History New Audio Archive Gives Voice To Philly Immigration History Relive Philly public history in high fidelity through those who came before us. Historian Janneken Smucker gives us a listen inside the inner workings of the digital oral history project, “Philadelphia Immigration”
History The Budd Company: An Industrial Icon That Broke The Mold Robert Masciantonio dives deep into the history of Philadelphia’s groundbreaking industrial powerhouse, the Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Company
Photography Kensington Workshop Keeps Neighborhood Clocking In Inside a 124-year-old mill in Kensington, World Manufacturing Inc. is buzzing with work orders. Theresa Stigale puts us on the production line with this photo essay
Preservation Old Iron Works In Logan Square To Face The Wrecking Ball When the housing bubble burst and the recession hit in 2007, plans to convert Creswell Iron Works on Cherry Street into apartments tanked. The quaint collection of industrial buildings is now headed for demolition. Michael Bixler has the details
History Brooms, Buttons, & Busking: Memoir Of A Young Russian Immigrant In Philadelphia Contributor Amy Cohen gives us an intimate glimpse of immigrant life in the late 1800s with excerpts from a diary written by her great-grandfather Saul Kaplan
History Discovering My Family’s Place In The Workshop Of The World In Port Richmond, Amy Cohen has a chance encounter with her family’s industrial past when she happens upon a sign for her grandfather’s old business, the Philadelphia Rust-Proof Company
Preservation Wooden Icons of New York City’s Skyline Still Hewn in Olney For the last 163 years, the Hall-Woolford Tank Company has supplied the Big Apple with its most enduring skyline icon: the rooftop water tank. Contributor Chris Dougherty takes us into the shop of the Olney manufacturer where the spirit of Workshop of the World is alive and well
History Flexible Flyer Factory Glides Into Obscurity If it wasn’t for Philadelphia and the S.L. Allen & Co. the mortality rate of snow sledders at the turn of the century would have been much higher. The farming implement maker introduced steering to sleds in 1900 with their popular Flexible Flyer, taking winter recreation by storm. New contributor Robert Masciantonio has the backstory and takes us inside the old manufacturing plant in Fairhill