PhilaPlace » Delaware River http://blog.philaplace.org Sharing Stories from the City of Neighborhoods Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:44:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.3 en hourly 1 Out with summer, in with brand new stories on PhilaPlace! http://blog.philaplace.org/2010/09/out-with-summer-in-with-brand-new-stories-on-philaplace/ http://blog.philaplace.org/2010/09/out-with-summer-in-with-brand-new-stories-on-philaplace/#comments Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:01:28 +0000 Ian Charlton http://blog.philaplace.org/?p=1086

Hi everybody,

Hope you’ve had a great summer. I know it’s been awhile since the last blog, but in the past few months, we’ve added seven sites in the Fishtown/East Kensington area.  These include a few along the Delaware waterfront such as Penn Treaty Park, the Sugar House, Dyottville Glass Factories, and Cramp’s Shipyard, as well ...]]> LeemonSugarH

Hi everybody,

Hope you’ve had a great summer. I know it’s been awhile since the last blog, but in the past few months, we’ve added seven sites in the Fishtown/East Kensington area.  These include a few along the Delaware waterfront such as Penn Treaty Park, the Sugar House, Dyottville Glass Factories, and Cramp’s Shipyard, as well as a few on or near Frankford Avenue like St. Mary’s Hospital, Newt’s Playground, and Palmer Cemetery.

The story of Palmer Cemetery goes hand-in-hand with the history of the neighborhood and is a good place to start in understanding its development.  Anybody with an interest in utopian experiments will get a kick out of Dyottville, which was a very interesting response to “the labor problem” in early industrial–era Philadelphia.  Next, the Sugar House and Cramp’s Shipyard reveal Kensington at the height of its proud industrial history as well as its subsequent decline. The numerous fights over the proposed closings of St. Mary’s Hospital and the rehabilitation of Penn Treaty Park both demonstrate the resolve of the community in the face of decades of hardship after World War II.  And the story of Newt’s Playground , featuring an interview with a veteran of the formerly cinder-covered field, provides  a glimpse of what it was like to grow up in the Fishtown of the 1960s.

PASugarCompanyThe Sugar House (Pennsylvania Sugar Company), Delaware & Shackamaxon, 1936


SugarHouseCasinoThe Sugar House Casino, Delaware & Shackamaxon, September 2010


DyottvilleviewT. W. Dyott’s Glass Works at Richmond & Beach, as seen from the Delaware River, 1831

Stay tuned in the next few weeks, because we’ll also add sites west of Front Street like Fairhill Cemetery. And, I’m finishing up a couple longer essays dealing with Kensington west of Front Street that I blogged about when I first started my internship. One piece focuses on the company-produced employee newsletters of Stetson Hats and features an interview with a former Stetson employee, and another tells the story of the now defunct Old Kensington Redevelopment Corporation through three interviews.

Meanwhile, here are some contemporary shots of some of the sites. Check them out!

DSCN2859Penn Treaty Park, Delaware & Beach, September 2010


DSCN1180Palmer Burial Ground, Palmer & Memphis, September 2010


0001_2075_001Shissler Recreation Center, or “Newt’s” to longtime Fishtowners, Blair Street, September 2010


0001_2068_001View of the El from Newt’s, September 2010


DSCN1184Neumann Senior Housing, formerly St. Mary’s Hopsital, 1600 E. Palmer Street, September 2010


DSCN1250Olde Kensington Pavilion senior housing, 3rd & Thompson, September 2010

]]> http://blog.philaplace.org/2010/09/out-with-summer-in-with-brand-new-stories-on-philaplace/feed/ 0 Hugo, Hoagies, and Soup: Islands of the Delaware River http://blog.philaplace.org/2010/02/high-tide-hugo-hoagies-and-soup-islands-of-the-delaware-river/ http://blog.philaplace.org/2010/02/high-tide-hugo-hoagies-and-soup-islands-of-the-delaware-river/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:46:18 +0000 Melissa Mandell http://blog.philaplace.org/?p=545 As the arctic chill descends upon Philadelphia again, we here at HSP have a touch of island fever—not Antigua, Cayman, or Bahama, but  Petty’s, Hog, and Soupy.  This week HSP helps kick off the city-wide Philagrafika 2010 festival with a unique art installation about the tiny yet contentious island in the Delaware River known as ...]]> Soupy life preserverAs the arctic chill descends upon Philadelphia again, we here at HSP have a touch of island fever—not Antigua, Cayman, or Bahama, but  Petty’s, Hog, and Soupy.  This week HSP helps kick off the city-wide Philagrafika 2010 festival with a unique art installation about the tiny yet contentious island in the Delaware River known as Petty’s Island . As this week’s City Paper notes,  “It’s a place littered with well-known and colorful characters [including]William Penn, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez…and even the pirate’s pirate himself, Ol’ Blackbeard.”  Created by artist Duke Riley, the exhibition at HSP explores this little-known history of Petty’s Island, and “reclaims” the island on behalf of one those colorful characters, Ralston Laird. An Irish immigrant, Laird settled on the island in the 1850s and declared himself king.  Items from Riley’s project–including artifacts excavated from the island and decorative plates with images of Laird descendants–will be on display along with original documents and maps from HSP’s collection that Riley used for inspiration from January 29 through April 9. We’re hosting a reception for Riley’s installation this Thursday, February 4th. Click here for a full calendar of events, including more Philagrafika and Petty’s Island-related programs.

Riley_TankDuke Riley’s memorial to King Laird atop a CITGO tank on Petty’s Island (2009)

Two essays on PhilaPlace also wade into the little known histories of the Delaware River islands. Brand new this week is Chris Dougherty’s From Wetland to Urban Land: A Social and Environmental History of Philadelphia’s Tidal Islands. Dougherty writes:

Hog Island sewer laborers

Despite their marginal quality for most of the 18th century, these “drowned lands” [of the Delaware River] took on greater significance as Philadelphia developed into a densely populated industrial and maritime center… Residences were strewn indiscriminately among the industries and workers in the yards or subsidiary industries were rarely out of earshot of the pulse and clamor of shipbuilding on the Delaware.

From Hog Island’s shipyards to Smith Island’s saloon, Dougherty examines the marshy islands’ industrial transformations and the people who worked, lived, and played there.  And of course he doesn’t overlook the lore of the origins of our beloved hoagie—arguably Hog Island’s most enduring legacy…

Sanitarium for ChildrenIn Soupy Island: Fresh Air and Hot Soup at a Delaware River Playground, Amanda Zellner digs into the historical record of the Sanitarium Association of Philadelphia to tell the story of “Soupy Island,” a summer refuge for city kids founded in 1877 on Windmill Island and later relocated to the shores of Red Bank, New Jersey. Zellner writes, “Year after year, the Sanitarium’s steamboats transported thousands of children [to Soupy Island]… The steamboats left from several locations over the years, including ports near Port Richmond and Queen Village.”  In 1889, the Sanitarium Association reported that 103,516 people visited the resort and “board members proudly boasted about a system so efficient that 1,000 people could be served a pint of soup and three crackers in 30 minutes.” Here’s one of Soupy Island’s happy campers in 1939:

Eating soup on Soupy

Both Dougherty’s and Zellner’s essays also feature a slew of amazing historical photographs like these drawn from the Philadelphia Record Photo Morgue collection.  Here’s a  sampling (click on each image to enlarge):

PettysIsland bridge Construction of the Petty’s Island Bridge, ca. 1935.


Wild Hog Island Brush cut for survey line, Hog Island, 1917.


HogIslandShipway1Shipway# 1 from river front, Hog Island, 1917.


Hog Island superbombsCoast Guard loads six-ton “superbomb”on to a ship at Hog Island, 1945.


Hog Island sewer laborersWorkers in the snow at Hog Island’s  Wharf Road Sewer and Water treatment, 1917.


River view of Soupy Island“River view of the Sanitarium Park, with the landing on the left.”  From the Annual Report of the Sanitarium Association of Philadelphia, 1894.


Soupy kids aboard steamshipChildren aboard steamship, “The Elizabeth Monroe Smith,” headed down the Delaware River to the Sanitarium (Soupy Island) in Red Bank, NJ. 1939.


Soupy waiting for lunch“Waiting for lunch.”  Children at sanitarium playground stand in line outside the kitchen to wait for lunch, 1898.


Soupy swim boysBoys in swim trunks at Soupy Island Sanitarium, 1939.


Soupy life preserverBoy  posing with a lifesaver from the steamship Elizabeth Monroe Smith, en route to Soupy Island, 1939.

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