Summer Winter
Community Garden (33rd and Race
Street)
Farmers
Market (Corner of Lancaster
and Powelton Avenues) - Sue and Jack Minnis
and Bob Pierson of Farm-to-City,
have put a tremendous amount of effort into
nurturing the Market, which is now doing
just great. Sue gives us weekly Market
updates, so we know just what to expect.
Cultivating
Knowledge - June 20, 2002
Article by Mary Clarke-Pearson about the
Powelton Farmer's market.
Powelton-Drexel
Playground (aka Tot Lot
on 35th Street, between Powelton
and Pearl)
- The Playground
was the focus of a major Greening initiative
funded by the William Penn Foundation
from 1997 - 1999. The report of the project
is online, Powelton-Drexel
Community Greening and Action Plan.
Beautiful
Powelton - lots of pictures of
the neighborhood. We could always use more
cool pictures, but what's missing are old
pictures and postcards. Let me know if you
have any ... mjones1@swarthmore.edu.
I'd love to include them!
-
Homes,
Buildings, Gardens and Streetscapes
- Shots from long time Powelton Village
resident, Larry Biond, of Powelton streetscapes,
winter
of 1994, shots from rooftops
and parts of Philadelphia
around Powelton.
- more pictures
...
West Bank Greenway
(a planned Greenway for the West bank of
the Schuylkill River along 31st and 32nd
Streets from Market Street to Mantua Avenue
and across the Spring Garden Bridge)
"Greenway
project will bring the city closer to
its river" - An article
by Inquirer Architecture columnist Inga
Saffron about the greenway.
Rainbow Flags - We have Jack and
Sue Minnis to thank for clipping much of
this information.
"For those who’'ve
ever doubted the power of a small gesture
to make a very large statement, I bring
you the story of Kurt Conklin’s flag."
(Ronnie Polaneczky)
- The
storm before the rainbow,
Ronnie Polaneczky... "Here’s
to the flags of Powelton. Forever in peace
may they wave."
- Powelton
puts the rainbows up, Tom Ferrick
Jr. "[Rev. Patricia Pearce] offered
to fly a Rainbow Flag from her apartment.
First she talked to her landlady, Betty
Bauman, to explain why and see if it would
be OK. Not only did Bauman think it was
OK, she thought they should spread the
word. The women wrote a flyer and distributed
it door-to-door, suggesting that people
fly a flag in support."
- No
Intolerance in Powelton (NIP),
Betty Baumann... "Certain members
of our community have been targeted because
they are viewed as different. Most of
the residents here have CHOSEN Powelton
Village to reside in, for a variety of
reasons. For me, it has been the joy of
acceptance -- acceptance of all people."
- True
colors, The Advocate, March 28,
2000
- More
Reporting on the Powelton Flags
|
Draft resisters
at 3611 Baring Street, November
4th, 1969. Photo by Richard Rosenberg.
This image and many other GREAT
images are available in Temple's
Archival
Collections Database.
|
"Get
to know your FBI agent" - In
1971, more than a 1000 documents were stolen
from the Media FBI office. In searching
for those documents, up to 50 of the investigating
agents concentrated their search on Powelton
Village.
Residents were creative
in reacting to the surveillance and made
fun of agents investigating the theft with
a 'Street fair' that included displays of
copies of the documents and blown up photographs
of investigating agents disguised in jeans
and beards."
Folklore you think?
Check out the New York Times ...
- June 6, 1971 -
Philadelphia
Fair 'Exposes' F.B.I.
- July 15, 1971 -
Suit Charges F.B.I with Harassment
- March 12, 1972 - Theft
of Documents From F.B.I. Unsolved After
a Year's Inquiry
Friendship Cooperative - "In
the aftermath of WWII, twelve young people,
including conscientious objectors and members
of the American Friends Service Committee,
all longing to put an end to war and needing
a place to live, started a housing cooperative
in Powelton Village that intentionally sought
out people of different races, religions,
classes and ethnicity." (Alice Wells)
The following is an
excerpt from an article
about Emma Lapsansky in the Haverford
College Alumni Magazine. Emma is a former
resident. In the article, she describes
"an ongoing book project:"
[that] explores a
20th-century Quaker cooperative in the
Powelton Village section of West Philadelphia,
which thrived during the late ’40s
through the early ’70s. Established
by some staff members of the American
Friends Service Committee, the Friendship
Co-op was an “intentional community,”
a group of people who choose to live together
under a common philosophy. The goal of
Friendship was to serve as a model living
situation where a diverse blend of people
created an environment of sharing and
mutual support. Within the community many
races and religions came together, gender
roles were equitably defined, meals were
shared, and resources were pooled.
“They wanted
to rehearse living in a multicultural
community,” says Lapsansky, who
lived in Powelton Village during the last
years of the Co-op and counts several
former residents among her friends. “This
wasn’t easy in the 1940s, and they
wondered how world peace could be achieved
if diverse people could not live together.
So they worked very hard to create a community
of people from a variety of cultures and
backgrounds, and to provide leadership
equality for them all.”
Emma Lapsansky and others at the CEC ...
click
for more pictures
Weekly
News Article - "Powelton Village
marching to its own drumbeat since the1940's:
Friendship Cooperative remembered at CEC",
By Alice Wells
Activism - If you haven't gotten
the idea already, you might accurately describe
Powelton as an activist neighborhood. Even
the pacifists among us are pretty vocal
about it.
For the April, 2003
Powelton Post, Mike Jones went around documenting
the various things people were "communicating"
about.
Dishpan
Protest - If you think protesting
is confined to adults, you've got that wrong.
On July 22, 1963, "[b]anging pots and
pans and using other noisemakers, children
stage a demonstration at Thirty-sixth Street
and Powelton Avenue as part of a drive to
keep the Powel Elementary School Playground
open."
MOVE - The FBI had no more left
Powelton than the MOVE crisis began.
"MOVE, the radical
cult few understand, was born of the friendship
between a white former college teacher
and a black handyman who had only a third-grade
education but a keen interest in philosophy.
The late Vincent
Leaphart, the handyman, moved into the
Powelton Village apartment of Donald Glassey,
the former college teacher, in January
1972, and they began writing an 800-page
"Book of Principles," which outlined Leaphart's
beliefs." (Caparella and Cooney,
Daily News, 5/4/88)
I found two attempts
in the mainstream press to write about MOVE
and John Africa's philosophy. If you plug
MOVE into a search engine, you'll find plenty
more information.
 |
Sign-bearing residents
of West Philadelphia participate in
a MOVE protest. Some of the messages
printed on the signs follow: "We
want Rizzo's army out of Powelton
now - negotiate for a peaceful settlement,"
"We want a peaceful settlement
to MOVE-City crisis - no blockade
- no starve-out - no raid," and
"Powelton United Neighbors ask
City Council to pass the resolution
against the blockade."
This image and many other GREAT images
are available in Temple's Archival
Collections Database.
|
Ira Einhorn
- Ira is a notorious inhabitant
of Powelton Village, who murdered his girlfriend
Holly Maddux, then stored her body in a
trunk in his apartment. He fled the country
during his trial and lived in Europe until
his extradition from France. The horror
of what he did doesn't quite explain why
he was such a memorable figure. The following
articles from the Philadelphia Inquirer
and the Philadelphia Daily News fill out
that picture somewhat.
- From
fringe to center: The fall of Ira Einhorn
- Philadelphia Inquirer Story
from July 22, 2001.
- Ira
Thrived in Powelton - Philadelphia
Daily News story from June 18, 1997.
