PhilaPlace.org has just launched some exciting new features on its map page! Visitors can click on the new “Streets” tab and view enhanced historical maps that reveal in-depth patterns of change over time for specific blocks in South Philadelphia and Northern Liberties neighborhoods. Land-use and census data recreate details and activities on a street, house by house, business by business, for South 4th Street’s “Fabric Row;” the South 9th Street market; the neighborhoods destroyed by the construction of Interstate 95; and the historically African American settlement on Wallace Street in Northern Liberties once known as Paschall’s Alley.
Posts Tagged ‘Maps’
March 19th, 2010
Hand-drawn maps of Philly neighborhoods!
Last week, (my personal) über-cityblog Philebrity.com came up with the most brilliant idea ever (albeit borrowed from the blog Londonist) and entreated its readers to submit their very own hand-drawn maps of their neighborhoods. Why, oh why didn’t I think of that? …it’s probably just as well since Philebrity gets a lot more traffic than the PhilaPlace blog anyway. The resulting entries – ranging in style from cheekily “Maira Kalman-esque” to back-of-the-cocktail napkin crude — are, I think, very Philadelphian: often hilarious, totally subjective, probably offensive, painfully forthright, practical, sentimental, contradictory, and self-conscious.
Just check out these maps depicting the many conflicting and overlapping identities of our very storied and often contested neighborhoods north of Center City: two versions of Northern Liberties (so far); West Kensington; “Secret” Fishtown (Shadtown?); and Norris Square/”Olde” Kensington…”dark and gloomy” borders, “poverty,” and “one-stop gentrification”…mini-restaurant reviews, social commentary, and snarky in-jokes… it’s all here in these maps. Be sure to brave the resulting comments, too.
Visit Philebrity to see the rest, including Wash West, Old City, Pennsport, East Passyunk Avenue, Queen Village, and the ever-mysterious Eraserhood, courtesy of bhiladelphia :
Keep ‘em coming, Philebrity readers…Hand-drawn Philadelphia could very well become its own blog if we can continue to map the entire city and argue about it, too.
March 8th, 2010
Pavements and Podcasts: Urban Studies at Masterman High
My most memorable project in high school was one in which I researched my own house. I remember how thrilling it was to find my house on old maps at the Historical Society, to see my street address in City Directories, to trace the deeds of my house at City Hall, and to find census data at the Free Library. By finding out about my house, I also learned about the history of my neighborhood and of the city of Philadelphia. Indeed, when I think about why I decided to major in history at college and to become a teacher of history, I know that completing that project was a pivotal event.
As a 21st -century teacher of social studies, I wanted to give my students the opportunity to experience a similar hands-on and highly relevant research process. I also recognized, however, that today’s students have a range of presentation tools available which were unimaginable when I was in high school. I share with my students my prized project, painstakingly put together with construction paper, handwritten pages, and even crayon. They (and I) find it hard to believe that in 1981, this constituted an “A” project:
