Category: The Historical Society of Frankford

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Historical Society December Meeting – Carol Smith

The Historical Society of Frankford is hosting Carol Smith, the archivist for both Christ Church and its Preservation Trust, at its meeting and lecture on December 9, 2025, at 7:30 PM.

She will demonstrate the Digitizing Philadelphia’s Historic Congregations website, and discuss individual records found during the project. The Digitizing the Records of Philadelphia’s Historic Congregations project demonstrates that dissension, political unrest, and social reform initiatives are not without past precedent. Vestry minutes, sacramental registers, account books, sermons and more from Philadelphia’s earliest congregations help interpret the social and political world Philadelphia’s 18th and 19th century worshippers at 17 congregations inhabited. A grant from the Council for Library and Information Resources, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, supported this multiyear project. Supplemental funds from other sources and harvesting of previously scanned materials brought in other records and today there are more than 141,000 records online.

Carol W. Smith is an independent curator and archivist who has worked with the Christ Church Archives since 2005. She has a BA in American Civilization and an MA in Material Culture from the University of Pennsylvania and is a certified archivist. In 2022 she received the Sister M. Claude Lane award from the Society of American Archivists for the Congregations project.

The meeting and lecture will occur at the HSF library/museum at 1507 Orthodox St, Philadelphia. The event is free and open to the public. Live stream also available at this link:  https://www.facebook.com/TheHistoricalSocietyofFrankford/.  Light refreshments will be served.

The Historical Society of Frankford, founded in 1905, preserves and interprets the history of Frankford and Northeast Philadelphia  through its collections, exhibitions, and educational programs.

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March Meeting Historical Society of Frankford

March 11th is the opening day of the Historical Society’s 2025 program series. The subject is something never discussed in my memory, organ building in Frankford.  see below for more information.

John Roberts (1829-1877), Frankford Organ Builder

presentation by Gail Rodgers McCormick and Paul Marchesano

A native of Salford, England, John Roberts arrived in Philadelphia with his parents and siblings in 1848. Apprenticed in the organ trade in England, Roberts was soon offering his services repairing and building pipe organs in his shop on Frankford Avenue and Orthodox Street. He built organs in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, for a few years in the late 1850s, then returned to Frankford, setting up his residence and workshop at Orthodox and Penn Streets. Roberts and members of his family were among the early residents of the Orthodox Street block that was developing in the 1860s and has been home to the Historical Society of Frankford for over a century. Roberts’ organs graced many churches in the Philadelphia area, as well as in Chicago, Wilmington, and Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh organ (1874), one of only two Roberts organs known to be extant, was the first of many financed by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Although little-known now, John Roberts was at the forefront of organ building in Philadelphia during an early period of growth in the industry. 

Gail Rodgers McCormick, historian, archivist, and author, will discuss Roberts’ background and his life in Frankford. McCormick’s new two-volume history Charity, Change, and Community: Frankford’s Swedenborgians, 1817-1971, features John Roberts and his family, who were longtime members of the New Jerusalem Society of Frankford. 

Paul Marchesano, a professional pipe organ restorer, historian, and chairman/editor of the Organ Historical Society’s Pipe Organ database, will discuss the basics of organ construction and John Roberts’ role among other organ builders in Philadelphia and the United States. Paul recently advised the University of Pennsylvania on restoring its Curtis Sesquicentennial Exhibition Organ (Austin, 1926). He is president of Fans of the Curtis Sesquicentennial Exposition Organ, which plans to hold a centennial Symphonic Organ Symposium in 2026.

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Doors open at 6:30pm for in person attendance, live streaming begins at 7:30pm, click the Facebook link to the right. Refreshments served after the program.

 

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Historical Society of Frankford April Meeting

Centennial of the Ferko String Band

The April program of the Historical Society of Frankford will be a celebration of the centennial of the Ferko String Band.

The meeting will be presented with a live audience, with masking and social distancing, and will also be shared remotely by way of YouTube and Facebook. That’s at 7:30 pm at the Society, 1507 Orthodox Street, on April 12. There is no charge, though contributions are welcome.

Ferko Captain Anthony Calenza will lead a group of veteran string band performers for a quick trot through the distinguished record of one of the most celebrated Mummer string bands. A moment of delight during a troublesome time.

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October Program from the Historical Society of Frabkford

The October program of the Historical Society of Frankford will be live-streamed at 7:30 on October 12, 2021.  Political Science Professor Stephen E. Medvec, Ph.D., of Holy Family University, will discuss the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

After President Jefferson purchased the French claim to a substantial portion of North America, he commissioned fellow Virginians Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to go exploring, and report back on the native tribes, wildlife, and terrain.

This turned out to be one of the great non-military adventures of American history, and also a Tale of Two Cities, because while the expedition was to set out from Charlottesville, only Philadelphia had outfitters with sufficient supplies and equipment. Furthermore, as Mr. Jefferson was President of the American Philosophical Society (APS) at the same time that he was President, the Journals of the Expedition ended up in the Special Collections Library of APS in Philadelphia, where Prof. Medvec studied them in order to produce this talk.

This program will remain available as a video on both Facebook and YouTube indefinitely.

 

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Historical Society September Program

The Historical Society of Frankford (HSoF) will present its September program, live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube, at 7:30 pm on September 14, 2021.

John Buffington will discuss some of the current activities at HSoF, and then read a paper, “The History of the Dummy Car,” by Thomas Creighton, first delivered to the Society on January 28, 1916. Dummy cars were self-propelled, powered by steam engines, and they replaced horse-drawn street cars for transportation between Frankford and Philadelphia in 1863. They served that purpose until they were replaced by electric trolleys in 1893. Thomas Creighton had first-hand recollections of the dummy cars in operation, and also collected stories from the operators.

This program will remain available as a video on both Facebook and YouTube indefinitely.