![](https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/1984-4-1-300x209.jpg)
Cast Iron Architecture
Over a period of four decades, from 1840 through 1880, a commercial district of distinctive cast iron buildings developed in Center City Philadelphia. Born of the iron wealth of Pennsylvania and fashioned by the city’s architects and mechanics at a time of technological innovation, these buildings helped define the downtown of the emerging modern ...