Tag: History

Posted on by — 5 Comments

Ghosts of Northeast Catholic High School for Boys

Joe Menkevich

From Joe Menkevich

Northeast Catholic High School Crew Team & The Ghost

The older one becomes, the more things one will witness  – strange mysterious beautiful unexplainable wonderful things.

For many years I thought to take a few pictures of some of the facades & windows of buildings along Frankford Avenue. Today I have.

This is the second floor of what was once a dining room inside Horn & Hardart Restaurant. (near Margaret Street)

Old Horn and Hardart second floor window

The reflections upon the window glass brought back the memories of rattling dishes and the smell of the food – the pies and the coffee and the pies!   I remember taking the EL from North Catholic and waiting for my brother to finish his shift as a bus-boy.   A loud crash from the dropping of a whole load of dishes – and there was my brother standing there frozen like a statue with one dish left in his hand.

The old waitresses began gathering around scolding – trying to make him feel guilt & embarrassment. There he stood with that one last dish.

He shrugged his shoulders and threw it into the broken pile, took off his apron and said:  “Now all of you can clean it up – I quit! Are you happy now?”

Some say the Spirit of North Catholic will never die.

It was in building next to Roxy’s Army & Navy Store. [4500 block of Frankford Avenue: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frankfordgazette/2042191622/ ]   Memories of wet t-shirts, the smell of sweat, the working out, & the camaraderie inside while looking at the dyslexic writing on a window: WERC CN

As an alumni of Northeast Catholic High, I knew where the Crew Team used to work out in the late 1960’s. I know because I was there.

But after I took the photo, it appeared as if a strange face was looking back at me.   Is it the face of a young man?   I had to take a closer look.

Some say “the Spirit of North Catholic will never die.”

Take a look and decide – is it just a smudge or something more?

Perhaps it’s just an illusion – perhaps it’s something more.   The strange silhouette reflected on the glass serves to prove – ghosts, spirits & memories will never die as long as we keep them alive.

© 2011 – Joseph J. Menkevich all rights reserved.

Posted on by

Coming Up in Frankford

  • Grand Army of the Republic Museum Open House
    When – Sun, January 2, 2011, 12pm – 5pm
    Where4278 Griscom Street, Philadelphia, PA 19124 (map)
    Description – Presentation at 1:30 PM: The Election of 1860 – Rending the Union Asunder! (Tom Moran – Union League CWRT president) GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC MUSEUM & LIBRARY Historic Ruan House • 4278 Griscom Street• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19124 • (215) 289-6484 • Museum email: garmuslib@verizon.net FREE & Open to the public!
  • Frankford Civic Association Meeting
    When – Thu, January 6, 2011, 7pm – 8pm
    Where – 2nd floor conference room, Aria Health, 4900 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19124 (map)
    Description – At their January meeting, members of the Frankford Civic Association will nominate and elect officers and board members, a task sure to be gloomy because of the recent death of the association’s president, Frances Clay.
  • Northwood Civic Association Meeting
    When – Tue, January 18, 2011, 7pm – 8pm
    Where – St. James Lutheran Church, at Castor Avenue and Pratt Street. (map)
Posted on by — 2 Comments

Historical Society of Frankford December Program

Douglas Mooney, Senior Archaeologist URS Corporation

I am a sucker for archaeology so naturally there I sat with 35 other folks wondering if there is any value in digging up the remnants of an old canal in Philadelphia.  The program for this month was the “Aramingo Canal Excavation”.  It was presented by Douglas B. Mooney M.A. Senior Archaeologist with the URS Corporation.  So why are they digging in Philadelphia in the first place?  Government says they have to.  If the government is financing a construction project, the law says the archaeologists have to go in first and see if there is anything of value there.  If there is they document, retrieve, preserve and do their thing.

Most of the digging being done now is the result of highway projects and the canal area is related to reconstruction of I95 north of center city. The discussion was fascinating on several levels.  First that new discoveries are now being made about native American settlements in Philadelphia that nobody knew about until this type of dig uncovered the evidence.  Next that the area outside of center city is relatively undisturbed they are finding many, many artifacts of the people who inhabited the area.  There was even one example of a living descendant being on hand as the archaeologist uncovered artifacts deposited by his family.

Mr. Mooney was accompanied by Ingrid Wuebber a URS Historian and Rebecca White the RS laboratory manager.  They managed to make the investigation of

Rebecca White and Ingrid Wuebber URS Corporation

privies look really glamorous.

The meeting included an extensive question and answer period where everyone got to interrogate Mr. Mooney.  He was never without a ready and interesting response.  The artifacts on display were unique and well worth the trip in themselves.

At the end of the meeting were the usual refreshments and a spell of Christmas carols in keeping with the season.  What a nice way to wrap up the year.  There will be no meetings in January and February.  Meetings will resume on March 8thwith a behind the scenes tour.  Don’t miss that one.

This is a link to a slide show of some shots from the meeting.  One of special interest is a photo from one of the historic scrap books from the HSF collection which is dated 7/4/1924 that talks about the Aramingo canal which then was almost recent history.  Have a look below.  If you click on the image you can read all about it.

Scrapbook page from the HSF collection