West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia

Author: Robert Morris Skaler

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2002-03-01

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780738509709

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The many neighborhoods west of the Schuylkill River across from William Penn's "Quaker City" were distinctly rural until 1860, when horsecar lines first crossed the river. The area soon became home to wealthy businessmen who built elegant mansions and villas in University City and Powelton Village. West Philadelphia's growth accelerated northward into Belmont and Parkside-Girard after the 1876 Centennial Exposition and westward into Cedar Park, Spruce Hill, and Walnut Hill in the 1890s with the introduction of electric trolley lines. West Philadelphia: University City to 52nd Street is the first photographic history of the area in the last one hundred years. Images of the typical, modest West Philadelphia row houses, which slowly took over the open farmland after the Market Street Elevated opened in 1907, tell the story of how Philadelphia became known as the "City of Homes." Countless, rarely seen photographs of the streets where people lived and worked fill this extraordinary history.

Building Drexel
Building Drexel

Author: Richardson Dilworth

Publisher: Temple University Press

Published: 2016-12-12

Total Pages: 454

ISBN-13: 1439914206

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Published in conjunction with Drexel University’s 125th anniversary, Building Drexel chronicles the founding of the university by Anthony J. Drexel through to the present day. The editors and contributors create a prismatic discussion of the university and its evolution. Richly illustrated chapters cover the architectural history of notable Drexel buildings; the role of Drexel in Philadelphia’s modern history; its Greek life; sports—particularly Drexel’s history in the Big 5; and each of the university’s schools and colleges. There is a history of the medical college and law school, plus the creation of new schools such as those of biomedical engineering, science and health systems. Building Drexel also documents the civil rights history of Drexel and its urban planning history in relation to the racially diverse Powelton Village and Mantua neighborhoods it borders. This commemorative volume shows the development of the university both in the city and in the world. Contributors include: Lloyd Ackert, Cordelia Frances Biddle, Paula Marantz Cohen, Donna Marie De Carolis, Roger Dennis, Gloria Donnelly, Kevin D. Egan, Alissa Falcone, David Fenske, John A. Fry, Stephen F. Gambescia, Marla J. Gold, Charles Haas, Kathy Harvatt, Daniel Johnson, Jeannine Keefer, Larry Keiser, Michael Kelley, Jason Ludwig, Jonson Miller, Julie Mostov, Danuta A. Nitecki, Anthony M. Noce, Steven J. Peitzman, David Raizman, Tiago Saraiva, Amy E. Slaton, Nathaniel Stanton, Virginia Theerman, Laura Valenti, James Wolfinger, Eric A. Zillmer, and the editors.

Haunted City
Haunted City

Author: Christian DuComb

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2017-07-07

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 0472123017

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Haunted City explores the history of racial impersonation in Philadelphia from the late eighteenth century through the present day. The book focuses on select historical moments, such as the advent of the minstrel show and the ban on blackface makeup in the Philadelphia Mummers Parade, when local performances of racial impersonation inflected regional, national, transnational, and global formations of race. Mummers have long worn blackface makeup during winter holiday celebrations in Europe and North America; in Philadelphia, mummers’ blackface persisted from the colonial period well into the twentieth century. The first annual Mummers Parade, a publicly sanctioned procession from the working-class neighborhoods of South Philadelphia to the city center, occurred in 1901. Despite a ban on blackface in the Mummers Parade after civil rights protests in 1963–64, other forms of racial and ethnic impersonation in the parade have continued to flourish unchecked. Haunted City combines detailed historical research with the author’s own experiences performing in the Mummers Parade to create a lively and richly illustrated narrative. Through its interdisciplinary approach, Haunted City addresses not only theater history and performance studies but also folklore, American studies, critical race theory, and art history. It also offers a fresh take on the historiography of the antebellum minstrel show.

Real Philly History, Real Fast
Real Philly History, Real Fast

Author: Jim Murphy

Publisher: Temple University Press

Published: 2021-06-18

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1439919240

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"An alternative, history-focused guidebook to a selection of Philadelphia's heroes and notable places"--

Becoming Penn
Becoming Penn

Author: John L. Puckett

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2015-03-26

Total Pages: 462

ISBN-13: 0812291085

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The second half of the twentieth century saw the University of Pennsylvania grow in size as well as in stature. On its way to becoming one of the world's most celebrated research universities, Penn exemplified the role of urban renewal in the postwar redevelopment and expansion of urban universities, and the indispensable part these institutions played in the remaking of American cities. Yet urban renewal is only one aspect of this history. Drawing from Philadelphia's extensive archives as well as the University's own historical records and publications, John L. Puckett and Mark Frazier Lloyd examine Penn's rise to eminence amid the social, moral, and economic forces that transformed major public and private institutions across the nation. Becoming Penn recounts the shared history of university politics and urban policy as the campus grappled with twentieth-century racial tensions, gender inequality, labor conflicts, and economic retrenchment. Examining key policies and initiatives of the administrations led by presidents Gaylord Harnwell, Martin Meyerson, Sheldon Hackney, and Judith Rodin, Puckett and Lloyd revisit the actors, organizations, and controversies that shaped campus life in this turbulent era. Illustrated with archival photographs of the campus and West Philadelphia neighborhood throughout the late twentieth century, Becoming Penn provides a sweeping portrait of one university's growth and impact within the broader social history of American higher education.

Historic Architecture in West Philadelphia, 1789-1930s
Historic Architecture in West Philadelphia, 1789-1930s

Author: Joseph Minardi

Publisher: Schiffer Publishing

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780764337710

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West of the Schuylkill River, what was once Blockley and Kingsessing Townships is now West Philadelphia. Here is a comprehensive look at the rich architectural history of neighborhoods in and around University City and biographies of the architects who made it possible. In more than 500 images, see this area of the "City of Brotherly Love" transition from humble beginnings as a collection of sprawling farms and dusty hamlets to a streetcar suburb for upwardly mobile types looking to escape the old city and a haven for esteemed educational institutions. Packed with archival images, maps, and color photos, the book covers Cedar Park to Powelton Village, chronicling the charm and elegance found in West Philadelphia's architecture, much of which is still on public display. Examples include Second Empire, Victorian, Queen Anne, Collegiate Gothic, and Italianate styles. This is a global and historic review ideal for architects, urban planners, historians, and of course residents of Blockley and Kingsessing.

University City
University City

Author: Laura Wolf-Powers

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2022-09-20

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 151282271X

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In twenty-first-century American cities, policy makers increasingly celebrate university-sponsored innovation districts as engines of inclusive growth. But the story is not so simple. In University City, Laura Wolf-Powers chronicles five decades of planning in and around the communities of West Philadelphia’s University City to illuminate how the dynamics of innovation district development in the present both depart from and connect to the politics of mid-twentieth-century urban renewal. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research, Wolf-Powers concludes that even as university and government leaders vow to develop without displacement, what existing residents value is imperiled when innovation-driven redevelopment remains accountable to the property market. The book first traces the municipal and institutional politics that empowered officials to demolish a predominantly Black neighborhood near the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University in the late 1960s to make way for the University City Science Center and University City High School. It also provides new insight into organizations whose members experimented during that same period with alternative conceptions of economic advancement. The book then shifts to the present, documenting contemporary efforts to position university-adjacent neighborhoods as locations for prosperity built on scientific knowledge. Wolf-Powers examines the work of mobilized civic groups to push cultural preservation concerns into the public arena and to win policies to help economically insecure families keep a foothold in changing neighborhoods. Placing Philadelphia’s innovation districts in the context of similar development taking place around the United States, University City advocates a reorientation of redevelopment practice around the recognition that despite their negligible worth in real estate terms, the time, care, and energy people invest in their local environments—and in one another—are precious urban resources.

Philadelphia Architecture
Philadelphia Architecture

Author: Group for Environmental Education (Philadelphia, Pa.)

Publisher:

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13:

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PHILADELPHIA ARCHITECTURE; a comprehensive guide to 300 years of architectural history describes 253 BUILDINGS with 174 corresponding PHOTOGRAPHS including each building's location, date(s), architect, client, use & its fit into the social & economic history of Philadelphia & its relationship to the evolution of architectural styles. This book is for layperson or architect, resident or visitor. 'A museum of architecture', Philadelphia, more than any American city, represents the history of architecture in the U. S. with its outstanding examples of every important architectural style & period in the country's history. Contains NINE WALKING & DRIVING TOURS, an illustrated GLOSSARY of architectural terms & BIOGRAPHIES of important Philadelphia architects. The companion volume to PHILADELPHIA ARCHITECTURE: PHILADELPHIA'S BEST BUILDINGS: IN (OR NEAR) CENTER CITY. 39-PAGES ($7.95) ISBN (0-9622908-2-3) published by Foundation for Architecture, editor: John Gallery. Highlights 48 significant buildings; colorful MAPS for WALKING TOURS of four areas representing different architectural periods, & PHOTOGRAPHS of each building. Special feature--a list of outstanding buildings of interest to CHILDREN. Guidebook is perfect for the visitor restricted by time who wishes to view a select group of buildings. Call: FFA 215-569-3187; One Penn Center at Suburban Station, Suite 1165, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or Koen Book Distributors.

The Contagious City
The Contagious City

Author: Simon Finger

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2012-05-15

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 0801464005

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By the time William Penn was planning the colony that would come to be called Pennsylvania, with Philadelphia at its heart, Europeans on both sides of the ocean had long experience with the hazards of city life, disease the most terrifying among them. Drawing from those experiences, colonists hoped to create new urban forms that combined the commercial advantages of a seaport with the health benefits of the country. The Contagious City details how early Americans struggled to preserve their collective health against both the strange new perils of the colonial environment and the familiar dangers of the traditional city, through a period of profound transformation in both politics and medicine. Philadelphia was the paramount example of this reforming tendency. Tracing the city's history from its founding on the banks of the Delaware River in 1682 to the yellow fever outbreak of 1793, Simon Finger emphasizes the importance of public health and population control in decisions made by the city's planners and leaders. He also shows that key figures in the city's history, including Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush, brought their keen interest in science and medicine into the political sphere. Throughout his account, Finger makes clear that medicine and politics were inextricably linked, and that both undergirded the debates over such crucial concerns as the city's location, its urban plan, its immigration policy, and its creation of institutions of public safety. In framing the history of Philadelphia through the imperatives of public health, The Contagious City offers a bold new vision of the urban history of colonial America.