketed the demolition in protest.
The Drexel Building on Fifth Street: Then
After 47 years on Third Street, Drexel & Co. moved to the southeast corner of Fifth and Chestnut streets in 1885 — the same year that Frank died, leaving Anthony as the leader of the company (they co-ran it after their father’s death in 1863). The white marble building was designed by Wilson Brothers & Company — the same firm Anthony would later hire to design the University’s Main Building as well as the Reading Terminal train shed that he helped finance.
Anthony also bought additional properties on Fifth Street, including:
- The Library Company of Philadelphia’s original location on the northeast corner of Fifth and Library streets, which was constructed in 1791, closed in 1880 and purchased by Anthony in 1884.
- The former U.S. post office on Chestnut Street below Fifth Street, which was built in 1863 and purchased at auction by Anthony in 1886 for $413,000 (about $14 million today).
He also tried to purchase a building located in between the Drexel & Co. bank and the post office building, to no avail. Instead, he combined his properties in a 10-story “H”-shaped building — surrounding the other building. It opened in 1888 as the “Drexel Building,” and was the city’s tallest building until City Hall was completed in 1901. Patrons could use elevators (a new invention) to visit the rooftop viewing pavilion for unparalleled skyline views.
Drexel & Co.’s power was so great that Philadelphia’s financial epicenter migrated with it. Anthony even arranged space for the Philadelphia Stock Exchange to move from its decades-long home on Third Street to the second floor of the new Drexel Building.
An undated image of the Drexel Building on Fifth Street. The building in the middle is what Anthony could not buy and instead built around. Note the “Drexel” written on the street-facing side of the building on the right.
The Drexel Building on Fifth Street: Then
The Drexel Building housed a variety of offices and tenants for decades, including Drexel & Co. and the Estate of Anthony J. Drexel. When the University held its first endowment drive in the mid-1920s, headquarters for the campaign opened on the fifth floor of the building (many of the founder’s family members led the campaign and donated tens of thousands of dollars).
Drexel & Co. eventually moved to a new “Drexel Building” at 1435-41 Walnut St., built in 1927. The ornate, multi-story space resembling the 16th century Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy, has housed a variety of retail clients and business offices since Drexel & Co. closed and was officially absorbed into J.P. Morgan & Co. (During the last two decades of his life, Anthony had mentored the famed financier John Pierpont “J.P.” Morgan, who ran their New York office named Drexel, Morgan & Co.; after Anthony’s death, Morgan retained the Morgan properties.)
In the 1950s, the federal government purchased the Fifth Street Drexel Building for $1.6 million (worth about $19 million in 2025 and demolished the property — along with other 19th century landmarks— to create and expand the new Independence National Historical Park.
Ironically, the original 1791 library that Anthony demolished to make the Drexel Building was later rebuilt in its place. The American Philosophical Society (APS) had moved its library to the Drexel Building in 1934; its Philosophical Hall had been situated across the street since 1789 — its same location when Anthony was elected an APS member in 1892.
The APS received approval and assistance from the U.S. government to reconstruct the façade of the 1791 library for its new Library Hall. It opened in 1959 and is a part of the Independence National Historical Park along with the adjacent Signer’s Garden, also constructed on the former Drexel Building site.
An etching of the Public Ledger Building as depicted in “The Public Ledger Building, Philadelphia: With an Account of the Proceedings Connected With Its Opening June 20, 1867,” a work published by George W. Childs that is now in the public domain. Note the “Public Ledger” written on the top of the building.
The Public Ledger Building: Then and Now
During the last four decades of his life, Anthony was known as the multi-millionaire who regularly walked to work. He strolled between his Old City office and West Philly home in a cumulative seven-mile journey. After construction started on the Drexel Institute’s Main Building at 3141 Chestnut St., a new stop was added to his route, “so that hardly a day passed without an opportunity to advise with him about its affairs,” remembered James MacAlister, the University’s first president.
On his walks, Anthony usually picked up and dropped off George W. Childs at his white-marble mansion at the southeastern corner of 22nd and Walnut streets. George was an important person in his life: they co-owned the Philadelphia Public Ledger newspaper and shared a Jersey Shore vacation home, and Anthony named his youngest son after George. They’d walk to and from the Public Ledger Building at Sixth and Chestnut streets, where Childs worked, and Anthony would continue east to the Drexel & Co. bank (they also met at noon for lunch).
The Public Ledger Building was partially built on the site of Anthony’s childhood home. When Anthony was growing up there, the newspaper operated from a building on the southwest corner of Third and Chestnut streets, close to the original Drexel & Co. bank (George, an enterprising publisher, worked out of that building). Anthony and George met in the 1850s — it’s unknown how — and purchased the publication in 1864. Three years later, the newspaper’s new five-story building opened; it was designed by John McArthur Jr., the architect behind City Hall. For the next 30 years, they grew the publication into one of the city’s leading publications: Anthony was a silent co-owner while George was the newspaper’s editor and proprietor.
After Anthony's death in 1893, George succeeded Anthony as chairman of the University’s Board of Trustees until his death in 1894; he had been the founding vice-president of the board, major sounding board for the creation of the institution, and reported inspiration behind Main Building’s Great Court. Both men bequeathed many valuable manuscripts, artifacts and pieces of art to the University (now in today’s Drexel Founding Collection, which displays many of his art and artifacts on campus in Main Building and in exhibitions). The Public Ledger newspaper, building and other holdings went to Anthony’s son George W. Childs Drexel. He sold everything to New York Times owner Alfred S. Ochs in 1902, and 11 years later Ochs sold everything to famed publisher Cyrus H. K. Curtis. He built a new Public Ledger Building on the former building’s location in the early 1920s, the same decade he became a Drexel Institute trustee and donated funds for the University’s Curtis Building and Curtis organ in Main Building. He served alongside George W. Childs Drexel, whose house was bought by Cyrus’ daughter to create the Curtis Institute of Music. Today, the Public Ledger Building has housed everything from luxury condominiums to the largest-ever Wawa convenience store.
Holy Trinity Church: Then
Anthony’s mother, Catherine Hookey, came from Pennsylvania Dutch and Quaker ancestry; she was related to Simon Snyder, the third governor of Pennsylvania (from 1800–1819) and the first one of German descent. Catherine’s father Anthony Hookey, who operated a grocery store at Third and Green streets, was one of the original founders of the Holy Trinity Church formed in the 1780s for German-speaking parishioners. It was the country’s first church founded for an ethnic population, and the third Catholic church built in Philadelphia.
In 1821, Catherine married Francis Martin Drexel, a native German speaker who had immigrated from the Tyrol region of today’s Austria to escape war with Napoleonic France. Francis Martin held leadership positions at the Holy Trinity, serving as treasurer around the time of Anthony’s birth. Anthony and five of his six siblings (minus older brother Frank) were baptized at Holy Trinity Church. The church was near their aforementioned Sixth Street home as well as the school Anthony and his siblings attended on Sixth and Spruce streets.
In an autobiographical manuscript, Francis Martin stressed the importance of instilling knowledge and appreciation for a family’s origins and language. Anthony fluently spoke German (and English and French) and frequently vacationed in German-speaking Bohemia with his own family, ultimately dying in today’s Czech Republic of a heart attack.
Holy Trinity Church: Now
In 2009, Holy Trinity merged with the equally historic Old Saint Mary Church (Philly’s second-ever Catholic church, built in the 1760s), though its German-speaking population had declined. The church remained in use for another decade until its closure in 2022 due to the high cost of necessary repairs. Today, the vacant building is no longer considered a Catholic church but its exterior is historically protected due to its Flemish bond style of bricklaying that was in place when the Drexels attended services there.