Center City Philadelphia is a visual tour of the area’s major thoroughfares, with a concentration on the legacy of its architecture and its historical importance in the growth and development of our nation. From the teeming frontage of Delaware Avenue to the bustling crowds on Market Street, from the wealthy mansions of Rittenhouse Square to the construction of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, these vintage postcards provide elusive and seldom-seen views of Philadelphia during the first half of the 20th century, well before the present age of modern technology.

Author Bio: Gus Spector, a member of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, and the American Philatelic Society, has been an avid collector of Philadelphia postcards for over 35 years. His primary interests lie in Philadelphia’s 19th- and 20th-century architecture and the life and times of the city during that period of growth. He is the author of Philadelphia: Historic Exteriors and Interiors.