Today we’re over on the 4600 block of Hawthorne Street. I think one of these houses belongs to a member of the Frankford Garden Club. I’ve been past it before but today it really jumped out at you.
Month: August 2009
Coming Up in Frankford
- Old Heads Softball Game & Picnic When-Sat, August 15, 4pm – 6pmWhere-Gambrel’s field – Ditman Street (map)
- One Love Basketball, Volleyball, Church Choir contest
When-Sat, August 22, 9am – 12pmWhere-Wissinoming Park (map)
- Frankford Depot Community Family & Friends Day
When-Sun, August 30, 12pm – 3pmWhere-McIlvain Recreation Center Penn and Pratt Streets (map)
- Frankford Civic Association Meeting
When-Thu, September 3, 7pm – 8pmWhere-Frankford Hospital – 2nd floor conference room (map)
When Atlases And GIS Mapping Collide, They Collide In Frankford
Plan Philly has an article about the joint effort of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, and the Preservation Design Partnership’s trip to Frankford to test out their ability to match up old atlases with current surveying techniques to better document Philadelphia’s rich historical architecture with more efficiency. To quote the article:
A joint effort of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, and the Preservation Design Partnership is utilizing 19th century atlases and other period maps, GIS mapping, and digital technology in a unique experiment. The result may reveal the archaelogical layers of the city’s history from its early years to its current age.
That’s a mouthful. But apparently it comes down to the fact that it’s very time intensive to track down all the old stuff in historic areas. So the researchers are trying to match up old atlases with current mapping techniques and trying to guess which areas of a neighborhood have a high likelihood of having historic stuff. Sounds kinda vague, but lets take the example of the area near Frankford’s border with Bridesburg, you look on an old map and see the Frankford Creek running up along what’s now Aramingo, you know you don’t have to wonder around Frankford Valley looking for old stuff cause they only filled in the creek recently. You look at the houses that used be where I95 is now, you know you’re probably not going to get anything historic around where the city bulldozed 50 years ago. But it also works for where you might find something. Take Leiper Street around Overington Park. If you compare old maps with the current surveys, you can see that some of the lot sizes for the estates are the same, meaning the houses are probably still there. And go figure, they actually came upon this week’s home of the week!
We actually played this very game on the message board a little while ago when we were trying to figure out where the Overington Estate house sat in the park.
You can play along too, a while ago we profiled philageohistory.org, a website that will overlay google maps with old atlases they have of Philadelphia, and Frankford is heavily included. Check out the 1929 Ward 23 map. And if you find anything neat, let us know!
I Finally Made It To Leandro’s Pizza
A discussion raged on our message board a little while back as to what is the best pizza in Frankford and that it had to be Leandro’s Pizza House at Frankford and Sellers. I was urged to go by Bishop but had the broad street run to do and so put it off…. for like ever. I think I had Leandro’s before, maybe when I was 15, I can’t really remember, but being so close to Oxford Ave my goto pizza shop has always been Champion so this was new and exciting. And it was delicious. The pick above was my first trip. The second time we got it delivered.
Frankford Resident Killed During Attempted Robbery In West Philly
Philly.com is reporting that John Hightower, 24, of Griscom Street near Adams was walking with two friends when they were approached by two men, one of which had a a sawed-off shotgun, at Redfield near Master in West Philly Saturday night. The two men robbed the group of cash, cigarettes and a cell phone. One of the bandits shot Hightower once in the face but left the other two alone. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:10 pm.