Categories
Events and People

Touching Liberty (Literally)

The photographic archives of the Office of the City Representative document decades of visits to Philadelphia by various dignitaries, diplomats, and VIPs, both domestic and foreign. And of course, no visit to Philadelphia would be complete without a stop at one of the iconic symbols of America, the Liberty Bell. As the photos show, being a VIP afforded one special access to the bell.

In October 1963, Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia (1930-1974), made an official state visit to the United States to meet with President Kennedy to discuss important and pertinent issues such as U.S. aid to Ethiopia, the effect of Soviet-U.S. relations on Ethiopia and other African nations, and the sticky situation of U.S. arms being sold to Somalia, Ethiopia’s neighbor and sometimes opponent. Before getting down to business with Kennedy in Washington however, Selassie made a stop in Philadelphia. Flying directly from Geneva in a United States Air Force jet, Selassie and his entourage were greeted at Philadelphia International Airport by Mayor James Tate, numerous other city officials, a 21-gun salute, and a “bevy of brass” (the police and firemen’s band) which played both the American and Ethiopian national anthems. The first stop in Philadelphia was of course the Liberty Bell, which at this time was still housed in Independence Hall. This is our first instance of “touching liberty.”

  • Special to The New York Times. “Arms for Somalia Embarrassing U.S. on Eve of Selassie’s Visit: Ethiopian Ruler Is Expected to Raise Issue in Talks With Kennedy This Week.” New York Times (1923-Current file), September 29, 1963, http://www.proquest.com.libproxy.temple.edu/ (accessed August 4, 2010).
  • LOU POTTER. “Haile Selassie, Lion of Judah, Roars Into Philadelphia: Met by Mayor Tate and Bevy Of City Brass Winds Up Tour With Honorary Citizenship.” Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001), October 1, 1963, http://www.proquest.com.libproxy.temple.edu/ (accessed August 4, 2010).
  • Special to The New York Times. “Haile Selassie Is Greeted On Arrival in Philadelphia: MUSIC NOTES.” New York Times (1923-Current file), October 1, 1963, http://www.proquest.com.libproxy.temple.edu/ (accessed August 4, 2010).

In April 1964, King Hussein of Jordan arrived in the Philadelphia for his third official state visit to the United States and his first official state visit with then President Lyndon B. Johnson. Serving as an “unofficial representative of the Arab world”, King Hussein was set to discuss continued U.S. economic aid to Jordan and the delicate Arab-Israeli political climate. Before that though, King Hussein arrived in Philadelphia aboard Air Force One on a rainy afternoon. The rain however did not deter about 100 spectators, including Mayor Tate and his wife Ann, from greeting the King at the airport. King Hussein’s overnight visit to Philadelphia included trips to all the iconic Philadelphia sites – of course, including the liberty bell. Touching liberty instance number two.

  • HEDRICK SMITH Special to The New York Times. “Hussein Confers With President: HUSSEIN CONFERS WITH PRESIDENT.” New York Times (1923-Current file), April 15, 1964, http://www.proquest.com.libproxy.temple.edu/ (accessed August 4, 2010).

In April 1976, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden embarked on a 27-day, 14-state tour of the United States. After spending the first day of his tour in Washington with President Ford, King Carl was driven to the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia (in a Volvo, of course). On hand to meet the King at the museum was Mayor Rizzo, who was reported to have incorrectly addressed the King as “Your Eminence”; one of Rizzo’s aides had to politely remind him that the correct way to address a monarch was “Your Majesty.” In addition to a luncheon in his honor at Philadelphia’s iconic Bellevue Stratford Hotel, King Car also toured Independence Park. Here he touches liberty in the bell’s new pavilion built for the 1976 Bicentennial.

As the official “Bicentennial City”, Philadelphia hosted many dignitaries in 1976. Dr. William R. Tolbert, president of Liberia, and his wife Victoria were invited to the United States as official Bicentennial guests of the U.S. government (the only officially invited head of state from the African continent). This was President Tolbert’s first visit to the United States since taking office as president of Liberia in 1971, having served the 20 years prior as Liberia’s vice-president. Tolbert was descended from a South Carolina slave family who immigrated to Liberia in the 1880s. Arriving first in Washington D.C., Tolbert tackled much more serious tasks, such as addressing a joint session of Congress and the United Nations General Assembly, before coming to Philadelphia to partake of the lighter Bicentennial fare. Here President Tolbert and Mrs. Tolbert get their chance to touch liberty.

Of course, having your own country was not a prerequisite to being afforded special access to the Liberty Bell. Here is Bob Hope (with Mayor Rizzo and fellow entertainer Joel Gray) getting his own touch of liberty during the Freedom Week 1975 ceremonies.

Categories
Entertainment Events and People

Goats Versus Mules: The Army-Navy Game in Philadelphia


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Much like the city of Philadelphia itself, the annual college football match-up between the U.S. Military and Naval Academies, colloquially known as the Army-Navy Game, has a storied history that echoes that of the city in which the match has been held more than any other. Since the Army-Navy Game’s inception in 1890, Philadelphia has hosted the match a record 81 times, far surpassing its nearest competitors, New York (11) and Baltimore (4). After the rivalry’s first four matches incited passionate reactions and a near duel between two officers in 1893, the Army-Navy Game was suspended for five years until Philadelphia was selected as a neutral site for the game in 1899. Roughly equidistant from both West Point and Annapolis, Philadelphia was considered a prime location, as organizers hoped relocating the game away from the campuses of either academy would diffuse tensions and encourage good sportsmanship. Throughout the early 20th century, the Army-Navy Game was held at Franklin Field on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania before moving to Municipal Stadium, later John F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, in 1936 and later Lincoln Financial Field in 1980.


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Newspaper accounts from the turn of the 20th century describe the Army-Navy Game as a city-wide event, with hotels and homes bedecked in the blue, yellow, and gray of West Point or the blue and gold of Annapolis, while citizens and tourists alike flooded the streets of Philadelphia carrying badges and pennants to show their allegiance to either academy. The players themselves, accompanied by marching bands and their respective mascots, the Navy Goat and Army Mule, processed through the streets up to Franklin Field, which consistently exceeded its seating capacity. Ticket scalpers were common and by 1934 were charging as much as $75 for choice seats, a blemish on the event that later inspired a Congressional investigation. Traditionally, the Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of War attended as representatives of their respective departments and the game also drew many governors, mayors, and other political notables. In addition, the game was also a significant event on the East Coast social calendar, as special luncheons and dinners, including a Naval Academy alumni dance at the Bellevue-Stratford hotel, surrounded the match and the box seats occupied by socialites and dignitaries were chronicled in the New York Times society pages.


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Inevitably, Franklin Field struggled to accommodate the sheer number of people who desired to attend the Army-Navy Game and the search for a new location with larger facilities threatened to move the match out of Philadelphia. In 1905, the Army-Navy Game took place at Osborne Field on the campus of Princeton University, but transportation problems involving the local train lines rendered Princeton a less desirable option moving forward. The Army-Navy Game returned to Philadelphia and Franklin Field from 1906-1912 before relocating to the New York Polo Grounds in 1913. The Polo Grounds then became a favored site for the game for the rest of the decade and thereafter the Army-Navy Game was periodically played at other sites as well, including Chicago’s Soldier Field and New York City’s Yankee Stadium. Notably, the variety of venues, which continued into the mid-1930s, was considered more equitable to both sides after representatives from West Point argued that holding the game in Philadelphia every year favored Annapolis, which generally had an easier time commuting to Franklin Field.


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In 1936, Philadelphia mayor-elect S. Davis Wilson proposed hosting the Army-Navy Game at Municipal Stadium, a 100,000 seat stadium located at the far southern end of South Broad Street that was originally built for the 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition. The first Army-Navy Game at Municipal Stadium drew a capacity crowd that included First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Pennsylvania Railroad ran 35 special trains direct to the stadium out of a fleet of 105 locomotives put in service especially for the event. In the years that followed, Municipal Stadium became the favored venue for the Army-Navy Game, which also saw Presidents Truman, Kennedy, and Ford in attendance over the years. President Kennedy especially took an active part in the game, conducting the coin toss at the start of each match and parading across the field at halftime. Following President Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, officials considered canceling the Army-Navy Game, but the match was eventually held on December 7 at the express request of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. The following year, Municipal Stadium was renamed John F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in honor of the late President and the President’s brother, Bobby Kennedy, attended the Army-Navy Game with his family to mark the occasion.

John F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium continued to host the Army-Navy Game until 1980, at which time it moved to neighboring Veterans Stadium and ultimately to Lincoln Financial Field. By the time the match relocated to Veterans Stadium, the Army-Navy Game had declined in national importance and the crowd of 60,470 who attended the game in 1981 was the lowest crowd recorded since 1943. Still, the Army-Navy Game remains a legendary event in American sports and a notable part of Philadelphia history, as captured so vividly in the collection of photographs now displayed on PhillyHistory.org.

References

“102,000, East’s Largest Football Crowd, Will See Army-Navy Classic Today.” New York Times, November 28, 1936.

“Army-Navy Game.” 26 July 2010. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army%E2%80%93Navy_Game (Accessed 6 August 2010).

“Army-Navy Game History: Rivalry History.” Philadelphia’s Official Army-Navy Website 6 August 2010 http://www.phillylovesarmynavy.com/RIVALRY-HISTORY (Accessed 6 August 2010).

“Army-Navy Game Postponed to November 7; Usual Ceremonies Will be Eliminated.” New York Times, November 27, 1963.

“Army Triumphs Over Navy in Football.” New York Times, November 29, 1903.

“Army Versus Navy: A Dimming of Splendor.” New York Times, November 29, 1975.

Categories
New Features

Planes, Parades, and Presidents! New Photos from the Office of the City Representative!


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The PhillyHistory.org team is excited to announce the addition of historic photographs from the collection of the City of Philadelphia Office of the City Representative! Featuring images of everything from planes (a Spirit of St. Louis reproduction arriving at Northeast airport) to parades (Mummers marching near City Hall) to presidents (President John F. Kennedy speaking in front of Independence Hall), these stunning images capture historic events in our city and country’s history.

For decades, the City of Philadelphia Office of the City Representative has developed and promoted events throughout the city. Over the course of their history, they have taken thousands of photographs documenting events ranging from parades and festivities to visits by political dignitaries and celebrities to activities at local recreation centers. Unseen for years, these images will be made available to the general public on PhillyHistory.org where they can be purchased, shared with friends, downloaded to Google Earth, and accessed via mobile technology.

While the full collection of images numbers in the tens of thousands, over 800 images are already available on PhillyHistory.org. Over the next few months, the PhillyHistory.org interns will be hard at work cataloging, numbering, and scanning hundreds of additional images. Check back often to see new photographs from the amazing collection of the Office of the City Representative!

Categories
Events and People

Grover Cleveland Bergdoll: “The Fighting Slacker of Fairmount”

Louis C. Bergdoll arrived in America in June 1846 from Germany and in 1849 founded a brewery in the heart of the appropriately-named Brewerytown neighborhood. The Bergdoll brand became one of the most popular brews in America and made Louis Bergdoll a multi-millionaire. Flush with cash, he then set about planning a new dynastic seat in Fairmount. Completed in 1882, the Renaissance revival family mansion at 22nd and Green was a monument to the Bergdoll family’s taste and sumptuous lifestyle. In its size and grandeur, it rivaled the Vanderbilt mansions on New York’s Fifth Avenue.

Louis’s grandson Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, born in 1893, grew up in the big house in Fairmount. More interested in mechanics than brewing, Bergdoll purchased an airplane only a few short years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight and raced exotic automobiles. The charming playboy and swashbuckling aviator also was also known to be a momma’s boy.

But Bergdoll’s party days were cut short. In the three years before America entered World War I on the side of the Allies, a significant portion of Philadelphia’s large German-American community either urged neutrality or sided with the Kaiser’s army by holding benefits for the German wounded. The sinking of the British luxury liner Lusitania in 1915 by a German U-boat, which killed 1,200 people including 110 Americans, caused the public to cry for revenge. When Congress declared war on Germany in April 1917, President Wilson instituted the first mass draft since the Civil War and cracked down on German-American organizations he believed to be supporting the enemy.

It is unclear whether playboy Grover Cleveland Bergdoll dodged the draft because of his pro-German sympathies or because he did not want the war to interfere with his social life. What is clear is that when the Draft Board called up his number, Bergdoll was nowhere to be found. His rich mother hid him in the big house on Green Street.

On March 20, 1920, two and a half years after the guns fell silent, two bounty hunters nabbed Bergdoll outside the house on Green Street. Imprisoned on Governor’s Island, Bergdoll asked his jailer if he could make one more visit to Philadelphia to see his mother at the family mansion. They agreed. Eluding two guards, Bergdoll jumped into a waiting car packed with bundles of cash and sped off into the night.

Bergdoll booked a ticket to Europe and settled down in the small town of Eberbach, Germany. He then flagrantly continued to live the high life using his family’s riches. Yet he lived in constant fear of bounty hunters. Two tried to nab him at a wedding, and Bergdoll fought them off. Another time, Bergdoll bit off the thumb of one would-be kidnapper and shot another one dead.i

These actions earned him the nickname “The Fighting Slacker” and made the exiled beer heir one of the most reviled men in America. Even so, Bergdoll wanted to make a secret trip to see his mother in Philadelphia. He even had the nerve to apply for a U.S. passport in Stuttgart. His application was flatly rejected. According to one contemporary report, “his stains remains [sic] that of an escaped prisoner who would be returned to prison to serve out the rest of his sentence if caught.” ii

In May 1939, Bergdoll returned to America, realizing that facing the music was better than being drafted into the Nazi army. Upon his return, he was tried, convicted, and sent to prison. There he remained until 1946. When he emerged from jail, Bergdoll was a shadow of his former self and was put away in an insane asylum. The one-time Philadelphia brewing heir, aviator and playboy died demented and forgotten in 1966.iii

By then, the Bergdoll family had left the big house on Green Street. After the stock market crash of 1929, the Fairmount area fell from its lofty status as a Rittenhouse Square North to that of a run-down slum. The 14,000 square foot Bergdoll mansion was cut up into apartments, although many of its original interior details were left intact.

The former home of Grover Cleveland (“The Fighting Slacker”) Bergdoll has recently been restored as a single family home and is now listed for sale. The asking price: $7 million.iv

References:

[i] Willis Thornton, “Bergdoll – The Fighting Slacker,” The Olean Times-Herald,” Tuesday, January 24, 1933. http://earlyaviators.com/ebergdo1.htm Accessed August 3, 2010.

[ii] Willis Thornton, “Bergdoll – The Fighting Slacker,” The Olean Times-Herald,” Tuesday, January 24, 1933. http://earlyaviators.com/ebergdo1.htm Accessed August 3, 2010.

[iii] “Biographical Note: Bergdoll Papers,” The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. http://www.balchinstitute.org/manuscript_guide/html/bergdoll.html Accessed August 6, 2010.

[iv] Deirdre Woollard, “Bergdoll Mansion, Estate of the Day,” Luxist.com. http://www.luxist.com/2010/06/29/bergdoll-mansion-estate-of-the-day/ Accessed August 6, 2010.

Categories
Neighborhoods

Point Breeze


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Since the time of its beginnings in the late nineteenth century, Point Breeze has been a no-frills working class neighborhood.  It was first settled by Eastern European Jews, many of whom set up shops on Point Breeze Avenue and lived in apartments above their businesses. Italian and Irish immigrants soon followed.i Conditions were primitive: chickens in backyards were a common sight. By the 1930s, these immigrant groups were joined by African-Americans from the Deep South, who had come to Philadelphia looking for work and to escape Jim Crow.

During the nineteenth century, Philadelphia’s African-American community was centered east of Broad Street, near Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church at 8th and Lombard. The Great Migration, however, pushed the boundaries of the African-American settlement west of Broad Street to Point Breeze. This expansion often brought them into conflict with neighboring Irish-Americans, described by W.E.B. DuBois as the “hereditary enemy” of urban African-Americans.” ii Many of Point Breeze’s African-Americans worked for Center City hotels, the Pennsylvania Railroad, local factories, and city government.


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Until the late 1960s, Point Breeze was a relatively stable, self-sufficient neighborhood. Its residents almost never went into Center City, as they had everything they needed within a few blocks of their two story rowhouses. At night, Point Breeze Avenue (known by residents as “The Breeze”) was illuminated by scores of shop signs advertising clothing, fresh produce, appliances, ice cream, and soda. There were two five and dime stores (Woolworth’s and Kresge’s), and the Curson family operated a dress shop patronized by residents for First Communion and weddings. There were also kosher butcher shops that catered to the still-large Jewish community.iii

“It was a very busy, beautiful area,” remembered Claudia Sherrod, whose parents came to Philadelphia from Georgia during the Great Depression. “There used to be over a hundred stores on the Breeze.”

Claudia spent her childhood in a rowhouse at 21st and Kater, just south of Fitler Square. The family had no refrigerator, indoor plumbing, or hot water until the early 1950s. As a ten year old, Claudia took the lead in beautifying her block by planting the first flowerbox. “It was a diversified community, with Caucasians and African-Americans living and working together,” she said. “We had a beautiful community growing up. I could go to anyone’s house and eat a meal. As children, we never looked at culture. We knew one was white and one was black and that was it.”


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After Claudia married in 1959, she and her husband – who worked for the city — moved across Washington Avenue to Point Breeze. “It was a great place for raising our children,” Claudia said. “My husband would go to the Landreth School to play ball with the kids…I didn’t have to worry about my kids being out-of-hand. If the neighbors felt they were, they’d call me. And we don’t have enough of that today.”

On Sundays, Claudia returned to her old neighborhood to attend New Central Baptist Church at 21st and Lombard, where she had worshipped and sang in the choir since she was a child. “It was my whole life,” she said. “We lived to go to church, and we spent all Sunday there.”

Claudia and her husband raised four children and two grandchildren in Point Breeze. “My children recently told me we thought we were rich,” Claudia Sherrod concluded. “We were rich,” she replied “…with love.”


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Claudia’s friend Alice Gabbadon, who grew up at 22nd and Dickinson, also had fond memories of life in Point Breeze. “After church, we would look in the store windows and fantasize about what we could buy,” Alice remembered about her childhood. “It was safe. We were allowed to go as a group to the 1700 block of Point Breeze to buy water ice.” When she wanted to go to see a movie at the Victory or the Dixie on Point Breeze Avenue, her mother would give her 16 cents: 5 cents for a bag of pretzels, 10 cents for the movie, and a penny for the tax.

Yet Alice realized she was not welcome in certain places. One day, she went to see a film at The Breeze, another theater on Point Breeze Avenue. But when she and her friends entered the theater, the white audience began harassing them. Alice stood in back, endured the tormenting, and never came back. There was no “Whites Only” sign, but segregation at this movie theater was an unspoken rule.

And at the 26th and Morris playground, Alice and her friends would wait for the white kids to get off the swings. They would often wait for a long time, then give up and go home.


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Wharton Square, one of the few green spaces in the area, was a friendlier place for Point Breeze’s African-American community, popular with picnickers. The three story houses fronting the square were the largest in the neighborhood. During the 1950s, Wharton Square was the home of Congressman Bill Barrett, who made sure Point Breeze got its fair share of city services. “If you had a problem,” Alice remembered, “you were told to ‘Go see Bill Barrett.’”

The race riots of the 1960s — which triggered mass “white flight” –signaled the decline of Point Breeze as a self-sustaining, relatively integrated neighborhood. Many Jewish shopkeepers sold their businesses and moved elsewhere, part of a pattern that repeated itself throughout the city of Philadelphia.iv Then, like adjacent Grays Ferry, Point Breeze was hit by the heroin epidemic of the 1970s and then the crack scourge of the early 1990s. Residents went into alleys to shoot up, and often never came out alive. Houses were abandoned and fell into disrepair.

In recent years, however, groups such as South Philadelphia H.O.M.E.S. and the Universal Companies built new affordable housing to replace some of Point Breeze’s dated and deteriorating housing stock, as well as help entrepreneurs start new businesses on the decimated The Breeze. The Point Breeze Performing Arts Center, founded in 1984, has helped keep neighborhood kids off the streets with its intensive music and dance programs. During the past few decades, immigrants from Korea and Southeast Asia have moved to Point Breeze, steadily taking the place of those residents who left many years ago.

Alice Gabbadon is optimistic about the future of her native Point Breeze, citing rebuilding of businesses on The Breeze and positive involvement with members of the community. “We went through some rough times,” she said recently, “but now I think we are going through some positive changes.”

References:

[i] “A History of the Point…” The Power of the Point: A Pictorial History of Point Breeze, July 1, 1996. Collection of South Philadelphia H.O.M.E.S., Inc.

[ii] W.E.B. DuBois, as quoted by Murray Dubin, South Philadelphia: Mummers, Memories, and the Melrose Diner (Philadelphia: Temple University Press 1996), p.60

[iii] Nintha C. Johnson, “My Memories of Point Breeze: Businesses As I Remember Them,” The Power of the Point: A Pictorial History of Point Breeze, July 1, 1996. Collection of South Philadelphia H.O.M.E.S., Inc.

[iv] Jennifer Lee, “The Comparative Disadvantage of African-American Owned Enterprises: Ethnic Succession and Social Capital in Black Communities,” from Richardson Dilworth, ed., Social Capital in the City: Community and Civic Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Temple University Press), 2006, p.142.

Interview of Claudia Sherrod by Steven Ujifusa, July 21, 2010.

Interview of Alice Gabbadon by Steven Ujifusa, July 28, 2010.