PhillyHistory Blog – Page 13 – Discoveries from the City Archives

Entertainment

Floats, Balloons, and Celebrities, Oh My!: Philadelphia’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Post author By Hillary Kativa
Post date November 22, 2010

By Timothy Horning and Hillary Kativa

Since 1920, Philadelphia’s annual Thanksgiving Day Parade has been a city tradition. Although the Macy’s parade in New York City is perhaps better known, Philadelphia’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is recognized as the oldest in the country and was originally the brainchild of Ellis Gimbel, one of the founding brothers of the eponymous department store. Ever the industrious capitalist, Gimbel imagined the parade as a clever marketing tool for his store, which would not only signal the start of the holiday shopping season, but also remind Philadelphians that Gimbels department store could serve all of their holiday needs.

The first parade in 1920 was made up of only fifty Gimbels employees but quickly grew into a festival of floats, balloons, and high school marching bands that draws thousands of spectators each year. Traditionally, the parade began at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and moved down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway before concluding at Gimbels department store on Eighth and Market Streets. A float featuring a costumed Santa Claus and his sleigh typically closed the parade as Santa Claus, upon reaching Gimbels, would scale a fire truck ladder to the store’s eighth floor, conveniently the home of Gimbels “Toyland.” Over the years, the parade became immensely popular and other cities and stores, including Macy’s in New York City, quickly instituted their own annual Thanksgiving Day parades based on Gimbels’ prototype.

The parade continued for sixty-five years until the Gimbels department store was taken over by Allied Stores Corporation and renamed “Stern’s” in 1986. The new company had no interest in continuing the annual parade and, without its chief creator and sponsor, the fate of the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Parade was very much in doubt. Ultimately, local television station WPVI, an ABC affiliate who had broadcast the parade since 1966, took on the costs of producing it and eventually convinced other corporate sponsors to join. WPVI partnered with Reading-based department store chain Boscov’s for several years and, seeking to compete with the ever-popular Macy’s spectacle, organizers decided to expand the parade by adding more floats, balloons, and bands as well as feature celebrities in the parade. The 1986 parade boasted twenty bands, twenty floats, and forty-eight balloons, as well as 4,500 people assisting with the production. 76ers basketball star Julius Erving served as the parade’s grand marshal and was joined by such illustrious pop culture figures as Fred Flintstone, the Care Bears, and Mickey and Minnie Mouse. In 1986, the parade, freed from its long-standing association with Gimbels, also reversed its route and ran from 20th and Market Streets to City Hall before turning onto the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and concluding on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

From 1986 forward, Boscov’s and WPVI/6ABC continued to sponsor the Thanksgiving Day Parade until Boscov’s filed for bankruptcy in 2008. Swedish furniture maker IKEA, whose U.S. corporate headquarters are located in nearby Plymouth Meeting, stepped in to co-sponsor the parade following Boscov’s bankruptcy. The 2010 6ABC/IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade, now in its 91st year, will begin at 8:30 AM at 20th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard and follow the route begun in 1986, moving up to City Hall, then the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and finally the Art Museum steps. Special guests include Sam Champion from “Good Morning America,” singer and “Dancing with the Stars” contestant Brandy, Miss America 2010 Caressa Cameron, and the Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders. For those who are not able to attend in-person, the parade will be broadcast live on 6ABC and, of course, the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade’s illustrious history is also chronicled in the fun and festive photos on display here at PhillyHistory.org.

Sources:

“2010 6ABC IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade.” 6ABC.com. <http://dig.abclocal.go.com/wpvi/html/wpviThanksGivingParade.html>(18 November 2010).

Detjen, Jim. “Wet Walk in Showers, the Annual Parade Heralds Shopping Season Start.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 29 November 1985. Newsbank. Accessed 16 November 2010.

Gillin, Beth. “A Glorious Day, A Grand March the Sun Shines and City Spirits Glow for the Thanksgiving Day Parade.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. 28 November 1986. Newsbank. Accessed 16 November 2010.

Kadaba, Lini. “Thanksgiving Parade Draws 500,000.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 27 November 1987. NewsBank. Accessed 16 November 2010.

Nunnally, Derrick. “Tradition Marches On At Thanksgiving Parade.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 28 November 2008. NewsBank. Accessed 18 November 2010.

Woodall, Martha. “The City is Set to Let Loose a Parade of Thanksgiving.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 26 November 1987. Newsbank. Accessed 16 November 2010.

Urban Planning

The City that Might Have Been: Edmund Bacon’s Philadelphia

Post author By Hillary Kativa
Post date October 19, 2010

Heralded as the father of modern Philadelphia, famed city planner Edmund Bacon was the man behind many of the city’s most notable post-WWII redevelopment projects, from Penn Center and Market East to Penn’s Landing and Society Hill. While these projects are well-known and have become essential parts of the Philadelphia landscape, the plans and projects that never came to fruition are also a compelling part of Bacon’s legacy. As outlined in his 1959 essay on urban planning and redevelopment, Bacon envisioned a new golden age for Philadelphia in the postwar years, one that would reinvigorate community investment and development to ensure “no part of Philadelphia is ugly or depressed” in fifty years time. While some of Bacon’s projects succeeded and others never came to pass, both outcomes provide a window into the evolution of city planning and the city itself in the post-industrial age as well as the ongoing struggles to navigate Philadelphia’s future in a new era.

A Philadelphia native and Cornell-educated architect, Edmund Bacon served as Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission from 1949 to 1970. Under Bacon’s direction, the Planning Commission sought to capitalize on postwar optimism and looked to the future with coordinated, comprehensive plans to eliminate blight and liberate Philadelphia from its now obsolete industrial clutter. Whereas urban renewal projects in cities like New York and Chicago meant the wholesale demolition of unsavory neighborhoods, Bacon and his colleagues emphasized small-scale demolition and often restored older structures so that new features like shops and parks were interwoven with the existing landscape. Best exemplified in the redevelopment of Society Hill, these design principles were also publicly showcased at the Better Philadelphia Exhibition in 1947. The Exhibition, which Bacon as a Planning Commission staff member co-designed with Oskar Stonorov and Louis Kahn, took up two floors of Gimbel’s Department Store at 8th and Market Streets and attracted 385,000 visitors between September 8th and October 15th. Following the theme “What City Planning Means to You and Your Children,” the exhibition contained movies, murals, dioramas, and, most spectacularly, a 30-by-14 foot model of Center City that boasted 45,000 buildings, 25,000 cars and buses, and 12,000 trees. Notably, as a recorded narrator highlighted various parts of the model, segments flipped over to reveal the planners’ future vision for the site, which frequently included open space, planning for pedestrians, and efforts to work within the original landscape.

The Better Philadelphia Exhibition effectively paved the way for Bacon’s ascension to the Executive Director position and pushed his vision for transforming Philadelphia into a competitive world center to the forefront of urban planning. Bacon presented many of the projects and guiding tenets of his approach to redevelopment in his seminal 1959 essay “Philadelphia in the Year 2009,” which specifically outlined plans for a transportation center at East Market Street, development along the Delaware Riverfront, and a 1976 World’s Fair to showcase the city. For Bacon, the World’s Fair was the project around which all other projects revolved, providing an impetus for urban redesign and the construction of buildings and transportation hubs with long-term benefits. While Bacon proposed that most of the Fair’s structures be erected in Fairmount Park, he nonetheless envisioned the Fair as a city-wide event where a variety of attractions, from the “Lights of Freedom” spectacle on Independence Mall to outdoor performances of Shakespeare and Kabuki theatre in the City Hall courtyard, were all easily accessible through underground streets and moving sidewalks linked to the proposed Crosstown Expressway. In terms of transportation, Bacon also conceived of an overhead cable car system that ran from Fairmount Park to the west bank of the Schuylkill and out across the river to Chestnut Street, which would be equipped with an electric tram system. In these plans, Bacon simultaneously saw the 1976 Philadelphia World’s Fair as a showcase for American culture and technology that would also spur civic activity and development and ultimately have long-lasting implications for the city’s renewal.

Initially, Bacon’s World’s Fair proposal was warmly received, especially since a 1976 Fair would coincide with America’s Bicentennial Year. A committee was formed to seek federal funding and petition the Bureau of International Expositions to reserve 1976 for Philadelphia, but as early as 1960 Bacon was dissatisfied with the committee’s progress. By 1964, the plan had encountered several additional stumbling blocks, including the failure and widespread criticism of the 1964 New York World’s Fair and skepticism about Bacon’s assertion that the Fair’s building and structures could be re-purposed later for private development. In the coming years, political and community resistance to the Fair arose, as did competing proposals from activist groups like the Young Professionals. With the so-called “World’s Fair” concept itself increasingly criticized as antiquated, the Young Professionals argued that a modern Philadelphia Fair should be more socially conscious and work to alleviate racial and social problems like the disconnect between Center City and outer-lying ghetto neighborhoods such as Mantua and Powelton Village. To this end, the group proposed holding the Fair in a megastructure to be built over the rail yards at 30th Street Station that would enhance transportation and access to all parts of the city. The megastructure idea dominated plans into the late 1960s, but struggles over the rights to the area and control over the design ultimately defeated it. Afterwards, organizers briefly resurrected Bacon’s proposal to locate the crux of the Fair in Fairmount Park, while alternately suggesting Penn’s Landing, Port Richmond, Byberry, and Fort Mifflin as additional options. However, no viable site was ever agreed upon and the 1976 Philadelphia World’s Fair eventually succumbed to inertia, as well as President Nixon’s reluctance to endorse any urban renewal project associated with former President Johnson’s Great Society agenda.

Even without the impetus of a World’s Fair, several of Bacon’s key redevelopment projects, such as the Market East transportation center and improvements to the Far Northeast, were eventually realized, albeit with alterations to Bacon’s original designs. In many ways, both projects sought to provide suburban amenities in an urban context, as Bacon aimed to draw middle-class families back to the city following the population dispersal of the postwar years. To this end, Bacon’s plans for the Far Northeast included family-friendly residential homes positioned in loop streets that echoed the area’s natural topography and preserved open spaces for children to play. In addition, retail centers with connections to downtown transit would serve as the central hubs of these communities, though in the end retail centers were eliminated in favor of strip malls and the loop street design evolved into cul-de-sacs.

Interestingly, the Far Northeast was not the only area to see alternations to Bacon’s original street plan; as detailed in Bacon’s 1959 essay, Chestnut Street was to be a pedestrian-only thoroughfare of open-air, bazaar-style storefronts with a trolley at its center. As with so many other elements of Bacon’s vision for Philadelphia, Chestnut Street never fully evolved to meet his expectations, but those expectations still offer a compelling snapshot of the plans and possibilities that captured Philadelphia’s imagination in the postwar years. And in the end, whether in Philadelphia’s physical landscape or the photographic history presented here on PhillyHistory, Ed Bacon’s vision lives on, a legacy demonstrated by both the city that might have been and the city that came to be.

Note: This article provides an overview of Bacon’s career accomplishments and several developments including the Yorktown Housing Development were not included. Please leave comments on the post if there are additional developments you would like to highlight.

References:

Edmund N. Bacon. “Philadelphia in the Year 2009” aka “Tomorrow: A Fair Can Pace It.” Greater Philadelphia Magazine, 1959.

The Ed Bacon Foundation. 28 September 2010. http://www.edbacon.org/index.htm (Accessed 13 October 2010).

Scott Gabriel Knowles, ed. Imagining Philadelphia: Edmund Bacon and the Future of the City. (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).

Nathaniel Popkin. “The Future is Now.” Philadelphia Citypaper, December 16, 2009.

Entertainment

Mummers in the Winter (and Summer)

Post author By Leslie ONeill
Post date October 15, 2010

A long-standing tradition in the city of Philadelphia has been the Mummers Parade, which is held every year on New Year’s Day, and is attended by close to 10,000 people. The history of the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia dates back to the mid 17^th century, and the Mummers tradition worldwide can be traced as far back as 400 BC to the Roman Festival of Saturnalias. Mummers are not just found in the city of Philadelphia but also in Ireland and England where similar performances and parades are held. Their history in Philadelphia originated with the celebration of Second Day Christmas, a holiday brought by the Swedes that was drawn into the start of the New Year. The merriment of the Mummers Parade was famous even its early days, and George Washington continued the tradition of calling out New Year’s Day during his years in office. The first “official” parade in Philadelphia was January 1, 1901, and since then, the parade has been held every year, with a few exceptions. The first cancellation was in 1919, due to World War I, and then seventeen years later, in 1934, due largely in part to the depression and lack of funding. Since 1922, there have been twenty-two weather related postponements, but the parade would still be held at a later date.

Today, the Philadelphia Mummers Parade is comprised of four divisions: the Comics, Fancies, String Bands, and Fancy Brigades. Each division or club’s title is reflective of the dress and performance of its members. The Comics parody politicians and current issues, and the Fancies adorn themselves with outrageous costumes and are often accompanied by floats. The String Bands perform routines with only string instruments and the Fancy Brigades, like the Fancies, wear elaborate costumes and also play instruments. The earliest known Mummer club was formed in 1840 and was called the Chain Gang. Throughout the years the names of clubs, specifically the comics, held rather amusing titles such as The Energetic Hoboes and The Red Onions.

While the Mummers may best be known for their performance on the first day of the year, they have often appeared during the Philadelphia Freedom Festival. The Philadelphia Freedom Festival, also known as Freedom Week, is another annual celebration held every year in Philadelphia during the first week of July to commemorate Independence Day. Throughout the week, there are various programs and events such as fireworks, parades, concerts, and most notably, the appearance of the lively and entertaining Mummers. Unlike the Mummers Parade on New Year’s Day which stretches over two miles from South Philadelphia to City Hall, the Freedom Festival is held along the Ben Franklin Parkway in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and similarly, continues to City Hall. During the year, Mummers can also be found at events, celebrations, and private parties in the area.

The deeply seeded tradition of the Mummers Parade is held dear to the hearts of the residents of Philadelphia. Each year the unofficial theme song for the Mummers Parade, “Oh, Dem Golden Slippers,” written in 1879 by James Bland, an African American songwriter, can be heard throughout the parade.

“Oh, dem golden slippers
Oh, dem golden slippers
Golden slippers I’se goin’ to wear
Because they look so neat
Oh, dem golden slippers
Oh, dem golden slippers
Golden slippers I’se goin’ to wear
To walk the golden street”

– excerpt from Oh, Dem Golden Slippers, by James Bland

References:

Dubin, M. (1996). South Philadelphia: Mummers, Memories, and the Melrose Diner. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Kennedy, E.A. (2007). Life, Liberty, and the Mummers. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

“Mummers Parade.” City of Philadelphia – Recreation 10 August 2010 http://www.phila.gov/recreation/mummers/Mummers_History.html (Accessed 10 August 2010).

“Oh, Dem Golden Slippers.” City of Philadelphia – Recreation 10 August 2010 http://www.phila.gov/recreation/Golden_Slippers.html (Accessed 10 August 2010).

Historic Sites

Risen from the Ashes: St. Joseph’s Preparatory School and the Gesu Church, Part 2

Post author By Steven Ujifusa
Post date September 17, 2010

As the Gesu parish flourished, so did St. Joseph’s Preparatory School. By 1927, the University moved from North Philadelphia to a new campus on City Line Avenue, giving the secondary school much more space. It was also in the 1920s that the school became known as “The Prep” and its students as “Preppers.” Because of its high academic standards, easy access to public transportation, and relatively low tuition, it attracted students from all over Philadelphia and its suburbs. Some hailed from as far away as Trenton, Phoenixville, and Cape May. Some of their fathers were doctors and lawyers; others were factory workers and shop owners. Most parents were upwardly-mobile and very involved in their children’s education. Above all, the school was a Philadelphia melting pot. As Preppers, students could form friendships outside of their respective economic classes and neighborhoods.

Old St. Joseph’s Preparatory School and University,
c.1910. Collection of St. Joseph’s Preparatory School.

The Marble Staircase, the old St. Joseph’s
Preparatory Building, c. 1925, Collection of
St. Joseph’s Preparatory School.

According to a school history, the Jesuits impressed upon their charges that they should be “polite, as that is the surest sign of a gentleman and therefore they should diligently observe all the little customs prescribed by their teachers.” The students were also told to be “friendly with their peers and avoid quarreling, fighting, and language of low-breeding.” ⁱⁱⁱ

Classes began at 9am and continued until 2:30pm. Students then participated in extracurricular activities and sports, with football being the most popular. Coach Frank Caton of the Fairmount Rowing Club started the crew team in the late 1920s. A dramatic club put on Shakespeare plays, and those interested in debate participated in the Barbelin Society — talented Jesuits advised both groups.^iv

Sandy MacMurtrie, class of 1945, commuted to The Prep from his family’s home at 912 S. 49th Street. His family, parishioners at St. Francis de Sales Church on Baltimore Avenue, sent three sons to the Prep. Sandy and a few of his West Philadelphia classmates would catch the Number 70 trolley to Girard Avenue, and then hop the Number 15 to 17th Street. Mass would be said at 8am every day, with prayers offered to the alumni in the service — including Sandy’s brother Francis who was tragically killed in the Pacific.

The situation in Europe cast a shadow over school life, but the students still pulled old fashioned hijinks. In September 1941, The Prep scored a major football victory over South Catholic High School. The following morning, students held a celebratory pep rally in the auditorium. No one knows who walked out the door first, but scores of Preppers (including MacMurtrie) paraded down Broad Street, cheering and singing at the top of their lungs. The headmaster met the students at Rayburn Plaza and ordered them to turn around. To no avail. By the time the students reached South Catholic at 8th and Christian, the Prep’s headmaster had sent several squad cars there to meet them. The administration punished the offending students accordingly: for the next 2 days after school, they had to walk in circles around the schoolyard for 3 hours.^v

* * * *

Within days of the fire of 1966, the Prep was back in business. Classes met in the one surviving building on Thompson Street. In spite of crowded and primitive conditions, enrollment did not decline. Most importantly, the administration decided the school would remain in North Philadelphia.

For teacher Gus Kueny Jr. ‘53, the decision to stay was a reaffirmation of the school’s social mission. “So many businesses and schools are closing up and leaving the city,” Kueny said at the time. “What could we accomplish by moving out? Kids come here from every neighborhood, from every suburb. For kids like this, just coming into this neighborhood shows them something they wouldn’t see out in the suburbs. It’s part of their education.” ^vi

The new school building would be built just south of the Church of the Gesu, on land acquired from the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority. Ground was broken on May 29, 1967, and Cardinal John Krol consecrated the modern, $4.5 million structure a year and a half later.^vii

Exterior of the old St. Joseph’s Preparatory Building
and Church of the Gesu, c. 1960, Collection of
St. Joseph’s Preparatory School.

Interior of Church of the Gesu, photograph by
Steven B. Ujifusa.

In the 1990s, due to falling parish membership, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia deactivated the Church of the Gesu as a parish. But St. Joseph’s Preparatory stepped in to save Father Villiger’s dream church. This remarkable structure now serves as the school’s chapel, hosting student masses several times a year. Its attached independent school, the Gesu School, is a model for inner city elementary education.

Today, The Prep has about 800 students, and continues to draw in students from all over the Philadelphia area. Despite its urban location, the Prep has found that more and more of its students are from the suburbs. Naturally, this has led to some tensions with the surrounding neighborhood, especially as the student body became more affluent. At the same time, the Prep opportunities for community service not possible in a suburban location, such as tutoring low-income elementary students at the Gesu School.

“We’ve been struggling to keep a base in the city,” said current headmaster Father George Bur S.J., ’59. “When I was there as a student, between 60 and 70 percent the students were from the city, now it’s only about 20 percent, and we are working to reach out to the Latino and African-American communities.” ^viii

A recent alumnus, Richard Pagano ’98, recently mused on the meaning of the school’s motto “Men for Others”: “Community service,” he said, “and the idea of commitment to aiding and providing for not only those less fortunate, but the community as a whole, is such a big part of that school. The school imbues in you a desire to succeed, to achieve, to make a name for yourself, and not to be complacent…the school’s location, and Jesuit ideals, cannot be discounted for doing that.”

Note: Special thanks to Bill Avington, Bill Conners, Father George Bur S.J., James Hill Jr., Gus Keuny, Sandy MacMurtrie, and Richard Pagano for their invaluable assistance.

References:

[iii] Rev. James J. Gormley, S.J., Saint Joseph’s Preparatory School, A History 125 Years, 1851-1979, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Saint Joseph’s Preparatory School, 1976, p.12. Collection of St. Joseph’s Preparatory School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

[iv] Rev. James J. Gormley, S.J., Saint Joseph’s Preparatory School, A History 125 Years, 1851-1979, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Saint Joseph’s Preparatory School, 1976, pp.46, 65, 105.

[v] Interview with Sandy MacMurtrie, August 27, 2010.

[vi] James Smart, “In Our Town: A Sentimental Alumnus Busy Rebuilding the Prep,” The Evening Bulletin, November 8, 1968. Collection of St. Joseph’s Preparatory School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

[vii] Rev. James J. Gormley, S.J., Saint Joseph’s Preparatory School, A History 125 Years, 1851-1979, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Saint Joseph’s Preparatory School, 1976, pp.155-156. Collection of St. Joseph’s Preparatory School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

[viii] Interview with Father George Bur, S.J, August 27, 2010.

Historic Sites

Risen from the Ashes: St. Joseph’s Preparatory School and the Gesu Church, Part 1

Post author By Steven Ujifusa
Post date September 10, 2010

Old St. Joseph’s Preparatory School on fire,
January 30, 1966. Collection of St. Joseph’s
Preparatory School.

On the early morning of January 30, 1966, a watchman spotted a fire smoldering in the basement of St. Joseph’s Preparatory School. He alerted Brother Stanley Leikus, S.J., who ran onto Stiles Street at 5:30am and pulled the firebox. But it was too late. The blaze ripped through the century-old Second Empire style main structure, consuming classrooms, libraries, and the white marble staircase at the school entrance.

Within an hour, eight fire companies had arrived at St. Joseph’s Preparatory, but high winds whipped the flames into a ferocious firestorm. It was a bone-chilling ten degrees, and giant sheets of ice from the fire hoses encrusted the blazing building’s façade.

At the neighboring Gesu Church, Jesuit brothers gathered up relics and vestments and moved them to safety. With smoking billowing around him, Headmaster Joseph Ayd S.J. shut the fire doors separating the burning school and the Gesu Church and then fled for his life.

After the fire. Collection of St. Joseph’s
Preparatory School, January 30, 1966.

After the fire. Collection of St. Joseph’s
Preparatory School, January 30, 1966.

At 8:00am, the Stiles Street building of St. Joseph’s Preparatory collapsed with a great roar, and a shower of sparks rained down upon the Gesu Church. If the Gesu’s wooden structure caught fire, the flames would almost certainly spread to surrounding houses.

Finally, at 9:13 am, the fireman had brought the blaze under control. The Gesu Church and its parish school were safe. But St. Joseph’s Preparatory School was a total loss, a blackened, gutted shell of its former self. Its 800 students were homeless, as well as its 40 Jesuit priests.ⁱ

There was no question that “The Prep” would rebuild. It was one of the crown jewels of Philadelphia’s Catholic school system, taking in bright boys and giving them opportunities they otherwise would have been denied. As a result, it had a loyal alumni base. But at the time of the fire, North Philadelphia was in severe economic decline, and many wondered if the school would move elsewhere and cater to a more affluent suburban clientele.

* * * *

St. Joseph’s Preparatory is an outgrowth of the oldest Roman Catholic parish in Philadelphia: St. Joseph’s Church, founded in 1733 by the Society of Jesus and located at 3rd and Walnut. Thanks to William Penn’s “Charter of Privileges,” St. Joseph’s Church was the only place in the British Empire where people could publically celebrate a Roman Catholic Mass. Following American independence, the parish, as well its college preparatory school (founded in 1851), grew by leaps and bounds, thank in large part to an influx of Irish and German immigrants. But by the mid-nineteenth century, the Jesuits were running out of space and needed to move.

In the 1860s, the Jesuits brought in Swiss-born Father J. Burchard Villiger to raise funds to build a new complex for the preparatory school and university. Villiger, educated at Georgetown University, had a genius for networking with the city’s upwardly mobile Roman Catholic elite, most notably the Drexels and Bouviers. In 1866, the Jesuits bought the entire 1700 block of Stiles Street in then-rural North Philadelphia as the site for a Catholic preparatory school and university. Appropriately, it was only a few blocks away from the Bouvier mansion on North Broad Street. Villiger quickly raised the money to build a large Second Empire-style school and university building, which boasted eighteen foot ceilings, a white marble staircase, and mansard roofs.

He then turned his attention to building a parish church, which would also be utilized by the school and university. His model was the home church of the Society of Jesus in Rome: hence, it would be named the Church of the Gesu. In 1878, Archbishop Frederic James Wood gave Villiger permission to start building to a set of plans by architect Edwin Forrest Durang.

Villiger planned on a grand scale: the church would be 115 feet wide and 250 feet deep. Its highest vault would soar 100 feet above the nave’s floor. Villiger purchased five bells for the towers, as well as a set of ecclesiastical paintings by Mexican artist Miguel Cabrera. He also had a passion for collecting relics, to be displayed in reliquaries set in the church’s side chapels.

But even the persuasive Villiger had trouble the raising funds to achieve his vision. Construction of the church took a decade and proceeded fitfully. He hoped to use gleaming marble to adorn the interior of the church. As a fundraising ploy, Villiger had the interiors completed in raw white plaster. According to a history of the church, the savvy Jesuit reasoned that “people would grow tired of it and buy the marbles of which he dreamed.” Ultimately, the white interiors were elaborately painted in a faux-marble finish by Brother Schroen, S.J.

Easter Sunday Mass at the Church of the
Gesu, 1913. Collection of St. Joseph’s
Preparatory School.

If Villiger couldn’t get his marble trim, he did secure a hefty $72,000 gift (over $1.5 million in today’s money) from the estate of Francis A. Drexel to complete the church, which was dedicated with great pomp in 1882. By the time Villiger died in 1902, critics had hailed the Gesu as one of the most beautiful sacred spaces in the city and a fittingly grand chapel for St. Joseph’s Preparatory School and University.ⁱⁱ

Note: Special thanks to Bill Avington, Bill Conners, Father George Bur S.J., James Hill Jr., Gus Keuny, Sandy MacMurtrie, and Richard Pagano for their invaluable assistance.

References:

[i] “8-Alarm Fire Wrecks St. Joseph’s Prep School,” The Evening Bulletin, January 31, 1966.

[ii] Golden Jubilee, 1888-1938, Church of the Gesu, Privately printed: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1938, pp. 14, 15, 30, 32, 111. Collection of St. Joseph’s Preparatory School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Events and People

Touching Liberty (Literally)

Post author By Timothy Horning
Post date August 23, 2010

The photographic archives of the Office of the City Representative document decades of visits to Philadelphia by various dignitaries, diplomats, and VIPs, both domestic and foreign. And of course, no visit to Philadelphia would be complete without a stop at one of the iconic symbols of America, the Liberty Bell. As the photos show, being a VIP afforded one special access to the bell.

In October 1963, Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia (1930-1974), made an official state visit to the United States to meet with President Kennedy to discuss important and pertinent issues such as U.S. aid to Ethiopia, the effect of Soviet-U.S. relations on Ethiopia and other African nations, and the sticky situation of U.S. arms being sold to Somalia, Ethiopia’s neighbor and sometimes opponent. Before getting down to business with Kennedy in Washington however, Selassie made a stop in Philadelphia. Flying directly from Geneva in a United States Air Force jet, Selassie and his entourage were greeted at Philadelphia International Airport by Mayor James Tate, numerous other city officials, a 21-gun salute, and a “bevy of brass” (the police and firemen’s band) which played both the American and Ethiopian national anthems. The first stop in Philadelphia was of course the Liberty Bell, which at this time was still housed in Independence Hall. This is our first instance of “touching liberty.”

Special to The New York Times. “Arms for Somalia Embarrassing U.S. on Eve of Selassie’s Visit: Ethiopian Ruler Is Expected to Raise Issue in Talks With Kennedy This Week.” New York Times (1923-Current file), September 29, 1963, http://www.proquest.com.libproxy.temple.edu/ (accessed August 4, 2010).
LOU POTTER. “Haile Selassie, Lion of Judah, Roars Into Philadelphia: Met by Mayor Tate and Bevy Of City Brass Winds Up Tour With Honorary Citizenship.” Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001), October 1, 1963, http://www.proquest.com.libproxy.temple.edu/ (accessed August 4, 2010).
Special to The New York Times. “Haile Selassie Is Greeted On Arrival in Philadelphia: MUSIC NOTES.” New York Times (1923-Current file), October 1, 1963, http://www.proquest.com.libproxy.temple.edu/ (accessed August 4, 2010).

In April 1964, King Hussein of Jordan arrived in the Philadelphia for his third official state visit to the United States and his first official state visit with then President Lyndon B. Johnson. Serving as an “unofficial representative of the Arab world”, King Hussein was set to discuss continued U.S. economic aid to Jordan and the delicate Arab-Israeli political climate. Before that though, King Hussein arrived in Philadelphia aboard Air Force One on a rainy afternoon. The rain however did not deter about 100 spectators, including Mayor Tate and his wife Ann, from greeting the King at the airport. King Hussein’s overnight visit to Philadelphia included trips to all the iconic Philadelphia sites – of course, including the liberty bell. Touching liberty instance number two.

“Ruler of Jordan Arrives In U.S. to Begin State Visit.” New York Times (1923-Current file), April 14, 1964, http://www.proquest.com.libproxy.temple.edu/ (accessed August 4, 2010).

HEDRICK SMITH Special to The New York Times. “Hussein Confers With President: HUSSEIN CONFERS WITH PRESIDENT.” New York Times (1923-Current file), April 15, 1964, http://www.proquest.com.libproxy.temple.edu/ (accessed August 4, 2010).

In April 1976, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden embarked on a 27-day, 14-state tour of the United States. After spending the first day of his tour in Washington with President Ford, King Carl was driven to the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia (in a Volvo, of course). On hand to meet the King at the museum was Mayor Rizzo, who was reported to have incorrectly addressed the King as “Your Eminence”; one of Rizzo’s aides had to politely remind him that the correct way to address a monarch was “Your Majesty.” In addition to a luncheon in his honor at Philadelphia’s iconic Bellevue Stratford Hotel, King Car also toured Independence Park. Here he touches liberty in the bell’s new pavilion built for the 1976 Bicentennial.

“King of Sweden Given A Tour of Washington.” New York Times (1923-Current file), April 5, 1976, http://www.proquest.com.libproxy.temple.edu/ (accessed August 16, 2010).
RONALD SULLIVAN Special to The New York Times. “Swedish Monarch Helps Swedesboro to Celebrate.” New York Times (1923-Current file), April 9, 1976, http://www.proquest.com.libproxy.temple.edu/ (accessed August 16, 2010).

As the official “Bicentennial City”, Philadelphia hosted many dignitaries in 1976. Dr. William R. Tolbert, president of Liberia, and his wife Victoria were invited to the United States as official Bicentennial guests of the U.S. government (the only officially invited head of state from the African continent). This was President Tolbert’s first visit to the United States since taking office as president of Liberia in 1971, having served the 20 years prior as Liberia’s vice-president. Tolbert was descended from a South Carolina slave family who immigrated to Liberia in the 1880s. Arriving first in Washington D.C., Tolbert tackled much more serious tasks, such as addressing a joint session of Congress and the United Nations General Assembly, before coming to Philadelphia to partake of the lighter Bicentennial fare. Here President Tolbert and Mrs. Tolbert get their chance to touch liberty.

“Notes on People: President of Liberia Greeted At the White House by Ford.” New York Times (1923-Current file), September 22, 1976, http://www.proquest.com.libproxy.temple.edu/ (accessed August 16, 2010).
“Liberia’s Tolbert, A Bicen Visitor With Historical Ties to U.S.A.” Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001), September 25, 1976, http://www.proquest.com.libproxy.temple.edu/ (accessed August 16, 2010).

Of course, having your own country was not a prerequisite to being afforded special access to the Liberty Bell. Here is Bob Hope (with Mayor Rizzo and fellow entertainer Joel Gray) getting his own touch of liberty during the Freedom Week 1975 ceremonies.

Entertainment Events and People

Goats Versus Mules: The Army-Navy Game in Philadelphia

Post author By Hillary Kativa
Post date August 16, 2010

Much like the city of Philadelphia itself, the annual college football match-up between the U.S. Military and Naval Academies, colloquially known as the Army-Navy Game, has a storied history that echoes that of the city in which the match has been held more than any other. Since the Army-Navy Game’s inception in 1890, Philadelphia has hosted the match a record 81 times, far surpassing its nearest competitors, New York (11) and Baltimore (4). After the rivalry’s first four matches incited passionate reactions and a near duel between two officers in 1893, the Army-Navy Game was suspended for five years until Philadelphia was selected as a neutral site for the game in 1899. Roughly equidistant from both West Point and Annapolis, Philadelphia was considered a prime location, as organizers hoped relocating the game away from the campuses of either academy would diffuse tensions and encourage good sportsmanship. Throughout the early 20th century, the Army-Navy Game was held at Franklin Field on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania before moving to Municipal Stadium, later John F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, in 1936 and later Lincoln Financial Field in 1980.

Newspaper accounts from the turn of the 20th century describe the Army-Navy Game as a city-wide event, with hotels and homes bedecked in the blue, yellow, and gray of West Point or the blue and gold of Annapolis, while citizens and tourists alike flooded the streets of Philadelphia carrying badges and pennants to show their allegiance to either academy. The players themselves, accompanied by marching bands and their respective mascots, the Navy Goat and Army Mule, processed through the streets up to Franklin Field, which consistently exceeded its seating capacity. Ticket scalpers were common and by 1934 were charging as much as $75 for choice seats, a blemish on the event that later inspired a Congressional investigation. Traditionally, the Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of War attended as representatives of their respective departments and the game also drew many governors, mayors, and other political notables. In addition, the game was also a significant event on the East Coast social calendar, as special luncheons and dinners, including a Naval Academy alumni dance at the Bellevue-Stratford hotel, surrounded the match and the box seats occupied by socialites and dignitaries were chronicled in the New York Times society pages.

Inevitably, Franklin Field struggled to accommodate the sheer number of people who desired to attend the Army-Navy Game and the search for a new location with larger facilities threatened to move the match out of Philadelphia. In 1905, the Army-Navy Game took place at Osborne Field on the campus of Princeton University, but transportation problems involving the local train lines rendered Princeton a less desirable option moving forward. The Army-Navy Game returned to Philadelphia and Franklin Field from 1906-1912 before relocating to the New York Polo Grounds in 1913. The Polo Grounds then became a favored site for the game for the rest of the decade and thereafter the Army-Navy Game was periodically played at other sites as well, including Chicago’s Soldier Field and New York City’s Yankee Stadium. Notably, the variety of venues, which continued into the mid-1930s, was considered more equitable to both sides after representatives from West Point argued that holding the game in Philadelphia every year favored Annapolis, which generally had an easier time commuting to Franklin Field.

In 1936, Philadelphia mayor-elect S. Davis Wilson proposed hosting the Army-Navy Game at Municipal Stadium, a 100,000 seat stadium located at the far southern end of South Broad Street that was originally built for the 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition. The first Army-Navy Game at Municipal Stadium drew a capacity crowd that included First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Pennsylvania Railroad ran 35 special trains direct to the stadium out of a fleet of 105 locomotives put in service especially for the event. In the years that followed, Municipal Stadium became the favored venue for the Army-Navy Game, which also saw Presidents Truman, Kennedy, and Ford in attendance over the years. President Kennedy especially took an active part in the game, conducting the coin toss at the start of each match and parading across the field at halftime. Following President Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, officials considered canceling the Army-Navy Game, but the match was eventually held on December 7 at the express request of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. The following year, Municipal Stadium was renamed John F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in honor of the late President and the President’s brother, Bobby Kennedy, attended the Army-Navy Game with his family to mark the occasion.

John F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium continued to host the Army-Navy Game until 1980, at which time it moved to neighboring Veterans Stadium and ultimately to Lincoln Financial Field. By the time the match relocated to Veterans Stadium, the Army-Navy Game had declined in national importance and the crowd of 60,470 who attended the game in 1981 was the lowest crowd recorded since 1943. Still, the Army-Navy Game remains a legendary event in American sports and a notable part of Philadelphia history, as captured so vividly in the collection of photographs now displayed on PhillyHistory.org.

References

“102,000, East’s Largest Football Crowd, Will See Army-Navy Classic Today.” New York Times, November 28, 1936.

“Army-Navy Game.” 26 July 2010. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army%E2%80%93Navy_Game (Accessed 6 August 2010).

“Army-Navy Game History: Rivalry History.” Philadelphia’s Official Army-Navy Website 6 August 2010 http://www.phillylovesarmynavy.com/RIVALRY-HISTORY (Accessed 6 August 2010).

“Army-Navy Game Postponed to November 7; Usual Ceremonies Will be Eliminated.” New York Times, November 27, 1963.

“Army Triumphs Over Navy in Football.” New York Times, November 29, 1903.

“Army Versus Navy: A Dimming of Splendor.” New York Times, November 29, 1975.

New Features

Planes, Parades, and Presidents! New Photos from the Office of the City Representative!

Post author By Mary
Post date August 13, 2010

The PhillyHistory.org team is excited to announce the addition of historic photographs from the collection of the City of Philadelphia Office of the City Representative! Featuring images of everything from planes (a Spirit of St. Louis reproduction arriving at Northeast airport) to parades (Mummers marching near City Hall) to presidents (President John F. Kennedy speaking in front of Independence Hall), these stunning images capture historic events in our city and country’s history.

For decades, the City of Philadelphia Office of the City Representative has developed and promoted events throughout the city. Over the course of their history, they have taken thousands of photographs documenting events ranging from parades and festivities to visits by political dignitaries and celebrities to activities at local recreation centers. Unseen for years, these images will be made available to the general public on PhillyHistory.org where they can be purchased, shared with friends, downloaded to Google Earth, and accessed via mobile technology.

While the full collection of images numbers in the tens of thousands, over 800 images are already available on PhillyHistory.org. Over the next few months, the PhillyHistory.org interns will be hard at work cataloging, numbering, and scanning hundreds of additional images. Check back often to see new photographs from the amazing collection of the Office of the City Representative!

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.

Neighborhoods

Point Breeze

Since the time of its beginnings in the late nineteenth century, Point Breeze has been a no-frills working class neighborhood. It was first settled by Eastern European Jews, many of whom set up shops on Point Breeze Avenue and lived in apartments above their businesses. Italian and Irish immigrants soon followed.ⁱ Conditions were primitive: chickens in backyards were a common sight. By the 1930s, these immigrant groups were joined by African-Americans from the Deep South, who had come to Philadelphia looking for work and to escape Jim Crow.

During the nineteenth century, Philadelphia’s African-American community was centered east of Broad Street, near Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church at 8th and Lombard. The Great Migration, however, pushed the boundaries of the African-American settlement west of Broad Street to Point Breeze. This expansion often brought them into conflict with neighboring Irish-Americans, described by W.E.B. DuBois as the “hereditary enemy” of urban African-Americans.” ⁱⁱ Many of Point Breeze’s African-Americans worked for Center City hotels, the Pennsylvania Railroad, local factories, and city government.

Until the late 1960s, Point Breeze was a relatively stable, self-sufficient neighborhood. Its residents almost never went into Center City, as they had everything they needed within a few blocks of their two story rowhouses. At night, Point Breeze Avenue (known by residents as “The Breeze”) was illuminated by scores of shop signs advertising clothing, fresh produce, appliances, ice cream, and soda. There were two five and dime stores (Woolworth’s and Kresge’s), and the Curson family operated a dress shop patronized by residents for First Communion and weddings. There were also kosher butcher shops that catered to the still-large Jewish community.ⁱⁱⁱ

“It was a very busy, beautiful area,” remembered Claudia Sherrod, whose parents came to Philadelphia from Georgia during the Great Depression. “There used to be over a hundred stores on the Breeze.”

Claudia spent her childhood in a rowhouse at 21st and Kater, just south of Fitler Square. The family had no refrigerator, indoor plumbing, or hot water until the early 1950s. As a ten year old, Claudia took the lead in beautifying her block by planting the first flowerbox. “It was a diversified community, with Caucasians and African-Americans living and working together,” she said. “We had a beautiful community growing up. I could go to anyone’s house and eat a meal. As children, we never looked at culture. We knew one was white and one was black and that was it.”

After Claudia married in 1959, she and her husband – who worked for the city — moved across Washington Avenue to Point Breeze. “It was a great place for raising our children,” Claudia said. “My husband would go to the Landreth School to play ball with the kids…I didn’t have to worry about my kids being out-of-hand. If the neighbors felt they were, they’d call me. And we don’t have enough of that today.”

On Sundays, Claudia returned to her old neighborhood to attend New Central Baptist Church at 21st and Lombard, where she had worshipped and sang in the choir since she was a child. “It was my whole life,” she said. “We lived to go to church, and we spent all Sunday there.”

Claudia and her husband raised four children and two grandchildren in Point Breeze. “My children recently told me we thought we were rich,” Claudia Sherrod concluded. “We were rich,” she replied “…with love.”

Claudia’s friend Alice Gabbadon, who grew up at 22nd and Dickinson, also had fond memories of life in Point Breeze. “After church, we would look in the store windows and fantasize about what we could buy,” Alice remembered about her childhood. “It was safe. We were allowed to go as a group to the 1700 block of Point Breeze to buy water ice.” When she wanted to go to see a movie at the Victory or the Dixie on Point Breeze Avenue, her mother would give her 16 cents: 5 cents for a bag of pretzels, 10 cents for the movie, and a penny for the tax.

Yet Alice realized she was not welcome in certain places. One day, she went to see a film at The Breeze, another theater on Point Breeze Avenue. But when she and her friends entered the theater, the white audience began harassing them. Alice stood in back, endured the tormenting, and never came back. There was no “Whites Only” sign, but segregation at this movie theater was an unspoken rule.

And at the 26th and Morris playground, Alice and her friends would wait for the white kids to get off the swings. They would often wait for a long time, then give up and go home.

Wharton Square, one of the few green spaces in the area, was a friendlier place for Point Breeze’s African-American community, popular with picnickers. The three story houses fronting the square were the largest in the neighborhood. During the 1950s, Wharton Square was the home of Congressman Bill Barrett, who made sure Point Breeze got its fair share of city services. “If you had a problem,” Alice remembered, “you were told to ‘Go see Bill Barrett.’”

The race riots of the 1960s — which triggered mass “white flight” –signaled the decline of Point Breeze as a self-sustaining, relatively integrated neighborhood. Many Jewish shopkeepers sold their businesses and moved elsewhere, part of a pattern that repeated itself throughout the city of Philadelphia.^iv Then, like adjacent Grays Ferry, Point Breeze was hit by the heroin epidemic of the 1970s and then the crack scourge of the early 1990s. Residents went into alleys to shoot up, and often never came out alive. Houses were abandoned and fell into disrepair.

In recent years, however, groups such as South Philadelphia H.O.M.E.S. and the Universal Companies built new affordable housing to replace some of Point Breeze’s dated and deteriorating housing stock, as well as help entrepreneurs start new businesses on the decimated The Breeze. The Point Breeze Performing Arts Center, founded in 1984, has helped keep neighborhood kids off the streets with its intensive music and dance programs. During the past few decades, immigrants from Korea and Southeast Asia have moved to Point Breeze, steadily taking the place of those residents who left many years ago.

Alice Gabbadon is optimistic about the future of her native Point Breeze, citing rebuilding of businesses on The Breeze and positive involvement with members of the community. “We went through some rough times,” she said recently, “but now I think we are going through some positive changes.”

References:

[i] “A History of the Point…” The Power of the Point: A Pictorial History of Point Breeze, July 1, 1996. Collection of South Philadelphia H.O.M.E.S., Inc.

[ii] W.E.B. DuBois, as quoted by Murray Dubin, South Philadelphia: Mummers, Memories, and the Melrose Diner (Philadelphia: Temple University Press 1996), p.60

[iii] Nintha C. Johnson, “My Memories of Point Breeze: Businesses As I Remember Them,” The Power of the Point: A Pictorial History of Point Breeze, July 1, 1996. Collection of South Philadelphia H.O.M.E.S., Inc.

[iv] Jennifer Lee, “The Comparative Disadvantage of African-American Owned Enterprises: Ethnic Succession and Social Capital in Black Communities,” from Richardson Dilworth, ed., Social Capital in the City: Community and Civic Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Temple University Press), 2006, p.142.

Interview of Claudia Sherrod by Steven Ujifusa, July 21, 2010.

Interview of Alice Gabbadon by Steven Ujifusa, July 28, 2010.