The History Thread

[ahbinpa]

Hi all -

So the SWCC reading group has just read Pete Dexter's "God's Pocket" which is supposedly set in the Devil's Pocket (but really seems to be set in Taney). From what I've read, this book was inspired by a pretty nasty beating that Dexter received in a bar called Dougherty's that was on Lombard at 24th. Dubbed the Hollywood in the book. A funeral parlor also played a role in the book. I'd love to know 1) if any of you "old timers" were around when the whole Pete Dexter fight thing happened and what the local slant on the story was 2) stories of the Dougherty bar and 3) history/info on the funeral parlor on Lombard.

On behalf of all the book club ladies -- thanks!

A.

[Kevosh]

The PW did a lengthly piece on Dexter which gets into some specific details of that beat-down incident.
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=14183

[lbphilly]

While we're talking about singers who lived in the neighborhood (which we were, on another thread about Marian Anderson Historic Village), does anyone have any older neighbors who remember Nina Simone?

I went to church with a woman who lived, I think, around 23rd and Catharine when Nina Simone lived around here. She told me "we used to beat her up to make her sing."

[ahbinpa]

Doesn't one of her recent album covers have a photo of her as a child on it? I think she went to Greenfield and wondered if that was a Greenfield school photo.

[torts]

Ramsey H. Chew, 79, of Germantown, co-owner of Chew Funeral Home in South Philadelphia, died of lung cancer Dec. 8 at home.

Mr. Chew was born in South Philadelphia in his family's residence, which also housed the funeral business his father, Charles Jr., established in the 1920s.

Until he became ill last spring, Mr. Chew operated the funeral home with his brother Charles 3d. He was highly respected in the community and in the African American funeral industry, his daughter Deborah James said.

He was a graduate of Temple University High School, attended Howard University in Washington for two years, and graduated from Eckles College of Mortuary Science in Philadelphia. He served in an Army graves division in Korea during the Korean War.

Mr. Chew enjoyed painting, model building and boating. In 1962, his daughter said, he built a 20-foot motorboat, which he later donated to a youth group. For more than 40 years, he was an active member of Club Ashanti, an African American social organization in Philadelphia.

Since 1951, he was married to Marjorie Gilliam Chew, who had been his teenage sweetheart. In addition to his wife, daughter, and brother, Mr. Chew is survived by a son, Ramsey Jr.; a daughter, Diane Bowser; a brother, James; and five grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 5421 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/obitu...owner__79.html

[dr_gingivitis]

I saw this on the yahoo mailing list and thought it was really moving:

http://www.philly.com/philly/obituar..._DN__Inky.html

'Mr. Floyd' Culver, delivered DN, Inky
By JOHN F. MORRISON
Philadelphia Daily News

morrisj@phillynews.com 215-854-5573

NOBODY AT the Daily News or Inquirer ever called Floyd Culver anything but "Mr. Floyd."
"That's the kind of respect we had for him," said Bob Palmo, district circulation manager for the papers as he talked about a man who had been selling the papers in the streets of the city since 1947.

He was still selling them through helpers until a few weeks ago. After all, he was only 100 years old.

"He still wanted to be involved," Palmo said. "But about five weeks ago, he called me and said, 'I can't do it anymore.'"

Mr. Floyd, who began his working life on a pecan farm in Alabama, served as a cook in the Navy in World War II, and had been a loyal ambassador for the Daily News and Inquirer for six decades, died yesterday. He had turned 100 on Oct. 3.

Well into his 90s, Floyd loaded up the sturdy bicycle he bought in 1954 with newspapers, along with his cane, and would ply the streets of Center City and South Philadelphia, delivering hundreds of papers to the customers he loved. And who loved him.

If Floyd didn't show up with their newspaper on schedule, his customers knew there had to have been an earthquake or some other cataclysm.

Sickness was hardly an excuse.

"He didn't know what it was to take a sick day," said his daughter, Brenda Taylor, who took care of her father in his senior-citizen apartment at 16th and Reed streets, South Philadelphia.

In 1999, when Floyd was 91, Inquirer writer Michael Vitez, described him riding through the silent streets of Center City at 3 a.m.:

"The rain is pouring. He's wearing a yellow slicker. The balloon tires hum as they spit up water. He is carrying 84 morning newspapers in the basket on the front of his bike, and he has covered them with a brown tarp.

"Despite his frail, bent body and his heavy load, Mr. Floyd executes movements that are almost balletic. . . . He reaches and spins and twists, knowing just how much effort is needed to slip a paper under a door or stash one behind a screen. Every paper is lovingly delivered."

When he finished the first load, he rode back to the distribution point, a storefront at 18th and Bainbridge, and loaded up with the Daily News.

A major stop on his route was Graduate Hospital, where he delivered papers to patients and staff. On his 90th birthday, the doctors and nurses gave him a surprise party that brought tears to his eyes.

They had been tipped off by daughter Brenda, who knew her father never would have mentioned it.

Floyd was born on a pecan farm in Headland, Ala., the oldest of the four children of Robert Lee Culver and Mary Lee Thomas.

Times were tough and his mother took him out of fifth grade and made him work in a grocery store, where he made 25 cents a day.

After he was discharged from the Navy in 1946, he worked briefly for a quartermaster depot in Louisville, Ky., before coming to Philadelphia.

He worked for a time for the old Philadelphia Naval Shipyard before starting to deliver papers.

He and a helper would show up on the loading dock at 15th and Callowhill streets before dawn and load up with 1,000 to 1,500 papers, Bob Palmo said. Later, he worked alone.

In 2001, he was knocked over by a car at 22nd and Pemberton streets and broke his right knee. He was out of action for eight weeks, but couldn't wait to get back on the job. In 1998, he fell and broke a hip, which required a replacement.

Aside from that, he's always been healthy and independent.

"He was still cooking his own breakfast and dinner," his daughter said.

He retired from full-time newspaper delivering at the age of 94. There was no party, no fuss.

"He just quietly rode off into the sunset," Brenda said.

In recent years, although wheelchair-bound, he continued to sell a few papers out of his apartment.

"He was a hell of a man," Bob Palmo said. "He was a likable guy; everybody liked him. He was a very special person."

Besides his daughter, he is survived by two grandchildren and one great-grandson.

Services: 11 a.m. Feb. 12 at the Slater Funeral Home, 1426 Fitzwater St. Friends may call at 9 a.m. Burial will be in Glenwood Memorial Park, Broomall. *

[lbphilly]

Originally Posted by dr_gingivitis

I saw this on the yahoo mailing list and thought it was really moving:

http://www.philly.com/philly/obituar..._DN__Inky.html

I think there was at one time a movement to make him the subject of a mural.

[SwiftLyons]

Originally Posted by lbphilly

I think there was at one time a movement to make him the subject of a mural.

That's a great idea. It would be great to see a guy like this get honored for a change.

[Coco]

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/obitu..._activist.html

Thanks to folks like Robert J. Sugarman who died last Friday, and George Dukes of the 1800 Block of Fitzwater Street, both of whom successfully fought the South Street Expressway in the 60's (Mr. Dukes also recently passed on), our neighborhood most likely would be totally different today - the South Street-Expressway would truly have been a lasting dividing component of this neighborhood.

[SwiftLyons]

Philadelphia, Thursday Morning, August 17, 1871
Newspaper: Ten cents per week




THE CHURCH OF ST. CHARLES BORROMEO.-Work had been resumed upon the front of
the Church of St. Charles Borromeo, Twentieth and Christian street. The design
was furnished by Mr. Durang, the architect, has been published in the Ledger.
The building when finished will be one of the most imposing church edifices in
that section of the city. Rev. James O'Reilly, the pastor, is energetic in his
efforts to secure the funds to complete the structure. The basement will be
ready for service in November.