Greetings everybody! Just wanted to update you on some of recent work I’ve done for PhilaPlace. I’ve added 6 new sites in new neighborhoods in West Philadelphia. What was once the city’s first streetcar suburb in the 19^th century, a rural space where the rich would retreat and where the city’s sick poor and insane would be treated in isolation became, by the turn of the twentieth century, a space for the homes of working class immigrants. With the advent of the electric streetcar in the late 19^th century and the completion of the Market Street Elevated Train in 1907, less wealthy families could afford to live there. Later, universities, most notably University of Pennsylvania, would make their mark in a controversial expansion westward.

Our Lady of Angels, courtesy of the Philadelphia Archdiocese Historical Research Center

My first story is on Our Lady of Angels Italian-Catholic parish in a neighborhood north of Mantua and known to those who lived there as 49^th street. Though West Philadelphia was never as industrial as say, Kensington, many immigrants in the early twentieth century found work along the Mantua Railroad Yard and the Lancaster Street corridor. A colorful interview with former parishioner Anna Appolonia Mandell provides a more nuanced look at this close-knit Italian neighborhood.

Another dealt with “Old Blockley,” or Philadelphia General Hospital, which, though closing in 1977, many historians consider the country’s first hospital. Old Blockley served the city’s poorest members for over two centuries, predating even Independence Hall as a Philadelphia institution.  Ironically, Philadelphia is now the only major city in the United States without a municipal hospital.

I also added a couple of stories on the growing Muslim presence in West Philadelphia. Two mosques, one affiliated with the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects (AICP) and another named Masjid al-Jamia, between 43^rd and 45^th and Walnut Street, and an interview with administrator Linda Hauber of AICP help tell that story.

Masjid al-Jamia

Association of Islamic Charitable Projects

Café Cláve on 44^th is a story of a musical community in West Philadelphia. An interview with co-owner Armen “Gooch” Terzian reveals how the café unites seemingly disparate groups like Ethiopian and Cuban immigrants, as well as University of Pennsylvania graduate students.

Café Cláve interior

And finally, the Plotland story, also at 44^th and Locust, appropriately shows how graduate students are doing their part to create community in West Philadelphia. Co-creator Amanda Sebald talks about how this group started an urban farm on vacant land—in an attempt, appropriately, to “fill a place.”

Plotland

I hope you all enjoy!