Girard House

City: Philadelphia

County: Philadelphia

State: Pennsylvania

The Girard House was a hotel on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. Architect John McArthur, Jr. designed the building, which was constructed in 1851 and began business in 1852. The hotel had a capacity of approximately one thousand guests. It closed temporarily in the spring of 1861 and served as a barracks for Civil War recruits before becoming a military clothing factory in April of that year, with nearly two thousand Philadelphia women manufacturing uniforms for the Union Army. The Girard House re-opened as a hotel at the end of 1862.

J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia. 1609-1884 (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts, 1884), 1:760-62, 2:998; Frank H. Taylor, Philadelphia in the Civil War 1861 1865 (Philadelphia: City of Philadelphia, 1913), 14, 28, 81; The Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), 17 November 1862, 8:4; North American and United States Gazette (Philadelphia, PA), 30 December 1862, 2:8.