Twenty-first-century Philadelphians know Boathouse Row as the idiosyncratic collection of boathouses that dot the shoreline of the Schuylkill River. But the unique architectural character and definition of the row is no accident of history; rather, it is the result of one of the earliest attempts to exert municipal control over private structures, initiated in response to a confluence of cultural and historic trends sweeping through Philadelphia and parts of America in the late nineteenth century.
(More Info)
