Tag: joe menkevich

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West Jersey History Project

We try to stick to what is relevant to Frankford here so what does the West Jersey History Project have to do with us?  Joe Menkevich, the omniscient historian, tipped us to this site.

There are a group of 8 maps made during the Revolutionary war by the Hessians of South Jersey and the surrounding area.  The maps themselves are beautifully detailed.  The one that sticks out in my mind for showing the relationship between Philadelphia and Frankford is this one.  You can see the big city of Philadelphia to the south and the town of Frankford to the north on the highway.    Clearly it is the last stop on the stage coach line before getting to the big city.  Still out in the country but having some inns for lunch and a place to cool off before the heat and dirt of the city.  A place Jefferson might have fled to on a hot summer afternoon.

This is a link to the main page for the maps.  Thanks to Joe Menkevich for the tip, once again.

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Old Towns and Districts of Philadelphia

Joe Menkevich provided this file which is a pdf of “Old Towns and Districts of Philadelphia”.  William Bucke Campbell introduced this material in an address to the City History Society in 1941.  The Pennsylvania State University digitized this copy and has previously made it available for free download.

If you want to know about all the little town, villages, districts and boroughs that once were in the county of Philadelphia before the great consolidation in 1854, then this is the book for you. We’re placing the link on our history page for permanent reference.

William Bucke Campbell was also a member of the Historical Society of Frankford, and the Society has in their library, a complete set of the Publications from the now defunct City Historical Society of Philadelphia.

Campbell, William Bucke. 1942. Old towns and districts of Philadelphia; an address delivered before the City history society of Philadelphia, February 26, 1941. [Philadelphia]: City history Society of Philadelphia.

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Frankford Oktoberfest

Since its time for Oktoberfest and beer, it is appropriate that the program last night at the Historical Society of Frankford was “Breweries of Frankford, Kensington and Bridesburg”.   Rich Wagner, Pennsylvania brewery historian, held the audience of 50 or so in rapt attention as his made he presentation.

I have no great interest in breweries but they played an important part in the history of the city and also Frankford.  So we found out that the Frankford breweries (John Fritsch and John Grauch) were down in the 4200 block of Penn Street.  The house at 4234 Penn Street was listed as the office for one of them.

Rich Wagner clearly has done his homework.  The presentation was illustrated with many then and now photographs showing the history of the breweries and then what those buildings look like today.  Many of them are still around serving other purposes.  It was interesting to me that the old Edgemont hotel at Ash and Edgemont Street in Bridesburg was in fact a brewery.  I grew up over there and never would have known.

Interesting member of the audience was Guy Hairston of the 4800 block of Hawthorne Street.  He was working in his yard a few weeks ago and uncovered an antique beer bottle dating from around 1890 made by Conrad Bock of 2108 Bridge Street. Rich Wagner offered his help in evaluating Guy’s find.

The evening was capped off by a beer tasting courtesy of Mike Scotese (Scoats) of the Grey Lodge.  The event was sponsored by 3rd Federal Bank.

Pictures below of the festive crowd.  Click on the image for a large sized view.

Next month, the HSF will feature Veterans Guard 3rd Regiment Infantry in uniform.  With luck we will get some interesting video.

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Philadelphia – The Great Experiment

I am lucky to get an occasional email from Joe Menkevich.  His radar is on duty at all times of the day and night for any news that might be interesting.  I was reading one of his this morning thinking how much he reminds me of Shelby Foote the historian from the Civil War PBS series.  (When he talks about history, it’s as if the people are still alive.) With that thought in mind, I opened another message from him this morning and found this information.  No its not directly related to Frankford but it is about the era that many of our ancestors came to Philadelphia and eventually Frankford.

The link is to a piece in the Inquirer about the documentary planned by Sam Katz, politician and business man.  The web site is here and below is a teaser from the web site.  The quality is outstanding.

The Volunteer Firefighters from The Great Experiment on Vimeo.