PhilaPlace » Northern Liberties

A Vision for Marshall Street

Elaine Ellison — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:53:59 +0000

Top: View of North Marshall Street, looking north from Poplar Street; Bottom: Pushcarts mural on 900 block of N. Marshall Street, between Poplar and Girard

What’s in a name?? Today, my old neighborhood is considered a part of Northern Liberties, but when I lived on the 900 block of North Marshall Street, the boundary of Northern Liberties was from Front and Girard west to 6th Street and south to Spring Garden Street. We never knew what our area was called. North Central Philadelphia was an easy answer. In doing research at the Library Company of Philadelphia, I found a map that listed a small area from 6th Street to Broad as Penn’s Land. Did that make it different from Penn’s Woods which is the meaning of Pennsylvania?

The redevelopment of Northern Liberties is amazing. Take a ride down 2nd Street, a veritable throughway to Center City from Cheltenham Avenue at the far northern end of the city, to see the changes. Beginning at Girard Avenue, is the Piazza at Schmidt’s where the old Brewery stood. Condos and glass buildings sit on either side of the street. The place is busy with eateries and neighborhood stores all the way to Spring Garden Street. New restaurants pop up along Girard Avenue towards 5th Street. Real estate on 6th Street is listed with prices unimaginable two years ago. Has the upturn reached Marshall Street, 7th Street, and further west towards Broad Street? Not yet.

Wouldn’t it be terrific to have Marshall Street finally become the central “off -street-parking” shopping area that it was deemed to be in the 1950s when the Redevelopment Authority designated it as part of the East Poplar slum area? The neighborhood beginning at Marshall and Poplar and continuing west now looks like a well-kept residential Philadelphia place. Houses have trees and small gardens. Where do those neighbors shop? Should they drive to 2nd and Girard where eventually supermarkets will be part of the Schmidt’s Brewery area? Why not give Marshall Street a chance to also be redeveloped as a thriving city market for the surrounding neighborhoods? The possibilities are endless. As a walkable street, it can be a place where ethnic and local foods can be sold; a place for street fairs, local organizations, and, yes, places for people to live in the Greater Northern Liberties.

Elaine Krasnow Ellison was born on Marshall Street and lived there until her marriage. She is the co-author, with Elaine Jaffe, of Voices From Marshall Street: Jewish Life in a Philadelphia Neighborhood 1920-1960. She is a community advisor and a member of the PhilaPlace advisory committee. You can read her account of growing up on Marshall Street, “Life in a Bazaar,” at philaplace.org.

Max Krasnow selling yard goods outside his shop at 977 North Marshall Street. Courtesy Elaine Ellison.

Neighborhood boys standing in front of the Cambridge Dress Shop, 988 N. Marshall Street. Courtesy Elaine Ellison.

A. L. Klein clothing store, 922 North Marshall Street, 1975. Photo by Irv Orenstein.

Man in front of shoe store, North Marsall Street, 1975. Photo by Irv Orenstein.

Boy on North Marshall Street, 1975. Photo by Irv Orenstein.

For more Marshall Street photographs and to add your own story, visit PhilaPlace.org

Changes: Northern Liberties

Melissa Mandell — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:31:24 +0000

Neighborhood around Schmidt’s Brewery, 1963. Courtesy Temple University Urban Archives

Whether you consider it a renaissance or rank gentrification, something to celebrate or to lament, or an uneasy, ambivalent mix of both, everyone in Philadelphia seems to have an opinion about the radical changes Northern Liberties has undergone in the last twenty years. PhilaPlace offers some personal perspectives on Northern Liberties, then and now.

Artist Jennifer Baker writes about documenting the transformation of Northern Liberties from post-industrial netherhood to Piazza-fied “hipster mecca.” Baker started painting scenes of the neighborhood in 1978, when Schmidt’s still bottled beer and the hulking Burk Brothers tannery sat on what is now Liberty Lands Park. She kept painting as buildings were burned, demolished, or redeveloped into high-end condos. And Baker paints the stalwarts that remain, like Kaplan’s Bakery and St. Andrew’s Russian Orthodox Church (you know, the one with the blue domes). Read her story and check out a gallery of her Northern Liberties paintings.

Of course, Northern Liberties’ post-industrial woes and post-millennial makeover is not the whole story. For a first-hand account of the sights, sounds and smells of Northern Liberties in its industrial heyday, watch this interview with Agnes Hatcher. Born in 1928, Hatcher grew up on the 900 block of North American Street back when the neighborhood was just called North Philly, and the industrial landscape was her playground. She affectionately recalls her “stinking” neighborhood: beer bubbles floating out of Ortlieb’s Brewery, the smell of freshly baked bread emanating from Kaplan’s, and the decidedly less pleasant smell of freshly-tanned hide wafting out of the American Street tannery.

The story of Garden Looms, a small women’s lingerie factory at 2nd & Fairmount, embodies the transformation of Northern Liberties by following the arc of 20th-century industrial boom, decline, and transformation. You may know the building at 735-737 North 2nd as artist’s studios and apartments, but for much of the 20th century, Garden Looms was a family business that supplied large department stores like Wanamaker’s and Lit Brothers as well smaller-scale middlemen. Murray Rosenberg, grandson of the founders, generously shared his family’s photographs and history with PhilaPlace. Read the story of Garden Looms and see the inner workings of the lingerie factory.

And of course, you can put it all together and take the (relatively) long view — from the 18th century to the present — by taking PhilaPlace’s Northern Liberties tour.

New map features on PhilaPlace.org are live now!

Melissa Mandell — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:37:05 +0000

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.

“Through visual representations overlaid on the contemporary and historic maps, visitors can see with a glance how key areas at certain points in time changed in terms of ethnic make-up, land use, and occupation,” explained Joan Saverino, PhilaPlace project director. For instance, the map for the blocks of South 9th Street shows the dramatic rise in Italian immigrant households in the decade between 1880 and 1900. The I-95 map recreates several square blocks of Front Street as they existed in 1963, before construction began on the Interstate. The entire I-95 swath displaced hundreds of families and destroyed homes including all but a few of the earliest wooden 18th-century houses in what is now Queen Village. “We will add more contextual information in the future…this is a pilot for what we would like to demonstrate on a larger scale, too,” said Saverino.

The maps were produced by one of PhilaPlace’s key partners, Amy Hillier, Assistant Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania, and undergraduate and graduate students who worked under her supervision. Professor Hillier writes:

In my work as a teacher and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, I create or review a computer-generated map just about every day. I teach students how to use geographic information systems (GIS) to map everything from crime data to block party locations. My own research uses GIS to analyze historical and contemporary disparities in things like the accessibility of healthy foods, exposure to outdoor ads for unhealthy products, and access to mortgages. I can map just about anything that has an address…. or so I thought before working with Joan Saverino and her team on PhilaPlace. PhilaPlace is about sharing stories about neighborhoods where people used to live or currently live. It’s pretty easy to map places that come up in stories, things like the house where someone grew up, the bakery or soda fountain where they went for a treat, and where they were married. What’s not as easy is to map the meanings that people associate with these locations, the things that make them places. Together with student interns from Penn, Drexel, Temple, and Skidmore and some wonderful older adults from the Stiffel Community Center in South Philadelphia, we have been exploring ways to use online maps to help people tell and share stories. In addition to offering some innovative mapping techniques on the PhilaPlace website, we hope our efforts will contribute to a growing dialogue about how GIS technologies can be part of qualitative research.

All of the maps used on the PhilaPlace MAP page can also be found as individual images on our COLLECTION page by searching the word maps (no quotation marks) in the search box and clicking on the media results.

Hand-drawn maps of Philly neighborhoods!

Melissa Mandell — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:15:09 +0000

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.

Sharing Stories from the City of Neighborhoods

Melissa Mandell — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:00:02 +0000

When the Historical Society of Pennsylvania decided to build a Web site that would explore Philadelphia’s neighborhoods through the lens of place, we asked people in those neighborhoods to tell us which places are and were meaningful to them. Over the past three years, we have been building content for the PhilaPlace Web site not only by drawing on the rich collections at HSP (like the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies Collections , The Philadelphia Record Photo Morgue, and the Society Print Collection, to name just a few), but also by collecting memories, stories, and photographs from the people who live or have lived in South Philadelphia and Northern Liberties and Kensington. The contributions PhilaPlace has collected from the community deepen the richness of the historical record by adding the personal stories and memories that make history real, and truly public.

In the fall of 2007, over seventy-five people came out to share their memories and photographs with PhilaPlace at our neighborhood events in South Philadelphia and at Northern Liberties. In search of more stories, the PhilaPlace team went out into the neighborhoods again in the spring and summer of 2008 with a team of student videographers to interview people about their neighborhoods and the places that matter to them. Others have called us after reading about PhilaPlace and generously offered to share their stories and photos, and we continue to collect from the community in anticipation of the Web launch. Once PhilaPlace.org goes live in early December, visitors will be able to contribute their written memories and stories and post their own photos and video clips directly to the site.

Myron Shegda shared stories of growing up in Northern Liberties

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Myron Shegda shared stories of growing up in Northern Liberties

Cora Turpin of Northern Liberties

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Cora Turpin, longtime resident of Northern Liberties

Harriet Rosenberg and her son, Murray. Harriet grew up in South Philadelphia and raised Murray in Northern Liberties

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Harriet Rosenberg and her son, Murray. The Rosenbergs have roots in both South Philly and Northern Liberties

From North Marshall Street to South 9th Street, several generations of residents have shared their memories of living, working, and playing on the streets of two of Philadelphia’s oldest and fastest-changing neighborhoods. Their stories and photographs span the twentieth century, and range from national events such as the Sesquicentennial celebration on Broad Street in 1926, the Depression, and World War II, to the intensely local: New Year’s Day Mummers Parades; Sunday visits to grandparents; shopping on 9th Street; living above the family business; and working at the Navy Yard.

Below is just a sampling of the people we’ve met so far and the stories they’ve shared. Be sure to check back with us in the coming weeks as we share more of these stories on this blog as a preview of what you’ll find on the PhilaPlace Web site when it launches in December.

Charles Veasey shared stunning oversized photos of the old Schmidt’s brewing plant, rescued from the trash heap by Charles’s brother John, who was head of security for the plant.

Joe Figurski of Front and Carpenters streets shared what he called his “memories of Mummery” from a lifetime of a strutting down Broad Street on New Year’s Day.

Joe with his Mummers collage at the Queen Village Neighbors Association, November 2007

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Adab Ibrahim and Joe Brenman shared their experience of creating the Doorways to Peace community mural at the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society mosque in Kensington.

Adab and Joe in front of the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society, 1500 Germantown Avenue

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Vince Maurelli of Colorado Street in South Philadelphia shared photos of his grandfather Vincenzo, who sold produce from his huckster’s cart in the 9th Street Market at the turn of the century. Vince also shared his memories of attending the Sesquicentennial celebration on South Broad Street in 1926. Here’s Vince with a photograph of himself as a little boy at the Sesquicentennial:

Vince with a photo of himself as a young boy at the 1926 Sesquicentennial

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Thoai Nguyen of 7th & Wolf shared the story of his family, who came to South Philadelphia from Vietnam in 1975 and were the first Southeast Asian family in the neighborhood.