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Philadelphians and Their Neighborhoods

Posted on April 6, 2012 by cmires

Albert Lee, one of the discussion facilitators at our recent “City of Neighborhoods, City of Homes” roundtable program, provides this account of his group’s conversation:

Make no mistake. Philadelphians are passionate. Whether it’s sports, food, or where they live, you know what they’re thinking at all times. Call it a blessing or a curse, but it’s nothing if not honest.

For the last program in the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable Series, the topic was Philadelphia: City of Neighborhoods, City of Homes.

Here is a sample of where people call home and why:

“I lived in Mayfair until I was 21. I have since moved to University City near the University of Pennsylvania. I loved NE Philly. I loved the family atmosphere and being able to converse with neighbors on our stoops. Here at U City, there are lots of students. It feels like an extension of Center City. You can get access to all kinds of cuisine. There is so much diversity and everything is at your fingertips. In Northeast Philly, everything was a little homogeneous with many moving to the suburbs. “

“I moved from the Northeast to Wissahickon and just absolutely love all the green and easy access to public transit.”

“I’ve lived in Rittenhouse for 25-30 years. I’m not a native, but my family is from here. It’s close to everything. I work in Center City. I don’t have or need a car. I just walk everywhere. I love it.”

“We’re from Minnesota and used to live in an all-white area. We have lived here for four years in Brewerytown. We wanted an adventure and we got it. Culturally, it’s an edgy place since it’s going through some big changes. We see our building as a tight-knit community because everyone is from someplace else. We have that as a bond. We’ve tried to communicate with the home-grown folks as well, a.k.a. the locals. In fact, we’ve signed another lease for three more years.”

“I grew up in Torresdale. I used to take the 66 Bus and the El everywhere. When I lived there, it wasn’t too diverse. It’s still a bit homogeneous but I’ve seen some positive change and it’s only going to get better.

“I was born in New York and lived in North Jersey. I chose to live in Philly and called Rittenhouse home since the 80s. Rittenhouse Square is such a hodgepodge. From the blue-haired ladies to the young mothers, to the artists, people talking to themselves and just the whatever – It’s all races, all economic backgrounds, it’s my favorite spot in the city.

“I don’t live in Philly but plan on moving back. My family moved here in 1955 and lived in Society Hill. In 1960, they moved to the Northeast. Everything was beginning to develop. Folks didn’t have a car until 1962. I remember taking the bus to Drexel. It’s a great city.

Thanks to Al and to all of our volunteers for making the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable series such a great success.

Planning Grant From Barra Foundation

Posted on March 28, 2009 by cmires

On March 17, 2009, the Barra Foundation approved the application of University of Pennsylvania Press for a Planning Grant for the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project. This grant will allow us to launch the project with a Civic Partnership and Planning Workshop at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania on April 16-17, 2009. The workshop will create a collaborative foundation for the Encyclopedia and seek to identify points of cooperation with other projects and civic organizations. The workshop also will identify information needs and seek advice from the participants about the future form and content of the Encyclopedia. This workshop adds to the Barra Foundation’s arts and culture initiatives, such as the documentary television series with the working title America’s First Great City: Philadelphia (History Making Productions), which will be represented at the event. Additional support for the workshop comes from Southwest Airlines and the Union League of Philadelphia. For further details, see the “Civic Partnership and Planning Workshop” link on this page.

Program Update – Greater Philadelphia Roundtable

Posted on March 12, 2010 by curator

We are pleased to announce an addition to the March 18 Greater Philadelphia Roundtable, “Striving for Equality: LGBT Activism in Greater Philadelphia.” Professor William L. Hewitt, the recipient of the 2009 Bayard Rustin Compassion and Courage Award, will speak on the topic of Bayard Rustin’s activism and legacy. This evening also features a panel discussion with Stephen Glassman, chairperson, Pennsylvaina Human Relations Commission; Michael P. Williams, City of Philadelphia Law Department; and Stacey Sobel, Western State University, former executive director of Equality Advocates Pennsylvania. Kathy Padilla will facilitate. (Kevin Mumford from the University of Iowa is unable to participate.) For details and registration, visit our Events page.

Program Updates – April Roundtables

Posted on March 26, 2010 by curator

We’re so pleased by the brisk registration for the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable events in April. Unfortunately, we have already reached the capacity of our room for the roundtable on April 22, “Imagining Philadelphia’s Future,” at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Please add your name to the wait list by visiting our “Events” page, and we’ll let you know if we can accommodate more people. Also, consider joining us for our other roundtables this spring. An added attraction for the roundtable on April 1 is a book-signing for Women of Industry and Reform: Shaping the History of Pennsylvania, 1865-1940, by Marion Roydhouse, published by the Pennsylvania Historical Association.

Project Milestone: 300 Topics Online

Posted on March 14, 2016 by curator

This month we passed a new milestone in the creation of The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia: our 300th topic published online. Published on March 8, topic number 300, “Board of Health (Philadelphia),” by James Higgins, added to our growing category of topics about health and medicine. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the many contributors, civic partners, and staff members at Rutgers-Camden who are devoting their talents and good will to the service of this resource for the Philadelphia region. Our current phase of expansion is made possible by generous funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia, and Poor Richard’s Charitable Trust.

Project Milestone: 400 Topics Published Online

Posted on October 6, 2016 by curator

This week The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia reached and surpassed 400 topics online with the publication of the essay Community Development, by Howard Gillette Jr. and Domenic Vitiello, two of our editors. The continuing growth of this regional resource is made possible by the talents and good will of hundreds of writers, our civic partners, and the staff of editors, fact-checkers, and digital publishers working at our home base at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers-Camden. The current phase of expansion is funded by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia, and Poor Richard’s Charitable Trust.

Prospectus Update

Posted on April 1, 2009 by cmires

Our Draft Prospectus has been updated to include the steps taken to launch The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project from January through March 2009. We look forward to applying the advice of the Civic Partnership and Planning Workshop when we create the next evolution of this guiding document for the project.

Putting the Delaware River Port Authority in Context

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Howard Gillette

News that a grand jury is considering possible corruption in the award of economic development funds by the Delaware River Port Authority to politically connected recipients makes Peter Hendee Brown’s posting on the DRPA on this site especially timely. What the DRPA is supposed to do and how it operates is hard to grasp from the many news accounts that has put the agency in the news over time. Brown provides the background that helps make sense of the agency’s central importance to the region and the structural problems that arise from its operations.

When I first returned to the area after a long absence to write a book on Camden in the late 1990s, I was surprised at the way DRPA operated, not as an agent for regional development but as a cash cow that directed funds in equal portions to Pennsylvania and New Jersey without an overall strategic plan. Some projects made immediate sense, such as refitting the Philadelphia Navy Yard in the aftermath of the government’s departure from the site. Other investments were harder to sell. Spokesmen for the agency often talked about building tourism, for instance, by making investments on both sides of the Delaware River, and some good results came from that vision as well, not the least funds that helped make the President’s House memorial in Philadelphia a reality. But building tourism—which might conceivably generate returns by increasing tolls over bridges connecting the two states—was never central to DRPA’s goal. Supporting allies and garnering political credits appears to have topped the list of priorities, to say nothing of the financial benefits that might be gained through related contracts and political donations, among other things.

As Brown indicates, the creation of the DRPA was part of a movement to remove from politics certain public investments operating as non-partisan authorities. As Louise Dyble’s devastating critique of the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District, Paying the Toll: Local Power, Regional Politics, and the Golden Gate Bridge, demonstrates, reigning in such authorities can be difficult indeed, and holding them accountable nearly impossible. DRPA may not reach that standard, but accountability remains a concern to the many people who continue to pay tolls into this organization’s coffers.

Whether an indictment will follow the grand jury’s investigation, DRPA deserves close scrutiny. We hope that our fellow citizens in the greater Philadelphia region will be aided in their assessment of the DRPA by Brown’s essay. Certainly, none of us have heard the last about controversies surrounding this important player in our region.

Read about Bob Skiba in the Inquirer

Posted on April 30, 2011 by cmires

The Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday published a front-page feature story about Bob Skiba, who helped to form our partnership with the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides. Bob is currently president of the Tour Guides and heads the archives at the William Way Community Center in Philadelphia. Read all about it. Congratulations also to the Tour Guides on completion of their recent certification training and examination — as a result, twenty-nine newly certified guides are prepared for the tourist season of 2011.

Register now for the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable

Posted on January 6, 2012 by cmires

Registration is now open for the final three programs in the “Phrasing Philadelphia” series of the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable. Please join us for these discussions and contribute your suggestions for the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia:

“City of Firsts” – Thursday, January 19, 6:30-8 p.m., at the Franklin Institute.
“Philadelphia, the Place That Loves You Back” – Wednesday, February 22, 6:30-8 p.m., at the Independence Visitor Center.
“City of Neighborhoods, City of Homes” – Wednesday, March 28, 6:30-8 p.m., at the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent.

For information on all programs and to register in advance, please visit https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/events.
We look forward to your participation in this unprecedented exploration of Philadelphia’s history and experience.

Report from the PHA

Posted on October 17, 2010 by curator

The Encyclopedia editors had the opportunity to lead a roundtable discussion about the project at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Association conference, held October 14-16, 2010, at Susquehanna University. We were pleased to see scholars from so many universities taking interest in the project and contributing their ideas and thoughtful questions. Thanks to the historians from Penn State, Temple University, Villanova University, Philadelphia University, Millersville University, Lehigh University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere for your participation. (That was quite a lineup of past presidents of the PHA in the back row!) Specific topics recommendations received have been added to our nominations list on the home page of this site, and we look forward to receiving more.

Spotlight on Children’s Television

Posted on May 1, 2012 by cmires

This week our Children’s Television essay is featured by Rutgers Media Relations in a news release by Ed Moorehouse. The article calls attention to the Rutgers-Camden connections of the two authors, Vibiana Bowman Cvetkovic of the Robeson Library and the Ph.D. program in Childhood Studies, and Brandi Scardilli, who earned her M.A. from the Rutgers-Camden Department of History. In the interview, the essay authors also comment on children’s television programming today. Update: Listen to Vibiana Bowman Cvetkovic discuss her research on WHYY-FM, broadcast May 9, 2012.

Summer 2022 Call for Authors

Posted on May 24, 2022 by cmires

During Summer 2022, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia seeks authors to write essays to finish important subject categories linking the Philadelphia region with the nation and the world. For the list of available topics and further information, link here.

Publication in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia is an opportunity to share expertise with a wide general audience. Our scope of coverage encompasses Philadelphia and the nearby region, including southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and northern Delaware. Prospective authors should have publications or other demonstrated expertise in their subjects, and all submissions will be peer-reviewed. Accepted essays will be published online and considered for inclusion in prospective print volumes, and modest compensation is available.

Author guidelines: link here.

Support from Rutgers-Camden Digital Studies Center

Posted on April 16, 2014 by curator

We’re pleased to share the news of new support for The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project from the Digital Studies Center at Rutgers-Camden. This grant will allow us to improve and expand our bibliographic survey by migrating it to Zotero, a platform that will make the citations more user-friendly and accessible to the public. Watch our Sources page for this transformation by the end of the summer.

Support from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council

Posted on January 22, 2010 by curator

A newly-awarded grant from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council will allow us to launch the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable, a series of public forums for dialogue that will help shape the contents of the Encyclopedia. The first sessions of the roundtable, beginning in March, will respond to suggestions received on this web site and at our Civic Partnership and Planning Workshop last year. See our Events calendar for details of the first three roundtables, and watch for an additional session that is being planned on African American history. Each session will feature new research, lively discussion, and the opportunity to contribute ideas for Encyclopedia topics.

Thank you for supporting our “Backgrounder” proposal in the Knight News Challenge

Posted on March 30, 2012 by cmires

When we asked our friends and partners to support us in the Knight News Challenge, you responded – thank you! Our online “likes” doubled in just two days, and we concluded the competition period with 194 “likes” and 92 comments on our proposal. While the competition urged us to focus on the quantity of participation, we are especially pleased by the quality of the online discussion, which demonstrated support while also posing good questions and offering additional ideas. The winners of this funding from the Knight Foundation will be announced in June.

Thank You for Supporting us in the News Challenge

Posted on April 12, 2012 by cmires

We were so grateful and impressed by your expressions of support for our application in the Knight News Challenge. We have learned that our proposal will not be advancing to the next round of the competition — in all, more than 1,100 applications were submitted and all but 51 were eliminated in the first round of screening. Although we are disappointed, we are glad for the positive developments that emerged from our collective effort. We have attracted new, enthusiastic potential partners for the future, and we have more than 200 followers for the @Backgrounders Twitter feed that we started for connecting history with the news. We will continue to use this to serve the public and add value to the Encyclopedia project. To follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Backgrounders. To see the projects advancing to further consideration in the Knight News Challenge, and comments about the selection process, follow this link: http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/20962258701/knight-news-challenge-on-networks-moving-to-the-next.

The contested path of the Sixers arena

Posted on January 27, 2025 by Howard Gillette

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of occasional blogs connecting contemporary issues with Greater Philadelphia’s storied history as documented in the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. Underlying these posts is the question whether we have learned sufficiently from the past to make the right decisions going forward.

Image depicts the original plan for the ’76ers stadium intended to be built in Market Street East. (Photo courtesy of phlsportsnation)

In the effort to identify regional connections between Philadelphia and the surrounding areas, Carolyn Adams and I found that nothing brought our area’s diverse people together across multiple counties in three states so much as professional sports. “The fact that thousands of avid sports fans from the suburbs poured into South Philadelphia for every home game fostered their identification with the rest of the region as perhaps no other activity could,” Adams concludes the overview chapter to our forthcoming book, The Greater Philadelphia Region. With the decision in the past few days to construct a new combined stadium for the ‘76ers and Flyers in the existing stadium district, that element of identity is only going to deepen. Whether one agrees with that decision or not, the winding and contested path to that decision raises serious questions both about the process and its ultimate resolution.

The Inquirer’s Helen Ubinas is not the only observer who thinks city interests proved secondary to profit-making throughout the two years of negotiations that took place. From the start, the plan to make over part of Market Street East came not from planners or government officials, but from an aggressive real estate developer and part owner of the 76ers. As it had in the past—most notably in the failed effort to stop the Vine Street Expressway—the Chinatown community, with the most to lose, reacted vehemently against the proposal. Other nearby communities also opposed the move, which would have brought street traffic, congestion, and noise on game days and only questionable benefits on other days. Only belatedly, it became clear that peak attendance would overwhelm SEPTA without additional financial resources, which the team was unwilling to commit to in months of negotiations.

No doubt that part of downtown needed assistance. Hopes for the original Gallery Place at Market East project designed by the famed developer, James Rouse, never materialized, and its makeover as the “Fashion District” also faltered. There was a rationale for replacing part of that project with a stadium, but it was not one that followed from a planning process for the whole area. Ideally, city officials would have followed the approach it embraced for reconnecting the city to the waterfront, through a public planning process, greatly assisted by Penn Praxis’s executive director Harris Steinberg. Now the director of the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel, Steinberg weighed in on the 76s plan in a general sense by suggesting the location follow a less invasive course, citing a block across Market at Eleventh as a model. Other downtown locations were suggested but never seriously entertained during the course of debate.

One could well argue that an alternative downtown location could have helped the city, without destroying a vulnerable neighborhood nearby as the Capital Arena in Washington did in totally overwhelming its adjacent Chinatown. One might look to Detroit, for example. Instead, the 76ers, in partnership with Comcast, will now build a new arena in South Philadelphia as part of a much larger makeover of the sports complex, bringing new housing and retail to an area currently devoid of character and animation outside of the stadiums, with the single exception of the nearby casino. What these billionaire partners have in mind is something like the entertainment and sports complex Battery Atlanta.

Revitalizing the existing sports complex will undoubtedly boost city taxes over time, while removing the political costs of potentially destroying a valued neighborhood. But there are downsides as well. The South Philadelphia location remains remote from the city core, forcing primary reliance on auto traffic, without the compensating effect of spillover business from sports events for a struggling downtown. With the simultaneous loss of the downtown’s last major department store, Market Street has been further damaged. While city officials speak optimistically about refiguring the historic Wanamaker building in the wake of Macy’s closure as part of an alternate plan for Market Street East, those ideas remain vague so far. One can only hope that the next steps incorporate a participatory and professional planning process that will enhance, rather than continue to weaken the core at the heart of the region.

Howard Gillette
Contributing Editor

The Greater Philadelphia Roundtable

Posted on May 16, 2010 by curator

Our spring series of the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable concluded May 11 with a capacity audience at the African American Museum in Philadelphia for “Philadelphia’s Black Attorneys: Not Just Lawyers but ‘Social Engineers.'” We extend to thanks to everyone who contributed their time and efforts to these community dialogues, which collectively drew more than 300 participants to four different venues and generated lively exchanges of information and views. These programs have demonstrated the strong interest of a variety of individuals and groups in being represented in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. We also have heard of the importance of understanding the past in order to plan for the future, especially the need to reach out to today’s youth. The extraordinary collaboration among so many groups and individuals forged by these programs will guide the planning of future programs and help to shape the future content of The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. Please continue to join the dialogue as we post summaries of the spring discussions and watch for announcements of future events.

The Greater Philadelphia Roundtable: LGBT Activism

Posted on March 19, 2010 by curator

Our new initiative for civic dialogue, the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable, began this week with a gathering at the William Way Community Center for a panel, “Striving for Equality: LGBT Activism in Greater Philadelphia.” The discussion highlighted the generations of activism necessary to achieve goals such as the Philadelphia civil rights bill and the Pennsylvania hate crimes bill. By understanding the connections that advocates for LGBT rights have forged between Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Washington, we gained insight into Philadelphia’s impact in the state and nation. We discussed the importance of visibility for LGBT people in Philadelphia’s history and the prospects for continuing conversation and future collaborations with the Encyclopedia project. We thank the participants and many cosponsors of this event, especially facilitator Kathy Padilla for organizing the panel. Thanks also to Professor William Hewitt of West Chester University for stepping in as speaker to discuss the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin. Topics submitted on comment cards have been posted on our nominations page , and a more detailed summary of the event will be posted soon to allow the conversation to continue.

The Greater Philadelphia Roundtable is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities We the People initiative for American history.

The Scribe of Camden

Posted on May 3, 2011 by cmires

Howard Gillette — whose dedication to the Encyclopedia project shaped our vision of a regional information gateway, based in civic engagement — is featured prominently in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer. The column by Kevin Riordan focuses on Gillette’s research on the postindustrial history of the City of Camden in addition to his work to promote inclusive public history projects such as the President’s House site in Philadelphia. Read the article.

Tour Guides Join Our Civic Advisory Board

Posted on August 31, 2010 by curator

Earlier this summer, two of the Encyclopedia’s editors, Charlene Mires and Howard Gillette, participated in a meeting of the Association of Philadelphia Tourguides. Building on that fruitful discusison, we now welcome this organization to our growing board of civic partners. Bob Skiba will serve as liaison between the guides and the Encyclopedia.

We’re Augmenting Reality

Posted on February 24, 2011 by cmires

What if you could stand in the present and see the past? It might look something like this. Over the last several months, the Encyclopedia team has been involved in an exciting project with the City of Philadelphia Department of Records and Azavea Inc. to develop an augmented reality app for the lastest generation of smartphones. Read all about it on Azavea’s blog, and get your phones ready for the app in the near future!

We’re in the Knight News Challenge – you can help!

Posted on March 6, 2012 by cmires

We are working on an exciting new project – “Backgrounder,” which will provide journalists with links to historical background information, delivered via Twitter. Working with WHYY, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Temple University Libraries Special Collections Center, we propose to build up news-related content in the Encyclopedia, then provide it to reporters when they need it. We also propose to provide new content related to breaking news, and that will become part of the Encyclopedia as well.

You can help us shape this project and earn funding for it by adding your feedback to the project proposal, which we have just posted in the Knight News Challenge:
http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/18812768763/backgrounder-blasts-from-the-past-for-busy-reporters

You may also follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/Backgrounders

Thank you for your participation in the Encyclopedia project!

We’re In The News

Posted on April 17, 2009 by cmires

An array of organizations and individuals met April 16-17 at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to begin the work of imagining and planning The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project. Our first Civic Partnership and Planning Workshop made the news in the Inquirer and on WHYY. Thanks to the many people who devoted time, energy, and inquisitive minds to make this event a success.

We’re Inspired, Too

Posted on March 8, 2012 by cmires

Drawing inspiration from The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, a new encyclopedia effort is underway in Cheshire, Connecticut. We’re pleased that the town historian, Jeanné Chesanow, shares our commitment to building a strong community for history and connections between the past and the present. Read about her project in a Cheshire Patch report, where you can also add comments to encourage this endeavor.

Welcome to Friends of Laurel Hill Cemetery

Posted on February 20, 2011 by cmires

We are pleased to add the Friends of Laurel Hill Cemetery to our growing Civic Advisory Board, which helps to assure that the Encyclopedia project serves community needs. Gwen Kaminski, Director of Development and Programs for the Friends of Laurel Hill, has helped us plan our “Green Country Town” roundtable, coming up in May at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. The President and CEO of Laurel Hill and West Laurel Hill Cemeteries, Pete Hoskins, will be a panelist for the program. Welcome to these supportive friends of the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project!

Welcome to the Team

Posted on July 20, 2014 by curator

As The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia expands, so does our team of editors. We are pleased to welcome the following colleagues, whose work you will begin to see in the Encyclopedia over the next several months:

Donald D. Groff, a veteran journalist, is our new managing editor.
Tyler Hoffman, Professor of English at Rutgers-Camden, is an associate editor who will oversee topics related to literature and theater.
Jean Soderlund, Professor of History at Lehigh University, is associate editor for early American topics up to 1800.
Roger Turner, Associate Fellow at Dickinson College, is associate editor for topics in the areas of science, technology and medicine.

The expertise and talents of these individuals undoubtedly will enrich The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia in many ways as the project continues to grow. Welcome to the team!

Whither the Downtown Department Store?

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Howard Gillette

Readers who may have found David Sullivan’s essay on the history of department stores in Philadelphia of interest may well want to read a recent essay on the subject in Next City. With downtown booming, we might well expect to hold on to the one remaining standalone store, but even that prospect can not be assured.

Blog Category: News, page 3