View of Robert Buist's City Nursery and Greenhouses. Number 140 South Twelfth Street, Philadelphia, 1846.

This advertising print from 1846 depicts a bird's-eye view looking northwest at the enclosed nursery and greenhouses of Robert Buist, located on 12th Street, south of Lombard Street, in Philadelphia. Two long rows of hotbed frames extend west from 12th Street and run the length of Rodman Street behind a three-story building marked ""140"" (a preconsolidation address, i.e., from before the Act of Consolidation of 1854, a law passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly that consolidated many smaller municipalities into the City of Philadelphia). Men and women stroll along the central walk that separates the two rows of hotbed frames inside the grounds, accessed from 12th Street by the entrance gate adorned with the name of the proprietor, ""R. Buist."" Outside the entrance gate, several men and women converse on the sidewalk. One of the men holds a driving whip, and is presumably the driver of the stalled horse-drawn carriage in front of the entrance. Around the corner, another driver stands in front of a team of horses pulling a covered cart. He grasps the reins and leads the horses along Rodman Street. Further up Rodman Street, a man attempts to rein in a rearing horse. Men, women, children, and dogs traverse and stand on the sidewalks. A few trees dot the empty landscape behind the nursery. Buist established his business in 1828; it was known as the Robert Buist Company well into the 20th century. This lithograph was created by Alfred M. Hoffy, who was born circa 1790 in England and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1830s; the printing firm was Wagner & McGuigan, which specialized in the production of advertising prints."