Monday, October 27, 2014
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Broad Street Station - Philadelphia - 1890s
Below are drawings on Reading Terminal Train Shed Phila. circa 1893, similar to Broad Street Station's train shed.
Monday, September 1, 2014
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
St. Paul's Aramingo - Holy Innocents/St.Paul's Torresdale and Tyson - Philadelphia
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| Holy Innocents / St. Paul's Episcopal Church - Torresdale and Tyson Phila. (Bing Maps) |
St. Paul’s
Episcopal Church "Aramingo" – formerly of 3825 Kensington Ave., Phila..
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| New Organ - 1939 |
St. Paul's
Church began in the Aramingo section of the city. Members of St. Mark's,
Frankford, started a Sunday School in what was still mostly farmland. Expansion
continued as Aramingo developed its own mills and factories. By 1870, St. Paul's
was viable enough to be admitted to convention as a parish. During the Great
Depression, St. Paul's gained some fame for its soup kitchen, started by women
of the parish.
Both
parishes were affected by the demise of manufacturing industries. The Disston
family sold its firm in 1954, and operations were moved. The parish declined
further in the late 1970's and early 80's. St. Paul's was suffering a similar
fate in the 1970's. By 1990, Holy Innocents was struggling to stay alive, and a
fire destroyed St. Paul's.
After a
period of wandering the urban wilderness, St. Paul's found a new home at Holy
Innocents' location. The parishes merged on November 18, 1992, eventually
making interior renovations and constructing a new addition, fronting
Torresdale Ave., in 1998.
St.Paul’s
Aramingo – Church Hall – 1956 – St.Paul’s Church, left of photo
.
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Saturday, July 12, 2014
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Fred A Thomas Patent 1914 – (Sanitary) Horse Drinking Fountain
.jpg) |
| (photo source - The National Humane Review – April 1917) original copyright expired |
With a lot
of Victorian charity for humane treatment of animals, came a lot of buying
and installing drinking fountains for horses in the cities of late nineteenth
and early twentieth century America. With this came a new hazard, the spread of disease
among animals drinking in these fountains.
A lot of these stone horse
troughs were built by monument makers for cemeteries or granite workers and their businesses – some of these same businesses such as John M. Gessler’s Sons
of Philadelphia.
“Glanders is
a contagious and fatal disease of horses, donkeys, and mules, and is caused by
infection from certain bacterium.”
Once the
problem was identified, fountains were closed for a couple summers until a new
sanitary method of delivering water came into being, with the flow of street pressured water from the bottom up into individual cups for
the horses to drink and the overflow traveling out over the ever filling cup reservoirs
going back down drains by gravity.
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Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Monday, March 10, 2014
Colorforms - Popeye - May 1958 - Tacony Street Philadelphia
Uncle Russ playing with my Popeye Colorforms Cartoon Kit - May 1958 - backyard Tacony Street house now under I-95 across from Frankford Arsenal. Arm in the air imitating Popeye's arm muscle.
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Audsley / Saint Joan of Arc (Martyr's) Cross - Joan of Arc School Harrowgate Philadelphia
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| Audsley / Saint Joan of Arc Cross |
Page 98...
"Day by day
we awaited the arrival of the steam shovel. After what seemed an
endless
delay it arrived on December 13 (1921). The cement footings were laid
at once before
the ground, which was of the firmest brick clay, had any chance
of falling
in. Then came the frost and we had to wait once more. the winter
was very
mild and it was possible for the stone masons to lay the heavy
foundations
in the early part of January. They brought them up to ground
level.
The first
plans provided that the auditorium should be about eighteen feet
below the
ground level. The City Hall, however, raised an objection. If this
arrangement
was to be followed it would be necessary to provide ramps
instead of
stairways for the exits; and this in turn would mean the building of
a retaining
wall that would have increased the price by many thousands of
dollars. Mr.
Audsley met the difficulty by raising the whole building and
providing
plans for a new front elevation to harmonize with the alteration. It
was a
satisfactory change. The proximity of the neighboring houses really
made it
desirable to place the school-rooms as high as possible.
The basement
auditorium was changed into a temporary Church. This is the
explanation
of its character. We had previously intended to hold services
temporarily
on the first school floor. It was well that this difficulty occurred,
for it was
not many years before we needed more space for school rooms
than one
floor would have provided.
On January
24 the steel began to arrive. The building was to be completely
fire-proof;
even the floors were to be nailed to a new cement with the use of
sleepers.
Practically no wood entered into the construction, or the
partitions
were built later on from gypsum.
Early in February the bricklayers strike was
settled. Our building was the first to profit by it; indeed, it was by persuading
Mr. Melody to withdraw from the Masters Builders Committee that we were
able to bring this happy solution of a very serious situation.
Throughout
the month of February the brickwork progressed like magic,
whilst the
great steel columns and beams were being erected. I tried my had
at riveting
and was able to put in a few bolts under close supervision. I learnt
then what
heavy work it was to sit aloft and bear the constant vibration of the
compressed
air riveter. The cement of the first floor was poured on March
16th. I
remember the occasion very well. From our elevation we could see
the Delaware
river and there was a fresh breeze flowing. My friend, the
building
inspector, with whom I had once a controversy, was watching the
proceedings
and he expressed his admiration for the strength of the
construction.
We left a
portion of the wall at the south-western corner below level so that
the
solemnity of the corner stone laying might take place in fair weather.
Bishop Crane
officiated on Palm Sunday. Before the ceremony the
Bricklayers
Union requested the pleasure of making him an honorary
member of
their guild to record the settlement of the strike. Bishop Crane
was
compelled to refuse this kind suggestion for reasons that are obvious.
Mr. Audsley
appeared in his best and superintended the laying of the
beautiful
stone that he had designed, a gift of the stone contractor. In it were
placed
various articles destined to prove the date of the event....
By the end
of May the brickwork was finished and in another month the roof
was on. The
plastering began at once. On July 2 the first mass was said in
the new
building on the middle floor. For one month the Sunday masses
were
celebrated in this inconvenient place, the floor being of unfinished
cement. The
plasters completed their work in the Auditorium by the end of
July. On
August 6 mass was said here, the floor being still unfinished.
Everything
was practically in order by October 8 [1922].
The motif of
a cross within a circle that appeared on the school's corner
stone had
been earlier used by Audsley on the family monument at Mount Hope
Cemetery in
Yonkers, New York. It would serve as the marker of his final
resting place upon
his death on 21 June 1925."
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Monday, February 24, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
Red Lion Inn - County Line Philadelphia/Bucks County - Bensalem Township - circa 1940s
Photo attributed to: Photographer Carsten W Johnson, DDS, 1941-42
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Saturday, February 15, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Grave of Msgr Edward Hawks - St. Joan of Arc Church - Philadelphia
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| Google Street Map |
Behind the Chapel - Atlantic St. and Frankford Avenue.
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Sunday, January 26, 2014
Friday, January 17, 2014
Did part of Ben Franklin's House exist up until the early part of the 20th Century?
Did part of Ben's house exist up until the early part of the 20th century? Background.
http://www.philadelphiaspeaks.com/forum/history/33055-any-further-history-data-out-there-regarding-franklin-court.html
I ran into this photo circa 1910 regarding Franklin Court and I was reminded of a discussion on a NYC architectural interest forum, two years back, about how the original King’s College Main Hall of the original Columbia University in New York City, downtown and a block or two from city hall, how it probably got chopped up into sections, and sold off piecemeal rather than being totally demolished in the 1850s.
The conversation was part of the then current so-called controversy of the Cordoba Mosque being built two blocks over from the World Trade Center. The so-called World Trade Center mosque was a foreign real estate thing with the taking over of the old Sym’s Men’s Clothing store and turning it into a mosque where mostly cab drivers could say prayers in a busy schedule.
The eventual plan was to tear down what was left of some nineteenth century cast iron fronted buildings tied together in that old clothing store, where I used to buy a few suits BTW, and build a thirteen story building to also contain office space, health/gym center and of course a place for prayer.
In the course of the discussion it got mentioned that 49-51 Park Place was on the site of the original King’s College building. With the help of online lot maps with the city of New York, some interesting ideas developed. One was that the lots on Park Place were irregular in size. That the smallest lot on Park Place was likely to have been the structure directly beneath the cupola in the photo.
There is a sketchy history attached to the move of King’s College before the revolution, Columbia College after the revolution, moving uptown to the present site of Rockefeller Center until about 1910 when it moved further uptown to the Morningside Heights campus on a hill overlooking Harlem at 116th Street and Broadway.
A modern idea is that you demolish and build fresh. (Urban Renewal?)
It would appear that the old King’s college building got sold off piecemeal with some parts demolished and some others still standing as stores until late in the nineteenth century. That some of the the basement walls of the old Sym’s store may be in fact part of still intact foundation walls of the original King’s College etc. But that is New York and money trumps history every day of the week there especially when it comes to real estate.
That to do this suggests a great deal of frugality on the people, their time and mindset, buying pieces of the building, recycling them, and also buying a chunk of a previous continuous building that could stand in pieces that stood on solid foundation walls and or solid interior supporting walls. Thus the irregular nature of some of the lots on Park Place according to that discussion documented below...
Getting back to Franklin Court, Hudson Street, S. Orianna St.
and or the original Ben Franklin house torn down around 1810 to be subdivided
into lots and make money for his descendants, the thought occurred to me that
this, what looks like a large building 17 S. Orianna Street, would be built
from scratch in almost an alleyway and described as a street. Perhaps it could
be a recycled part of the original Franklin house or part of a three story
addition built in 1785.
Considering Franklin’s wealth and interest in solid fire proofing with plaster in the construction, that the addition may have survived because it could stand on its own and that the street was positioned accordingly. Frugality plus room for a tidy profit too.
Can’t find anything online regarding when 17 S. Orianna Street was demolished, probably in the great tsunami of urban renewal in the 1950s.
Considering Franklin’s wealth and interest in solid fire proofing with plaster in the construction, that the addition may have survived because it could stand on its own and that the street was positioned accordingly. Frugality plus room for a tidy profit too.
Can’t find anything online regarding when 17 S. Orianna Street was demolished, probably in the great tsunami of urban renewal in the 1950s.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Ridge Ave and N. Broad Street – Horse Watering Trough – circa 1910
In the late nineteenth century Bell H. Crump, a native of New York, donated the funds to erect this horse watering trough fountain at the, then bustling, juncture of Ridge Avenue and North Broad Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “Donated by Bell H. Crump,” is carved within the rim of the fountain.
There was
one on these round Horse Watering Troughs at the intersection of Kensington and
Frankford Avenues in my childhood at the northern tip of Womrath Park.
Along with map
below 1910, shows “Garage” on both map and photo.
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