The History Thread

[lbphilly]

At Mesok's request, a sticky thread for memories of the old neighborhood. Cleanman posted a couple of good ones about Dexter the 16-hands tall horse (not mule) and other memories of the Naval Home. At some point, I'll post links to some blurry photos of old atlases, kicking myself because I didn't note which version they are. Etc., etc.

[SWCC Newbie]

In a February 2006 thread about the property at the corner of 23rd and Bainbridge that is a triangular surface parking lot today, PhillyBlog member cleanman posted the following about that property and the neighboring Naval Home.

I remember( i am giving my age here) that used to be a diner, and a great one at that, The guy who ran it his name was Gabe, he was a crazy bugger, but a decent fellow, we use to pack it not only on Sunday morning after mass at St. Anthony, but also during the week, during the week we would bend our elbow at Kelly's and go to Gabes to eat, the good old days, yes it is well kept , i would love to see it kept as is, but progress seems to be more important, does anyone remember the horse name that was kept by the sailors in the Naval Home??

Originally Posted by lbphilly

You've lost me here, and possibly some other folks. There was a diner where the floriferous parking lot is now?

Yes there was a diner there and the route 63 trolley came up Bainbridge st at the time, at least i think it was the route 63, the horses name was Dexter, a big horse, had to be 16 hands tall, no urban lure here, all true, we used to go to Christmas partys at the Naval Home, Capt Noah and his wife were always in attendence, as were Chief Halftown some times, we went to grade school at St. Anthony's at 23rd & Carpenter, when we walked to school and if the flag at the home was being raised we had to stop and salute, good old Mrs. Douglass made sure of that .She was the crossing guard at Grays Ferry , i lost my train of thought, the street where the church is, i remember may processions, stations of the cross on Fri in lent, had to be there no ifs and or but, also used to sell newspapers before and after Sun mass, wait for the mass to be over , then sell parking spots on Bainbridge across, from Sylvan Seal milk to the eagles game when they played at Franklin Field, yes they were that good that people parked all the way there to walk over the South St. bridge for there games , oh boy what memories.

It just came to me , Mrs Douglass was the crossing guard at Fitzwater, i got Irish alzeimers CRS

Let me tell you something about old Dexter, he used to pull all of us down to the swimming pool in the back of the Naval Home, you could at one time see the pool from the South St. bridge, there used to be Pennbrooke milk on the other side when you come off the bridge on 27th street. Also Mc Fadden plateau, that was what we called it , it was a small apartment building on the left of the bottom at the bridge, there is apartments there now, underneath at one time was a sheetmetal shop, a guy by the name of Ray ran that, helluva nice man. I have to say reading these threads has been great for me, if anyone has any questions about that area please ask. The swimming pool that is at Taney and South at one time was 12ft deep to 3ft deep, had wooden lockers, we used to climb on the top and run on them, we used to jump off the roof of the house on Taney St, i dont remember the exact adress, but it was at the alley, jump off the roof into the pool, the pool was drained every Sat, unless someone pooped in the pool, we used to play touch the drain, i know a few guys (and girls) who would remove the drain grate, and it was heavy , and sit in the drain, and the 4th of July parties , forget it, it was the greatest neighboorhood to grow up in.

[lbphilly]

Here's a link to a thread about setting up a historic designation for part of the neighborhood:

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?t=30078

They suggested east to 21st Street, which got me thinking about the two big churches on the 2000 block of Christian. Both were designed in 1868 by important architects:

• St. Charles Borromeo (900 S. 20th Street) was designed by Edwin Forrest Durang, who specialized in Roman Catholic Churches and who was apparently also involved in the design of the Academy of Music and the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, probably in association with Napoleon Le Brun.
• The Episcopal Church of the Apostles (now Shiloh Baptist Church, 2040 Christian Street) was designed by the firm of Fraser, Furness & Hewitt. Frank Furness of course is famous for his wildly exuberant designs for the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the University of Pennsylvania Library and others. John Fraser designed The Union League of Philadelphia.

While rummaging at the Philadelphia Architects & Buildings Project site, I came upon line drawings for the two school buildings that preceded the current Chester Arthur. The first was the A. C. Curtin School, presumably named for the Curtin who was governor of Pennsylvania during the Civil War; and the second was the Chester Arthur combined primary and secondary school. I've placed versions of them in my Flickr photo set, and you can see them, if you're interested, at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lblanch...7594489060666/

Another resource for exploring our neighborhood are the 1942 and 1962 land use maps available online from

http://www.philageohistory.org/

Most of the older atlases scanned here do not cover our ward, although I suspect that other volumes of some of them do.

Yet another edit: Early views of the U.S. Naval Asylum can be found at

http://www.pacscl.org/shows/navalhome/

[chappers]

Here are some more photos of the Naval Asylum on the Library of Congress website. There are some nice maps of the far western end of the neighborhood too (I hope I'm not breaching copyright by linking here):

[lbphilly]

Originally Posted by chappers

Here are some more photos of the Naval Asylum on the Library of Congress website. There are some nice maps of the far western end of the neighborhood too (I hope I'm not breaching copyright by linking here):

Naaah. It's our history.

I think there are some links to the American Memory site at the very bottom of that PACSCL online exhibition.

EDIT: Did you see the really cool 1935 aerial views at the PACSCL page (toward the bottom)? If you click on the smaller images, you get bigger ones.

[chappers]

I think my link to the Naval Asylum photos on the American Memory site got dropped off.

Did you notice the defunct/rejected street names? South of Cedar Street, anyone?

[chappers]

Originally Posted by lbphilly

Did you see the really cool 1935 aerial views at the PACSCL page

It took me a while to orient myself. Do you know anything about the large building behind Biddle Hall where the JFK building now is? I understood that the latter was built as a WW2 tank factory.

[lbphilly]

Originally Posted by chappers

It took me a while to orient myself. Do you know anything about the large building behind Biddle Hall where the JFK building now is? I understood that the latter was built as a WW2 tank factory.

There's not much at the JFK site in these photos. The big building directly behind Biddle Hall was Laning Hall, a facility built in the 1860s anticipation of housing a number of Civil War veterans. It was demolished in the 1990s, I think.

[lee]

This is really fascinating. Thanks LB for starting the thread.

Does anyone know of any on-line source for the 1880 census that I could search by address?

[dr_gingivitis]

LB, didn't you post an old map of the whole area once? I remember seeing a lot of street names that are no longer in existance. Do you still have that photo or link, I think this would be a good place for it.