Established in 1829, the Eastern State Penitentiary, located in Philadelphia's Fairmount section, has become a tourist attraction because mobster Al Capone and bank robber Willie Sutton were once guests there. It's considered to be the world's first true penitentiary.

Pennypack Park's Fall Colors - Philadelphia, PA (2008)

The View From The Art Museum: This photo, taken in 1954 or thereabouts and posted on Hemmings.com, shows the view facing southeast from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Rocky Balboa famously ran up the steps.

In the photo, there are a number of cars parked in front. From left to right, they are a '52 Ford, a '49 Ford and a '53 Dodge - all a dark blue color, a two-tone green 1946 Chevrolet, a turquoise '54 Ford, a dark green 1950 Chevy, a gray '53 Ford four-door sedan, a dark blue '50 Chevrolet, a cream-colored 1946 Cadillac convertible with black top, a slate-blue '46 Buick, a maroon '51 Henry J, a white-over-blue 1954 Ford Crestline Victoria hardtop, a white-over-deep orange 1954 Pontiac Catalina hardtop coupe and a white-over-salmon 1954 Nash Country Club hardtop coupe.

Considering the relative rarity of 1946 model cars - production was limited by the supply of raw materials, it is surprising to see three examples in this photo. The 1946 Cadillac was one of only 29,194 made. For the 1947 model year - when auto materials and components were more plentiful, Cadillac produced and sold 61,926 vehicles.

Behind the parked cars is Eakins Oval, a traffic circle which contains the Washington Monument Fountain with a bronze statue of our first President astride a horse.

Several cars are seen driving around the circle, including a light yellow 1953 Ford convertible with a black top and aftermarket Continental kit, and a black '52 Mercury Monterey hardtop coupe. To the right of the Mercury can be seen the Fairmount Park Guard shack, a familiar sight throughout Philadelphia. There were several along Roosevelt Boulevard which was part of the Park Guards' jurisdiction. In the 1950s, regular Philly police drove red cars (usually Fords) while the guards drove navy blue cars. Detectives drove unmarked Aquatone Blue Ford Mainline sedans - just like my dad's '56.

The diagonal boulevard in the photo's background is the Benjamin Franklin Parkway which points to City Hall with Billy Penn atop the building. At the time, City Hall was the tallest building in downtown. To the left can be seen the green roof of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul.

The Art Museum itself is behind the camera and cannot be seen in the 1954 photo.

The museum opened in 1925 and is among the largest art museums in the U.S. It has collections of more than 227,000 objects that include "world-class holdings of European and American paintings, prints, drawings, and decorative arts." (posted 9/22/14, permalink)

Once Upon A Time In Philly: This 1963 Philadelphia photo was posted on Hemmings.com and shows the view looking east from Market and Front Sts. The skyline of Camden, NJ can be seen across the Delaware River.

On the Philadelphia side, a white over green PTC bus (with an orange stripe) can be seen heading south on Front St.

The area by the river once was a landing/terminal for the Pennsylvania Railroad's Philadelphia-Camden Ferry.

The ferry service was discontinued in 1952 and, by 1957, the terminal had been torn down - the pilings are still visible in the top photo. The area was soon declared to be Penn's Landing and, in the 1970s, became gentrified with shops and restaurants along the waterfront (replacing the rundown Roe Inn corner tavern on the southwest corner of Market and Front) and tall ships on display in the makeshift harbor.

Today, this area is almost unrecognizable with below-grade Interstate 95 hindering access to much of the waterfront and a SEPTA bus depot about where the American gas station used to be.

In the '63 photo, Camden looks to be thriving with J.B. Van Scribner Furniture Co., RCA (Radio Corporation of America) and Campbell's Soup Co. all visible along Camden's waterfront. Sadly, all are long gone. I've written more about the sad state of 21st Century Camden here. (posted 9/16/14, permalink)

"Is It Frank's? Thanks." Philadelphians know that phrase as the slogan of Frank's Beverages, a popular local bottler of soda pop. Frank's Black Cherry Wishniak had a unique taste and was often quaffed to wash down Philly cheesesteaks.

Frank's Beverages was founded by Jacob Frank in 1885. Jacob was a Russian immigrant who made lemon soda from freshly squeezed lemons on the streets of Philadelphia. It remained a family-run firm until it was sold in 1990.

Frank's offered a variety of soda flavors, including cream soda and cola. Frank's headquarters used to be in the Juniata section of the city with its bottling plant at G and Luzerne Streets. The red Frank's delivery trucks were a familiar sight at corner stores throughout the Philadelphia area

In its heyday - the post-WW II era, Frank's was the largest privately-owned beverage bottling company in the Philadelphia area. The firm also bottled Yoo-hoo chocolate drink, Schweppes mixers, Nestle's iced tea and Evian and Poland Spring bottled waters.

Frank's Black Cherry Wishniak is still available; the product is now bottled in Baltimore.

You can read more about the history of the soda business here. (posted 8/13/14, permalink)

"By The Sea, By The Sea ..." The fortunes of Atlantic City, once the jewel of the Jersey Shore, are sinking fast and there seems to be no hope in sight.

Atlantic City was founded in 1854 when a rail line was constructed from Camden, New Jersey to AC. The Atlantic City Boardwalk was the first boardwalk in the United States, opening in ... (more >>>)

More about my Dad is posted here.

Built To Last: The Pennypack Creek Bridge on Frankford Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia is the oldest stone arch bridge in America. Located just north of Solly Avenue, the bridge has been in continuous use since its 1697 completion.

The 154 foot-long bridge served as a key link on the Kings Highway, a 1,300-mile route between Boston and Charleston, S.C., that served during Colonial times as a merchant and post road, then as a military transport and supply route during the American Revolution.

I was baptized at a church less than a quarter-mile from the bridge and have traveled over it many times during my lifetime. As have people far more famous than me, including George Washington. He crossed the bridge several times, including when traveling to his presidential inauguration in 1789. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The bridge was reconstructed in 1893 and underwent significant repairs in 2018.

Even now, the Pennypack Creek Bridge carries 17,000 vehicles daily - including the Route 66 trackless trolley - through the populous and busy Holmesburg neighborhood. (posted 10/10/12, permalink)

Tasty Celebration: Every year on Bastille Day (July 14) at Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, costumed French revolutionaries throw 2,000 Tastykakes from a tower to a the assembled masses below ... (more >>>)

Everything Must Go: Ralph Cipriano has written, "The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is holding a fire sale after running up $11.6 million in legal bills in the fiscal year prior to the priest abuse trial. Facing a $17 million operating deficit, the archdiocese is now selling off the cardinal's mansion on City Line Avenue, and closing down the 117-year-old archdiocese newspaper, 'The Catholic Standard & Times.'"

When I was growing up ... (more >>>)

Life, Death & Resurrection: One of the nation's early jewelers, Bailey Banks and Biddle, garnered a reputation for high quality merchandise and properly-obsequious customer service - traits which kept the firm in business for over a century and a half and obtained many famous and loyal customers.

Originally known as Bailey & Kitchen, the firm was founded in Philadelphia in 1832. It become Bailey & Co. in 1841, and Bailey Banks & Biddle in 1878. The jeweler had been located on historic Chestnut Street ever since its founding in 1832, when Joseph T. Bailey opened the silversmith emporium with a mere $28 of product on hand.

After the Civil War, son Joseph T. Bailey II began to travel abroad in search of rare and beautiful objects inventory. He crossed the Atlantic 140 times by steamship on buying trips.

In 1868, the retailer offered an oak snuff box, trimmed in solid gold with the inscription: "Oak from one of the rafters that supported the roof of the Hall of Independence on the 4th of July 1776." It is now in the Smithsonian.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, Bailey Banks & Biddle was commissioned by the U.S. Government to update the Great Seal of the United States; its design today remains the official version of the seal. The company also designed and made many of the military medals that are still used today, including the Medal of Honor, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

Mrs. Woodrow Wilson was one of many famous retail customers. She purchased a brooch on April 30, 1902, that she wore as First Lady in 1913. The firm had produced the class rings for West Point and the Naval Academy for more years than any other jeweler.

I have an sterling silver cup, engraved with my name and given to me the year I was born. It came from the Chestnut St. store in downtown Philadelphia.

In 1962, Bailey Banks & Biddle was acquired by Zale Corporation. Zales broadened the number of locations from the Philadelphia-area to stores throughout the U.S. In 2007, Zale Corp. sold the 65-store jewelry chain to Finlay Enterprises. Finlay filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2009 and closed its doors.

Acquired by new owners in Texas, a resurrected Bailey Banks & Biddle now operates as an online store, although it does have nine retail locations including one in King of Prussia, PA - a Philadelphia suburb. (posted 6/25/12, permalink)

You Want Some Fraud With Your Burger? An iconic Philadelphia-area burger and cheese steak chain and its owners are in hot water with the U.S. government for allegedly failing to report more than $15 million in sales to the Internal Revenue Service.

Rail fans will enjoy a couple of snaps from Frankford Junction as well as photos of the Morris Arboretum's garden railway. The web page can be found here. (posted 5/28/12, permalink)

Closing Time: The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced last week that it will be closing four of its high schools and 44 (out of 156) elementary schools, shocking the local Catholic community.

Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast, West Catholic (my dad, many of my uncles and cousins and friends graduated from there), St. Hubert and Conwell Egan high schools will be closing at the end of the school year in June. St. Hubert High School for Girls opened back in 1941. I dated several young ladies from St. Hubie's in the early 1960s.

Officials also confirmed that ... (more >>>)

The Ghosts Of Department Stores Past: Recently, I was reading 'Willow Grove Park', a book about the famous Philadelphia-area amusement park.

One of the photo captions noted that, "a Snellenburg's store was opened in October 1953. Additional shops later opened along the remainder of the block. ... The row of stores was known as the Willow Grove Shopping Center."

I hadn't thought of Snellenburg's in years.

Snellenburg's flagship store on Market St. - Philadelphia

Once upon a time, people did much of their shopping at department stores, emporiums selling different kinds of merchandise organized into separate departments with their own accounting. The first such store, Le Bon Marché, opened in Paris in the 1850s.

The concept quickly spread to England and the United States. John Wanamaker's was the first department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the first department stores in the United States. It was the first department store with electrical illumination (1878), with a telephone (1879) and the first retail store to install pneumatic tubes to transport cash and documents (1880). In 1878, John Wanamaker introduced the concept of the White Sale to combat seasonal sluggishness. Starting in 1946, Wanamaker's offered a kiddie monorail for tots during the Christmas season.

It was called the Rocket Express and ran on ceiling-mounted track system, giving children a bird's eye view of the 8th floor toy department. The monorail was in operation from 1946 to 1984.

New technologies, especially mass transportation, made city department stores possible as trolleys, elevated rail lines, and subways brought massive numbers of shoppers to 'downtowns'. These establishments became one-stop shopping emporiums, selling clothing, sundries, furniture, cosmetics and even toys. If an item was to large to carry home on the trolley or subway, most department stores would gladly deliver it right to your door, using their own fleets of trucks and vans.

Wanamaker's was, by most accounts, the fanciest department store in Philadelphia. Gimbels and Strawbridge & Clothier fought for second place. The lower tier was filled by Lit Brothers and Snellenburg's - its slogan was 'The Thrifty Store for Thrifty People'. Snellenburg's was also a wholesale clothing manufacturer, established in 1869. At one time, it was the largest clothing manufacturer in the world employing 3,000. The company had a factory outlet where it "sold directly from the workroom to the wearer, allowing clothing to be sold for lower prices."

In addition to its flagship store on 12th and Market Sts. (opened in 1889), not far from Wannamaker's, Snellenburg's had multiple locations, including stores in the Philadelphia suburbs and a location in downtown Wilmington, Delaware.

Snellenburg's closed in 1962. The six-story flagship store at 12th and Market was subsequently cut down to the present two-story building and redeveloped as part of the Reading Terminal project. The suburban stores were taken over by Lit's. The Lit Brothers chain closed in 1977.

By the 1970s, department stores were in decline, as discounters, malls and big-box stores offered wider selections at lower prices and with lower fixed costs. Additionally, more new competitors moved in from other cities. In 2006, NY-based national chain Macy's came to Philly's Market Street, moving into the store built by John Wanamaker.

The interior court of the former Wanamaker's store on Market Street still features the Grand Organ acquired from the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904. Now that Wanamaker's - the first department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and one of the first in the U.S. - is just a memory, the famous Wanamaker's Eagle has become the Macy's Eagle.

The Great Eagle was purchased by John Wanamaker from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and has been a fixture in the Grand Court ever since the store's opening. The eagle weighs 2,500 pounds and sits atop a 4,500 pound granite pedestal.

"Meet me at the eagle," is a phrase still well known to Philadelphians.

In many cities, department stores and many other retail establishments are becoming a thing of the past, as consumers abandon traditional brick and mortar structures and buy online. (posted 1/5/12, permalink)

Still Around: My wife recently showed me an article in the 'Temple Review', her alumnae magazine, about some School of Pharmacy graduates who now work at Sun Ray drugstores.

I didn't realize this drug chain still existed. Stores can still be found in the Delaware Valley, New Jersey and New York. I probably haven't set foot in a Sun Ray drugstore in 40 years.

I wonder - does Sun Ray still sell toys at Christmas? Or offer beach toys during the summertime? Or have a TV tube tester in the corner of every store like they used to?

Sun Ray Drug Co. is the oldest pharmacy chain in Philadelphia. Sun Ray operated 65 drugstores by 1945 and 147 by 1953. In the 1960s, the firm peaked with over 150 stores. (posted 11/15/11, permalink)