Philadelphia Timeline, 1842
- January 20. Celebration of the opening of; the Reading and Pottsville Railroad.
- August 1. Abolition Riots. African Presbyterian Church, St. Mary's Street, and Smith's Hall, Lombard Street, burned.
- August 26. Reading Railroad bridge and the old bridge at the Falls of Schuylkill destroyed by fire.
- Ground purchased at the southeast corner of Fifth Street and Franklin Avenue (Girard Avenue) for the erection of a German Catholic Church. Purchase price $11,700.
Excerpted from "Happenings in ye Olde Philadelphia 1680-1900" by Rudolph J. Walther, 1925, Walther Printing House, Philadelphia, PA