When Philly Had It All In The 1800s Everything From Trains To Paper Was Made Here. There Are Still Places Where You Get The Feel Of What It Was Like Then. Visit The 1800s, When Philly Stood Self-sufficient The Area's Proud Industrial Heritage Is Recounted At Scattered Sites And Numerous Museums.

Picture, if you will, a self-sufficient Philadelphia: a region where everything needed in daily life, or at least the basic components, was made here. Housewares, clothing, foodstuffs, tools, furniture, medicines, even candies - all of it produced within a few miles.

Far-fetched? Just turn the clock back to the 1800s, then on through the turn of the century.

"Philadelphia had it all," says Jane Mork Gibson, a local historian and member of the Society of Industrial Archeology. "Ironworks, foundries, textile mills. Drugs and chemicals were made here, measuring devices. It was a huge variety of things."

Manayunk was big on blankets; its mills supplied Union soldiers during the Civil War. Knits, silk and lace were produced in Germantown. Tanneries and leather shops were all over what is now Northern Liberties. Ships were built on South Philly's Hog Island.

While Philadelphia has done a good job preserving its Colonial heritage, the industrial era has nearly bitten the dust. "As far as today goes, there's not much left of it to see," Gibson says.

There are, though, a smattering of sites remaining that are fair reminders of this slice of local history. Nathaniel Newlin Grist Mill, in Glen Mills, still grinds grain just like it was done there in the 1800s. Hopewell Furnace, in Berks County, is a well-interpreted ironworking village. Glass is blown daily at Wheaton Village in New Jersey.

There's much to know about the city's role as an early hotbed of industry. A good place to start learning is the Atwater Kent Museum (15 S. Seventh St., 215-922-3031). The exhibit "Making It in Philadelphia" offers an overview of the city's manufacturing past. Here we learn that at one time the largest steam-railroad-engine maker in the United States - Baldwin Locomotive - set up shop in Philadelphia, as did the largest defense contractor - Midvale Steel. Bassetts, the nation's oldest ice cream maker, was founded in Philadelphia in 1861. Philadelphia-made tools, especially saws made by Henry Disston & Sons, were renowned for their durability and craftsmanship. The exhibit chronologically sets out facts and objects, including trade signs and promotional materials, the latter being important tools of the trades, too.