The History Thread

[mr. snrub]

Originally Posted by SwiftLyons

i think know this guy
[http://diamond.temple.edu:81/search/...eet&12,,40,0,0

that wall behind him was the outer wall of my apartment when i lived here in 1991-92. that was a good apartment.

[SwiftLyons]

i do know him he lived next door to me as a kid Mike , phillys a big city ,but a small town

[chappers]

Originally Posted by bjeebers

The 1979 picture of the boarded up shops on 2100 South Street is quite interesting. I would love to see more pictures of the urban decay that afflicted this area after redlining and suburban sprawl knocked cities down for the count. I wonder how bad did this area get???

Did you see this not particularly cheery view of South Street in 1972?

http://diamond.temple.edu:81/search/...eet&39,,40,0,0

[lbphilly]

Originally Posted by chappers

Did you see this not particularly cheery view of South Street in 1972?

http://diamond.temple.edu:81/search/...eet&39,,40,0,0

That was shortly after the South Street Expressway project was abandoned. The years and years that the expressway hung over the neighborhood's head resulted in a lot of disinvestment. Why maintain your property if it's going to be knocked down? Why maintain your property if you aren't going to be able to sell it because it's going to be knocked down?

I remember South Street in the early 70s, as the hippies-turned-artists started to colonize it. It was pretty grim. I had some friends who moved down there and I was uneasy visiting them.

[mesok]

Originally Posted by dogfaceboy

Any pictures that I'd get are more than likely pictures of family members.

I doubt if we have any Historical landmark shot.

My Mother just passed away and we'll be going through her stuff over the next months I'm sure.

I'll see what we have and get back to you.

They don't necessarily need to be historical landmarks. Photos of your house, your street, parades, kids playing, anything that gives the flavor and charm of what it was like growing up in this neighborhood.

[JillyS]

Originally Posted by SwiftLyons

you can see a good part of swcc in this shot look to the far left, looks like the photo was taken at broad and carpenter press the square in the corner it gets bigger

http://www.hellophiladelphia.com/Ima...hia_c_1913.jpg

Is the building to the right the performing arts high school at Broad & Christian? What was it when this picture was taken? I love that building.

[SwiftLyons]

"Is the building to the right the performing arts high school at Broad & Christian? What was it when this picture was taken? I love that building."

yes it is, the photo is from 1913. if you look to the far right you can see the steple(sic) of st pauls church before they removed the top.

[lbphilly]

Originally Posted by JillyS

Is the building to the right the performing arts high school at Broad & Christian? What was it when this picture was taken? I love that building.

It was the Ridgway Building, ostensible headquarters of The Library Company of Philadelphia. James Ridgway left a significant bequest to the Library Company on condition that they build this building at the current location -- he had some other quirky stipulations as well, including one that he and his late wife, Phoebe Ridgway, be interred within the building. The Library Company accepted the bequest and built the building, albeit not without reservations. Their "satellite" reading room at Juniper and Locust, designed by Frank Furness, was the more popular of the two sites.

Ridgway's confidence that the balance of power would shift to South Philadelphia was not borne out by history and by the 1960s the Library Company was ready to move back to center city. It built its new headquarters at 1314 Locust Street on ground that, I understand, it purchased from The Historical Society of Philadelphia. When it moved, it took the Ridgways' remains with it. The building at Broad and Christian was used by the Department of Recreation for some years, and then found new life in its adaptive reuse as the high school for the creative and performing arts. When we moved to the neighborhood, it was still largely unused, with great gaunt Pawlonias out front and elderly gentlemen playing chess on card tables under their shade. I kind of miss the Ridgway Pawlonias -- I wonder how many of our own weed trees are descended from the them.

There's a significant history of the Library Company online in Adobe Acrobat format, available at

http://www.librarycompany.org/about/history.htm

[Film trivia: you can see the library, briefly, through the windows of Randolph and Mortimer Duke's limousine in Trading Places. I believe it was also featured in Twelve Monkeys.]

[Guv'nor]

Originally Posted by chappers

Did you see this not particularly cheery view of South Street in 1972?

http://diamond.temple.edu:81/search/...eet&39,,40, 0,0

Now that we're onto movie trivia, Jamie Lee Curtis' character, Ophelia the prostitute, in Trading Places (which was shot in the early 80's) lives on South Street. When she first brings Louis (Dan Akroyd) home, they walk past a boarded up rowhouse with, I think '1313 South St.' written in blaze orange spraypaint on the front. One of my favorite movies and still hilarious.

[chappers]

I just found a Connecticut antiques store online that appears to have a copy of the original title deeds of the 2200 and 2300 blocks of Madison Square for sale. If my house was more than a blank space on the map, I'd snap them up. Maybe someone in the neighborhood is interested in them. They might look good on the wall of the yellowbar!