{"id":7711,"date":"2014-06-02T12:21:08","date_gmt":"2014-06-02T16:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=7711"},"modified":"2014-06-04T10:06:16","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T14:06:16","slug":"reflections-on-a-funeral-for-a-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2014\/06\/reflections-on-a-funeral-for-a-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on a Funeral (for a Home)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\""The<\/a>
“The Parkway Group” and Hathaway Removing 1st Brick on the Parkway. 422 North 22nd Street, February 22, 1907. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The gathered mourners were done sharing memories. The moving eulogy was over and the choir\u2019s hymn reached its final \u201camen,\u201d echoing a dozen times through the streets of Mantua. Now, the waiting excavator reared back, its giant claw raised against the blue sky hovering over the two-story rowhouse at 3711 Melon Street. The Funeral for a Home<\/a> had reached the moment where ceremony was about to give way to reality. The claw gently picked up the blanket of flowers placed above the cornice and brought it down to the street. The next bite would be a chunk of the 142-year old cornice.<\/p>\n

Most of the hundreds in attendance considered this ceremony as something unusual and new. And it was unusual. But the event wasn\u2019t entirely without precedent. Another Philadelphia rowhouse was celebrated before its demolition in February 1907, although the speeches then didn\u2019t deal with memory or community.<\/p>\n

In the Fall of 1907, inspired by a grandiose vision of civic progress, the city served notice to more than 700 property owners whose homes stood in the way of The City Beautiful. \u00a0The idea of a grand boulevard connecting City Hall and Fairmount Park had been talked about for more than thirty years. Now the Parkway was a project with a timeline. In January, contractor Howard E. Ruch signed a contract with the city to demolish everything between Callowhill to Hamilton Streets that stood in the way. He had 95 days to complete the job, even though the majority of the residents were still in place.<\/p>\n

Director of Public Works John R. Hathaway decided if eggs were going to break, he might as well make an omelet. Hathaway cast displacement and demolition as historic \u201cimprovement\u201d and commandeered George Washington\u2019s birthday to choreograph a ceremony around the start of demolition.<\/p>\n

\"Demolition<\/a>
Demolition of 422 North 22nd Street. February 22, 1907. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first house to come down would be one of the few emptied rowhouses. On February 22nd<\/sup>, officials dressed for the occasion gathered at Ruch\u2019s nearby office and then, just before noon, held a procession to 422 North 22nd<\/sup> Street, the first residence \u201cmarked for demolition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe party\u2026 entered the house and one by one [climbed] up a rickety ladder\u2026onto the roof. There, just as the clock struck 12, the Director raised his silver pick and began loosening a brick on the chimney. \u2026 Several hundred persons on the street below gave a cheer as the first brick was pecked out and held aloft.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a luncheon following the ceremony, City Councilman John W. Ford, presented Hathaway with the silver pick in its custom-made, satin-lined case. Accepting it, Hathaway proclaimed: \u201cI regard this as an era in Philadelphia\u2019s history, and I shall cherish this souvenir to my dying day.\u201d<\/p>\n

A contrasting scenario was playing out around the corner at 2223 Hamilton Street. John Kelley and his wife were attempting to keep their<\/i> bricks, their home, in place. While Hathaway and his \u201cParkway Group<\/a>\u201d conducted ceremonial street theater, Kelley, who had previously believed \u201cthere was a chance of his home escaping demolition,\u201d realized all hope was lost. Already ill and now grieving \u201cover the fact that the house which he and his family occupied was to be dismantled,\u201d he soon received a final notice to vacate. Within days, Kelley died. Grieved to Death over Loss of Home, <\/i>read the newspaper headline.<\/p>\n

Walking from the Melon Street ceremony, I overheard a conversation between two Mantua \u00a0neighbors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s this all about?\u201d asked one resident.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve come to bury the neighborhood,\u201d was the response.<\/p>\n

This time, there wasn\u2019t a silver pick to take home. But there were lots<\/i> of questions about the history, meaning, and future of Philadelphia\u2019s neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

[Consulted newspaper articles, all from the archives of the The Philadelphia Inquirer, <\/i>include: <\/i>\u201cWorking on Parkway Property Owners Are Notified to Vacate,\u201d October 23, 1906; \u201cContract Awarded for Parkway Work,\u201d January 1, 1907; \u201cParkway Started by Razing of First Building,\u201d February 23, 1907; \u201cParkway Progress Opposed by Tenants, \u201cMarch 1, 1907; \u201cGrieved to Death over Loss of Home,\u201d March 3, 1907.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The gathered mourners were done sharing memories. The moving eulogy was over and the choir\u2019s hymn reached its final \u201camen,\u201d echoing a dozen times through the streets of Mantua. Now, the waiting excavator reared back, its giant claw raised against the blue sky hovering over the two-story rowhouse at 3711 Melon Street. The Funeral for […]<\/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-7711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7711","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=7711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}