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Thursday, August 29, 2019
Queer Things Doing at the Pest House Out in Swampoodle - Inquirer 2 Sept 1895
QUEER THINGS DOING AT THE PEST HOUSE
VISITORS ALLOWED UNRESTRICTED INTERCOURSE WITH THE CONVALESCENTS.
CARRYING AWAY DISEASE
A Sample of the Dangerously Lax Methods Prevailing At the Municipal Hospital - Hints for the Board of Health.
Patients taken to the Municipal Hospital at Twenty-first street and Lehigh avenue, which is in that section of the city long known as "Swampoodle," are supposed to be isolated from the time of their entrance until they are discharged as cured. On the three or four gates which give entrance to the extensive grounds surrounding the city's pest house are prominently displayed the following notice:
"Visiting the hospital is not permitted. Full information in regard to the condition of patients can be obtained of the Health Officer, at room 615, City Hall, who has telephone communication with the hospital."
ORDERS IGNORED.
Notwithstanding this stringent order and despite the fact that no visitors are admitted into the hospital, there is daily communication between the inmates and their friends and relatives on the outside. Every fair day, and particularly on Sunday, from twenty-five to one hundred persons assemble along the slatted fence which incloses the hospital grounds on the Lehigh avenue side, many of them being little children, and these visitors freely converse with convalescing patients, shake hands with them through the palings and even exchange kisses. The patients in the Municipal Hospital are suffering from such diseases as leprosy, small-pox, scarlet fever and diphtheria. On fair days those who are convalescent are allowed to wander around the grounds for exercise. Alongside of the Lehigh avenue fence there is a broad board walk and there is a standing order that no patient shall approach nearer the fence than the inner side of the boardwalk. To see that this order is obeyed a nurse is stationed on the steps of one of the wooden pavilions that were erected several years ago when it was feared that Philadelphia would be visited by Asiatic cholera.
DANGER IN TH E PLAY.
Yesterday there were a score or more children Just recovered from scarlet fever or diphtheria, playing about under the trees. They watched the nurse warily, and whenever her head was for a moment turned a half dozen of the little ones would make a dash across the boardwalk to receive the affectionate embraces of their relatives lined up against the other side of the fence. An Inquirer reporter and an artist watched this queer performance for several hours yesterday afternoon, and took note of what occurred. Among the visitors, most of whom were women, was one young, rather stylishly dressed matron, wheeling a perambulator in which was a sleeping infant. There was a look of anxious expectancy on her face, and her eyes were continually riveted on the door of the wooden pavilion inside the hospital grounds. Suddenly there was
a cry of joy and a white-faced lad in knickerbockers dashed across the boardwalk, and coming close up to the fence was rapturously kissed by the stylishly dressed matron. "I thought you would never come, Willie," she said, smoothing the lad's head and kissing him repeatedly. "You don't know how much your papa and I have worried about you. How do you feel?". "Kinder weak, mama," was the answer. ''Nurse has just let me get up. Did ye bring me anyfink good?'' .
"Here's a banana" said the mother, and she handed the fruit it through the palings. Willie devoured it in short order, and mama wiped his mouth with her dainty handkerchief. She was engaged in this motherly task when the sharp voice of the nurse was heard, and Willie fled back .across the dead line. Mama threw him kisses, which he returned and then he went back into the pavilion. Just then the baby awoke and began to cry. Mama hunted up a bottle and gave it milk. When it had finished she wiped its little mouth with the same handkerchief that had done a like service for diphtheretic Willie, and with a last, longing look toward the pavilion walked slowly away trundling the perambulator.
NURSES EVEN CARELESS.
It was just half-past 2 when a young miss, in a breezy summer costume, alighted from a Lehigh avenue car and, approaching the fence, cried in a very musical voice to the nurse who was on guard upon the steps of the pavilion. The latter responded, and, walking across the strip of lawn and the boardwalk, dead line, came close up to the fence and shook hands with the visitor. They remained in animated conversation for some time, during which the juvenile patients notice: followed the nurse's example and crowded about the fence, to be fed with cake, sweetmeats, fruit and candy, and kissed and hugged by those on the outside.
"Some of those people have been here, ever since 9 o'clock this morning," said a man living in the neighborhood, who had stopped out of curiosity to watch the strange scene. "There is a crowd of them here on, every fair day. There was one woman who had a child here sick with diphtheria. She came to see it one day, and kissed the little one several times when the nurse was not looking. When she went home she kissed her other children, and they all were taken
down with the disease. One died and the other three wore brought here. It's a shame to allow It, and I spoke to Steward Paul about it one day. He agreed with me, but declared that he was powerless to prevent it, as the doctor allowed the convalescents to come into that part of the grounds. 'They are ordered,' said he, 'not to cross the boardwalk, but they do, and they are kissed and hugged by the people on the outside, and the germs of disease are scattered broadcast. What is the use of sending people to the pest house if they are not isolated?' "
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Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Reading Terminal Entrance Make Over in Stainless Steel - Architectural Forum June 1950
The new stainless steel and plate glass entrance to the modernized and renovated Reading Terminal Building in Philadelphia. Architects —Simon and Boulware, Philadelphia,Pa. General Contractor—George A. Fuller Company; Sub-contractor—C. E. Halback and Company. Sign by Cutler Sign Advertising Company, Philadelphia,Pa
A Quaker City Girl Seeks A Divorce - Inquirer July 31, 1895
Philadelphia Inquirer July 31, 1895
A QUAKER CITY GIRL SEEKS A DIVORCE
ONLY FOUR MONTHS OF BLISS
Was Married in December Last Only to Flee to Dakota in the Spring. Left a Beautifully Furnished Home. She Sang With Fay Templeton at the Park.
Lea Davis, who has brought suit for divorce in South Dakota, as published in a dispatch to The Inquirer from Yankton, is a Philadelphia girl whoso parents reside in the northern part of the city, and the defendant is Howard L. Davis, a prosperous young contractor and builder and the Junior member of the firm of Smith & Davis, whose office Is at Thirty-first and Berks streets.
Mrs. Davis's maiden name was Van Dyck and on the stage she was know as Lea Van Dyck. Early In life she demonstrated that she had a good voice and her parents sent her to Paris that she might have an excellent musical education. There she studied with Marchesi and attained considerable proficiency. Her soprano voice is said to be sweet and pure, but not strong.
Returning to this country she began to sing upon the operatic stage. One summer she sang with Kay Templeton at the Park Theatre. Again she traveled with the Boston Symphony and Orchestral Club, with the Bostonians in "Robin Hood," and starred through the South as Violet in the "Little Tycoon."
A FORMER MARRIAGE.
A son of a prominent Chestnut street merchant fell in love with her and married her, but separation and divorce followed. She has a graceful figure, looked well in tights upon the stage and always had many admirers.
One of Miss Van Dyck's most ardent adorers was young Mr. Davis. He helped her to get a divorce from her first husband and aided her when she got into trouble in New York. He also helped her to recover her Jewelry which she had parted with.
On December 27, 1894, the winsome operatic star was married to Mr. Davis in this city. At his request she left the stage and the pair began housekeeping on Euclid avenue, below Thirty-first street, where the groom fitted up a small and cozy house in elegant style.
"One reason for our unhappiness," said Mr. Davis yesterday, "was a disagreement between her relatives and myself. Matters became so annoying that it was finally necessary for my wife to choose between her husband and her family and she choose to go with her people."
A SUDDEN RETURN
"One day I left home intending to be absent from the city for a day. That was last April. I returned unexpectedly, however, and found my wife and her relatives busily packing up everything in the house as if preparing to move all the contents out. I stopped the proceedings right there. Mrs. Davis upon leaving my house went at once to Dakota for the purpose of gaining a residence there and seeking a divorce. I shall not oppose the proceedings."
"I have had enough of married life," said Mr, Davis yesterday. "I am going to convert this house into a bachelor's den."
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Monday, August 26, 2019
Kober Family Real Estate Transaction - Sheriff's Sale No. 62 - Inquirer 16 Dec 1907
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Louis Kober, 1868-1955 - Mover and Shaker - Harrowgate - circa 1916
Louis Kober ?
Kensington Ave. at bent #378 looking north, April 23, 1917 - Harrowgate Park
Inquirer 27 May 1906
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William L. Maze, Born May 6, 1846, Colebrook, Dauphin County Pennsylvania
Source: Information for employes and the public / Pennsylvania Railroad System. 1916
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Sunday, August 25, 2019
The Emmet Building NYC - 95 Madison Ave - 29th and Madison - The Brickbuilder, December 1912
The Brickbuilder - December 1912
The Emmet Building, New York City
MADSON AVENUE AND TWENTY-NINTH STREET
J. STEWART BARNEY AND STOCKTON B. COLT, ARCHITECTS
The architects of the Emmet Building were presented with a rather curious problem which arose from the sentimental attachment of the owner to the site. He had lived on Madison avenue for most of his life, and while realizing that the character of the street sentimental attachment of the owner to the site. He had lived on Madison avenue for most of his life, and while realizing that the character of the street had changed from a residential to a business one, and that it was impossible longer to continue the occupancy of the old-fashioned brownstone house, either with comfort or with profit, he did not desire to move from the location. He therefore erected an office and loft building, not as a speculative procedure, but as a permanent investment, and made the upper story of it into a housekeeping apartment. In as much as the building was to be not only an investment but his own permanent residence, he thought it desirable to erect something of good architectural character, which, although it should be a practical loft or office building, should at the same time have the distinction which every one wants in his own private house. The architects,by a somewhat different treatment of the upper story, have made plain the line of demarcation between the business portion of the building and the residence, and have successfully solved a very interesting problem, as will be seen by the accompanying illustrations.
In the design of the building emphasis was laid as strongly as possible on the vertical lines, in a manner not dissimilar to those in the Times Building, the West Street Building and the Woolworth Building, three of the most excellent tall buildings in New York.
The stories intermediate between the base and the large arches at the twelfth story are perhaps the most agreeable that have yet been designed in this type, which although in its vertical treatment is suggestive of Gothic, is far from being derived from Gothic; the base in fact rather resembling the early French Renaissance combination of classic forms.
One of the most interesting features in the whole structure are the columns of the lower two stories, which are of green marble inlaid with vertical lines of limestone, — a scheme which in form has perhaps had prototypes in early Gothic, but which in such a combination of material is a unique, beautiful, and clever piece of work. The first three stories are faced with limestone, and those above are of architectural terra cotta with metal panels between the sills of the windows and the heads of the windows below them, through the shaft of the building, with an attic of brick and terra cotta.
The use of the terra cotta in this building requires particular and favorable comment, in that no attempt has been made to disguise the nature of the material, which is frankly a fireproofing for the steel work within. The accuracy with which the vertical lines have been maintained with no feeling whatever of motion adds to the reputation of the material. The terra cotta is of a warm gray limestone color with dark olive green for the background of the band below the third story, in the arches at the twelfth, and in the cornice, but this color has not been made to serve the place of form, but rather to emphasize and decorate form; a method much more satisfactory in the long run than any attempt to replace form by color. We have become accustomed to the construction of elaborate and beautiful detail in the material, but it is interesting to learn that the statues and grotesques are cast terra cotta, a most unusual procedure in such large pieces, and which opens up further fields to its already extensive possibilities. The modeling of these pieces is of an unusual character.
Perhaps the greatest element in the success of the treatment of this building is the fact that the architects have scaled their detail down to that of the material employed, without losing character and distinction to the building as a whole. They have not found it necessary to employ enormous overhanging cornices, which are not only bad as reducing the light on already too narrow streets, but are, of course, when constructed in the usual way merely elaborate shams. They have managed to terminate the shaft firmly and distinctly by multiplying the small members, which even in their multiplicity are neither confused nor involved, but clear and logical both as to their architectural fitness in the design and as to explicit revelation of the material employed. It is refreshing to find this material, which is so useful and satisfactory both in appearance and price, frankly expressed, with an impression of great richness which in any other material would be almost prohibitive. The small pieces in which terra cotta can be properly manufactured, and the plastic quality of the detail as opposed to the large pieces and carved detail of stonework, can be used to quite as good effect as stone for certain positions; and to endeavor to conceal the material as if it were something to be ashamed of, is not the highest form of art. The Greeks very frequently employed terra cotta in decorating their stone architecture; but they did not use it like stone ; and this is one of the many lessons of the classic school we have left unlearned.
The same thoughtfulness in regard to the genuine structure of the building as a steel framework overlaid with a fireproof covering is observed throughout. Every one knows that none of the great marble or granite columns in the lower stories of tall buildings are anything but veneers; here the architects have obtained a firmness of design resulting from an order in the lower story with out attempting to force it to express a structural function; they have simply mosaiced the various members which make up an order, into an agreeable composition used as a decorative motive only. The same thing is true of the shaft, where the terra cotta is treated purely as a fire proof, weather-proof, and decorative covering for a steel frame.
It may be said of this building without lack of appreciation of other tall building work, that it is one of the few structures which approximate the true line of development of tall building architecture, both in its design and in selection and use of material. The classic order is neither neglected as useless nor employed as a fundamental, certain motives of Gothic and Renaissance work have been, if not embodied entire, at least suggestively useful in the design, and the whole building hangs together in a manner which might be totally unexpected if its elements were named, although when seen the exquisite propriety of then relation is at once evident.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmet_Building
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