Old Houses in Chatham Street, opposite the park, 1857

Frankfort Street ended at Chatham Street, a couple of blocks west of Philip White's drugstore, so Philip would have been quite familiar with this street.

In the 1850s, southerner William Bobo visited the city and remarked that although Chatham Street was only a quarter of a mile long, "there is more to see in that quarter of a mile, than in twice the distance on any other street of the city of New-York." He described the street in some detail. "On the right-hand it seems that every house is a ready-made clothing establishment. . . . On the left are silver-smith and jewellry stores--shirts, boots, shoes, and hats--and all kinds of other commodities, from pea-nuts to double barrel shot guns. The variety does not so much astonish you, as the little space it is all crowded into." Bobo looked askance at these establishments, referring to them as "barefaced swindling shops."