A. Pomerantz ran one of the largest stationery and printing shops in Philadelphia at that time. This is a box of the steel dip pen nibs produced for them. The box dates to pre-1909 when they moved to 34-36 South 15th, just around the corner and to the left of the courthouse, from the perspective of the photographer.

The box may well date from not long after the courthouse was built as Pomerantz was in business from 1897.

I lived in Philadelphia up until the late 80's. Prior to the completion of One Liberty Place there were no buildings taller than the statue of William Penn on the City Hall building. After One Liberty there were a score of other ugly monoliths that began to pop up blocking the view of City Hall. So much for a gentlemen's agreement...

And still the tallest unreinforced masonry tower in the world (there is no internal steel or concrete substructure.) The walls are over twenty feet thick at the base!

http://mentalfloss.com/article/83196/11-facts-about-philadelphias-city-h...

Below is the same view from October of 2013. (A similar view was previously featured on Shorpy https://www.shorpy.com/node/19725.)

I want to know what this is, but I couldn't find the clickable Google Street View arrow in the center of the street that would have allowed me to stroll virtually down there to take a look.