Monthly Archives: January 2009

Richard Allen and the Founding of Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church

By Deborah Boyer | Published: January 30, 2009
  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 [...]
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Entering America: The Washington Avenue Immigration Station

By Deborah Boyer | Published: January 21, 2009
  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 [...]
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Poinsett and Smith and the 1914 Occupation of Veracruz

By Deborah Boyer | Published: January 10, 2009
  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 [...]
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The Dempsey-Tunney Fight of 1926

By Deborah Boyer | Published: January 1, 2009
  Among the many events at the Sesquicentennial, perhaps none drew as much attention and publicity as the world’s heavyweight title fight between defending champion Jack Dempsey and challenger Gene Tunney. Held at the Sesquicentennial Municipal Stadium on September 23, 1926, the boxing match drew a crowd of over 120,000 people and became one of [...]
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