We’re very pleased to give a shot at a (hopefully) recurring feature on the FG. I dunno what we’re gonna call it yet, but pretty much I asked Debbie Klak, former president of and current member of the Historical Society of Frankford, to help us make it rain history. And I mean MAKE IT RAIN. So I’m gonna head over to the society every once in a while and we’re gonna compile some nuggets of Frankford’s loooooonnng history. I’m not even gonna bother trying pull a cohesive narrative together. We’re just gonna give this a try in a stream of consciousness kinda way. I was over there today and spent a couple hours with her and and came away with way too much to type. As of right now, we’re gonna try to concentrate on tying history into the buildings that are still standing and how Frankford fit into the growing nation.
So with that in mind, here’s the first thing I gotsta show yous.
This model boat was built by Frankford’s own Captain John Allen. The only slice of Captain Allen I could find on the net was an FU he threw a general courtesy of The New York Times but check out the note card that comes along with the boat:
Catch that “General Lafayette” bit? That’s THE Lafayette, the Marquis De Lafayette. His Wikipedia page is so bad ass it has sub sections. This dude spear headed the Franco-American alliance during the Revolutionary War. A quick copy/paste from Wikipedia yeilds:
In the American Revolution, Lafayette served in the Continental Army under George Washington. Wounded during the Battle of Brandywine, he still managed to organize a successful retreat. He served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island. In the middle of the war, he returned to France to negotiate an increased French commitment. On his return, he blocked troops led by Cornwallis at Yorktown while the armies of Washington and Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, prepared for battle against the British.
That dude was a serious baller. His parade through Frankford was part of his final tour of these new United States that he took during his last visit to our country where he received a hero’s welcome by the people. According to Wikipedia’s timelines he arrived in Staten Island on the August 15th and ended up in Wilmington DE on the 6th of October so I’m guessing he passed through here on his way. This boat is 185 years old. That’s pretty cool.
