Author: Jim

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Carter Studios Table Is Heading To The Philly Works Exibition

carters-philly-works

I just got an email from Jess Carter of Carter Studios at the Dye Works.  Remember the table they put together out of a factory wall? Well it’s heading to the Philly Works exhibition at UPenn.  The event is open Oct 7,8, and 10 with an opening event on Friday October 9th 5:30 to 11.  And is a showcase of locally crafted goods.  Check out phillyworks about page:

Philly Works is an exhibit and installation of functional objects of all scales, quantities, and production techniques that are made in Philadelphia and the region. Philly Works is a survey of design, manufacturing, and craft exhibited through a showcase of prototypes, limited editions, and mass-produced goods. Along with the objects, Philly Works will include documentation of the production spaces and the people who make the objects on display. As part of the opening night event, the show will include a “corner store” where some of the many items can be purchased.

This is an interesting theme developing around East Frankford.  That once thrown away buildings are being refurbished into light industry shops.  STUFF IS GETTING MADE HERE.  Way to go Carters, I am impressed.

[link] Carter Studios

[link] Philly Works

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They Call What We Do Hyperlocal Blogging

And we’re at the forefront of revolution, apparently.  So says our friend Christopher Wink with his piece in Technically Philly this morning detailing the bold and the brave of Philadelphia’s media revolution.

It all started over two years ago when I started looking to buy a house.  And when I settled on one in Northwood my father(“Gil”) started emailing me all this news and stuff about about Frankford.  I was in the middle of moving and work was work so I never really looked at any of it.  So I told him what blogging was and he setup the first site over on blogspot and away he went.

All the credit is his, I only hopped on when I saw that he was actually getting visitors.  And it’s been fun and hopefully we’ve shed some light on a usually forgotten neighborhood.

As for the article, at least for the neighborhood reporting aspect, I don’t think profit oriented news is even possible.  My father loves Frankford and I get a kick out of blogging.  I just don’t see how another outfit would get into the nooks and crannies of the neighborhood like we could.  Passion beats profit in my opinion.  The only benefit in a profit centric view of hyper-local news reporting would exemplified in the issues faced with the only other neighborhood oriented blog in Philadelphia.  Andrew Schwalm over at Malcome X Park is moving to Manhattan with his GF leaving his blog in jeopardy.  A profit oriented model might find a way to continue.  Same thing could happen with us, you never know.[Technically Philly]

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When Atlases And GIS Mapping Collide, They Collide In Frankford

philageohistoryPlan 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!

[link] http://www.planphilly.com/taxonomy/term/131

[link] http://www.philageohistory.org/geohistory/index.cfm

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I Finally Made It To Leandro’s Pizza

leandros 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.

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Frankford Resident Killed During Attempted Robbery In West Philly

crime graphicPhilly.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.