Category: Events and People

Grover Cleveland Bergdoll: “The Fighting Slacker of Fairmount”

Post author By Steven Ujifusa
Post date August 10, 2010

Louis C. Bergdoll arrived in America in June 1846 from Germany and in 1849 founded a brewery in the heart of the appropriately-named Brewerytown neighborhood. The Bergdoll brand became one of the most popular brews in America and made Louis Bergdoll a multi-millionaire. Flush with cash, he then set about planning a new dynastic seat in Fairmount. Completed in 1882, the Renaissance revival family mansion at 22nd and Green was a monument to the Bergdoll family’s taste and sumptuous lifestyle. In its size and grandeur, it rivaled the Vanderbilt mansions on New York’s Fifth Avenue.

Louis’s grandson Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, born in 1893, grew up in the big house in Fairmount. More interested in mechanics than brewing, Bergdoll purchased an airplane only a few short years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight and raced exotic automobiles. The charming playboy and swashbuckling aviator also was also known to be a momma’s boy.

But Bergdoll’s party days were cut short. In the three years before America entered World War I on the side of the Allies, a significant portion of Philadelphia’s large German-American community either urged neutrality or sided with the Kaiser’s army by holding benefits for the German wounded. The sinking of the British luxury liner Lusitania in 1915 by a German U-boat, which killed 1,200 people including 110 Americans, caused the public to cry for revenge. When Congress declared war on Germany in April 1917, President Wilson instituted the first mass draft since the Civil War and cracked down on German-American organizations he believed to be supporting the enemy.

It is unclear whether playboy Grover Cleveland Bergdoll dodged the draft because of his pro-German sympathies or because he did not want the war to interfere with his social life. What is clear is that when the Draft Board called up his number, Bergdoll was nowhere to be found. His rich mother hid him in the big house on Green Street.

On March 20, 1920, two and a half years after the guns fell silent, two bounty hunters nabbed Bergdoll outside the house on Green Street. Imprisoned on Governor’s Island, Bergdoll asked his jailer if he could make one more visit to Philadelphia to see his mother at the family mansion. They agreed. Eluding two guards, Bergdoll jumped into a waiting car packed with bundles of cash and sped off into the night.

Bergdoll booked a ticket to Europe and settled down in the small town of Eberbach, Germany. He then flagrantly continued to live the high life using his family’s riches. Yet he lived in constant fear of bounty hunters. Two tried to nab him at a wedding, and Bergdoll fought them off. Another time, Bergdoll bit off the thumb of one would-be kidnapper and shot another one dead.ⁱ

These actions earned him the nickname “The Fighting Slacker” and made the exiled beer heir one of the most reviled men in America. Even so, Bergdoll wanted to make a secret trip to see his mother in Philadelphia. He even had the nerve to apply for a U.S. passport in Stuttgart. His application was flatly rejected. According to one contemporary report, “his stains remains [sic] that of an escaped prisoner who would be returned to prison to serve out the rest of his sentence if caught.” ⁱⁱ

In May 1939, Bergdoll returned to America, realizing that facing the music was better than being drafted into the Nazi army. Upon his return, he was tried, convicted, and sent to prison. There he remained until 1946. When he emerged from jail, Bergdoll was a shadow of his former self and was put away in an insane asylum. The one-time Philadelphia brewing heir, aviator and playboy died demented and forgotten in 1966.ⁱⁱⁱ

By then, the Bergdoll family had left the big house on Green Street. After the stock market crash of 1929, the Fairmount area fell from its lofty status as a Rittenhouse Square North to that of a run-down slum. The 14,000 square foot Bergdoll mansion was cut up into apartments, although many of its original interior details were left intact.

The former home of Grover Cleveland (“The Fighting Slacker”) Bergdoll has recently been restored as a single family home and is now listed for sale. The asking price: $7 million.^iv

References:

[i] Willis Thornton, “Bergdoll – The Fighting Slacker,” The Olean Times-Herald,” Tuesday, January 24, 1933. http://earlyaviators.com/ebergdo1.htm Accessed August 3, 2010.

[ii] Willis Thornton, “Bergdoll – The Fighting Slacker,” The Olean Times-Herald,” Tuesday, January 24, 1933. http://earlyaviators.com/ebergdo1.htm Accessed August 3, 2010.

[iii] “Biographical Note: Bergdoll Papers,” The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. http://www.balchinstitute.org/manuscript_guide/html/bergdoll.html Accessed August 6, 2010.

[iv] Deirdre Woollard, “Bergdoll Mansion, Estate of the Day,” Luxist.com. http://www.luxist.com/2010/06/29/bergdoll-mansion-estate-of-the-day/ Accessed August 6, 2010.

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‘There’s A Party Going On Right Here:’ Philadelphia Civic Celebrations – Part Three: Race, Redevelopment, and the Bicentennial

Post author By Hillary Kativa
Post date July 9, 2010

From their inception, Philadelphia’s civic celebrations were invested with political messages and social values that, as the city’s population grew more diverse, often betrayed the politics of inclusion and exclusion in the City of Brotherly Love. As celebrations increasingly became city-wide endeavors, they served as a means to build communities, both real and imagined, and define civic identity based upon who was invited to participate and in what fashion. More often than not, African-Americans found themselves excluded from civic celebrations, beginning with the earliest Independence Day festivities and continuing into the 20th century. While individuals like prominent black sail maker James Forten criticized efforts to drive free African-Americans away from festivities at Independence Hall in 1813, public commemoration only grew more segregated along racial lines over time. In response, African-Americans largely resolved to celebrate their history and achievements in their own manner, though these efforts often did little to resolve both the political and racial conflicts underlying Philadelphia’s public observances.

By and large, the most significant African-American civic celebration in Philadelphia was the 1913 Emancipation Exposition, which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. After Congressional support for a national exposition fell through, activists in Philadelphia received $95,000 in state funding for an exposition at the site of today’s Marconi Plaza at Broad Street and Oregon Avenue. Despite strong criticism from the white community and bureaucratic maneuvers over building permits, African-Americans organized an exposition site that included an Agricultural Hall, an Administration Building featuring an auditorium, dining room, and exhibit space, and an Amusement Building with concert and lecture halls. Crucially, the area in which African-Americans were permitted to stage the exposition was an Italian neighborhood to which they had no historical or contemporary connection and was also the southern-most limit of the city’s residential and commercial development at the time. Nonetheless, 5,000 visitors attended the Exposition’s opening Congress and other festivities throughout its run included an athletics festival and lectures about African-American progress and achievements. The Exposition also included a parade down Girard Avenue that drew an estimated crowd of 25,000 to 50,000 spectators.

The buildings at Broad Street and Oregon Avenue were subsequently demolished after the Exposition, which was largely forgotten and overshadowed by the Sesquicentennial festivities on the same site in 1926. However, inspired by the Exposition’s efforts to memorialize Emancipation as part of the legacy of the Civil War, Richard R. Wright Sr. created National Freedom Day in the 1940s to mark the day that President Lincoln signed the 13th Amendment prohibiting slavery into law.

In the latter half of the 20th century, the racial politics of civic celebrations were further exemplified by the Bicentennial festivities and the redevelopment projects that accompanied them. As far back as the 1950s, city officials conceived of the Bicentennial as Philadelphia’s emergence as a viable commercial center and tourist attraction as the city transitioned from its industrial past to a post-industrial future. Hoping to stem the tide of manufacturing losses and the middle-class exodus to the suburbs, reformist Democrats like Richardson Dilworth developed plans for a new transportation infrastructure, including the construction of the Vine Street and Crosstown expressways, multi-level parking garages, pedestrian walkways, and a downtown shopping plaza that would make Philadelphia the nerve center of the region. On the whole, these redevelopment plans favored the city’s central business district and largely neglected neighborhood housing, save for the revitalization of Society Hill. Benefiting from its close proximity to Independence Hall, which was undergoing its own redevelopment with the demolition of areas north of the site to make way for Independence Mall, Society Hill was aesthetically transformed into a historically rich environment of luxury apartments and green spaces. Under the direction of planner Edmund Bacon, other redevelopment projects included the revitalization of spaces along the Delaware River, Walnut and Market Streets, and the area between City Hall and the Ben Franklin Parkway, all culturally rich and historic areas through which Philadelphia would be defined.

To critics, redevelopment favored the white middle-class at the expense of African-Americans and other minorities, many of whom were forced out of neighborhoods like Society Hill either by demolition or rising housing costs. To activists like Milton Street, the Bicentennial celebrations, which would be staged in the revitalized Center City district, embodied these injustices and provided a focal point for protest. While Bicentennial planners envisioned a combined international exposition and patriotic spectacle that showcased the downtown area, Street organized a counter-Bicentennial called “People’s ‘76” that would take place in city neighborhoods and emphasize popular participation in the Revolution. Ultimately, neither side’s plans were fully executed, as the idea for an international exposition was scrapped for lack of a feasible site and “People’s ‘76” faltered due to lack of funding and participation. By default, the theme of the city Bicentennial was family entertainment, with a July 4th parade featuring high school bands and cheerleaders and a 50,000 pound, five-story birthday cake at Memorial Hall baked by the Sara Lee Company. For their part, “People’s ‘76” did stage a competing parade on July 4th, which included African-Americans, Native Americans and Puerto Rican nationalists among others and ran through North Philadelphia to highlight its blighted manufacturing and residential districts.

Ultimately, the Bicentennial concentrated and intensified opposition to the city’s redevelopment projects and protests continued in the coming decades under the leadership of Milton Street. From the early days of the new nation to the 20th century, Philadelphia’s civic celebrations were invested with political and social significance that extended far beyond the day’s events and offer fascinating portraits of Philadelphia throughout its history.

References:

Andrew Feffer, “Show Down in Center City: Staging Redevelopment and Citizenship in Bicentennial Philadelphia, 1974-1977,” Journal of Urban History, vol. 30, no. 6 (September 2004): 791-825.

Charlene Mires, “Race, Place, and the Pennsylvania Emancipation Exposition of 1913,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 128, no. 3 (July 2004): 257-278.

Gary B. Nash, First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006).

Edwin Wolf, Philadelphia: Portrait of an American City (Philadelphia, PA: The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1990).

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There’s a Party Going On Right Here:’ Philadelphia Civic Celebrations – Part Two: The City and its Celebrations Come of Age

Post author By Hillary Kativa
Post date July 8, 2010

In the early years of the new nation, the Federalist and Republican parties each infused Philadelphia’s public celebrations with political messages and symbolic meaning, a precedent that organizers of civic observances continued in the latter half of the 19th century. As both Philadelphia’s population and geographic limits expanded, efforts to centralize municipal government led to greater government control over public celebrations. Implicit in this control was the idea that such celebrations should elevate public taste and instruct rather than simply amuse, as celebratory rituals were intended to communicate certain social, political, and artistic values. Whether national holidays or special expositions, city elites strove to make civic observances representative of genteel culture and impose a single, united identity on Philadelphia’s increasingly disparate neighborhoods and peoples.

As Philadelphia’s population grew at a staggering rate to number nearly 2 million by 1920, its landscape and neighborhoods grew as well, sprawling over 120 square miles by the last decades of the 19th century. Due to this substantial growth, the city became more ethnically and racially segregated and so did its celebrations, which were often differentiated along class and ethnic lines. Different neighborhoods tended to follow their own calendars and modes of celebration, from Irish marching for St. Patrick’s Day to Poles commemorating the semi-centennial of the Polish Revolution. The George Washington Centennial Procession of 1832 was a rare exception to this trend, bringing together Irish, French, and German immigrant societies, as well as citizens from such outer lying townships as Northern Liberties, Southwark, and Moyamensing. The end of the Civil War in 1865 also inspired a city-wide celebration, which included a morning procession, speeches in the afternoon, and an evening banquet accompanied by fireworks. On the whole though, city-wide celebrations, save for the order of events, were loosely organized affairs that typically left participating groups to their own devices, including costumes and banners.

The celebrations of the 1876 Centennial Exposition followed a similar laissez-faire model, though a shift began in 1880 when Mayor Samuel H. King curtailed the detonation of fireworks and dispatched the city’s newly unified police force to impose order on public holidays. Two years later, city permits were required to stage parades and the focus turned towards large, urban carnivals to bring the city together rather than disparate, neighborhood celebrations. The commemoration of the Bicentennial of Pennsylvania in 1882 was the first such effort, a week-long program of parades, athletic contests, regatta on the Schuylkill River, and historical re-enactments that ended with a mass concert at the Academy of Music. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, many city-wide celebrations followed this trend, including the Centennial of the Constitution (1887), Peace Jubilee at the end of the Spanish-American War (1898), and the National Export Exposition (1899). Additionally, traditional celebrations like Independence Day also became more regimented, with the Philadelphia City Council overseeing events at both Independence Hall and nine other squares throughout the city. Notably, the day’s festivities, which included athletic competitions in Fairmount Park and fireworks over the Girard Avenue Bridge, followed a set schedule and were publicized in souvenir programs distributed across the city.

Without doubt, the high point of these coordinated, city-wide celebrations was Founder’s Week in 1908, which commemorated the 225th anniversary of Philadelphia’s founding. In an effort to elevate the week’s festivities and edify the public, local historian Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer organized a historical pageant that, with floats and live actors, followed the city’s history from “Exploration and Settlement” to “Civil War.” To emphasize artistic achievement and community solidarity, Oberholtzer selected Germantown muralist Violet Oakley to design the 68 floats and allowed ethnic organizations with ties to early settlers, such as Dutch and Germans, to participate only if they used official floats and costumes. On the whole, the pageant, which processed down Broad Street for four miles through Central Philadelphia, presented a truncated view of the city’s history that largely excluded both African-Americans and any ethnic groups beyond the earliest settlers and stressed allegiance to the city above all other ties. Oberholtzer later organized the Historical Pageant Association of Philadelphia with the purpose of producing a pageant every four years, but the Association’s initial 1912 production in Fairmount Park proved less successful, limited both by location and competing Columbus Day festivities. On the whole, pageant attendance was mediocre and the production ultimately produced a $15,000 deficit, a financial failure that dampened enthusiasm for both historical pageants and city-wide celebrations.

In the following decade, other notable public festivities included a downtown parade for World War I troops and the Sesquicentennial International Exposition in 1926, though city elites were now largely absent from the planning process. As popular culture turned towards more commercial, mass entertainment, less emphasis was ultimately placed on the educational value of public festivities, even as celebrations continued to have popular appeal in Philadelphia well into the 20th century.

References:

Scott Bruce, It Happened in Philadelphia (Guilford, CT: Morris Book Publishing, 2008).

David Glassberg, “Public Ritual and Cultural Hierarchy: Philadelphia’s Civic Celebrations at the Turn of the 20th Century,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 107 no. 2 (July 1983): 421-448.

Edwin Wolf, Philadelphia: Portrait of an American City (Philadelphia, PA: The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1990).

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‘There’s a Party Going On Right Here:’ Philadelphia Civic Celebrations – Part One: Festivities in the New Nation

Post author By Hillary Kativa
Post date July 6, 2010

Throughout its history, Philadelphia has played host to celebrations as diverse as its neighborhoods, from Columbus Day and Washington’s birthday to the Emancipation Exposition and the annual Mummer’s Parade. And from the first commemoration of Independence Day to the Bicentennial, these celebrations historically have been infused with notions of citizenship, public space, and civic identity. As historian Gary Nash notes, civic observances provide a means of binding diverse ethnic, racial, and religious groups together, as well as connecting the past to the present. Ultimately, public celebrations are rarely just fun festivities, but also rituals that convey and reinforce national beliefs and values. In the case of Philadelphia, such values, much like the celebrations themselves, are often points of conflict and debate that provide a unique window into the city’s history.

By and large, Independence Day is the holiday most associated with Philadelphia and rightly so since the city was among the first in the nation to mark the day with now traditional customs like parades, picnics, and fireworks. The city’s first July 4th celebration took place in 1777, just one year after the Declaration of Independence was issued and in the midst of the Revolutionary War. Festivities began around noon, as crowds gathered at the seaport to admire ships bedecked with red, white, and blue bunting and witness the discharge of thirteen cannon shots, one for each of the states in the Union. A Hessian band provided music and a private dinner for members of Congress followed in the afternoon before a parade of horses and troops made their way to Second Street. The festivities concluded that evening with a fireworks display that included thirteen rockets, another symbol of the newly united nation.

From that first celebration, Philadelphia’s Independence Day festivities developed into a highly ritualized affair that, over the next few decades, brought the city’s disparate groups together and increasingly equated participation with patriotism. More so than other civic rituals, parades became displays of both common nationhood and civic unity in a city that, despite serving as the nation’s capital until 1800, was still a largely provincial town. In the 1790s, Philadelphia’s city limits merely extended about a mile and a half west of the Delaware River and citizens of different social backgrounds often lived in close proximity. Generally publicized in advance, parades followed published routes that underscored these physical and social realities, as they wound through densely interconnected streets and drew together a broad cross-section of the city’s population. Notably, when Philadelphia celebrated both Independence Day and the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1788, it organized the largest parade yet in the United States, with 5,000 people marching in procession before 17,000 gathered for a celebratory afternoon dinner.

Notably, as public rituals like parades wove into the fabric of civic life, they also became strategic maneuvers by the nation’s first political parties to assert power and lay claim to the nation’s Revolutionary heritage. Throughout the first decades of the republic, the Federalist and Republican parties of Philadelphia marked Independence Day with competing celebrations that voiced their conflicting views on the Revolution’s legacy. While Federalists commemorated independence from Great Britain and emphasized reverence for government, Republicans underscored natural rights and the ongoing fight for liberty, for them exemplified by the French Revolution. By and large, newspaper accounts of these celebrations reflected the newspaper’s political sympathies and Republicans in particular used the holiday to demonstrate their opposition to Federalist policies and their support for French rebels. In 1792, Republicans even went so far as to display both French and American flags at their July 4th festivities and wore Liberty caps modeled after those of the French revolutionary forces.

As the commemoration of Independence Day intertwined with politics, both Federalists and Republicans increasingly organized other celebrations that likewise reflected their political beliefs. Naturally, election days were prime opportunities for public gatherings, as voters, politicians, and spectators crowded the streets and victors celebrated with bonfires and parades. In concert with the Society of Cincinnati, Federalists first celebrated Washington’s Birthday in 1789 with a procession of civil and military officers and a reception at Washington’s Presidential residence. After his death, Federalists commemorated Washington’s Birthday with an annual ball against the objections of Republicans, who believed honoring public officials in this way was undemocratic. For their part, Republicans organized public celebrations to commemorate Thomas Jefferson’s inauguration as President, as well as the Louisiana Purchase and, after Federalists divided over supporting John Adams’ re-election, were the only party to organize Independence Day celebrations in Philadelphia. In the early 1800s, the Federalists re-emerged to publicly celebrate Washington’s Birthday once again and in 1814 organized an elaborate procession of 2,000 participants down Arch and Spruce Streets to the Olympic Theatre. Ultimately, as these celebrations show, how and what was commemorated in Philadelphia in the republic’s early years was a snapshot of the city, its people, and its politics, one that would evolve in the coming decades and continue to be reflected in Philadelphia’s civic celebrations.

References:

James R. Heintze. Fourth of July Celebrations Database. American University. Washington, D.C. http://www1.american.edu/heintze/fourth.htm#Beginning.

Albrecht Koschnik, “Political Conflict and Public Contest: Rituals of National Celebration in Philadelphia, 1788-1815,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 118, no. 3 (July 1994): 209-248.

Gary B. Nash, First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006).

Edwin Wolf, Philadelphia: Portrait of an American City (Philadelphia, PA: The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1990).

Events and People

Delayed Centennial Gift

Post author By Steven Ujifusa
Post date May 26, 2010

One unusual attraction at the Centennial was a disembodied copper arm bearing a torch. Forty two feet high, it was a portion of a sculpture by French artist Frederic Bartholdi entitled “Liberty Enlightening the World.” Visitors could pay 50 cents to climb a ladder to the top of the torch. The kiosk at its base offered brochures and subscription information. When complete, the literature boasted, the statue would be just over 150 feet tall from foot to torch. The people of France had already offered to pay to complete the rest of the statue. All Americans had to do was to pay for the construction of a base, hopefully built on an island in New York harbor.

Bartholdi dreamed of giving America a 100th birthday present since 1865. The project’s chief promoter, jurist and poet Edouard de Laboulaye, felt that the abolition of slavery following the Civil War proved that America indeed could live up to its original promise of liberty and justice for all. He was also disappointed that earlier French experiments in democracy had failed; his nation was now under the rule of Emperor Napoleon III.ⁱ

Bartholdi and de Laboulaye were part of a long tradition of French intellectuals, most notably Alexis de Tocqueville, who were fascinated by American democracy. France, after all, had been the crucial European supporter of American independence during the Revolutionary War. Lafayette, a young French nobleman, fought alongside General George Washington and became a surrogate son. Philadelphia’s own Benjamin Franklin, the lead negotiator of the alliance, was the toast of French society, who lionized him as the ideal American–much to John Adams’ chagrin.

Bartholdi’s workers fashioned a Greco-Roman style likeness of Liberty out of hammered copper plates. Each plate was shaped by hand and was only 3/32 of an inch thick.ⁱⁱ There were two obstacles to Bartholdi’s vision, however. The first was that the copper statue could not support itself; the artist needed a skilled engineer to design an internal iron “skeleton” that allowed the statue to withstand the force of the wind. He finally found one in Auguste Gustave Eiffel, who went on to fame as designer of a 1,000 foot high tower that still graces the Paris skyline.

The second problem was the construction of the statue’s base, which the French hoped the recipients would pay for. The arm was sent to the Centennial as a part of a public relations campaign. The public could purchase subscriptions ranging from a dime to $100 to help pay for the pedestal. But the public response at the Centennial was unenthusiastic. The country had been in the grips of a massive economic depression since 1873. To many Americans, a big copper woman seemed like a frivolous gift in this time of need. Moreover, it seemed incongruous compared to such exhibits celebrating American technical prowess: the Remington typewriter, Bell’s telephone, and Corliss’s engine. And no American city seemed eager to offer her a home, including Philadelphia. After the fair was over, the arm was packed up and displayed in New York’s Madison Square. However, the response from New Yorkers was also lukewarm; the arm was shipped back to France.

It took another ten years before the American people fulfilled their end of the bargain. Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant and the editor of the New York World, had led a newspaper campaign to raise funds for the pedestal.ⁱⁱⁱ Not only that, but poet Emma Lazarus wrote a poem in 1883 called “The New Colossus” to tell the American people what the statue really stood for:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

The statue arrived in crates in 1885, and was formally dedicated on October 28, 1886 – just over ten years after the arm first appeared at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.

Postscript: In 1918, a year after America entered World War I, Lady Liberty made a brief return to the city of her American debut. A miniature of the statue (complete with pedestal) was exhibited in front of City Hall as the centerpiece of a patriotic display promoting the war effort.

References:

[i] “Statue of Liberty National Monument: History and Culture,” National Park Service, the Department of the Interior. http://www.nps.gov/stli/historyculture/index.htm Accessed May 22, 2010.

[ii] “Statue of Liberty, National Park Service, Department of the Interior. http://www.nps.gov/archive/stli/prod02.htm Accessed May 25, 2010.

[iii] Seymour Topping, Pulitzer biography, Joseph Putlizer, 1847-1911. http://www.pulitzer.org/biography Accessed May 24, 2010.

Events and People

Japan-a-mania at the Centennial

Post author By Steven Ujifusa
Post date May 12, 2010

America had been trading with Asia since the early years of the Republic. In fact, some of the nation’s first great fortunes were made in the China Trade; the merchant princes of Boston and Salem would ship American goods and Indian opium to China in exchange for tea, silk, and porcelain.

Yet Japan, that mysterious island nation, remained aloof from the Western world. Aside from the Dutch, who maintained a trading post in Nagasaki, westerners were forbidden to set foot on Inflatable Bungee Run Japanese soil. The Japanese aristocracy was afraid that European culture, specifically Christianity, would “contaminate” their way of life and threaten their autonomy.

By the mid-nineteenth century, America (now a two-coast power) was looking for more trading partners in the Pacific. President Millard Fillmore decided to use a bit of gunboat diplomacy to shake Japan out of its slumber. In 1853, Commodore Matthew C. Perry of the United States Navy led a fleet of steam-powered warships to Edo harbor (modern day Tokyo). Perry presented the ruling shogun with a proposition: open up to American trade or Edo would be bombarded into oblivion.

The shogun gave in. Samurai swords were no match to American cannons.

In 1868, a group of nobles overthrew the conservative shogunate and “restored” power to the 16 year old Emperor Meiji. This group’s goal was to drag Japan into the modern age. National survival was at stake. If Japan remained stuck in the past, they argued, a Western power could easily conquer and exploit it. Britain and France, for instance, were carving up a prostrate and technologically backwards China into “spheres of influence.” Japan would not be next.

Progress was swift. By 1876, Japan had set up a European-style parliament and was building up a modern army and navy. Railroads were connecting ancient Japanese cities. The Meiji regime decided that a grand display at Philadelphia’s Centennial Exposition would be the perfect vehicle to show the world how far Japan had come.

Yet it was traditional Japan, not the newly-industrialized one, which captivated the millions of visitors to the Japanese pavilion, bazaar, and gardens. The American public was starved for novelty, especially in architecture and the decorative arts, which were smothered in the rich gravy of Victorian taste.

Amidst all this overstuffed and ornate excess, the Centennial’s Japanese exhibit was a breath of fresh air. The Atlantic Monthly said the clean lines and simple elegance of Japanese design made everything else look “commonplace and vulgar.” For the Japanese, “the commonest object of pottery of cotton-stuff for daily use has a merit of design and color which it does not owe to oddity alone.”^_i Even respected architect Richard Morris Hunt, a devoted Francophile, was stunned by the attention to detail and quality of craftsmanship he saw. The Japanese garden and bazaar, he wrote, provided “capital and most improving studies to the careless and slipshod joiners of the Western world.” ⁱⁱ

Following the Centennial Exposition, America went Japan-crazy. Upper class Bostonians, with their Trascendentalist philosophical leanings and love of nature, were particularly smitten. Dr. William Sturgis Bigelow lived in Japan from 1882 to 1889, collected 40,000 pieces of Japanese art which he donated to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and even converted to Buddhism. The eccentric heiress Isabella Stewart Gardner — known as “Mrs. Jack” — also fell under the Buddhist spell for a while. Her conversion was one of many things she did to flout Proper Bostonian conventions.ⁱⁱⁱ Art critic Okakura Kakuzo, a mutual friend of both Bigelow and Gardner, designed the display of Japanese art at Mrs. Jack’s mansion. Kakuzo also arranged a performance of the ancient tea ceremony at her 1903 housewarming party.^iv This house would eventually become the famed Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition further stoked American fascination with Japan. One person who prowled the Japanese pavilion was a young architect named Frank Lloyd Wright.^v Wright, an avid collector and dealer of Japanese prints on the side, was integrating Japanese design elements into his “Prairie style” houses. When designing suburban and country houses, Wright made a point of building his structures “into” rather than “on top of” the natural landscape, a very Japanese design philosophy.

Across the Atlantic, Japanese prints sold by dealers such as Wright had a profound influence on the painters Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh. In 1887, Van Gogh did a self-portrait in the Japanese style, showing himself as he wished to be: “a simple monk…worshipping the eternal Buddha.” ^vi

In Philadelphia, the Japanese presence in Fairmount Park did not vanish with the closing of the exposition. After the Centennial, the Park Commission imported a Buddhist temple gate and placed it on the site of the Japanese bazaar. After this structure burned in 1955, the Fairmount Park Commission secured the “Shofuso,” an interpretation by architect Junzo Yoshimura of a seventeenth century aristocrat’s country house. This handcrafted structure, with its cypress frame and hinoki bark roof, had been presented by the America-Japan Society to New York’s Museum of Modern Art. It also boasted sliding doors decorated by renowned artist Kaii Higashiyama.^vii

In 1958, the Shofuso was carefully shipped to Philadelphia and reconstructed in the new tea garden. It still stands to this day, maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers. During the year, the Shofuso hosts events showcasing Japanese culture to Philadelphians. These include tea ceremonies, bonsai workshops, craft and martial arts classes, and the Sakura Sunday – Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival.

After 134 years, few visual reminders of the great Centennial Exposition remain. But miraculously, the patch of ground where the Shofuso stands continues to host the Centennial’s longest running exhibition.

References:

[i] The Atlantic Monthly, as quoted by Dorothy Gondos Beer, “The Centennial City, 1865-1876,” from Philadelphia: A 300-Year History (New York, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1982), p.470.

[ii] Richard Morris Hunt, as quoted by Dorothy Gondos Beer, “The Centennial City, 1865-1876,” from Philadelphia: A 300-Year History (New York, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1982), p.470.

[iii] Cleveland Amory, The Proper Bostonians (New York, New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, 1947), p. 130.

[iv] Overview, Isabella Stewart Garnder Museum http://www.gardnermuseum.org/collection/overview.asp Accessed May 6, 2010.

[v] Melanie Birk, editor. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fifty Views of Japan: the 1905 Photo Album (San Francisco, California: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1996), p.105.

[vi] Martin Gayford, The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles (New York, New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006), p.7.

[vii] History, Shofuso: Japanese House and Garden http://www.shofuso.com/?page_id=11 Accessed May 5, 2010.

Events and People

Statues around Philadelphia, Part Three

Post author By Mary
Post date April 16, 2009

Several statues in Philadelphia honor local residents who have contributed to the development of the city. While these individuals may be associated with a particular neighborhood or community, their statues did not always remain in that location over the course of several decades.

One such statue is that of Connie Mack, a professional baseball manager who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937. Born on December 22, 1862 in East Brookfield, Massachusetts, Mack played professional baseball as a catcher but became more famous as the long-time manager of the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901 to 1950. During his tenure as manager, the A’s won five World Series championships. Mack retired at the age of 88 and died on February 8, 1956.

In 1953, Shibe Park, at one time the home stadium of the Philadelphia Athletics and later the Philadelphia Phillies, was renamed Connie Mack Stadium in honor of Connie Mack. The stadium was torn down in 1976. In 1957, artist Harry Rosin sculpted a statue of Connie Mack entitled “Mr. Baseball.” Originally located outside Connie Mack Stadium at Lehigh Avenue and 20th Street, the statue was moved to the entrance of Veteran’s Stadium in 1971 and remained there until that stadium was torn down in 2004. The statue is now located outside Citizens Bank Park.

A statue honoring Anthony J. Drexel, founder of Drexel University, has also moved locations several times. Born in 1826, Drexel became a highly successful banker and financier. With his profits, Drexel supported several charities and founded the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry in 1891. The dedication of the Institute on December 17, 1891 was attended by Levi Morton, the Vice-President of the United States, as well as several generals, senators, and other wealthy bankers and industrialists. At the time of the dedication, Drexel had already given $1,500,000 for the establishment of the school.

Drexel died on June 30, 1893 and was buried in The Woodlands cemetery in Philadelphia. On June 17, 1905, a bronze statue of Drexel, sculpted by Sir Moses Ezekiel, was unveiled in Fairmount Park. The statue was moved to 33rd and Market on the 75th anniversary of Drexel University and then moved in 2003 to its current location at 32nd and Market Street.

Sources:

[1] “Connie Mack.” The Hall of Famers. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/detail.jsp?playerId=118082

[2] “Drexel University Legends and Traditions.” Drexel University. http://www.drexel.edu/CreeseStudentCenter/infodesk/legendsandtraditions.html

[3] “Mr. Baseball.” Philadelphia Public Art @philart.net. http://www.philart.net/exhibit.php?id=1

[4] The New York Times. “Drexel Statue in Philadelphia.” June 18, 1905. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9902E0D7133EE733A2575BC1A9609C946497D6CF

[5] The New York Times. “Mr. Drexel’s Noble Work. December 18, 1891. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C0CE1D8133AE533A2575BC1A9649D94609ED7CF

[6] “The Tall Tactician.” Today in History: December 22. The Library of Congress – American Memory. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/today/dec22.html

Events and People

Statues around Philadelphia, Part Two

Post author By Mary
Post date March 27, 2009

The Philadelphia City Hall is home to many statues honoring individuals who influenced the history of the city. From the 37 foot tall statue of William Penn at the top of the building to the smaller statues scattered around the base of the structure, these figures are meant to memorialize the lives and accomplishments of a variety of people.

One of the statues located at the base of City Hall honors Matthias Baldwin, the founder of Baldwin Locomotive Works. Born in New Jersey in 1799, Baldwin worked as a jeweler and printer before founding a machine shop in Philadelphia in 1825. In the early 1830s, Baldwin began building steam locomotives. At a time when most locomotives were produced in England, Baldwin’s locomotives helped the American railroad system and industry to expand dramatically. Baldwin’s assembly plant near Broad and Spring Garden grew and employed more workers as orders for locomotives increased. By the time Baldwin died in 1866, his company had produced around 1500 locomotives. Baldwin’s company continued to manufacture locomotives for several decades despite financial difficulties. They produced their final locomotive in 1956.

In addition to his industrial achievements, Baldwin was also a supporter of African-American rights. He believed that free African-American men should be given the right to vote and donated money to found a school for African-American children. To honor Baldwin, the Board of Trustees of the Fairmount Park Art Association for the Baldwin Memorial Monument selected a statue design submitted by Herbert Adams of New York and awarded him the contract to create the statue in 1902. The completed statue was installed at the intersection of Broad Street and Spring Garden Avenue near the offices of the Baldwin Locomotive Works. It was later moved to City Hall.

Also located at City Hall is a statue of John Christian Bullitt, a Philadelphia lawyer who founded a well-known law firm in the city. Born in Kentucky in 1824, Bullitt moved to Philadelphia in 1849 after completing college. He became a powerful attorney, gaining much attention for his representation of Jay Cooke & Co., a banking house connected to the Panic of 1873. Bullitt also became involved in politics and served as a delegate to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1873. One of his major contributions to the city came in the form of the Bullitt Bill, a document he authored in 1885, that became the Philadelphia City Charter in 1887. Bullitt died in 1902. In July 1907, a statue of Bullitt created by John J. Boyle was unveiled on the grounds of City Hall.

Another statue near City Hall honors William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States. McKinley was born in 1843 and served as a congressman and governor of Ohio before taking office as President in 1897. McKinley’s first term was filled with tariff and economic issues as well as the Spanish-American War. After winning re-election in 1900, McKinley served only a few months of his second term before he was assassinated in September 1901.

As a memorial to President McKinley, the citizens of Philadelphia donated over $32,000 to be used for the creation of a statue. Thirty-eight different designs for the statue were submitted to a jury who chose the design submitted by Charles Albert Lopez, a sculptor, and Albert H. Ross, an architect. The contract was awarded in 1903 and the statue was dedicated at City Hall during a ceremony on July 6, 1908. The final piece featured a statue of President McKinley standing on a column above figures meant to represent Wisdom instructing Youth. The dedication of the statue included a luncheon, a military parade, a band, several speeches, and an oration by James M. Beck, the former Assistant Attorney General of the United States. While the Committee in charge of the statue eventually hoped to install it along the Parkway, it has remained at City Hall.

Sources:

[1] American Federation of Arts, R.R. Bowker Company. American Art Directory. R.R. Bowker, 1908, p. 118. http://books.google.com/books?id=MbBM2I22xbQC&printsec=titlepage&dq

[2] “Collection 1903: Furness-Bullitt Family Papers.” The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 2002. http://www.hsp.org/files/findingaid1903furnessbullitt.pdf

[3] Lienhard, John H. “No. 655: Matthias Baldwin.” Engines of Our Ingenuity. http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi655.htm

[4] McKinley Memorial Association. The McKinley Memorial in Philadelphia: History of the Movement, and Account of the Dedication Exercises, Including the Oration by the Hon. James M. Beck. Printed for the Committee, Philadelphia, 1909. http://books.google.com/books?id=d7OKk8Kp3J0C&printsec=titlepage

[5] The New York Times. “Baldwin Statue Award.” November 17, 1902. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9506E4DC1E30E132A25754C1A9679D946397D6CF

[6] “William McKinley.” About the White House: Presidents. The White House. http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/WilliamMcKinley/

Events and People

Statues around Philadelphia, Part One

Post author By Mary
Post date March 21, 2009

Scattered around Philadelphia are dozens of monuments and memorials that honor individuals and groups who have influenced the development of the City and the United States. Many of these monuments, especially those that date from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, are statues that depict the honored individual. While the organizations that erected the statues hoped to preserve the memory of the person, stories of that individual’s accomplishments can become less well-known over the years.

Located in Independence Square south of Independence Hall, a statue of a tall man wearing a tri-cornered hat and pointing off into the distance honors Commodore John Barry, often called the “Father of the American Navy.” Born in Ireland, Barry became a sailor at a young age. By 1766, he had made Philadelphia his home and had his first command aboard the schooner Barbadoes. When the Revolutionary War began, Barry was charged with outfitting and provisioning the navy ships that sailed from Philadelphia. He was also made a Captain in the Continental Navy and given command of a new warship. During the war, Barry would fight and win several naval battles and suppress three mutinies. He returned to commanding merchant ships after the war. In the 1790s, Barry was appointed to lead the newly created federal navy and given the title of Commodore. Barry died on September 12, 1803 at his home in Strawberry Hill which was then just outside of Philadelphia. On March 16, 1907, the statue of Barry on Independence Square was presented by the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, a group of which Barry himself had once been a member, to the City of Philadelphia.

Several statues near City Hall recognize the achievements of other military leaders. On the north side of City Hall, a statue of a soldier on horseback honors General John Fulton Reynolds, a Union commander during the Civil War who died at the Battle of Gettysburg. Sculpted by the artist John Rogers, the statue was dedicated in July 1884 and placed in front of City Hall, which at that time was still under construction. Near the statue of General Reynolds, another statue of a soldier on horseback honors General George B. McClellan. Born in Philadelphia, McClellan was a Union commander during the Civil War who briefly served as general-in-chief of the Union forces. After his death in 1885, admirers of the General began raising funds for the construction of a statue in Philadelphia. Fundraising efforts, however, were not immediately fruitful and the statue was not unveiled until October 24, 1894. The dedication ceremony was attended by the McClellan family, the governors of Pennsylvania and Delaware, and several high-ranking members of the military. The ceremony included several speeches, choir performances, and a seventeen gun salute.

Other statues in Philadelphia have nothing to do with military endeavors. Dickens and Little Nell, a statue of Charles Dickens, located in Clark Park in West Philadelphia is rumored to be the only known statue of Charles Dickens. Sculpted by Francis Edwin Elwell, the statue was exhibited at the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893. Although Elwell took the statue to England, he was unable to install the piece there as Dickens’ will specifically forbade the creation of any monuments, memorials, or testimonials to him. The sculpture was returned to the United States where it was stored in a warehouse in Philadelphia before eventually being installed in Clark Park.

Sources:

[1] Kelly, John Barry. “Commodore Barry (1745-1803): ‘Father of the American Navy.’” USHistory.org. http://www.ushistory.org/people/commodorebarry.htm

[2] The New York Times. “Barry Statue Unveiled.” March 17, 1907. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D03E4DB163EE233A25754C1A9659C946697D6CF

[3] The New York Times. “Dickens and Little Nell.” September 17, 1893. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B01E5D9103BEF33A25754C1A96F9C94629ED7CF

[4] The New York Times. “Gen. Reynold’s Statue.” November 18, 1883. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9400E7DD103BE033A2575BC1A9679D94629FD7CF

[5] The New York Times. “In Honor of Gen. McClellan.” October 25, 1894. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9500E1D81131E033A25756C2A9669D94659ED7CF

[6] Rosso, Martha. “Philadelphia’s Statue of Dickens and Little Nell.” The Dickens Fellowship Philadelphia Branch. April 30, 2001. http://members.cruzio.com/~varese/dickens/statue.html

Entertainment Events and People

Edwin Forrest: A Legend of American Theater

Post author By Mary
Post date March 14, 2009

In the early 1800s, Americans flocked to theaters as a source of entertainment and drama. During this time, American actors began to challenge the dominance of British actors and theater. One of these actors, Edwin Forrest of Philadelphia, would become one of the most well-known and popular performers of the first half of the nineteenth century.

Born on March 9, 1806 in Philadelphia, Forrest joined his first theater company at the age of twelve. In 1820 at the age of fourteen, Forrest made his professional debut at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. For several years, he traveled to Cincinnati, Louisville, and other towns in what was then known as “the West” before making his debut in New York City in July 1826 in Othello. Although that performance was not well-received, a performance at the Bowery Theatre in November in the same role was so successful that Forrest became the leading attraction for the remainder of the season.

Over the next twenty years, Forrest became known and admired as a talented and popular actor. Both a Shakespearean actor and a supporter of emerging American playwrights, his roles included Spartacus, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Metamora in Metamora; or, The Last of the Wampanoags. In the late 1840s and early 1850s, Forrest’s reputation was damaged by a very public and bitter divorce from his wife Catherine as well as a rivalry with the British actor William Macready. The rivalry between the two actors culminated in the Astor Place Riot on May 10, 1849 when supporters of the two actors clashed in a conflict that left at least 20-25 people dead.

Forrest continued to appear in plays and perform readings during the 1850s and 1860s. In 1855, Forrest purchased a stone mansion at 1346 North Broad Street in Philadelphia. Three and a half stories tall and built in the Italianate architectural style, the house included Forrest’s extensive library and a courtyard with a fountain. A gallery attached to the house provided space for Forrest’s art collection as well as a private theater with a small stage.

Forrest died at his Broad Street home in Philadelphia on December 12, 1872. In his will, he left much of his estate for the formation and maintenance of the Edwin Forrest Home, a residence where elderly actors could live and receive medical attention for no cost. The home initially opened at Springbrook, Forrest’s country residence in the Holmesburg area of North Philadelphia, in 1876. In the 1920s, the home moved briefly to a mansion in Torresdale before relocating to a facility at 4849 Parkside Avenue near Fairmount Park in 1928. The home remained in existence at that location until 1986 when it merged with the Lillian Booth Actors’ Home of the Actors’ Fund of America in Englewood, New Jersey. A wing at the Lillian Booth Home is named in honor of Edwin Forrest.

After Forrest’s death, his home on Broad Street remained vacant until 1880 when it was purchased by the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. In the 1960s, it became the location of Heritage House, a community center for young adults, before becoming the home of the Freedom Theatre, Pennsylvania’s oldest African-American theater founded in 1966. Freedom Theatre continues to offer classes and performances in the former Edwin Forrest House.

In Philadelphia, Forrest and his contributions to American theater are remembered in a variety of ways. The Forrest Theatre at 1114 Walnut Street is named after the actor as is the Edwin Forrest Elementary School at 7300 Cottage Street. In 1990, the Walnut Street Theatre established the Edwin Forrest Award recognizing an individual or organization’s significant contributions to American theater. On March 9, 2006, Philadelphia celebrated Forrest’s 200th birthday by declaring March 9 “Edwin Forrest Day” and collecting donations at local theaters for the Lillian Booth Actors’ Home of the Actors’ Fund of America.

Sources:

[1] “Collection 3068: Edwin Forrest Home Records.” The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. http://www.hsp.org/files/findingaid3068edwinforresthome.pdf

[2] “The Edwin Forrest Award.” Walnut Street Theatre. http://www.walnutstreettheatre.org/theatre/forrest.php

[3] “Forrest (Edwin) House.” National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form. http://www.arch.state.pa.us/pdfs/H001370_02B.pdf

[4] Freedom Theatre. http://www.freedomtheatre.org/

[5] “Greater Philadelphia Theatres Honor Edwin Forrest, Raise Money for Actors’ Home; City Declares March 9th Edwin Forrest Day.” News Release. Theater Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. http://www.theatrealliance.org/news/2006/0224.html

[6] “Historical Markers – Freedom Theatre.” ExplorePAhistory.com. http://www.explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=824

[7] The New York Times. “Obituary. Edward Forrest, Tragedian.” December 13, 1872. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9407E0DC163BEF34BC4B52DFB4678389669FDE

[8] “Theatre Information: History.” The Forrest Theatre. http://www.forrest-theatre.com/history.htm