Monthly Archives: November 2012
When Navy Dragged Army Through the Mud
“Bands, crowds, spectacles, chevrons and gold lace, brass hats, officials, politicians and dignitaries and still just a football game,” wrote Paul Gallico in the days leading up to the annual Army-Navy game the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 1934. “Of all the thousands of football games played all over the country from October to December, this [...]
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Gothic Ruins: A Last Glimpse Inside Northeast Manual Training High School
The former Northeast Manual Training High School looks as if it had been plucked from the Princeton campus and dropped into the middle of North Philadelphia. Constructed in 1903 at the intersection of North 8th Street and West Lehigh Avenue, the “Collegiate Gothic” building has walls of granite, traceried windows, and gargoyles sprouting from the [...]
Posted in Behind the Scenes, Historic Sites, Neighborhoods 1 Comment
Standing His Ground: Abraham Lincoln in Philadelphia
Weeks after Abraham Lincoln won the presidency on November 6, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. And in the months before his inauguration in Washington, D.C. in March, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana followed. Jefferson Davis would be elected and inaugurated as the Provisional President of the Confederacy. A burdened Lincoln timed his trip to [...]
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“The Cliffs”: Fairmount Park Ruins with a Link to Joseph Wharton
During the winter months, drivers along the Schuylkill Expressway may notice the broken shell of a house near the Girard Avenue Bridge. Its battered, honey-colored walls are marred by bright graffiti. Its roof is gone, windows vacant. This forlorn ruin, once known as “The Cliffs,” was long ago the childhood home of one of America’s [...]
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When Myth Prevails and History Fails
Philadelphia, we too-often think, has a corner on history when it comes to Liberty, Freedom and all that was right with America. We have historical sites to prove it, so it must be true. But what happens to those sites that tell the downside of history, sites that contradict the prevailing and preferred narrative? Well, [...]
Posted in Historic Sites 1 Comment
When Presidents Come to Town
By Yael Borofsky for the PhillyHistory Blog Jimmy Carter stops off in a classroom in pursuit of a re-election bid. Although Philadelphia’s days as the nation’s capital were glorious, but short-lived, that hasn’t stopped commanders in chief from stopping off in a city that practically oozes with symbols of democracy. As election day and all [...]
Posted in Events and People, Snapshots of History 1 Comment
William Warren Gibbs: The Rise and Fall of A Gilded Age Promoter