{"id":10509,"date":"2016-06-15T13:20:40","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T17:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=10509"},"modified":"2016-06-16T22:03:58","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T02:03:58","slug":"saving-souls-on-hells-half-acre-the-inasmuch-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2016\/06\/saving-souls-on-hells-half-acre-the-inasmuch-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving Souls on Hell’s Half Acre: The Inasmuch Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Perspective<\/a>
Perspective of NE corner of Warnock and Locust St. Inasmuch Mission building, January 8, 1917 (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBorn and brought up a true son of the tenderloin,\u201d George Long survived as a child pickpocket in Madison Square Park in New York City.<\/p>\n

At the age of 14, having “been thoroughly schooled in the ways of the underworld, he launched himself upon his career as a \u2018grafter.\u2019” Long became addicted to cocaine and morphine and for the next two decades lived as \u201ca habitu\u00e9 of the dens of vice in the large cities\u2026 repellant even to the keepers of the lowest resorts.\u201d He had, \u201ctime and time again\u201d been thrown out of even \u201cthe filthiest brothels.\u201d<\/p>\n

George Long “floated about the country for years” arriving in Philadelphia “on the \u2018hobo\u2019s\u2019 common carrier, the freight train.\u201d A “wreck of a man\u201d on Skid Row, Long was \u201cdissipated and disheveled, unshaven, unkempt, and saturated with liquor… a \u2018bum\u2019 of the uttermost, guttermost type.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then \u00a0he found religion. Long “fell upon his knees in the Galilee Mission<\/a> and gave his heart to God\u201d and dedicated himself to saving the souls of others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a \u2018down and outer\u2019 to reform a \u2018down and outer,\u2019\u201d he claimed. \u201cSocial workers try hard, but they can\u2019t realize that feeling the other fellow has.\u201d Long could talk with \u201cthem in their own language.\u201d He met them where they lived, \u201cin the heart of the city\u2019s most disreputable and filthy sections\u201d like Philadelphia\u2019s Hell\u2019s Half Acre\u2014a place even more desperate than Skid Row.<\/p>\n

\u201cBounded by Spruce and Walnut Street and Tenth and Eleventh\u201d Hell\u2019s Half Acre \u201cis cut up by many small thorough fares filled with dilapidated houses. No less than 65 were being used for immoral purposes\u201d including three gambling dens, two opium joints, and many pool rooms and speakeasies.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the heart of it,\u00a0on Locust Street east of 11th, George Woodward<\/a>, owned \u201c20 vacant, ramshackle houses.\u201d \u201cEach was connected with the other by an underground passage, so that if a crime was committed in one, the perpetrator could easily make his way from that house to another, and so on to the street and to safety. One building in this group was known as the \u2018get-away house.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Long convinced Woodward of his plans and the wealthy\u00a0developer from Chestnut Hill turned over the houses, rent free. Long and his associates cleaned them up, removing \u201celeven wagonloads of beer bottles, playing cards, discarded frills and burbelows [furbelows?] of feminine wearing apparel, and other rubbish.\u201d They made the former “getaway house” Long’s headquarters.<\/p>\n

The Inasmuch Mission (named for the biblical passage: \u201cAnd the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me\u201d) was born.<\/p>\n

\""Chapel<\/a>
“Chapel of Inasumch Mission,” in The Inasmuch Mission: A Work of God Made Manifest. Church News, February 1915.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beginning in March, 1911 Inasmuch offered help to \u201cany man in need, providing that the beneficiary showed the desire to help himself.\u201d And in the first six months more than 14,000 attended services, 8,731 meals were served and more than 2,000 took lodging. The mission placed 96 reformed men in paying jobs. At the second anniversary celebration, the first three rows were packed with men whose testimony so inspired Mrs. Woodward, she offered to donate funds for \u201ca suitable building in which Mr. Long might carry out his original dream.”<\/p>\n

Inspired by London\u2019s Rowton Houses for working men and New York\u2019s Mills Hotel<\/a>, Philadelphia architects, Duhring, Okie & Ziegler<\/a> designed a severe, four-story, fire-proof facility with a chapel for 300, an office, a restaurant, a kitchen, and 400 beds. In March 1914, Long and others dedicated the Inasmuch Mission<\/a> \u201cas a place where men will be cleansed, both mentally and physically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Long\u2019s evangelistic career grew in scope and scale. With the gift (also from Mrs. Woodward) of a \u201clarge touring car,\u201d Long began a \u201cseries of automobile meetings\u201d on street corners \u201cthroughout the Tenderloin.\u201d Long provided sermons accompanied by musical entertainment.<\/p>\n

The popular evangelist soon preached to gatherings of 1,000 in a giant Inasmuch tent pitched at 60th and Locust Streets. In the midst of the World War, Long lumped together local food profiteers, rent gaugers and the Kaiser. \u201cHell is too good for them,\u201d Long shouted.<\/p>\n

Followers cheered.<\/p>\n

Long determined to break a preaching record in the summer of 1918. For ten weeks straight he packed tent meetings with as many as 3,000. Long moved indoors to the nearby Imperial Theatre, 219 South 60th Street<\/a>, while architects drew up plans for a new 5,000-seat evangelistic tabernacle.<\/p>\n

More confident than ever, Long pivoted his message from the pulpit to politics: \u201cThere are more gamblers, thieves, pickpockets and prostitutes in this city than ever before, and it depends upon our next mayor as to whether they are to remain here.\u201d<\/p>\n

He \u201ccensured women who wear immodest attire\u201d Long claimed “such women were responsible for much of the widespread immorality\u201d adding: “More men are being sent to hell today owing to women’s immodest dressing than ever before.”<\/p>\n

And he critiqued fellow preachers: \u201cThe she-man in the pulpit, with his soft voice and ladylike manners, has been driving red-blooded men away from the church.” The headline read:\u00a0\u201cEvangelist Flays “Sissies\u201d In Pulpit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long, it seemed, was only getting started.<\/p>\n

[Sources include: Blair Jaekel, \u201cThe Inasmuch Mission<\/a>,\u201d The World\u2019s Work: A History of Our Time <\/em>(Doubleday, Page & Company, 1913); \u201cInasmuch Mission: A Work of God Made Manifest<\/a>,\u201d The Church News of the Diocese of Pennsylvania (1915); \u00a0G. Grant Williams, Hells Half Acre and Inasmuch Mission,\u201d The Philadelphia Tribune<\/em>, May 18, 1912; \u201cRose From Underworld,\u201d The New York Times, May 12, 1913; and from The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cInasmuch Mission and Founder Have Done Great Work,<\/em><\/strong>\u201d September 1, 1912; \u201cTo Conduct Street Missions in Auto,\u201d January 15, 1913; \u201cInasmuch Mission will Provide Home for Men Desiring Reform,\u201d January 24, 1914; \u201cInasmuch Mission Now in New Home,\u201d March 24, 1914; \u201cScores Food Gougers,\u201d July 8, 1918; \u201cTent Meetings Overflow,\u201d July 27, 1918; \u201cEvangelist Flays \u2018Sissies\u2019 In Pulpit,\u201d August 4, 1919.]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBorn and brought up a true son of the tenderloin,\u201d George Long survived as a child pickpocket in Madison Square Park in New York City. At the age of 14, having “been thoroughly schooled in the ways of the underworld, he launched himself upon his career as a \u2018grafter.\u2019” Long became addicted to cocaine and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}