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Richard Allen and the Founding of Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church
By Deborah Boyer
Throughout the 1700 and 1800s, Philadelphia was home to a large community of free African-Americans, many of whom were descendants of enslaved Africans forcibly brought to America. Members of the community formed churches, schools, businesses, and charitable societies. One of these churches, Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church, would become an important part of the community and influence African-American religious life throughout the country.
The history of Mother Bethel is inextricably bound up with the history of its founder, Richard Allen. Born into a slave-holding household in Philadelphia in 1760, Allen and his...
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Entering America: The Washington Avenue Immigration Station
By Deborah Boyer
In the early 1600s, Europeans began arriving in the Philadelphia area, inhabited at the time by members of the Lenape tribe. Over the next four hundred years, immigrants, affected by various social, political, geographic, and economic factors, would continue to leave their countries of origin and settle in Philadelphia. While the population of the United States grew throughout this time period, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw an especially large boom in the growth of cities. As the American population shifted from predominantly rural to predominantly urban, immigrants also began settling...
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Poinsett and Smith and the 1914 Occupation of Veracruz
By Deborah Boyer
With photographs of quiet neighborhood streets, busy commercial districts, schools, stores, trolleys, parks, and dozens of other aspects of daily urban life, the images on PhillyHistory.org provide a beautiful visual history of change and development in the communities throughout Philadelphia.
Often, though, there are photos on PhillyHistory.org that not only tell the story of Philadelphia’s past but also demonstrate the role that Philadelphians have played in events throughout the country and around the world. A series of photographs of the 1914 funeral of two sailors, George Poinsett and Charles Allen Smith, provides just one...
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The Olmsted Brothers' Artificial Nature: South Philadelphia's League Island (F.D.R) Park
By Christopher Dougherty
When author Christopher Morley sauntered around "the Neck" one hot summer evening in the early 20th century, to his surprise he found Philadelphians living an almost rural existence amid the marshes, ash heaps and junk yards. But Morley saw that the boggy land where the Delaware met the Schuylkill - "the canal country of South Philadelphia" - held great promise. He longed to see the "wonderful Dutch meadows of the Neck reclaimed into one of the world’s loveliest riverside parks."
Perhaps Morley knew of the city's plan for a South Philadelphia park...
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Ees Da Sa Sussaway- Lets Get Started
By Erica Stefanovich
To many, "ees da sa sussaway" would simply be syllables, but generations of Philadelphia children know differently. They know that these are the magic words of Chief Traynor Ora Halftown, beloved children's entertainer and Philadelphia legend.
Chief Halftown began broadcasting his self-titled children's television program in September of 1950. Originally intended to be a simple cartoon show, it grew into the longest running local children's program in the history of television. For nearly 50 years, Chief Halftown was a part of the lives of Philadelphia children.
Chief Halftown was a full-blooded Seneca Indian born in...