Author Archives: Steven Ujifusa
Bucknell the Gas King
William Bucknell was born in Marcus Hook in 1811, the son of English immigrants, and had very intermittent schooling. Trained as a woodcarver, he married Margaret Crozer, daughter of John P. Crozer, owner of the Mattson Paper Mills and a generous donor to the Upland Baptist Church. Leveraging his connections, Bucknell invested his savings in laying [...]
Posted in Uncategorized 2 Comments
William Cramp & Sons Ship and Engine Building Company
On a cold, drizzly morning in November 1894, 25,000 men, women, and children surged through the gates of Philadelphia’s Cramp shipyard to witness the launching of the largest liner yet built in the United States. She was the SS St. Louis, the 11,000 gross ton flagship of the American Line, owned by Philadelphia shipping tycoon [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Leave a comment
Reverend William Henry Furness: A Philadelphia Unitarian
Born in Boston and educated at Harvard, Reverend William Henry Furness (1802-1896) came to Philadelphia at the tender age of 22 to nurture the city’s small Unitarian community, which had been founded by scientist and British immigrant Joseph Priestly in the 1790s. Like Quakerism, which holds that the light of God is in all of [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Leave a comment
Andrew Jackson Downing on Tulpehocken Street
People’s pride in their country is connected to pride in their home. If they can decorate and build their homes to symbolize the values they hope to embody, such as prosperity, education and patriotism, they will be happier people and better citizens. [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Leave a comment
Le Corbusier Dynamites the Drexel Block
In his writings on architecture and city planning, the Swiss architect Le Corbusier (1887-1967) was fond of using the “royal” we: We must create a mass-production state of mind: A state of mind for building mass-production housing. A state of mind for living in mass-production housing. A state of mind for conceiving mass-production housing. In [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Leave a comment
The Germantown Cricket Club
Hidden behind a high brick wall stands a forgotten masterpiece of American architecture, designed by the same firm responsible for New York’s Pennsylvania Station and the Boston Public Library. The Germantown Cricket Club, a National Historic Landmark, is one of the few surviving structures in Philadelphia designed by McKim Mead & White. It is a [...]
Posted in Historic Sites, Neighborhoods, Uncategorized 3 Comments
The Wrong Side of the Tracks
by Steven B. Ujifusa In the spring of 1921, a young man named John J. McCloy returned to his hometown of Philadelphia, eager to start his law career. A poor boy who had grown up in a small house at 20th and Brown streets, he had just completed Harvard Law School, graduating at the top [...]
Posted in Uncategorized 2 Comments
Cliveden: An Historic Germantown Mansion Redefines its Mission
Photograph of Cliveden taken by James McClees in February, 1857. In 2008, three men made a pilgrimage from Philadelphia to Frisby’s Prime Choice plantation in Cecil County, Maryland. The first was Phillip Seitz, curator of the Cliveden estate, a National Trust historic site in Germantown and the long-time home of the Chew family. The second [...]
Posted in Historic Sites, Uncategorized Comments closed
Risen from the Ashes: St. Joseph’s Preparatory School and the Gesu Church, Part 2
As the Gesu parish flourished, so did St. Joseph’s Preparatory School. By 1927, the University moved from North Philadelphia to a new campus on City Line Avenue, giving the secondary school much more space. It was also in the 1920s that the school became known as “The Prep” and its students as “Preppers.” Because of [...]
Posted in Historic Sites Comments closed
William H. Shoemaker Junior High School