hanging out the window on the next to the top floor, far right of the building? It looks like someone waving to the camera or about to jump!

[Looks more like a What than a Who. - tterrace]

In the 1950s I spent many hours among the stacks of books that Leary’s could somehow keep track of. For me it was all pure discovery. And as for this photograph, and all photographs of downtown Philly from that time, I feel as if I look long and hard enough I will see my father, a delivery boy for Wanamaker’s up the street, or my grandmother Alice shopping after the short El ride from West Philly where they lived.

The building was torn down in the late 1970s, and now is a parking lot. The other side of the street (the side where the photo was taken) also had 2 other department stores within a couple blocks - Strawbridge's (now where the Inquirer and Daily News newspaper are headquatered, since mid-2012) and Lit Brothers (now the Mellon Bank Center).

Purely an educated guess but that hole mentioned in an earlier comment might well be part of the original New York subway construction. The time frame is right.

[But not the city. - tterrace]

Edit: LOL Memo to self: Pay attention to locations noted in descriptions.

Cool electrical stuff in here I almost missed!

The first thing that caught my eye was the way they fed overhead lines from underground. The pole left bottom has a stovepipe-like top to keep the rain out but let what looks like a trolley power line sneak out of the top.

Second is that the streetlight on the adjacent pole to the left has a counterweight and I would guess a pivot. Is this so it could be 'hooked' and pulled down for servicing?

The construction going on under Market Street in the photo was the digging of the Market Street Subway. The subway digging began in March 1903 and the line opened for business in 1908. That would pinpoint the date of the photo at about 1905. What is truly amazing about this is that the subway tunnel was dug by hand, shoveling the dirt into wooden peach baskets and hoisting each basket out of the ground with a chain hoist and hauling the dirt off in a horse drawn cart. Digging began at the foot of Market near the ferry terminal and exited at the Schulylkill River some 25 blocks west.

The building on the left with the sign appears to be the company's headquarters. It hasn't gone far.

http://www.wickribbon.com

Gimbel's was a block long with the end down at 8th Street. This view is from the northwest. The only reason to point this out, however, is to take note of Leary's Bookstore (9 S. 9th Street.) just to the right of the Gimbel's facade. (ARY'S and "Libraries Purchased") I spent many happy hours and far too many dollars there. It closed in 1969.

Also, diagonally across the 8th Street intersection was Lit Bros. Department Store, which has previously made an appearance on Shorpy.

There are so many marvelous things in this dense and busy photograph (e.g. the signs at the far left: Ulman Bros. & Co., Elkish & Plonsky, Wertheimer & Co., etc.) but for me the most timeless element is the gang of boys and men hanging over the construction hole, fascinated with whatever is going on below. One of them is even reaching down: “Here, let me help!”