Above is the Queen Street headquarters of the Weccacoe Engine Company, a volunteer fire company founded in 1800. The picture is from 1896 when the building housed the City's Engine Company #3. Below is the building, which still stands (now a private residence) in more contemporary times. These photos are from the Philadelphia Real Estate Blog.
Philaplace.Org has a page with a period photo of the Engine Company entertaining firemen visiting from Baltimore and a short piece on how Weccacoe Engine spawned the spin-off company Weccacoe Hose, which set up at Front and Catherine. Among other differences (political, ethnic) Weccacoe Engine was temperate while Weccacoe Hose was not. Volunteer fire companies in all parts of the City were notoriously competitive and their competition often resulted in violent confrontation. If you suspect that the two Weccacoes had a special rivalry you'd be correct. This from The Peoples of Philadelphia: A History of Ethnic Groups and Lower-class Life published by the University of Pennsylvania Press, in an essay by Bruce Laurie entitled "Fire Companies and Gangs."
"In late June of 1844, [Weccacoe Hose] resolved to deliver a coup de grâce and marched to the engine house under cover of darkness. Expecting the visitors, the engine men fired muskets from the upper floor of their house and scattered the mob. The Weccacoes carried their wounded to Diehl's Tavern opposite their hose house and prepared for another assault with a musket of their own."
Check out the whole piece for more on the fire company phenomenon.
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Keep it clean and on-topic please.