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Manayunk, the Native American word for "place where we drink," was first explored by Dutch and English surveyors in the late seventeenth century. These early explorers found the area, which expands upward from the banks of the Schuylkill River, to be quite fascinating. In later years, Manayunk's rolling hills, slanting lawns, and clusters of houses, mills, and church spires stood out and made the neighborhood a unique section of Philadelphia, reminiscent of Italy or southern France. Manayunk explores the growth of the region from a river town with a population of sixty to its rise as "the Manchester of America," akin to the British town of the same name. A manufacturing mecca noted for its m...
The diverse landscape of gay and lesbian Philadelphia is a story of highs and lows. From rustic post-Civil War days when Camden poet Walt Whitman crossed the Delaware River on a ferry or caroused Market Street "eyeing" the grocery boys, to the beginnings of ACT UP more than one hundred years later, the gay and lesbian community in Philadelphia has never lost its flair for the dramatic. Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia is a historical look at the neighborhoods, events, and people that have been a part of this community. The 1920s saw the birth of private dance bars on Rittenhouse Square. It was a time when drag shows in straight bars were the order of the day, as was the presence of men in drag d...
Philadelphia is a city of Colonial and ghostly architecture with narrow historic streets that open up onto vistas of bold, towering skyscrapers. It is a city of Greek Revival banks, Italian Renaissance, and Second Empire buildings, a city of Beaux-Arts hotels, Byzantine and Gothic churches, and International-style high-rises. A hybrid of gritty Chicago and pristine Boston, Philadelphia stands alone, an aristocrat in bib overalls, as a livable, intimate city of neighborhoods and luxurious townhouses, of hidden treasures and spectacular surprises. Philadelphia Architecture, a walk through Philadelphia streets past and present, highlights the richness and diversity of the city's architectural history.
"Show me your cemeteries, and I will tell you what kind of people you have." - Benjamin Franklin Discover the historic haunts and frightful specters that make the city of brotherly love a haven for unexplained phenomena. Author Josh Hitchens details the spooky stories of Philadelphia's past and present.
Since Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin put type to printing press, Philadelphia has been a haven and an inspiration for writers. Local essayist Agnes Repplier once shared a glass of whiskey with Walt Whitman, who frequently strolled Market Street. Gothic writers like Edgar Allan Poe and George Lippard plumbed the city's dark streets for material. In the twentieth century, Northern Liberties native John McIntyre found a backdrop for his gritty noir in the working-class neighborhoods, while novelist Pearl S. Buck discovered a creative sanctuary in Center City. From Quaker novelist Charles Brockden Brown to 1973 U.S. poet laureate Daniel Hoffman, author Thom Nickels explores Philadelphia's literary landscape.
Philadelphia is a hard mistress when it comes to honoring native talent, and the city has more than its fair share of notable figures. Consider colorful politicians like Frank Rizzo and Richardson Dilworth, international celebrities like Grace Kelly, sports legends like Connie Mack, Philadelphia Museum of Art icons like Anne d'Harnoncourt, or national radio personalities like Terry Gross. Business tycoons such as John Wanamaker and Russell Conwell, founder of Temple University, made many contributions to the city. Pearl Buck, author of The Good Earth, and Christopher Morley, America's G.K. Chesterton, created legacies of their own. Other legends like the nearly forgotten Agnes Repplier, a wo...
Author Thom Nickels presents the city's most iconic homes and the stories behind them. Philadelphia's grand mansions and architectural treasures reflect its iconic status in American history, for each Greek Revival home and Corinthian column tells a compelling story of the people behind it. Historic Strawberry Mansion in North Philadelphia was home to Judge William Lewis, a Patriot who defended colonists accused of treason and was Aaron Burr's defense lawyer. Socialite, millionaire and world-renowned art collector Henry McIlhenny made his home at Rittenhouse Square and left his art collection to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Famed architect Addison Mizner's Spanish Colonial Revival house La Ronda brought the stark contrast of South Florida to Philadelphia.
Surveying a wide range of cultural controversies, from the Mapplethorpe affair to Salman Rushdie's death sentence, Wendy Steiner shows that the fear and outrage they inspired are the result of dangerous misunderstanding about the relationship between art and life. 27 halftones.
An American living in Amsterdam overhears jihadists planning a terrorist act, and finds himself caught up in deadly international intrigue.