Categories
Neighborhoods Public Services

Immigrant Jewish Philadelphia: School Days


 
Going through photographs on PhillyHistory.org, I was struck by the number of photos showing Philadelphia public grade schools from years ago, most now torn down although some still remain. These photographs show the construction of new schools during the period of heavy immigration into the country at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries as well as the inside of classrooms, the first day of school, schoolyards, formally posed photographs of classes and informal scenes of children playing in the schoolyards. In The Immigrant Jew in America, edited by Edmund J. James, Ph. D., LL.D., with the collaboration of Charles S. Bernheimer from Philadelphia, and published by New York, B. F. Buck & Company in 1907, I found on page 202 a record of schools located in the Russian Jewish areas of South Philadelphia and the population of Jewish children for each school given as both a number and as a percentage of the total number of students. The area covered is from Locust Street on the north, Moore Street on the south, the Delaware River on the east and 19th Street on the west—the district composing the greater portion of the Russian Jewish community of the city in 1905.


 
Generally, the greatest percentage of Jewish children is in the schools located immediately surrounding the 5th Street and South Street areas. Other large percentages of Jewish students are in schools north of Washington Avenue, east of 8th Street, south of Locust Street and west of 2nd Street, although there are several exceptions such as the Fletcher School near Front Street that had a Jewish population of 79 per cent. There are only a few schools west of Broad Street, and the largest percentage of Jewish students in these “western” schools was 18 per cent. The schools with the highest percentage of Jews were those in the Jewish quarter surrounding the eastern end of South Street. The listing on page 202 described the total and percentage distribution of Jewish children in 39 kindergarten and grade schools in the area in 1905. Some of the schools with the largest Jewish percentage of children are presented below in chart form. I have also included a few other schools to demonstrate that the farther you went from 5th and South Streets the fewer number of Jewish children were enrolled in these schools. For a more complete listing of the schools, see The Immigrant Jew in America.

 

School Location Number of Students Number of Jewish Students Percentage of Students who were Jewish
Horace Binney Spruce below 6th 935 700 75
George M. Wharton 3rd below Pine 1345 1210 90
Wm. M. Meredith   5th & Fitzwater 1011 950 95
James Campbell  8th & Fitzwater 1560 782 50
Fagen 12th & Fitzwater 585 285 49
Mt. Vernon Catharine above 3rd 1200 1070 89
Fletcher Christian above Front 958 755 79
Geo. W. Nebinger 6th & Carpenter  1158 671 58
Wharton 5th below Wash’ton 1885 1411 74
John Stockdale 13th below Wash’ton 258 17 6
Washington Carpenter above 9th 1338 30 2

From the above figures, it can be determined that the school populations were determined by the neighborhood patterns of ethnic growth during the immigrant years. If we had the above statistics for earlier and later years, it would be dramatic in demonstrating just how quickly this south Philadelphia neighborhood changed from one ethnic group to the next. The above figures demonstrate how many grade schools there were years ago and how close they were to one another. Determining school boundaries is beyond the scope of this little blog, but I am sure that there are old school records held by the School Board of the City of Philadelphia which would describe, by streets and perhaps house numbers, the boundaries for each school.


 

The photographs on PhillyHistory.org, especially those of the Mt. Vernon School, give you a good picture of what school life was like in the year 1909, the year that many of the photos were taken of the Mt. Vernon School, the schoolyard and what appears to be the first day of school. Children still went to school barefoot and the girls were dressed in the finest that the immigrant families could afford. Perhaps you will not find a photographs of your own grandparents or great grandparents among the treasures being displayed on the web site, but you can learn something about how they were educated, where they were educated and how they grew up to become American citizens.

When the immigrants came to Philadelphia in the 1880s and 1890s, many families—especially those where an immigrant father died young—required the help of younger children to run a business and make a living. Children left school after 4th grade to help out. Why after 4th grade is not clear, but anecdotal stories note children dropping out of school after the 4th grade. In the 1900s, 1910s and 1920s, economic conditions improved. According to The Immigrant Jew, during this period there was “a steady growth in attendance in the upper grades, the high schools and the professional institutions” among the Russian Jewish immigrants. It was during this time that the colleges, especially Temple College (now University) and the University of Pennsylvania enrolled a remarkably large number of Russian Jewish students. 


 

Ironically, many of the students who enrolled at Penn during this time got there first real taste of knowledge at the Hebrew Literature Society, 312 Catharine Street, directly across the street from the Mt. Vernon School. Children of the immigrants clamored for more learning and a group of the leaders of the Hebrew Literature Society contacted Penn. Penn agreed to send professors to the Society’s meetings on Sundays afternoons to instruct the youngsters on subjects that were either not taught in the local high schools, like bacteriology, astronomy, etc., or that augmented and advanced studies taught at schools such as Central High School. In the year 1905, Penn furnished over a dozen professors as part of this program to help educate the children of the immigrants.

The article on the Philadelphia schools in The Immigrant Jew contains the following paragraph written in 1905: “Probably no single agency has a more far-reaching educational influence, especially in molding ideas in accordance with standards of our country and our time, than the public school. It gives to the son of the immigrant the same advantages as to the son of the native born, and in many instances the transformation to similarity with the latter is swift and complete.” Although daughters would not have all the same educational opportunities for two more generations, daughters did attend Mt. Vernon School, the other schools in the area and were openly welcomed by the Hebrew Literature Society at their Sunday afternoon sessions. 

 
Sources:
 
James, Edmund J. ed. The Immigrant Jew in America. New York: B. F. Buck & Company, 1907.

Categories
Historic Sites

Constructing a 150th Birthday Celebration


Purchase Photo   View Nearby Photos

Spread over a large portion of land in the south portion of Philadelphia along the Delaware River, the Sesquicentennial Exposition featured huge buildings filled with exhibitors, technical innovations, and displays from around the world. These huge halls, along with a new stadium, a military encampment, and a recreation of a Philadelphia street in 1776, served as a way to attract visitors to the six month long celebration of the nation’s independence.   

The enormity of the Exposition and its buildings was demonstrated even before visitors reached the Sesquicentennial Exposition main entrance located at the intersection of Broad Street and Packer Avenue. As individuals approached the Exposition grounds, they passed underneath an 80 foot tall reproduction of the Liberty Bell covered with 26,000 fifteen-watt lamps. Built at a cost of $100,000, the Liberty Bell was said to be visible from large portions of Philadelphia when it was lit at night. [1]

Like the Liberty Bell, buildings that were grand in size would be a dominant feature of the Sesquicentennial. Three large exhibit halls each contained over 320,000 square feet of floor space to be used for displays and demonstrations. [2] One of these halls, the Palace of United States Government, Machinery, and Transportation, covered 11.5 acres of land and included exhibits related to industry and transportation. Another hall, the Palace of Liberal Arts and Manufactures, covered 7.75 acres of land located near the intersection of Broad Street and Packer Avenue and contained over 50,000 square feet of exhibits devoted just to the displays and goods of Great Britain and Ireland. [3] Even the Administration Building, which held offices for Sesquicentennial officials and their staffs and was located near the intersection of Oregon Avenue and Moyamensing Avenue, was 17,600 square feet.


Purchase Photo   View Nearby Photos

Despite the immensity of the completed halls, the original plans for the Sesquicentennial grounds included many more buildings that were greater in size and more elaborate in ornamentation. A lack of money and insufficient time to complete construction, however, forced organizers to dramatically alter the original plans to ensure that all building would be completed by the time of the official opening of the Sesquicentennial on July 4, 1926. In protest of these budget and construction cuts, Colonel David C. Collier, Director-General of the Exposition, resigned on October 29, 1925. [4]

Collier’s resignation was just one of many difficulties facing the administrators of the Sesquicentennial Exposition as they attempted to organize such a large scale celebration. By the end of 1925, some members of the Sesquicentennial administrative staff were still so fearful that construction would not be completed by the opening date that they urged the National Advisory Commission to postpone the Sesquicentennial until 1927. After much debate, the Commission decided against postponement and kept the opening day of the Exposition as May 31, 1926.[5] While the major halls were structurally complete by May 31, few of the exhibitors had installed their displays. Many of the smaller buildings were also still being constructed and much of the landscaping had not been finished. Visitors on opening day expressed disappointment at the state of the Sesquicentennial grounds and exhibits, but officials estimated that the exposition was 75 percent complete. [6] Construction and exhibit installation continued at a feverish pace after the opening day, and the majority of the buildings and displays were completed by the time of the official dedication of the Sesquicentennial Exposition on July 4, 1926.

[1] Austin, E.L. and Odell Hauser, Editors. The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition: A Record Based on Official Data and Departmental Reports. Philadelphia: Current Publications, Inc., 1929, p. 67.  

[2] Austin, E.L. and Odell Hauser, Editors. The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition: A Record Based on Official Data and Departmental Reports. Philadelphia: Current Publications, Inc., 1929, p. 64-65. 

[3] Emery, Steuart M. “Sesquicentennial Fair Shows Our Progress.” New York Times, May 23, 1926.

[4] Austin, E.L. and Odell Hauser, Editors. The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition: A Record Based on Official Data and Departmental Reports. Philadelphia: Current Publications, Inc., 1929, p. 44. 

[5] Austin, E.L. and Odell Hauser, Editors. The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition: A Record Based on Official Data and Departmental Reports. Philadelphia: Current Publications, Inc., 1929, p. 45. 

[6] New York Times. “Sesquicentennial Opens as Sun Shines; 100,000 Pass Gates.” June 1, 1926.

Categories
Events and People

The Sesquicentennial Exposition of 1926


Purchase Photo   View Nearby Photos
In 1926, Philadelphia hosted a celebration commemorating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the United States. This Sesquicentennial Exposition drew exhibitors from around the world and featured speeches, sporting events, a military camp, and an 80 foot tall replica of the Liberty Bell covered in 26,000 light bulbs. The main entrance of the Sesquicentennial was located at the intersection of Broad Street and Packer Avenue and most of the grounds covered the area that is now the site of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park and various stadiums on the south side of the city. A map of the Exposition grounds is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesquicentennial_Exposition.  

Despite a heavy rain, the New York Times estimated that 200,000 people traveled to the stadium located on the festival grounds to hear President Calvin Coolidge officially open the Sesquicentennial Exposition on July 5, 1926. [1] After speeches by both President Coolidge and Mayor Kendrick, the President attended a luncheon and then visited Independence Hall, Christ Church, and Camden, New Jersey. Various other celebrities and political figures would visit the Sesquicentennial over the next month.


Purchase Photo   View Nearby Photos

The rain that plagued the opening ceremonies, however, would continue throughout much of the Exposition. For a variety of reasons, the Exhibition failed to make a significant amount of revenue and faced extreme financial difficulties. Eventually, several vendors brought legal action against the Exhibition for lack of payment and the entire festival was placed into equity receivership by the United States District Court on April 27, 1927. [2]

The Philadelphia City Archives contains a collection of print images taken of the Sesquicentennial. Many of the prints were removed from scrapbooks several years ago and stored in archival quality boxes to prevent deterioration and fading of the images. The prints are now in the process of being digitized and placed on PhillyHistory.org. Including photographs of everything from the construction of the Sesquicentennial grounds to an Industrial Parade underneath the Liberty Bell replica to a variety of athletic events, the Philadelphia City Archives Sesquicentennial Collection provides stunning images of events that captured the attention of the City during the summer of 1926.  

To view the photographs, go to www.phillyhistory.org and select DOR Archives- Sesquicentennial from the list of Collections on the Search page. Check back often as additional photographs from the Exhibition will be added on a weekly basis!  

[1] New York Times. “Coolidge Invokes Founders’ Ideals as Guide to Nation.” July 6, 1926. p. 1.

[2] Philadelphia City Archives, Record Group 232, Sesquicentennial Exhibition Association.

Categories
Events and People

From Sculptor to Mobile Creator: Three Generations of Calder Artists


Purchase Photo   View Nearby Photos
Towering above the City of Philadelphia, a 37 foot tall statue of William Penn stares down at the city that the real William Penn founded over 300 years ago. While the statue is a very large, very visible reminder of the city’s past, it is also an excellent example of the work of Alexander Milne Calder, a talented sculptor whose son and grandson would also begin their artistic careers in Philadelphia.

Born in Scotland in 1846, Calder immigrated to America in 1868 and later studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.1 As a sculptor, Calder is best known for creating the statues around City Hall. While the Penn statue is the most immediately apparent statue on the building, there are numerous other carvings, figures, and animals located on the structure. In total, Calder spent nearly 20 years sculpting around 250 figures for City Hall.

After standing on City Hall for over a century, many of Calder’s statues needed a large amount of restoration work in the late twentieth century. The statue of William Penn was cleaned in the early 1980s, again in 1996, and just recently in 2007, but the eight bronze figures located around the clock tower of the Hall had not been cleaned since they were placed in their locations between 1894 and 1896. These bronze figures include four eagles with 15 foot wingspans and four groups of figures.2 The cleaning of the bronzes was completed in 2007 in conjunction with additional restoration work of the City Hall facade.


Purchase Photo   View Nearby Photos

Assisting Calder with the creation of the statues on City Hall was his son, Alexander Stirling Calder. An artist and art teacher, Stirling Calder studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, traveled and sculpted in Europe, and taught at both the School of Industrial Design of the Pennsylvania Museum and the Art Students League in New York.3 Calder focused on sculpture throughout his career and created several artworks that stand in Philadelphia. These artworks in the city include a statue of Samuel D. Gross near 10th Street and Walnut, the Smith Memorial Arch near Memorial Hall, the Shakespeare Memorial north of Logan Square, and the Swann Memorial Fountain in the center of Logan Square.4

Although both were well-known in Philadelphia, the artistic reputations of Alexander Milne and Alexander Stirling would be surpassed by that of Alexander Calder. The son of Alexander Stirling Calder and his wife, painter Nanette Calder, Alexander Calder was born on July 22, 1898 in Philadelphia. After studying art in the United States and France, Calder became famous in both countries for staging shows with his “Circus,” a collection of miniature performers made out of scraps of wire, wood, paper, string, and other miscellaneous items.5 From these figures, Calder continued to experiment with wire sculptures and movement. After trying several mechanized objects, he decided to hang his created items in order to have them respond to the wind or other surrounding movements. The resulting artwork, named mobiles by the French artist Marcel Duchamp, challenged previous ideas about the rules of sculpture and cemented his reputation as a leader in the modern art movement.6 Calder died in 1976, but his mobiles and other artwork remain on display in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and around the world.

The Calder artists and their work are both a part of the history of Philadelphia and a demonstration of how sculpture has changed over the course of a century. From a nineteenth-century sculptor to a master of modern art, three generations of Calders have brought their talent and creativity to artwork around the city.  

[1] “History for Alexander Milne Calder.” Bringhurst Funeral Home and Turner Funeral Home at West Laurel Hill. http://www.webcemeteries.com/westlaurelhill/LH.asp?Id=417591&T=T

[2] The Pew Charitable Trusts. “Philadelphia Completes Groundbreaking Restoration of Alexander Milne Calder Sculptures Atop City Hall.” February 26, 2007. http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=21482

[3] “Alexander Stirling Calder.” Academy Stars. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. http://www.pafa.org/academyStars_p3.jsp

[4] “Alexander Stirling Calder.” Philadelphia Public Art @philart.net. http://www.philart.net/artist.php?id=36

[5] Tuchman, P. 2001. Calder’s playful genius (Famous for his colorful mobiles, prolific sculptor Alexander Calder, 1898-1976, was also a master toymaker, wire portrait artist and painter of gouaches). SMITHSONIAN. 32 (2):87.

[6] “Alexander Calder.” American Masters. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/calder_a.html

Categories
Events and People

The Philadelphia Peace Jubilee of 1898


Although lasting only four months, the Spanish-American War was a decisive moment in United States history and served as America’s entry into the world of foreign affairs. Weeks of tension between Spain and the US over the issue of Cuban independence culminated in the US sending the battleship USS Maine to Cuba to protect American interests in the region. When the battleship sank due to an explosion on February 15, 1898, several US newspapers encouraged retribution and war was eventually declared on April 25. After four months of fighting in the Phillipines and Cuba, Spain sued for peace and hostilities stopped on August 12, 1898. With the Spanish-American War at an end, the United States gained control of the former Spanish colonies of the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico, as well as some influence over Cuba. To celebrate the end of the war, Philadelphia organized a Peace Jubilee to be held in October 1898 to honor the troops and celebrate the country’s success.

Peace jubilees had proven popular throughout America in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The National Peace Jubilee, held in Boston on June 16-19, 1869 and organized by Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, celebrated the end of the Civil War and urged a focus on peace throughout the country.[1] For four days, tens of thousands of people gathered in a specially constructed concert hall known as the Coliseum for speeches and musical performances. The celebration was so well-received that Gilmore soon began planning another jubilee to be hosted in Boston just three years later. The World’s Peace Jubilee and International Music Festival opened on June 17, 1872 and ran for eighteen days. With its emphasis on large choral groups and international music, the jubilee included performances from English, French, Austrian, and Prussian orchestras and bands.[2]

Held for three days in October of 1898, the Philadelphia Peace Jubilee celebrated the conclusion of the Spanish-American War and brought national attention to the City. The festivities included speeches, parades, and events to honor the country’s soldiers. Towering over all of the activity was a gigantic arch built to span Broad Street. Located near the intersection of Broad and Sansom Street the archway served as a focal point for the Court of Honor. [3]The Court included the archway as well as many large columns that lined Broad Street from City Hall to Walnut Street. The columns and arch featured ornate carvings as well as statues of eagles and statues of riders on horseback.


Attendees at the Jubilee included General Graham, his complete staff, and 10,500 troops from four regiments in Pennsylvania as well as regiments from several other states.[4] The troops took part in military reviews and parades on Broad Street. President William McKinley visited Philadelphia for the Jubilee and the Pennsylvania Railroad Company encouraged attendance by offering round trip tickets for the price of a single fare.[5] Activities for those attending the Jubilee included church services, speeches, and three parades: a naval parade featuring nine warships anchored in the Delaware River, a civic parade, and a military parade of an estimated 25,000 troops reviewed by President McKinley.[6] While many people rushed to the city to view these events, some anti-war groups decried the Jubilee and the emphasis it placed on military splendor.

Despite the disapproval expressed by some people and differing opinions among Americans regarding the Treaty of Paris which would not be formally signed until December 1898, Peace Jubilees continued to be held across the country in November and December. President McKinley attended jubilees in both Chicago and Atlanta during that time. With its ornate Court of Honor, large parades, and enthusiastic support for the commanders and troops who served in the Spanish-American War, the Philadelphia Peace Jubilee celebrated peace as America increased its involvement in the world of foreign affairs.

[1] “The Jubilee At Boston,” New York Times, June 16, 1869.

[2] Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, 1829-1892: Father of the American Concert Band. Boston College University Libraries. http://www.bc.edu/libraries/about/exhibits/burns/gilmore.html

[3] Looney, Robert F. Old Philadelphia in Early Photographs, 1839-1914. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1976.

[4] “Philadelphia Peace Jubilee,” New York Times, October 8, 1898.

[5] “Reduced Rates to Philadelphia via Pennsylvania Railroad, Account Jubilee,” Christian Advocate, October 13, 1898.

[6] “Philadelphia’s Peace Jubilee,” The Independent, November 3, 1898.

Categories
Events and People

Ees Da Sa Sussaway- Lets Get Started

To many, “ees da sa sussaway” would simply be syllables, but generations of Philadelphia children know differently. They know that these are the magic words of Chief Traynor Ora Halftown, beloved children’s entertainer and Philadelphia legend.

Chief Halftown began broadcasting his self-titled children’s television program in September of 1950. Originally intended to be a simple cartoon show, it grew into the longest running local children’s program in the history of television. For nearly 50 years, Chief Halftown was a part of the lives of Philadelphia children.

Chief Halftown was a full-blooded Seneca Indian born in upstate New York. His parents were both born on an Indian reservation near Buffalo and his grandfather had toured with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. He moved to Pennsylvania with the hopes of becoming the next great crooner and enjoyed moderate success until after WWII. While those dreams were never to be fulfilled, he did find his way to fame. When his children’s show began broadcasting, he had to rent his own costume from a shop on Chestnut St. Throughout the years, he always appeared on camera in native headdress, beads and buckskin. These signature marks were not just an aesthetic choice but also a teaching tool. His show, which began as a cartoon show, grew into a place to showcase the talent of local children and to teach about Native American traditions and culture.

In 1950 Chief Halftown was battling a prevalent stereotype. On television and in movies, there were very distinct depictions of Native Americans, generally as so-called savages or sidekicks. John Wayne and Jimmie Stewart both starred in films about Native American wars that year. If there were good roles for Native Americans, such as Cochise in Jimmy Stewart’s Broken Arrow, they were generally not portrayed by Native American actors. Fortunately, Chief Halftown refused to play to stereotype. He famously claimed, “I had no idea what it would come to, but I vowed that I would be myself. I wouldn’t talk like a Hollywood Indian…I made it clear that I was an Indian and no one was to tell me how to be an Indian.“

Chief Halftown’s formula worked, making him an incredibly popular part of the Channel Six lineup here in Philadelphia. In addition to his television show, Chief Halftown made lots of appearances in and around the city. On the weekends each summer he could be found at Dutch Wonderland, a family amusement park in Lancaster, entertaining and educating children in person. He not only entertained children though. He also visited senior centers, schools, store openings, and charity events. When his show went off the air in 1999, Chief Halftown was 82 years old but that didn’t end his career. He continued making public appearances for several more years. He moved to Brigantine, NJ in 2002 to be near his children and passed away there in July of 2003.

Chief Halftown didn’t live an outlandish existence. He never considered himself a celebrity, yet he was a part of the lives of children here in Philadelphia for nearly half a century. Never pandering and always staying true to himself, he succeeded in the local television market in a way that is no longer possible. As national networks have increased their children’s programming, local shows beyond the news have died away. Chief Halftown was a pioneer. While he and his show may be gone, memories of his teachings will remain for years to come.

Sources

Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Website – http://www.broadcastpioneers.com/chief.html

TV Party: Philly Local Kids Shows – http://www.tvparty.com/losthalftown.html

WHYY Website: Philly’s Favorite Kids Shows – http://www.whyy.org/tv12/kidsshowhosts/index.html

Categories
Historic Sites

Teaching the Sciences in Philadelphia


 
Today the Atwater Kent Museum is a modest-sized museum of city history, but it was built in 1826 as the original Franklin Institute – a school dedicated to the mechanical arts, science, technology and research.

The groundwork of the industrial revolution was laid in the early decades of the 19th century with the advent of steam power, small machine shops, and advances in chemistry and physics. Philadelphia was among the cities in the forefront of the nascent industrial age. Technical schools were being founded at this time in European and some American cities.  Local businessman Samuel Vaughn Merrick and science professor William H. Keating hatched the idea for such a school in Philadelphia in late 1823. Other leaders of the city joined the effort and a series of lectures was soon launched the next year in rented space at Carpenters’ Hall and the original University of Pennsylvania at 4th and Arch. The school was an immediate success with 600 paying members in the first year. Mostly these members were young craftsmen and apprentices interested in improving their knowledge of engineering, the science behind the new advances.

Naming the organization after Philadelphia’s most famous man of science, Ben Franklin, was a natural. After only one year, the Institute was planning it own building on a vacant lot on 7th Street near Market, and a source of funding appeared when the federal government agreed to a long-term lease for federal courts in part of the proposed building. John Haviland was selected as architect. Perhaps his most famous work is Eastern State Penitentiary, which influenced the design of prisons around the world. The new building for the Institute was about 60 feet wide and 100 feet long in the neo-classical style.

Some of the most important names in Philadelphia science and industry taught or lectured there. Men such as architects William Strictland and Thomas U. Walter and industrialists Matthias Baldwin, Isaiah Lukens, William Sellers. A host of scholars and scientists were associated with the Institute including Alexander Dallas Bache and Frederick Graff.


 

Today the Franklin Institute on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway is known as an outstanding science museum, but for decades it was much more. The Institute took on scores of research projects. It was also an early testing lab trying to determine if new inventions really worked. The first scientific study of water power drew international attention. The federal government helped finance a study there to determine how to make steam engines safe following disastrous explosions on steamboats. Later, it was the Franklin Institute that spearheaded a movement and devised ways to standardize threads and sizes for nuts and bolts.

The Institute also published a technical and science journal and sponsored contests for inventors. Evening lectures were a huge success. Those who paid their annual $3 dues could attend all lectures for free. From the start, women were admitted to all lectures. Drafting classes were particularly popular.

After 109 years of use, the building was abandoned when the Franklin Institute moved to the Parkway in 1933. It stood vacant and was scheduled for demolition when dynamic society woman Frances Ann Wistar launched a campaign to save it. She enlisted the aid of industrialist A. Atwater Kent, who had already provided the funding to preserve the Betsy Ross House.

Kent had been a pioneer in manufacturing auto parts and electrical appliances. He jumped into the new radio business in 1921 with much success. His Atwater Kent radio factory employed 12,000 workers at its peak. He purchased the building that now bears his name, which was dedicated in 1941 as a museum of Philadelphia history. The facade of the building hasn’t changed since the day it opened.

References:
  • Sinclair, Bruce. Philadelphia‘s Philosopher Mechanics: A History of the Franklin Institute, 1824–1865. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974.

Categories
Neighborhoods

The Jewish Quarter of Philadelphia


Years ago, cities and towns in Europe had Jewish quarters. Most were finitely defined. When the east European Jewish immigrants began coming to the United States en masse, Jewish quarters sprung up in cities along the eastern seaboard. Some were loosely defined, others more precisely. In the early years of Jewish mass immigration, a fairly sizeable Jewish quarter was established in a well-defined area of old Philadelphia, today known as Society Hill and Queen Village. In The Presbyterian, a weekly journal published in Philadelphia in 1889 for the Presbyterian community, the editor wrote: “In Philadelphia we are likely to have a Jewish section, where emigrants from Eastern Europe will congregate. From Fifth Street to the Delaware River and south of Lombard Street these foreign Jews are crowding in, and being very poor, the Hebrew Charities are drawn upon heavily.”1 The Jewish press saw a more confined and a smaller quarter, extending from Spruce Street in the north to Christian Street in the South and from 3rd Street to 6th Street east to west. Within this narrow rectangle, bearded Yiddish-speaking men and their large families settled. This was at a time when sweatshops were moving south from Kensington to Northern Liberties and then south of Market Street to Bank and Strawberry Streets. At this time, German-Jewish wholesale clothiers, like Snellenberg’s, had their businesses on N. 3rd Street between Market and Arch streets. Many of these buildings stand today.2


When immigrant steamers from Liverpool would arrive, trains of the Pennsylvania Railroad backed down onto the piers of the American Line to whisk away immigrants on their journeys to Chicago and places in the West. However, a sizeable number of Russian-Jewish immigrants stayed in Philadelphia and settled in the Jewish quarter. Many concentrated around the eastern end of South Street for three primary reasons: the rent was cheap, housing was near the sweatshops and the neighborhood was near the Emigrant Depot at the foot of Washington Avenue and the Delaware River. Prior to 1900, hardly any Jews lived south of Washington Avenue. The Jewish Quarter of Philadelphia was hemmed in by the Poles and the Irish to the east, by African Americans to the west and Italians to the southwest and, to the south, by the Irish. Crossing well defined boundaries was dangerous for the immigrants. Within this narrowly defined area, a new life sprang up. Curbside and pushcart markets were established; teams of horses flying over cobblestone streets made daily runs to the Dock Street wholesale market. Seen on the pavement of the new S. 4th Street pavement market were pickle barrels and union enforcers, dreamers and paupers, curbside bookies and curbside elections, saloons, pool halls and feed stores—and in the middle of all this excitement were the synagogues, dozens of them.


Central to the new immigrant neighborhood was South Street, called “the great Street for Polish Jews and huckstering of every variety.” Some writers called it the Russian quarter because so many of the newcomers were from the Imperial Russian Empire.3 In 1887, the Public Ledger wrote: “On South Street many “neat” stores have been built and indications point to the further improvement of that old down-town avenue of retail trade.” Dock Street, the wholesale food market of its day, “is not a handsome street; it is old, full of crude commercial bustle in the hours of the day, and after night fall or in the early hours of the night until the nocturnal preparations for the next day begin, it is almost wholly deserted.”4 The first Yiddish theatre was in the center of the quarter, located at the corner of 5th & Gaskill Streets. It was here that the greatest actors of the Yiddish theatre performed, Jacob Adler and Boris Thomashevsky.5 And it was here, in the late 1880s on the little stage lit by candle light, that real horses were used in the tragedies and comedies of that era. In the 1890s, the S. 4th Street vegetable and meat market was started on the sidewalks; it eventually grew into the fabled S. 4th Street pushcart market, still remembered till this day.



Most of the immigrants worked in the nearby sweatshops or in the markets. Markets were located in the shambles along S. 2nd Street, the Washington Market along Bainbridge Street from 3rd to 5th Streets and in the 4th Street pushcart market. Sweatshops in the quarter numbered over one hundred. On the 300 block of Lombard Street alone there were five sweatshops. In 1895, men in these shops were paid $6.00 per week for working 58 hours and women, for the same work and hours, were paid $3.00 a week and sometimes as little as $1.80.

After 1900, Jews moved south across Washington Avenue and within just a few years they lived in great numbers south of Washington Avenue and east of Broad Street. Many Jews in the clothing trade prospered during the 1920s and moved to West Philadelphia and Strawberry Mansion. After Congress cut off immigration from Eastern Europe in 1924, the old Jewish quarter began to die out. Although its demise was slowed, first by the Depression and then by the effects of World War II, outward movement from the quarter accelerated after the war ended. Today, there are four synagogues remaining from the original Jewish quarter. Two buildings built as synagogues—B’nai Abraham, 527 Lombard Street (built in 1910), and B’nai Rueben, 6th & Kater Streets (built in 1905 but used for commercial purposes since 1956)—survive. Today, the twin religious houses of Mother Bethel Church (built in 1889) and Congregation B’nai Abraham stand proudly together at the corner of 6th & Lombard streets—and have stood together since 1910.


References:


1 The Presbyterian, Vol. LIX, No. 9, March 2, 1889 (Presbyterian Historical Society).


2 For a listing of the wholesale clothiers and sweatshops on Bank and Strawberry Streets, see Harry D. Boonin, The Jewish Quarter of Philadelphia (JWT of Philadelphia, Inc., 1999), Appendix B.


3 The Life of Michael Valentine Ball (1868-1945), Transcribed and Researched by Edward L. Ball (Warren, PA, June 2003), p. 167. (Privately printed).


4 Rudoph J. Walther, Happenings in Ye Olde Philadelphia (Walther Printing House, Philadelphia, 1925), p. 176, and Dock Street from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, January 27, 1919, by Penn (William Perrine).


5 David B. Tierkel, History of the Yiddish Theatre in Philadelphia, unpublished Yiddish typescript, 1934, Yiddisher Visnshaftlikher Institue, YIVO, New York.

    Categories
    Urban Planning

    Creativity in Cast Iron: Strickland Kneass’s Chestnut Street Bridge


    Purchase Photo   View Nearby Photos

    For Strickland Kneass (1821-1884) engineering was not about letting tradition dictate uninspired designs nor did the profession thrive in clannish fiefdoms of expertise. Trained in the era before formal engineering curricula, Kneass saw engineering as an organic profession whose rules, though important, were always secondary to imaginative solutions. In his nearly half century of work in the private sector and his seventeen years of service to the City of Philadelphia as Chief Engineer and Surveyor, as a sewer and drain expert, as a bridge builder, and as Fairmount Park Commissioner, Kneass distinguished himself as a polymath designer and organizer who deftly navigated between the shoals of tradition and innovation.

    The remains of Kneass’s boldest design, a bridge whose scale and use of cast iron made it singular in the United States and throughout the world, stands ignored by hundreds of thousands of motorists, pedestrians, and joggers who pass it. A vestige of his Chestnut Street Bridge (1861-66): the eastern granite abutment and the central pier, though ignobly incorporated into the current highway overpass, still testifies to the creativity and vision of one of the city’s most talented builders.

    The son of a Philadelphia engraver, Kneass attended the Rensselaer Institute, later Polytechnic Institute, when that institution began developing its own idiosyncratic approach to training civil engineers. For a young Kneass attending the Troy, NY school in the late 1830s, the curriculum—which still included geology, law, Biblical history, and surveying—was far from a dry inculcation of mathematical formulae. Despite a rigorous schedule that roused students at dawn, “there was considerable flexibility, informality, and probably even laxity in the actual operation” of the school. Students were taught to work through problems, develop their own conclusions, and report on their findings during examinations. A Rensselaer engineer, an advertisement touted, “are taught all these things (23 subjects of civil engineering) and many others, with the appropriate instruments in their hand, accompanied by short lectures of their own.”


    Purchase Photo   View Nearby Photos

    Graduating in 1839 at the age of 18 with full honors, Kneass reaped the benefits of this diverse technological education and soon lived up to the reputation of the multifaceted Rensselaer engineer. In 1847 he assisted the Pennsylvania Railroad in laying out a portion of their Harrisburg to Pittsburgh segment. He also worked as a draftsman at the Naval Bureau of Engineering and as a topographer for the British Commission mapping the U.S.-Canadian border. Later, in 1869, he assisted James Worrall in surveying the famous 12 Mile Arc border between Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

    In 1855, Kneass resigned as chief engineer for the North Pennsylvania Railroad to become Chief Engineer and Surveyor of the City of Philadelphia.  He found the bureaucracy of the recently-consolidated city in shambles. He soon concentrated all the operations of the seven survey districts and standardized grade plans, weights and measures, and designs for sewerage. In 1865 he organized a Registry Bureau as the central repository for property data and building plans. All the while he made recommendations for the improvement of the city’s sewer and storm water systems.

    Undoubtedly, Kneass stayed abreast of the new developments in bridge construction; he knew of popular ornamentation then in vogue in Europe and construction management methods. He probably followed the reorganization of his alma mater on the pattern of the progressive French Ecole Polytechnique. He certainly knew of the iron bridge at Colebrookdale, England over the Severn River—the often-reproduced icon of the Industrial Revolution built in 1791. Perhaps closer to home, he knew of William Strickland’s use of iron members at the Chestnut Street Theater. And he may have recalled the work of two innovative Army engineers at Dunlap’s Creek in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. There, Captain Richard Delafield and Lieutenant George W. Cass constructed the country’s first metal arch bridge in 1836 as part of the Cumberland Road.


    Purchase Photo   View Nearby Photos

    The success of these projects, and a willingness to try new materials, may have influenced Kneass’s design for the Chestnut Street Bridge in 1857 which included an unprecedented amount of cast iron. Though it is unclear who supplied the cast iron, two features made iron attractive.  One was the adaptability of the casting process.  Artistically and practically, cast iron offered designers great flexibility.  Bridges made of a multitude of smaller, mass-produced components could be assembled easier and were inherently safer.    This, coupled with the proximity of Philadelphia’s cast iron suppliers, led Kneass to build a bridge around two sweeping 184’ arches using six cast iron ribs. Yet Kneass was no bare functionalist and his line and watercolor drawings abound with Gothic arches in stone and iron. And though Kneass was applying an untested material to a major arterial bridge, he still followed an important standard practice: overbuilding the bridge to ensure safety redundancy. Each rib, he estimated, could sustain a transient load of 486,000 lbs. Anticipating increasing traffic, Kneass wanted wider approaches—a detail the shortsighted city councils wrong-headedly vetoed as the bridge had to be widened in 1911.


    Purchase Photo   View Nearby Photos

    Construction began in 1861 and by 1864 the center pier was completed as evidenced by the date “1864” etched into the stone shield on the central pier’s southern side. Two years later the bridge opened to the public at a cost of $500,000. For most of the latter half of the nineteenth century, the bridge remained a point of pride for American civil engineers. “As far as known, with the exception of the Chestnut-street bridge, Philadelphia,” wrote engineer Malverd Abijah Howe in 1897, “there are no cast-iron arch bridges of any magnitude in the United States.” Despite its apparent stolidity Strickland Kneass’s Chestnut Street Bridge did not last a century and it was demolished in 1958, perhaps because its massive western abutment sat right in the path of the Schuylkill Expressway.

    Works Cited:

    • Gilchrist, Agnes.  “Chestnut Street Bridge,” Historic American Engineering Survey, (Washington: National Park Service, 1958), 2.

    • Graff, Frederic.  Obituary Notice of Strickland Kneass, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 21, No. 115. (Apr., 1884), pp. 451-455.

    • Howe, Malverd A.  A Treatise On Arches: Designed for the Use of Engineers and Students in Technical Schools (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1897), xvii.

    • Rezneck, Samuel.  An Education for a Technological Society: A Sesquicentennial History of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy: RPI, 1968).

    Categories
    Historic Sites

    From Musket Balls to Basketballs- The Sparks Shot Tower


    Purchase Photo   View Nearby Photos
    Perhaps it is still standing because it would cost too much to demolish. The Sparks Shot Tower – for many years the tallest structure in Philadelphia – is now part of a city recreation center. Instead of making tons of musket balls, birdshot and bullets, the 142-foot tower looms above an indoor basketball court.

    The Sparks Shot Tower has been a South Philadelphia landmark since 1808. Located at Front and Carpenter Streets, it’s easily seen by passing motorists on I-95. Most people probably assume it’s a tall smoke stack from some long-defunct factory. It is, indeed, a 200-year-old industrial artifact. When the brick tower was first built, it represented a revolutionary new technology in the manufacture of lead ammunition. The technology was born in Great Britain where it was discovered that dropping molten lead from a high place caused it to form perfectly round balls as it fell. The lead was poured through a mesh that gave the balls the proper sizes. The hot balls fell into a large vat of water.

    Until this discovery, musket balls were fashioned by pouring the lead into wooden molds. The new technique made it many times quicker and cheaper to make ammunition. Tons of shot was imported to America until President Thomas Jefferson imposed the Embargo Act in 1807. During the Napoleonic Wars, both France and Great Britain began seizing ships from neutral nations headed toward enemy ports. Jefferson’s answer was to ban trading with both nations.

    According to a long-told story, Thomas Sparks and John Bishop were out hunting water fowl in the swamps in South Philly when they began discussing the high price of lead shot caused by the embargo and hit on the idea of building their own shot tower. Another partner in the project was James Clement.  All three were experienced in working with lead. The partners found someone who had worked in a British shot tower to advise them. The tower is said to be a sterling example of Philadelphia brickwork. Topped by a cone-shaped roof, the tower is 30 feet in diameter at the base and tapers to 15 feet. “Members of the United States Lighthouse Board have frequently repaired to its site to copy the model and afterward re-embody it in a lighthouse,” according to an 1875 book on Philadelphia industry.


    Purchase Photo   View Nearby Photos

    There is some debate over the claim that the Queen Village landmark was the first American shot tower. A stone shot tower in Wythe County, Va., along the New River, was built about the same time. It still stands along with Sparks and three other American shot towers. Within a year of the opening of the Sparks Shot Tower, Philadelphian Paul Beck built an even larger tower along the Schuylkill River, but it is long gone.

    During the War of 1812, the Sparks Shot Tower was in full operation selling ammunition to the federal government. Bishop left the enterprise because he was devout Quaker who felt he could not support war in any form. The third partner also eventually left. At some point machinery was installed in a nearby building to make the conical bullets that replaced most lead shot. Four generations of the Sparks family continued operations until 1903 when the business was sold.

    In 1913, the city purchased the shot tower and surrounding grounds to create a playground for a neighborhood teeming with immigrants and the poor. The entrance to the tower is sealed off and few have entered it in decades.

    Sources

    Avery, Ron. Beyond the Liberty Bell. Philadelphia: Broad Street Books, 1991.

    Workshop of the World. Oliver Evans Press, 1990. http://www.workshopoftheworld.com/index.html

    There is also a large amount of research on shot towers available on various websites.