In the Bulletin Friday was a nice story by Tom Nickels about the Ruan House which he titled “Inside the Grand Army of the Republic Museum” 
and an editor headlined “Memorial to Civil War Oddities”. I know Tom would not have used that phrase. But for those who do not know about this unique place in Frankford, it is a good introduction. From this picture that I took today, the structure itself has never looked better. You can find their web site on our Frankford Resources page or go to it directly via this link.
Update on 1522-24 Church Street
The new recovery house on the corner of Church and Griscom has been visited by L&I who found no activity. 
Our Councilperson has requested a revisit for another inspection. She will continue to monitor this case until it is resolved to the satisfaction of the community. It was through an unfortunate office oversite that Father Steve at St. Joachims did not receive a callback on his previous contact. It will not happen again.
Next Week in Frankford
- Frankford CDC to host Public Meeting
When-Tue, March 17, 6pm – 8pmWhere-Frankford High School Instructional Materials Center (IMC) (map)Description – The Frankford Community Development Corporation will host a public meeting on Tuesday, March 17, 2009. The Frankford CDC will discuss the 2009 Program of Work and ideas for collaboration with community organizations. The meeting will begin at 6:00p.m., Frankford High School Instructional Materials Center (IMC), guest may enter through the main door. The Frankford CDC has been serving the Frankford Community since 1993 providing economic development, career counseling, mortgage counseling services, as well as real estate development. The Frankford CDC also serves as the organizer of the annual Frankford Festival, celebrating its Tenth Anniversary on June 20th by hosting the Northeast Philly Idol Contest. For more information on the Frankford CDC, please attend the public meeting or contact us at our offices. Marie DeLany Frankford CDC 4900 Griscom Street Philadelphia, PA 19124 215-743-6580 (Phone) marie.g.delany@gmail.com www.frankfordcdc.com
- Book signing
When-Sun, March 22, 1pm – 4pmWhere-Historical Society of Frankford, 1507 Orthodox St., Philadelphia, PA 19124 (map)Description-Historian Harry C. Silcox will sign copies of his new book, “Remembering Northeast Philadelphia”
We have a link now to Dr. Silcox book on our bookstore page up to the left.
Frankford’s Green Future
Interesting article yesterday on philly.com titled “SEPTA is our key to a green future” by Councilman Bill Greenlee and Beverly Coleman, Executive Director of NeighborhoodsNow. You can tell somebody is planning for a green windfall from the stimulus. But if the powers that be are going to throw some money at a problem, let some of it land in Frankford. It’s about time.
THE OBAMA administration plan for America’s future calls for the U.S. to create jobs, jump-start growth and transform our economy to compete in the 21st century.
This includes becoming the world leader in green technology and adopting progressive environmental policies. As the nation’s sixth-largest city, with the fifth-largest regional public transit system, our impact is huge, our responsibility profound. Given the stimulus money that will flow to the city and the state, we face hard choices about priorities.
Philadelphia is uniquely positioned to respond to this call to increase access to jobs and reduce our carbon footprint by supporting development that takes full advantage of our public transportation system – transit-oriented development (or TOD).
So we’re talking about Transit Oriented Development. Frankford has some weak areas but our strong points are access to transportation and a wide selection of housing.
Transit-oriented development isn’t new, but now is the time to capitalize on the asset we have in SEPTA by learning from past successes. Philadelphia has stellar examples of commercial TODs in the new Comcast Center and the Cira Center at 30th Street. Demand for walkable urbanism is expected to represent a third of the U.S. housing market by 2030. Chicago, Washington and Oakland, Calif., have aggressively capitalized on their infrastructure with great success.
Now all we need is somebody with some money to start capitalizing on those positives rather than focussing on the negatives.
Papers Read Before the Frankford Historical Society
Again Joe Menkevich brings us a treasure trove of archival goodness. He found an archive of a book entitled Papers Read Before the Historical Society of Frankford. I cannot even take it all in. The pdf is 460 pages consisting of 7 issues, each issue containing multiple stories. They really run the gambit talking about slaves settling in Frankford, prominent business men, a lot of civil war type stuff. It’s just too juicy. If you find anything cool, leave us a report in the comments. It is rediculous how much history is in Frankford.
[PDF] Papers Read Before the Historical Society of Frankford
