1.
Saint Dominic
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Saint Dominic, also known as Dominic of Osma and Dominic of Caleruega, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo Félix de Guzmán, was a Castilian priest and founder of the Dominican Order. Dominic is the saint of astronomers. Dominic was born in Caleruega, halfway between Osma and Aranda de Duero in Old Castile, Spain and he was named after Saint Dominic of Silos, who is said to be the patron saint of hopeful mothers. The Benedictine abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos lies a few north of Caleruega. In the earliest narrative source, by Jordan of Saxony, Dominics parents are named Felix Guzman and Juanna of Aza. This story drew resonance from the fact that his order became known, after his name, as the Dominican order, Dominicanus in Latin which a play on words interpreted as Domini canis, Dog of the Lord. Jordan adds that Dominic was brought up by his parents and an uncle who was an archbishop. The failure to name his parents is not unusual, since Jordan wrote a history of the Orders early years, a later source, still of the 13th century, also gives their names as Juana and Felix. Nearly a century after Dominics birth, a local author asserted that Dominics father was vir venerabilis et dives in populo suo. The travel narrative of Pero Tafur, written circa 1439, states that Dominics father belonged to the family de Guzmán, Dominics mother, Jane of Aza, was beatified by Pope Leo XII in 1828. Dominic was educated in the schools of Palencia where he devoted six years to the arts, in 1191, when Spain was desolated by famine, young Dominic gave away his money and sold his clothes, furniture and even precious manuscripts to feed the hungry. Dominic reportedly told his fellow students, Would you have me study off these dead skins. In 1194, around age twenty-five, Dominic joined the Canons Regular in the canonry in the Cathedral of Osma, following the rule of Saint Augustine. In 1203 or 1204 he accompanied Diego de Acebo, the Bishop of Osma, on a mission for Alfonso VIII, King of Castile. The envoys traveled to Denmark via Aragon and the south of France, the marriage negotiations ended successfully, but the princess died before leaving for Castile. However, even Dominic managed only a few converts among the Cathari, in 1215, Dominic established himself, with six followers, in a house given by Peter Seila, a rich resident of Toulouse. He subjected himself and his companions to the rules of prayer and penance. In the same year, the year of the Fourth Lateran Council, Dominic and Foulques went to Rome to secure the approval of the Pope, Innocent III
2.
Roman Catholic
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The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church or the Universal Church, is the largest Christian church, with more than 1.28 billion members worldwide. As one of the oldest religious institutions in the world, it has played a prominent role in the history, headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope, the churchs doctrines are summarised in the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed. Its central administration is located in Vatican City, enclaved within Rome, the Catholic Church is notable within Western Christianity for its sacred tradition and seven sacraments. It teaches that it is the one church founded by Jesus Christ, that its bishops are the successors of Christs apostles. The Catholic Church maintains that the doctrine on faith and morals that it declares as definitive is infallible. The Latin Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches, as well as such as mendicant orders and enclosed monastic orders. Among the sacraments, the one is the Eucharist, celebrated liturgically in the Mass. The church teaches that through consecration by a priest the sacrificial bread and wine become the body, the Catholic Church practises closed communion, with only baptised members in a state of grace ordinarily permitted to receive the Eucharist. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Catholic Church as Queen of Heaven and is honoured in numerous Marian devotions. The Catholic Church has influenced Western philosophy, science, art and culture, Catholic spiritual teaching includes spreading the Gospel while Catholic social teaching emphasises support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of education and medical services in the world, from the late 20th century, the Catholic Church has been criticised for its doctrines on sexuality, its refusal to ordain women and its handling of sexual abuse cases. Catholic was first used to describe the church in the early 2nd century, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in the letter from Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans, written about 110 AD. In the Catechetical Discourses of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, the name Catholic Church was used to distinguish it from other groups that call themselves the church. The use of the adjective Roman to describe the Church as governed especially by the Bishop of Rome became more widespread after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and into the Early Middle Ages. Catholic Church is the name used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church follows an episcopal polity, led by bishops who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders who are given formal jurisdictions of governance within the church. Ultimately leading the entire Catholic Church is the Bishop of Rome, commonly called the pope, in parallel to the diocesan structure are a variety of religious institutes that function autonomously, often subject only to the authority of the pope, though sometimes subject to the local bishop. Most religious institutes only have male or female members but some have both, additionally, lay members aid many liturgical functions during worship services
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
Pennsylvania
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Pennsylvania /ˌpɛnsᵻlˈveɪnjə/, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle, Pennsylvania is the 33rd largest, the 5th most populous, and the 9th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The states five most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, the state capital, and its ninth-largest city, is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has 140 miles of shoreline along Lake Erie and the Delaware Estuary. The state is one of the 13 original founding states of the United States, it came into being in 1681 as a result of a land grant to William Penn. Part of Pennsylvania, together with the present State of Delaware, had earlier been organized as the Colony of New Sweden and it was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, on December 12,1787. Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were drafted, is located in the states largest city of Philadelphia, during the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, was fought in the south central region of the state. Valley Forge near Philadelphia was General Washingtons headquarters during the winter of 1777–78. Pennsylvania is 170 miles north to south and 283 miles east to west, of a total 46,055 square miles,44,817 square miles are land,490 square miles are inland waters, and 749 square miles are waters in Lake Erie. It is the 33rd largest state in the United States, Pennsylvania has 51 miles of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary. Cities include Philadelphia, Reading, Lebanon and Lancaster in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, the tri-cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, the northeast includes the former anthracite coal mining communities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston City, and Hazleton. Erie is located in the northwest, the state has 5 regions, namely the Allegheny Plateau, Ridge and Valley, Atlantic Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and the Erie Plain. Straddling two major zones, the majority of the state, with the exception of the corner, has a humid continental climate. The largest city, Philadelphia, has characteristics of the humid subtropical climate that covers much of Delaware. Moving toward the interior of the state, the winter climate becomes colder, the number of cloudy days increase. Western areas of the state, particularly locations near Lake Erie, can receive over 100 inches of snowfall annually, the state may be subject to severe weather from spring through summer into fall. Tornadoes occur annually in the state, sometimes in large numbers, the Tuscarora Nation took up temporary residence in the central portion of Pennsylvania ca. Both the Dutch and the English claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their lands in America
6.
Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
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Philadelphia County is a county located in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. At the 2010 census, the population was 1,526,006, Philadelphia County is one of the three original counties, along with Chester and Bucks counties, created by William Penn in November 1682. Since 1854, the county has been coterminous with the city of Philadelphia and it is the most populous county in the United States coterminous with a municipality. Philadelphia County is the heart of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metropolitan Statistical Area, the Metropolitan Area ranks 7th most populous in the United States. Tribes of Lenape were the first known occupants in the area that became Philadelphia County, the first European settlers were Swedes and Finns who arrived in 1638. The Netherlands seized the area in 1655, but permanently lost control to England in 1674, William Penn received his charter for Pennsylvania from Charles II of England in 1681, and in November 1682 he divided Pennsylvania into three counties. In the same year, Philadelphia was laid out and was made the county seat, Penn wanted Philadelphia, meaning brotherly love, to be a place where religious tolerance and the freedom to worship were ensured. Philadelphias name is shared with the ancient Asia Minor city spared in the Book of Revelation in the Bible and it was William Penns prayer, as a Quaker, that his Holy Experiment would be found blameless at the Last Judgment. Two counties would be formed out of Philadelphia County, Berks County which was formed in 1752, from these separations, as well as other border moves, come the present-day boundaries of the county. The City of Philadelphia, as laid out by Penn, comprised only that portion of the present day city situated between South and Vine Streets and the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. Other settlements were made beyond the boundaries of the city, besides these, there were a number of other outlying townships, villages and settlements throughout the county. During this period, the city government of Philadelphia and the county government of Philadelphia acted separately, by the mid-19th century, it was clear that a more structured government bureaucracy was needed. The newly integrated districts had marked characteristics between them, but over time, after the consolidation, these characteristics generally integrated into the City of Philadelphia known today. Today, the names of some of these districts are synonymous with neighborhoods in the city, in 1951, a new initiative called the Home Rule Charter fully merged city and county offices. This new charter provided the city with a structure and outlined the strong mayor form of government that is still used today. The county offices were merged with the city government in 1952 and it is thus subject to the provisions and laws of the Commonwealth concerning counties. Exceptions include restrictions stated in the Home Rule Charter of Philadelphia, Act of Consolidation,1854, the county also is the only First Class County, meaning it had a population of 1.5 million or above at the last census, in the Commonwealth. Philadelphia has become racially and ethnically diverse over the years, since 1990, thousands of immigrants from Latin America, Asia and Europe have arrived in the county
7.
Philadelphia
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In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
8.
Area codes 215 and 267
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215 and 267 are the North American telephone area codes for the City of Philadelphia and the northern and eastern municipalities in Bucks and Montgomery Counties in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Area code 215 was one of the area codes established in 1947 and originally included the entire southeastern part of the Commonwealth. Pennsylvania was divided into four numbering plan areas, after New York state the most in the Bell System, together with Illinois, Ohio, on January 8,1994, the area served by 215 was split. However, three central office codes were moved from 215 to 717, namely 267 in Denver,484 in Adamstown and 445 in Terre Hill, with 215-267 becoming 717-336 because 717-267 was already in use. These exchanges were all served by telephone companies which sought to consolidate their eastern Pennsylvania customers into one area code. The codes 267 and 484 were later used for area codes in 215 and 610 respectively. This was intended as a solution, but within two years 215 was close to exhaustion due to the rapid growth of the Philadelphia area. The supply of numbers was limited because the entire state of Delaware is part of the Philadelphia LATA. To solve the problem, overlay code 267 was established July 1,1997, local calls across the Delaware/Pennsylvania border have been changed to 10-digit dialing to remove some restrictions on prefix assignments. Area code 445 was first proposed in July 2000 as an overlay area codes 215 and 267. However, these plans were delayed and then rescinded in 2003 by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, the need for new phone numbers in area codes 215/267 was delayed until 2018. In December of 2016, it was announced that area code 445 will be activated as an overlay area code on March 3,2018. The 215/267 area codes serve all or part of five counties in Pennsylvania. com,215 Area Code List of exchanges from AreaCodeDownload. com,267 Area Code
9.
Northeast Philadelphia
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There is no such place as East Philadelphia. The name however may refer to, Northeast Philadelphia Camden, New Jersey South Detroit
10.
Delaware River
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The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States. Its watershed drains an area of 14,119 square miles in five U. S. states—New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, not including Delaware Bay, the rivers length including its two branches is 388 miles. The Delaware River is one of nineteen Great Waters recognized by the Americas Great Waters Coalition, the Delaware River rises in two main branches that descend from the western flank of the Catskill Mountains in New York. The West Branch begins near Mount Jefferson in the Town of Jefferson in Schoharie County, the rivers East Branch begins at Grand Gorge near Roxbury Delaware County. These two branches flow west and merge near Hancock in Delaware County and the waters flow as the Delaware River south. The river meets tide-water at the junction of Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, the rivers navigable, tidal section served as a conduit for shipping and transportation that aided the development of the industrial cities of Trenton, Camden, and Philadelphia. The mean freshwater discharge of the Delaware River into the estuary of Delaware Bay is 11,550 cubic feet per second, in 1609, the river was first visited by a Dutch East India Company expedition led by Henry Hudson. Hudson, an English navigator, was hired to find a route to Cathay. Early Dutch and Swedish settlements were established along the section of river. Both colonial powers called the river the South River, compared to the Hudson River, lord de la Warr waged a punitive campaign to subdue the Powhatan after they had killed the colonys council president, John Ratcliffe, and attacked the colonys fledgling settlements. Lord de la Warr arrived with 150 soldiers in time to prevent colonys original settlers at Jamestown from giving up, the name of barony is pronounced as in the current spelling form Delaware and is thought to derive from French de la Guerre. It has often reported that the river and bay received the name Delaware after English forces under Richard Nicolls expelled the Dutch. However, the river and bay were known by the name Delaware as early as 1641, the state of Delaware was originally part of the William Penns Pennsylvania colony. In 1682, the Duke of York granted Penns request for access to the sea and leased him the territory along the western shore of Delaware Bay which became known as the Lower Counties on the Delaware. The Delaware Rivers watershed drains an area of 14,119 square miles and encompasses 42 counties and 838 municipalities in five U. S. states—New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. This total area constitutes approximately 0. 4% of the mass in the United States. In 2001, the watershed was 18% agricultural land, 14% developed land, there are 216 tributary streams and creeks—an estimated 14,057 miles of streams and creeks—in the watershed. The waters of the Delaware Rivers basin are used to fishing, transportation, power, cooling, recreation
11.
Torresdale, Philadelphia
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Torresdale, also formerly known as Torrisdale, is a neighborhood in the Far Northeast section of Philadelphia. Torresdale is located along the Delaware River between Holmesburg and Bensalem Township in neighboring Bucks County, the adjacent confluence of the Poquessing Creek with the Delaware River had been favored by William Penns surveyor, Thomas Holme, as the site for the city that Penn planned to found. Although a more southerly site was selected, Holme and others acquired property there. Torresdale, originally Torrisdale, was named by Charles Macalester, Jr. for his familys ancestral Scotland home. Before the Act of Consolidation,1854, Torresdale had been part of Delaware Township of Philadelphia County, in 1894, Torresdale was the site of the regatta of the Rowing Association of American Colleges. Torresdale is the site of Holy Family University and Nazareth Academy High School, the Union League Golf Club at Torresdale, a Donald Ross designed golf course, is located at Frankford and Grant Avenues and is one of the finest golf courses in the Philadelphia region. In 2015, the Union League of Philadelphia undertook a restoration of the course and historic clubhouse. The Frankford Avenue Bridge over Poquessing Creek is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, all Saints Episcopal Church was established in 1772. Eden Hall Chapel, built in 1849, was demolished in 2007, the municipal Baxter Water Treatment Plant opened in 1909 as the Torresdale Water Treatment Plant. Glen Foerd on the Delaware is an estate established in 1850, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Residents are zoned to schools in the School District of Philadelphia, including Thomas Holme Elementary School, Austin Meehan Middle School, and Abraham Lincoln High School
12.
Stephen Decatur
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Stephen Decatur, Jr. was a United States naval officer and commodore. He was born on the shore of Maryland, in Worcester County. Decaturs father, Stephen Decatur, Sr. was a commodore in the U. S. Navy, shortly after attending college, Decatur followed in his fathers footsteps and joined the U. S. Navy at the age of nineteen as a midshipman. Decatur supervised the construction of several U. S. naval vessels and he is the youngest man to reach the rank of captain in the history of the United States Navy. He served under three presidents, and played a role in the early development of the American navy. In almost every theater of operation, Decaturs service was characterized by acts of heroism and his service in the Navy took him through both Barbary Wars in North Africa, the Quasi-War with France, and the War of 1812 with Britain. He was renowned for his ability to lead and for his genuine concern for the seamen under his command. His numerous naval victories against Britain, France and the Barbary states established the United States Navy as a rising power, during this period he served aboard and commanded many naval vessels and ultimately became a member of the Board of Navy Commissioners. He built a home in Washington, known as Decatur House, on Lafayette Square. He became an affluent member of Washington society and counted James Monroe, Decaturs career came to an early end when he was killed in a duel with a rival officer. Decatur emerged as a hero in his own lifetime, becoming the first post-Revolutionary War hero. His name and legacy, like that of John Paul Jones, the family of Decatur was of French descent on Stephens fathers side, while his mothers family was of Irish ancestry. His parents had arrived from Philadelphia just three months before Stephen was born, having to flee that city during the American Revolution because of the British occupation and they later returned to the same residence they had once left for Philadelphia. Decaturs family returned to Philadelphia shortly after Decaturs birth, and Decatur grew up in Philadelphia, Decatur came to love the sea and sailing in a roundabout manner. When Stephen was eight years old, he developed a case of whooping cough. In those days, a tonic for this condition was exposure to the salt air of the sea. It was decided that Stephen Jr. would accompany his father aboard a merchant ship on his voyage to Europe. Sailing across the Atlantic and back proved to be an effective remedy, in the days following young Stephens return he was jubilant about his adventure on the high sea and spoke of wanting to go sailing often
13.
War of 1812
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Historians in the United States and Canada see it as a war in its own right, but the British often see it as a minor theatre of the Napoleonic Wars. By the wars end in early 1815, the key issues had been resolved, the view was shared in much of New England and for that reason the war was widely referred to there as Mr. Madison’s War. As a result, the primary British war goal was to defend their North American colonies, the war was fought in three theatres. Second, land and naval battles were fought on the U. S. –Canadian frontier, Third, large-scale battles were fought in the Southern United States and Gulf Coast. With the majority of its land and naval forces tied down in Europe fighting the Napoleonic Wars, early victories over poorly-led U. S. armies demonstrated that the conquest of the Canadas would prove more difficult than anticipated. Despite this, the U. S. was able to inflict serious defeats on Britains Native American allies, both governments were eager for a return to normality and peace negotiations began in Ghent in August 1814. This brought an Era of Good Feelings in which partisan animosity nearly vanished in the face of strengthened American nationalism, the war was also a major turning point in the development of the U. S. military, with militia being increasingly replaced by a more professional force. The U. S. also acquired permanent ownership of Spains Mobile District, the government of Canada declared a three-year commemoration of the War of 1812 in 2012, intended to offer historical lessons and celebrate 200 years of peace across the border. At the conclusion of the commemorations in 2014, a new national War of 1812 Monument was unveiled in Ottawa. The war is remembered in Britain primarily as a footnote in the much larger Napoleonic Wars occurring in Europe, historians have long debated the relative weight of the multiple reasons underlying the origins of the War of 1812. This section summarizes several contributing factors which resulted in the declaration of war by the United States, as Risjord notes, a powerful motivation for the Americans was the desire to uphold national honour in the face of what they considered to be British insults such as the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair. The approaching conflict was about violations of American rights, but it was also vindication of American identity. Americans at the time and historians since often called it the United States Second War of Independence, in 1807, Britain introduced a series of trade restrictions via a series of Orders in Council to impede neutral trade with France, with which Britain was at war. The United States contested these restrictions as illegal under international law, the American merchant marine had come close to doubling between 1802 and 1810, making it by far the largest neutral fleet. Britain was the largest trading partner, receiving 80% of U. S. cotton, the British public and press were resentful of the growing mercantile and commercial competition. The United States view was that Britains restrictions violated its right to trade with others, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy expanded to 176 ships of the line and 600 ships overall, requiring 140,000 sailors to man. The United States believed that British deserters had a right to become U. S. citizens and this meant that in addition to recovering naval deserters, it considered any United States citizens who were born British liable for impressment. Aggravating the situation was the reluctance of the United States to issue formal naturalization papers and it was estimated by the Admiralty that there were 11,000 naturalized sailors on United States ships in 1805
14.
Matthias W. Baldwin
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Matthias William Baldwin was an American inventor and machinery manufacturer, specializing in the production of steam locomotives. Baldwins small machine shop, established in 1825, grew to become Baldwin Locomotive Works, the most famous of the early locomotives was Old Ironsides, built by Matthias Baldwin in 1832. Matthias W. Baldwin was born December 10,1795 in Elizabethtown and he was the youngest of five children born to a prosperous carriage builder named William Baldwin. Although he received a very common school education, Baldwins inclination. Toys would be deconstructed and reassembled to learn their inner workings and spare bits, in 1811 the 16-year-old Baldwin was made an apprentice jewelry maker to the Woolworth Brothers of Frankford, Pennsylvania. Apprenticeship in these days was a virtually coercive relationship marked by long hours of labor, in 1817, shortly before the fixed term of his indenture was completed, Baldwin moved together with his mother to Philadelphia. There the budding jewelry maker was employed by the firm of Fletcher & Gardner, Baldwin proved to be a valuable journeyman employee over the course of the next two years. In 1819 Baldwin quit Fletcher & Gardner and began to work as an independent silversmith, Baldwin quickly proved himself a skilled and innovative craftsman, and developed a revolutionary new technique for making gold plate. Baldwins technique came to wide acceptance as the industry standard although, unfortunately for him. During the middle 1820s demand for jewelry and silverware suddenly experienced a dramatic decline, the pair became involved in the manufacture of printing cylinders and perfected an improved process for the etching of steel plates. The needs of the growing firm demanded both larger quarters and a power source. In 1828 Baldwin devised and constructed his first steam engine, a device that produced 5 horsepower of output. The original engine still survives in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, demand for steam engines proved to be great and Baldwin and Mason quickly supplanted their printing machinery business with an engine-making division. Within a decade the firm would be regarded as the top engine maker in the country, Baldwin put his knowledge of stationary steam engines to new use in 1831 when he constructed his first experimental steam locomotive. Based on designs first shown at the Rainhill Trials in England, the engine was strong enough to pull a few cars that carried four passengers each. This locomotive was unusual for the time in that it burned coal, the next year Baldwin built his first commissioned steam locomotive for the fledgling Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad. It weighed over 5 tons, with 54 in diameter wheels,9.5 in cylinders with 18 in stroke. This locomotive was a 2-2-0 type, meaning it had one unpowered leading axle, although contracted for $4,000, owing to performance shortcomings a compromise price of $3,500 between the railroad and the budding Baldwin Locomotive Works was ultimately agreed upon and received
15.
Baldwin Locomotive Works
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The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American builder of railroad locomotives. It was originally located in Philadelphia, and later moved to nearby Eddystone, although the company was very successful as the largest producer of steam locomotives, its transition to the production of diesels was far less so. Later, when the demand for diesel locomotives to replace steam tapered off. It stopped producing locomotives in 1956 and went out of business in 1972, having produced over 70,000 locomotives and this company is not to be confused with E M Baldwin of Australia who made small locomotives for such things as sugar cane tramways. The Baldwin Locomotive Works had a humble beginning, the original engine was in use and powered many departments of the works for well over 60 years, and is currently on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The Camden and Amboy Railroad Company had shortly before imported a locomotive from England and it had not yet been assembled by Isaac Dripps when Baldwin visited the spot. He inspected the detached parts and made notes of the principal dimensions, aided by these figures, he commenced his task. The difficulties attending the execution of this first order were such that they are not easily understood by present-day mechanics. It was under such circumstances that his first locomotive, christened Old Ironsides, was completed and tried on the Philadelphia and it was at once put in active service, and did duty for over 20 years. It was an engine, weighing a little over five tons, the driving wheels were 54 inches in diameter. The wheels were of heavy cast iron hubs, with spokes and rims, and wrought iron tires. It had a 30 inches diameter boiler which took 20 minutes to raise steam, Baldwin struggled to survive the Panic of 1837. Production fell from 40 locomotives in 1837 to just nine in 1840, as part of the survival strategy, Matthias Baldwin took on two partners, George Vail and George Hufty. Although the partnerships proved relatively short-lived, they helped Baldwin pull through the hard times. Zerah Colburn was one of many engineers who had an association with Baldwin Locomotive Works. Colburn was full of praise for the quality of Baldwins work, in the 1850s, railroad building became a national obsession, with many new carriers starting up, particularly in the Midwest and South. While this helped drive up demand for Baldwin products, it increased competition as more companies entered the locomotive production field. Still, Baldwin had trouble keeping pace with orders and in the early 1850s began paying workers piece-rate pay, taking advantage of human nature, this increased incentives and productivity
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John Gibbon
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John Gibbon was a career United States Army officer who fought in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Gibbon was born in the Holmesburg section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and he is the brother of Lardner Gibbon. When Gibbon was nearly 11 years old the family moved near Charlotte, North Carolina and he graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1847 and was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the 3rd U. S. Artillery. The manual was a scientific treatise on gunnery and was used by both sides in the Civil War. In 1855, Gibbon married Francis Fannie North Moale and they had four children, Frances Moale Gibbon, Catharine Katy Lardner Gibbon, John Gibbon, Jr. and John S. Gibbon. When war broke out between the states, Gibbon was serving as a captain of Battery B, 4th U. S, Artillery at Camp Floyd in Utah. Upon arrival in Washington, Gibbon, still in command of the 4th U. S. Artillery, in 1862, he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers and commanded the brigade of westerners known as Kings Wisconsin Brigade. Gibbon quickly set about drilling his troops and improving their appearance, ordering them to wear white leggings and distinctive, black,1858 regular army and their famous hats earned them the nickname, The Black Hat Brigade. He led the brigade into action against the famous Confederate Stonewall Brigade at the Battle of Brawners Farm, a prelude to the Second Battle of Bull Run. He was in command of the brigade during their strong uphill charge at the Battle of South Mountain, from then on, the brigade was known as the Iron Brigade. Gibbon led the brigade at the Battle of Antietam, where he was forced to take away from brigade command to personally man an artillery piece in the bloody fighting at the Cornfield. Gibbon was promoted to command the 2nd Division, I Corps at the Battle of Fredericksburg, the wound was minor but kept getting infected, so Gibbon was out of action for a few months. Shortly after returning to duty he learned of the death of his son, John Gibbon, Jr. Gibbon returned for the Battle of Chancellorsville. At the end of the council of war on the night of July 2, army commander Maj. Gen. George G. Meade took Gibbon aside and predicted, If Lee attacks tomorrow, it will be on your front. And his division did bear the brunt of fighting during the defense against Picketts Charge on July 3, Gibbon was back in command of the 2nd Division at the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor. During the Siege of Petersburg, Gibbon became disheartened when his troops refused to fight at Reams Station. He briefly commanded the XVIII Corps before going on sick leave and his troops helped achieve the decisive breakthrough at Petersburg, capturing Fort Gregg, part of the Confederate defenses. He led his troops during the Appomattox Campaign and blocked the Confederate escape route at the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse and he was one of three commissioners for the Confederate surrender
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Ethel Barrymore
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Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Regarded as the First Lady of the American Theater, Barrymore was a preeminent stage actress in her era, Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew. Her father was killed four months before her birth in a famous Old West encounter in Texas while heading a traveling road company. She was named for her father’s favorite character—Ethel in William Makepeace Thackeray’s The Newcomes and she was the sister of actors John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore, the aunt of actor John Drew Barrymore, and the grand-aunt of actress Drew Barrymore. She was also a granddaughter of actress and theater-manager Louisa Lane Drew and she spent her childhood in Philadelphia, and attended Roman Catholic schools there. In 1884 she, her parents and brothers sailed to England, Maurice had inherited a substantial amount of money from an aunt and decided to exhibit a play and star in some plays at Londons Haymarket Theatre. Ethel recalled being frightened on first meeting Oscar Wilde when handing him some cakes, returning to the U. S. in 1886, her father took her to her first baseball game. She established a lifelong love of baseball and wanted to be a concert pianist, the years in England were the happiest of her childhood years due to the fact the Barrymores were more of a nuclear family in London than at any other time when in the United States. Georgie did not recover and died in July 1893 a week before her 37th birthday, essentially Ethel and Lionels childhood ended when Georgie died. They were forced to go to work in their teens, John, a few years younger, stayed with their grandmother and other relatives. Barrymores first appearance on Broadway was in 1895, in a play called The Imprudent Young Couple which starred her uncle John Drew, Jr. and she appeared with Drew and Adams again in 1896 in Rosemary. In 1897 Ethel went with William Gillette to London to play Miss Kittridge in Gillettes Secret Service and she was about to return to the States with Gillettes troupe when Henry Irving and Ellen Terry offered her the role of Annette in The Bells. A full London tour was on and, before it was over, Ethel created, on New Years Day 1898, Euphrosine in Peter the Great at the Lyceum, men everywhere were smitten with Ethel, most notably Winston Churchill, who asked her to marry him. Not wishing to be a wife, she refused. Winston, years later, married Clementine Hozier, a beauty who looked very much like Ethel. Winston and Ethel remained friends until the end of her life and their “romance” was their own little secret until his son let the cat out of the bag 63 years after it happened. After her season in London, Ethel returned to the United States, charles Frohman cast her first in Catherine and then as Stella de Grex in His Excellency the Governor. After that, Frohman finally gave Ethel the role that would make her a star, Madame Trentoni in Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines, which opened at the Garrick Theatre on February 4,1901
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Act of Consolidation, 1854
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The law was enacted by the General Assembly and approved February 2,1854 by Governor William Bigler. Additionally, any unincorporated areas were included in the consolidation, the consolidation was drafted to help combat lawlessness that the many local governments could not handle separately and to bring in much-needed tax revenue for the city. In early 1854, the city of Philadelphias boundaries extended east and west between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers and north and south between Vine and South Streets, the rest of Philadelphia County contained thirteen townships, six boroughs and nine districts. Philadelphia Citys recent influx of immigrants spilled over into the rest of Philadelphia County surging the areas population. In 1840, Philadelphias population was 93,665 and the rest of the county was 164,372, one of the major reasons put forth for the consolidation of the city was the countys inability to govern. Law enforcement found it difficult to enforce the peace, a person could break the law in Philadelphia City and quickly cross the border and escape punishment. Districts outside Philadelphia could not control their criminal elements and at the time refused to let Philadelphia get involved. An example of how law enforcement agencies worked together was in May,1844 when an anti-Catholic riot erupted in Kensington. The sheriff was the police officer available in Kensington at the time. By the time the militia arrived, the riot was out of control, between 1844 and 1854 Philadelphias population grew by 29.5 percent. Places like Spring Garden grew by 111.5 percent, and this population shift was draining the city of much-needed tax revenue for police and fire departments, water, sewage, and other city improvements. There had been several unsuccessful proposals at consolidation before 1854, the main opposition of consolidation came from the Whig Party. The Whigs usually dominated Philadelphia City elections while the districts were dominated by the Democrats. With support from all the major newspapers, the consolidation overcame Whig opposition. Eli Kirk Price brought the issue to the Pennsylvania Senate while Matthias W. Baldwin, a bill was produced on December 20,1853 and by January 31,1854, the bill had passed both houses. The bill was brought to Governor William Bigler, who was in Erie. Bigler was awoken out of bed before midnight on February 2, the signing was rushed because several districts were considering assuming new debts for railroad loans and other projects, with the expectation that the consolidated city would pay instead. The Act of Consolidation, along with creating Philadelphias modern border, the mayor was given substantial control of the police department and control of municipal administration and executive departments with oversight and control of the budget from the city council
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Lower Dublin Township, Pennsylvania
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Lower Dublin Township, also known as Dublin Township, is a defunct township that was located in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. The township ceased to exist and was incorporated into the City of Philadelphia following the passage of the Act of Consolidation,1854, bustleton, Fox Chase and Holmesburg were in this township. It was originally about five miles at its greatest length and three miles in breadth, with an area of 9,500 acres and it was bisected by the Pennypack Creek, known in those days as the Dublin Creek. This township was formerly called Lower Dublin to distinguish it from another Dublin township, formerly in Philadelphia County, but now in Montgomery County and this township was one of the first created in the county, but the date is not known. In 1853, about half the area of the township was separated out into Delaware Township, which comprised what are now the Torresdale and Holmesburg sections of the city of Philadelphia
20.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
21.
Art Deco
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Art Deco, sometimes simply referred to as Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture and design that first appeared in France just before World War I. It took its name, short for Arts Decorators, from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925 and it combined modernist styles with fine craftsmanship and rich materials. During its heyday, Art Deco represented luxury, glamour, exuberance, Art Deco was a pastiche of many different styles, sometimes contradictory, united by a desire to be modern. It featured rare and expensive materials such as ebony and ivory, the Chrysler Building and other skyscrapers of New York were the most visible monuments of the new style. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the became more subdued. New materials arrived, including chrome plating, stainless steel and plastic, a more sleek form of the style, called Streamline Moderne, appeared in the 1930s, it featured curving forms and smooth, polished surfaces. Art Deco became one of the first truly international architectural styles, with examples found in European cities, the style came to an end with the beginning of World War II. Deco was replaced as the dominant global style by the functional and unadorned styles of modernism. The term arts décoratifs was first used in France in 1858, in 1868, Le Figaro newspaper used the term art décoratifs with respect to objects for stage scenery created for the Théâtre de lOpéra. In 1875, furniture designers, textile, jewelry and glass designers and it took its present name of ENSAD in 1927. The term Art déco was then used in a 1966 newspaper article by Hillary Gelson in the Times, describing the different styles at the exhibit. Art Deco gained currency as a broadly applied stylistic label in 1968 when historian Bevis Hillier published the first major book on the style. Hillier noted that the term was already being used by art dealers and cites The Times, in 1971, Hillier organized an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which he details in his book about it, The World of Art Deco. The emergence of Art Deco was closely connected with the rise in status of decorative artists, the term arts décoratifs had been invented in 1875, giving the designers of furniture, textiles, and other decoration official status. The Société des artistes décorateurs, or SAD, was founded in 1901, a similar movement developed in Italy. The first international exhibition devoted entirely to the arts, the Esposizione international dArte decorative moderna, was held in Turin in 1902. Several new magazines devoted to decorative arts were founded in Paris, including Arts et décoration, Decorative arts sections were introduced into the annual salons of the Sociéte des artistes français, and later in the Salon dautomne. French nationalism also played a part in the resurgence of decorative arts, in 1911 the SAD proposed the holding of a major new international exposition of decorative arts in 1912
22.
Frankford Avenue Bridge
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The three-span, 73-foot-long twin stone arch bridge carries Frankford Avenue, just north of Solly Avenue, over Pennypack Creek in Pennypack Park. The bridges, which were to be completed within 18 months, were to be ten feet wide and include railings along each side, the areas on either side of the bridges were to be cleared to facilitate horse and cart traffic. Each bridge was to be built by inhabitants of the surrounding area. In 1789, George Washington crossed the bridge on his way to his first presidential inauguration in New York. In 1803, the bridge was paved with macadam, and at its end a toll booth was erected. The bridge was widened in 1893 to accommodate streetcars, which commenced service in 1895, the bridge was designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1970. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, friends of Pennypack Park article American Society of Civil Engineers article Historic American Buildings Survey No. PA-1786, Pennypack Creek Bridge Historic American Engineering Record No, pA-465, Pennypack Creek Bridge Listing at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings
23.
Joseph H. Brown Elementary School
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It is part of the School District of Philadelphia. The current school building was constructed in 1937, replacing a building on the same site. The school building was designed by Irwin T. Catharine, then the Philadelphia School Districts main architect, Brown students are required to wear school uniforms. Before 1973, J. H. Brown included grades K through 8, with the opening of Austin Meehan Middle School, grades 7 and 8 were moved from Brown School. Principals, Ruth Brown to 1978 Sarah Peters to 1987 Kara Teachous to 1999 Ellen Denofa to 2010 Joseph Brown students go on to Austin Meehan Middle, all persons assigned to Meehan are zoned to Abraham Lincoln High School
24.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
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Pennypack Park
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Pennypack Park is a municipal park, part of the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation system, in Northeast Philadelphia in the U. S. state of Pennsylvania. Established in 1905 by ordinance of the City of Philadelphia, it includes about 1,600 acres of woodlands, meadows, the Pennypack Creek runs through the park from Pine Road to the Delaware River. The park has playgrounds, hiking and bike trails, and bridle paths for horseback riding, an adjunct to the park is the Pennypack Environmental Center on Verree Road. The park is home to many species including several kinds of snakes, turtles, frogs. Many historic structures remain intact throughout Pennypack Park, built in 1697, the Kings Highway Bridge at Frankford Avenue is the oldest stone bridge still in use in the United States. Pennepack Baptist Church, another of the historic sites, was chartered in 1688. During the American Revolutionary War The Verree House on Verree Road was the site of a raid by British troops
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Center City, Philadelphia
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Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia, in the U. S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the former City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation,1854 which extended the city borders to be coterminous with Philadelphia County. Greater Center City has grown into the second-most populated downtown area in the United States, after Midtown Manhattan in New York City, with an estimated 183,240 residents in 2015. Center City is bounded by South Street to the south, the Delaware River to the east, the Schuylkill River to the west and this means that Center City occupies the boundaries of the city before it was made coterminous with Philadelphia County in 1854. The Center City District, which has special powers of taxation, uses a complicated, irregularly shaped boundary that includes much but not all of this area, the Philadelphia Police Department patrols three districts located within Center City. The three patrol districts serving Center City are the 6th, 9th, and 17th districts, in March 1987, One Liberty Place broke the gentlemens agreement not to exceed the height of the statue of William Penn atop City Hall. Since the completion of One Liberty Place, no Philadelphia major-league sports team had won a championship for the next two decades, a phenomenon known as the Curse of Billy Penn. In an effort to reverse the curse, a 3-foot statue of Penn was affixed to the top of the Comcast Center upon its completion as the new tallest building in 2007. The Comcast Center, which was completed in 2007, is now the tallest building in Pennsylvania,30 feet taller than One Liberty Place, Two buildings now under construction —1441 Chestnut and the Comcast Technology Center — are also slated to be taller than City Hall. The latter would be the eighth-tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, the first publicly accessible vantage point higher than City Hall opened at One Liberty Observation Deck on the 57th floor of One Liberty Place in 2015. While Philadelphias population declined, Center Citys rose 10% between 1990 and 2000, in 2007, the city designated the area bound by 11th Street, Broad Street, Chestnut Street and Pine Street as the Gayborhood. Chinatown Fitler Square French Quarter Logan Square Market East Old City Rittenhouse Square Society Hill Washington Square West Sunoco has its headquarters in the BNY Mellon Center, cigna has its corporate headquarters in Two Liberty Place. Aramark is headquartered in Center City, Comcast is headquartered in the Comcast Center. The law firm Cozen OConnor has its headquarters in Center City, kogan Page has its United States offices in Center City. Lincoln National Corporation moved its headquarters from Indiana to Philadelphia in 1999, in Philadelphia Lincoln was headquartered in the West Tower of Centre Square in Center City. In 2007 the company moved 400 employees, including its top executives, the Philadelphia Fire Department operates 5 Fire Stations in the Center City area, Ladder 5, Medic 35, Battalion 1 -711 S. Broad St. Snorkel 2, Medic 44B, Battalion 4, Field Comm. Unit 1 -101 N. 4th St. Engine 11, Medic 21 -601 South St. Pipeline 20, Ladder 23, Medic 1 -133 N. 10th St. Squirt 43, Ladder 9, Medic 7 -2108 Market St
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SEPTA
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SEPTA also manages construction projects that maintain, replace, and expand infrastructure and rolling stock. SEPTA is the transit provider for Philadelphia and its suburbs in Delaware, Montgomery, Bucks. SEPTA is a state created authority and the majority of its board is appointed by the five Pennsylvania counties it serves. SEPTA has the 6th-largest U. S. rapid transit system by ridership, and it controls 290 active stations, over 450 miles of track,2,295 revenue vehicles, and 196 routes. SEPTA also manages Shared-Ride services in Philadelphia and ADA services across the region and these services are operated by third-party contractors. SEPTA is one of only two U. S. SEPTAs headquarters are located at 1234 Market Street in Center City, SEPTA was created by the Pennsylvania legislature on August 17,1963, to coordinate government subsidies to various transit and railroad companies in southeastern Pennsylvania. It commenced on February 18,1964, by 1966, the Reading Company and Pennsylvania Railroad commuter railroad lines were operated under contract to SEPTA. On February 1,1968, the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with the New York Central railroad to become Penn Central, Penn Central continued to operate in bankruptcy until 1976, when Conrail took over its assets along with those of several other bankrupt railroads, including the Reading Company. Conrail operated commuter services under contract to SEPTA until January 1,1983, when SEPTA took over operations and acquired track, rolling stock, and other assets to form the Railroad Division. Since 1913, a long proposed Roosevelt Boulevard Subway had a similar fate as New Yorks Second Avenue Subway where many proposals were made, many acquisitions had been made, but only amounted to continuous service cuts through consolidations of competing services of the Reading Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad. It wasnt until the early 2000s that there was any talk of expansion, the PTC had been created in 1940 with the merger of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company and a group of smaller, then independent transit companies operating within the city and its environs. Today, this is the Victory Division, though it is referred to as the Red Arrow Division. On March 1,1976, SEPTA acquired the operations of Schuylkill Valley Lines. Future expansion of SEPTAs commuter rail lines has been discussed since the mid-1980s when the system suffered severe cutbacks, proposals have been made to restore service to Allentown, Bethlehem, West Chester and Newtown, with support from commuters, local officials and pro-train advocates. The Schuylkill Valley Metro and other plans that would re-establish service to Phoenixville, Pottsville, SEPTA has also considered the possibility of a cross-county metro that would provide service between the suburban counties without requiring the rider to go into Philadelphia. However, many derelict lines under SEPTA ownership have been converted to rail trails, additionally, some, such as Senator Bob Casey, have proposed expanding the Broad Street Line to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Proposals have also made for increased service on existing lines, including later evenings and Sundays to Wilmington. Marylands MARC commuter rail system is considering extending its service as far as Newark Rail Station, as of 2014, an expansion of the Norristown High Speed Line is under consideration to extend service to the King of Prussia area
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Trenton Line (SEPTA)
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The Trenton Line is a route of the SEPTA Regional Rail system. The route serves the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with service in Bucks County along the Delaware River to Trenton. Trenton Line trains make stops along Amtraks Northeast Corridor between Philadelphia and Trenton, NJ. It crosses the Delaware River at Trenton, New Jersey before making its stop at Trenton Transit Center. Electrified service between Philadelphia and Trenton began on June 29,1930, between 1984–2010 the route was designated R7 Trenton as part of SEPTAs diametrical reorganization of its lines. Trenton Line trains operated through the city center to the Chestnut Hill East Line on the side of the system. The R-number naming system was dropped on July 25,2010. The Trenton line usually has two push-pull electric-locomotive-hauled trains on the express runs and two on the evening express runs. Each train is made up of 6 coach trailers made by Bombardier with AEM-7 or ALP-44 locomotives hauling them. The Trenton Line includes the stations north of the Center City Commuter Connection. Weekday boardings are from FY2013, data for North Philadelphia includes Chestnut Hill West Line boardings, all stations are located within Philadelphia. Between FY 2008–FY2014 yearly ridership on the Trenton Line has ranged from 3. 1–3.5 million
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Interstate 95 in Pennsylvania
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Interstate 95 is an Interstate highway running from Miami, Florida, north to Houlton, Maine. In the U. S. state of Pennsylvania, the route is known by many as the Delaware Expressway and it runs 51 miles from the Delaware state line near Marcus Hook to the New Jersey state line crossing the Delaware River near Yardley on the Scudder Falls Bridge. It parallels its namesake Delaware River for its route through the city of Philadelphia. Of the 15 states that Interstate 95 runs through, Pennsylvania is the one that does not border the Atlantic Ocean. Plans for a route along the Delaware River in the Philadelphia area originated in the 1930s when both a parkway and elevated highway were proposed, neither of these were built. Construction on I-95 began in 1959 and was complete by 1979. The route was projected to run through the center of Trenton, New Jersey. In March 2008, large cracks were discovered on a support column in Philadelphia. I-95 passes through the Philadelphia metropolitan area, with much of the route in Philadelphia itself, Interstate 95 runs through a large portion of Philadelphia, most among the other major cities that I-95 serves. It passes under the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and near five other ones and crosses into New Jersey at the Scudder Falls Bridge, I-95 enters Delaware County, Pennsylvania, from Delaware near Marcus Hook, just north of its junction with the northern end of Interstate 495. The route interchanges with Chichester Avenue and Pennsylvania Route 452 before meeting U. S. Route 322, I-95 forms a concurrency with US322 that lasts until that route heads east for the Commodore Barry Bridge. I-95 continues through Chester, interchanging with Kerlin Street and Pennsylvania Route 320/Pennsylvania Route 352 before coming to the end of Interstate 476 at the edge of the city. It continues in an eastward direction paralleling Pennsylvania Route 291 through the suburbs of Essington and Tinicum, interchanging with Stewart Avenue, the road enters Philadelphia, where it comes to an interchange with PA291 that has access to the Philadelphia International Airport. East of the airport, I-95 crosses the Schuylkill River on the double-decker Girard Point Bridge, the road curves north, following the bend in the Delaware River, and runs along the waterfront, interchanging with Interstate 76 west of the Walt Whitman Bridge. I-95 continues through Northeast Philadelphia, interchanging with the Betsy Ross Bridge, north of I-276, I-95 interchanges with U. S. Route 1 Business/Pennsylvania Route 413 and U. S. Route 1. This current bridge structure, while structurally sufficient, is obsolete due to high traffic levels and is slated to be improved. An estimated 169,000 motorists utilize the road daily, however, planning for the proposed parkway system stalled and the plan was eventually abandoned. The planned highway was incorporated into the Pennsylvania Turnpike system, and was planned to be built as a toll road, however, with the advent of the Interstate Highway System in 1956, the project was turned over to the Pennsylvania Department of Highways and incorporated into Interstate 95
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U.S. Route 13 in Pennsylvania
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U. S. Route 13 is a U. S. highway running from Fayetteville, North Carolina north to Morrisville, Pennsylvania. The route runs for 49.33 mi through the Philadelphia metropolitan area in the U. S. state of Pennsylvania, the route enters the state from Delaware in Marcus Hook, Delaware County. It continues in a direction through Delaware County, passing through the city of Chester before heading through suburban areas along Chester Pike to Darby. The route turns north and heads to North Philadelphia, where it runs northeast along Hunting Park Avenue, US13 becomes concurrent with US1 on Roosevelt Boulevard, continuing into Northeast Philadelphia. US13 splits southeast on one-way streets before heading northeast out of the city on Frankford Avenue, the route continues into Bucks County as Bristol Pike, heading northeast to Bristol, where it turns into a divided highway. US13 becomes a freeway in Tullytown and continues north to its terminus at US1 near Morrisville, US13 roughly parallels Interstate 95 through its course in Pennsylvania. The routing dates back to times as part of the Kings Highway. In the early 20th century, these private turnpikes became public roads, US13 was designated through Pennsylvania in 1926, running between the Delaware border in Marcus Hook and US1 in Morrisville. US13 originally ran through Darby on Main Street and Philadelphia on Woodland Avenue, Market Street, Broad Street, Diamond Street, Front Street, Kensington Avenue, between the 1930s and 1960s, three bypass routes existed for portions of US13 between Marcus Hook and Philadelphia. The divided highway alignment between Bristol and Tullytown was completed by 1950, the US13 freeway between Tullytown and US1 was completed in 1955, shifting the northern terminus to its current location. This freeway was once considered to become a part of I-95 that would pass through Trenton, a US13 freeway was again proposed between I-95 near Bristol and Tullytown in 1969 but was ultimately cancelled. The route was shifted to use 43rd and 44th streets, Powelton Avenue, 34th Street, Girard Avenue, 33rd Street, Ridge Avenue, US13 was rerouted to use Church Lane and Baltimore Avenue between Yeadon and West Philadelphia in the 1960s. The route was shifted to its current alignment in the 1970s, US13 enters Pennsylvania from Delaware in the borough of Marcus Hook in Delaware County, heading northeast on four-lane undivided Post Road. From the state line, the passes through Sunocos Marcus Hook Industrial Complex. The road continues through residential and industrial areas as it enters the city of Chester. US13 passes near homes and businesses, turning northwest onto Highland Avenue. The route passes under Amtraks Northeast Corridor near the Highland Avenue station serving SEPTAs Wilmington/Newark Line before running past more homes, US13 continues through urban neighborhoods and passes Community Hospital of Chester. The route comes to an interchange with the US322 freeway providing access to
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Holmesburg Prison
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Holmesburg Prison is part of the City of Philadelphia Prison System. Built in 1896 and in use until 1995, the facility is located at 8215 Torresdale Ave in the Holmesburg section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the site of a controversial decades-long dermatological, pharmaceutical, the 1998 book Acres of Skin, Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison, by Allen Hornblum, documents clinical non-therapeutic medical experiments on prison inmates at Holmesburg. Today the prison is used for filming and other purposes, only a renovated gymnasium is considered suitable for holding inmates. That building is used for overflow from other city jails. The artists, neither of whom has exhibited previously in the U. S and they created large-format “prints” of drawings, paintings, and graffiti left by former inmates on the walls using this method. The artists prints are an archive of the prison cells—including paint. More information can be found at http, //www. philagrafika. org/G_G. html, Human experimentation in the United States Acres of Skin, Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison Human radiation experiments Albert M. Kligman, M. D. Ph. D
32.
Acres of Skin
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Acres of Skin, Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison is a 1998 book by Allen Hornblum. The title of the book is a reference to Kligmans reaction on seeing hundreds of prisoners when he entered the prison and it was like a farmer seeing a fertile field for the first time. The book discusses issues surrounding the inadequate consent procedures of the 1950s and 1960s when using prisoners, prisoners, attracted by the compensation, were angry when two of the experiments participants testified before Congress. The publication of Acres of Skin in 1998 attracted considerable media interest. The book has been reviewed in journals including the International Journal of Dermatology, Social History of Medicine. Human experimentation in the United States The Protest Psychosis, How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease List of medical ethics cases
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Allen M. Hornblum
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Allen M. Hornblum is an author, journalist and a former criminal justice official and political organizer based in Philadelphia. He has written five books with his first book Acres of Skin published in 1998. The book detailed the human experimentation at Holmesburg Prison, the publication of Acres of Skin attracted considerable international media interest. Subsequently, Hornblum wrote Sentenced to Science, a book about the experience of an African American inmate in Holmesburg prison, hornblums latest book Against Their Will co-authored with Judith Newman and Gregory Dober was released in 2013. There he noticed, several inmates with arms striped with gauze pads and he later learned that medical experiments had been conducted on the inmates for the last 20 years. Hornblum spent 10 years as an instructor and sat on the board of the Pennsylvania Prison Society. He was appointed to the Philadelphia Board of Prison Trustees in 1986, while serving as a prison trustee, he actively participated in a proposal to allow prisoners the right to have condoms. However, the proposal was turned down, Hornblum also served as the executive director of the Americans for Democratic Action and worked at the Pennsylvania Crime Commission to investigate organized crime and public corruption. In 1990, he chief of staff to Philadelphia Sheriff, He resigned from the Sheriffs Office in 1994 to research. The book was released under the title Acres of Skin in 1998 and he has also been lecturer of history and Urban Studies at Temple University. Hornblum has lectured on his research and books at the British Medical Association, the National Institutes of Health, in March 2014, News Works reported that Hornblum was working on a biography about Bill Tilden. In 1998, Hornblum published a book titled Acres of Skin and these abuses terminated with the scandal surrounding the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and the mind control experiments of the CIA. Hornblum is most critical of Kligman, who ran the experiments for two decades, Hornblum, along with George Holmes, also produced a documentary film about the Holmesburg Medical Research Program entitled, Acres of Skin - The Documentary. Confessions of a Second Story Man, Junior Kripplebauer and the K&A Gang is the book by Hornblum. The book tells the story of the K&A Gang, an Irish crime group that was in existence from the early 1950s to the late 1970s in Philadelphia, Sentenced to Science, One Black Mans Story of Imprisonment in America was released in 2007. It is a narrative of Edward Anthonys time at Holmesburg. The book discusses the experiments conducted on Anthony and how the experiments affected his life afterwards. In 2011, Hornblum released The Invisible Harry Gold, The Man Who Gave the Soviets the Atom Bomb, a book about the life of Harry Gold, in the mid-1940s, Gold took atomic secrets from Klaus Fuchs and gave them to the Soviet Union
34.
School District of Philadelphia
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The School District of Philadelphia is the school district that includes all public schools in Philadelphia. Established in 1818, it is the eighth largest school district in the nation, the School Board was created in 1850 to oversee the schools of Philadelphia. The Act of Assembly of April 5,1867, designated that the Controllers of the Public Schools of Philadelphia were to be appointed by the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, there was one Controller to be appointed from each ward. This was done to eliminate politics from the management of the schools, eventually, the management of the school district was given to a school board appointed by the mayor. This continued until 2001 when the district was taken over by the state, the School District of Philadelphia operates 214 of the citys 300 public schools, including 149 elementary schools,16 middle schools, and 49 high schools. The remaining 86 public schools are independently operated charter schools, charter schools are authorized by the School District of Philadelphia, and are accountable to it. Enrollment in Philadelphias district schools was 131,362 students as of December 2013, as of the 2014-2015 school year, there were 107 languages other than English spoken at home by district students. Enrollment in the charter schools was 60,774 students. Wealthier blacks chose not to use private schools because their neighborhoods were assigned to quality public schools. Prior to August 2012, the district was organized into academic division offices, as a part of the Chief Academic Office Reorganization/Transition Proposal, the AD structure was abolished. The School District of Philadelphia is governed by the five-member School Reform Commission, the commission was established in December 2001, when oversight of the district was taken over by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Governor of Pennsylvania appoints three of the members, and the Mayor of Philadelphia appoints two members of the commission, leadership The following is the current district leadership. Chief Executive Officer & Superintendent - William R. Hite, Jr. Ed. D, the demonstrators were met with force by the Philadelphia Police Department, and the resulting riot left 22 injured and 57 arrested. In 1975, Pennsylvania provided 55 percent of school funding statewide, an analysis determined that increased district spending was limited by a state system which relies heavily on property taxes for local school funding. As a result, wealthier school districts with more property owners. The result is great disparities in school system expenditures per student, in 2000, the Philadelphia school district spent $6,969 a year per student. Seventy percent of Philadelphia’s students are at or near the poverty line and this contrasts with expenditures per student in wealthier suburban school districts, Jenkintown, $12,076, Radnor, $13,288, and Upper Merion, $13,139. In February 1998, then-superintendent David Hornbeck threatened to close the citys schools if the state did not provide the funds needed to balance his proposed budget
35.
Mayfair, Philadelphia
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Mayfair, centered on the intersection of Cottman and Frankford Avenues. It is bordered by Tacony and Wissinoming to the south and east, Holmesburg to the east, Pennypack Park to the north, Mayfair is home to a large Irish American population. Before development in the 1920s, Mayfair was essentially farmland and home to The Edwin Forrest Home for Children and The Oxford and Lower Dublin Poor House. First established in 1929, Mayfair came to fruition in the years following World War II as a community that provided fresher and it was constructed over farmland surrounded by the established neighborhoods of Tacony, Holmesburg and Fox Chase. Mayfair featured several groundbreaking concepts for city dwellers, bigger rowhomes with yards in the front, the automobile became the primary mode of transportation and shopping retail centers became available close to home, as shopping districts developed along Roosevelt Boulevard and Cottman Avenue. Development also served to connect the neighborhoods of the Northeast that had previously been isolated. In these regards, Mayfair was a forerunner to American suburbanization, residents are zoned to the School District of Philadelphia. The Ethan Allen School and Edwin Forrest School are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Mayfair Elementary School is also in Mayfair. Ethan Allen and Mayfair elementary are K-8 schools, while Edwin Forrest-zoned students go onto Austin Meehan Middle, students zoned to Austin Meehan, Ethan Allen, and Mayfair are also zoned to Abraham Lincoln High School. Lincoln High was originally scheduled to be named Mayfair High School, Mayfair residents had a negative reception to this change. In 1949 the schools cornerstone was laid, Mayfair Elementary School also opened in 1949. As of the 2000 census, the tracts covering most of Mayfair had a population of 33,514 people, 95% white, about 90 percent of the population was born in Pennsylvania. Mayfair is widely known for its association with Irish-American culture, during the 2000 census,14,682 people noted Irish ancestry, including 11,100 who claimed it as their primary ancestry. Other claimed ancestries of note were German, Italian, Polish, Mayfair uses the ZIP codes 19135,19136,19149 and 19152. Mayfair Community Development Corporation Mayfair Civic Association
36.
Free Library of Philadelphia
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The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the 13th-largest public library system in the United States, in fiscal year 2015, the Free Library hosted nearly six million patrons in person and ten million more online. However, several libraries claimed the bequest, and only after the courts decided the money was intended to found a new library did the Free Library finally open in March 1894. Its first location was three cramped rooms in City Hall, on February 11,1895, the library was moved to the old Concert Hall at 1217-1221 Chestnut Street. Library officials criticized their new home as an unsuitable building. In December 1,1910, the Library was moved again, to the northeast corner of 13th, on June 2,1927, the Parkway Central Library opened for service at its present location at 1901 Vine Street on Logan Square. The building had been in planning since 1911, various obstacles, including World War I, the grand Beaux-Arts building was designed by Julian Abele, chief designer in the office of prominent Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer, and first opened its doors in 1927. In addition to being the library, the building serves as the systems administrative building. The mission of the Free Library of Philadelphia is to advance literacy, guide learning, the Library hosts a renowned Author Events Series, which brings more than 100 writers, politicians, scientists, researchers, and musicians to the Free Library annually. In March 2011, the library launched Free Library Hot Spots, placing new computer labs, the initiative is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. Each Hot Spot provides computers, internet access, printers, in April 2012, the Free Library added The Techmobile, a Hot Spot on Wheels, which brings service to neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia. The Techmobile has six public laptops, according to a study conducted by Penn’s Fels Institute of Government, in 2010 nearly 25,000 people learned to read or taught someone else to read solely because of the resources of the Free Library. Located at the Parkway Central Library, the Free Library’s Special Collections span genres and generations, scholars and curiosity seekers can find inspiration in the unique and rare items that chronicle the history of art, literature, music, and more. Works of secular literature are also represented, Lewis illuminated manuscripts are complemented by nine manuscripts from the Widener Collection and manuscripts from various other sources. There is also a collection of some 800 incunabula, of which 500 come from the P. A. B. The 153 oriental manuscripts provide examples of a variety of formats, among them books, scrolls, accordion books. In addition, there are some 1,200 separate miniatures, the collection of over 2,800 clay tablets, dating from 3,000 B. C. to 300 B. C. was the gift of Mr. and Mrs. John Frederick Lewis, Sr. The Free Library’s music collections are outstanding, including the Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music, the Theatre Collection contains research materials on the history of American theatre, early film, and popular entertainment
37.
Up Close and Personal (film)
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The screenplay began as an adaptation of Golden Girl, The Story of Jessica Savitch, a 1988 book by Alanna Nash that recounted the troubled life of American news anchor Jessica Savitch. The finished picture, however, was altered by commercial decisions on the part of the producers. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Song for Because You Loved Me, written by Diane Warren and performed by Céline Dion. Sally Tally Atwater is an ambitious, aspiring news reporter, who is hired by Miami local news director Warren Justice when she sends in an audition tape. He carefully guides her career to new heights, all the while becoming increasingly attracted to her, Tally soon rises through the ranks of network news to become successful, while Warrens once-stellar career sinks into mediocrity. Furthermore, Tallys ascension takes her away from Warren when she is forced to relocate to Philadelphia, Tally struggles at her new post, in no small part due to the hostility of veteran reporter Marcia McGrath, who jealously protects her position as the top reporter. Warren turns up to inspire Tally, and the two begin a new career together. However, on an assignment in a Philadelphia prison, Tally and her cameraman are taken hostage in a prison riot. Tally covers the story from within the walls of the collapsing prison as Warren looks on from outside. Savitchs death at age 36 in an accident was also left out of the screenplay. Producer Scott Rudin was reported to have said, when asked by a weary Dunne what the film was supposed to be, the film currently holds a rating of 29% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 34 reviews, indicating a negative critical reception. Critics largely ridiculed the screenplay for bearing resemblance to the biography of Jessica Savitch. Anita Gates in the New York Times wrote that it all ends up more A Star Is Born than Network, but then, the loooove comes through like a bad-news feed, and our marquee lovers undergo one of those unbearable montages. And the fact that this is a Touchstone Pictures production - part of the marketing-obsessed, time Out called it a soppy May–December romance masquerading as a deadly earnest issues movie. However, certain critics argued that the film had its merits, mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, Taken on its own terms, Up Close and Personal is a fine movie. Two star images meet and enhance each other, redford, as usual, plays a rugged, outdoorsy, uncompromising man of unshakable integrity who just happens to be news director at a Miami station. Pfeiffer, as usual, is gorgeous, pretty, gawky, stockard Channing won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress - Romance
38.
Robert Redford
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Charles Robert Redford Jr. is an American actor, director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, and philanthropist. Redford is the founder of the Sundance Film Festival, Redfords career began in 1960 as a guest star on numerous TV shows, including, The Untouchables, Perry Mason, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and The Twilight Zone, among others. He earned an Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Voice of Charlie Pont and his greatest Broadway success was as the stuffy newlywed husband of Elizabeth Ashley in Neil Simons Barefoot in the Park. Redford made his debut in War Hunt. His role in Inside Daisy Clover won him a Golden Globe for best new star and he starred in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which was a huge success and made him a major star. The popular and acclaimed All the Presidents Men was a film for Redford. The first film that Redford directed, Ordinary People, was one of the most critically and publicly acclaimed films of the decade, winning four Oscars, and in the same year, he starred in Brubaker. He starred in Out of Africa, which was a critical and box office success. He released his film as a director, A River Runs Through It. Redford won the 1980 Academy Award for Best Director in 1981 for directing Ordinary People and he was previously nominated for Best Actor in 1974 for his performance in The Sting, and went on to receive Best Director and Best Picture nominations in 1995 for Quiz Show. He won a second Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2002, in 2010, he was made a chevalier of the Légion dHonneur. He has won BAFTA, Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe, in April 2014, Time Magazine included Redford in their annual TIME100 as one of the Most Influential People in the World, declaring him the Godfather of Indie Film. In 2016, President Barack Obama honored Redford with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, Redford was born on August 18,1936, in Santa Monica, California to Martha W. and Charles Robert Redford, Sr. a milkman-turned-accountant. He has a stepbrother, William, from his fathers remarriage, Redford is of English, Irish, Scottish, and Scots-Irish ancestry. Redfords family moved to Van Nuys, California, while his father worked in El Segundo and he attended Van Nuys High School, where he was classmates with baseball pitcher Don Drysdale. He has described himself as having been a bad student, finding inspiration outside the classroom and he hit tennis balls with Pancho Gonzales at the Los Angeles Tennis Club to warm him up. After graduating from school in 1954, he attended the University of Colorado in Boulder for a year and a half. While there, he worked at the restaurant/bar The Sink, a painting of his likeness is prominent in the bars murals, while at Colorado, Redford began drinking heavily, and as a result lost his half-scholarship and was kicked out of school
39.
Michelle Pfeiffer
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Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress, singer and producer. She began her career in 1978 and had her first starring film role in Grease 2. Her greatest commercial successes include Batman Returns, Dangerous Minds, What Lies Beneath and she received a third Oscar nomination for Love Field. Her other notable roles include The Witches of Eastwick, Married to the Mob, Frankie and Johnny, The Age of Innocence, Wolf. Pfeiffer was born in Santa Ana, California, the second of four children of Richard Pfeiffer, a contractor, and Donna. She has one brother, Rick, and two younger sisters, Dedee Pfeiffer, a television and film actress, and Lori Pfeiffer. Her parents were originally from North Dakota. The family moved to Midway City, where Pfeiffer spent her childhood and she attended Fountain Valley High School, graduating in 1976. She worked as a girl at Vons supermarket, and attended Golden West College where she was a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority. After a short stint training to be a stenographer, she decided upon an acting career. She won the Miss Orange County beauty pageant in 1978, and participated in Miss California the same year, following her participation in these pageants, she acquired an acting agent and began to audition for television and films. Pfeiffers early acting appearances included roles in Fantasy Island, Delta House. In the meantime, I was playing bimbos and cashing in on my looks and she then landed her first major film role as Stephanie Zinone in Grease 2, the sequel to the smash-hit musical Grease. The film was a critical and commercial failure, and Pfeiffers single release of Cool Rider from the soundtrack on PolyGram failed to dent the music charts. Despite escaping the critical mauling, Pfeiffers agent later admitted that her association with the film meant that she couldnt get any jobs. Director Brian De Palma, having seen Grease 2, refused to audition Pfeiffer for Scarface, but relented at the insistence of Martin Bregman and she was cast as cocaine-addicted trophy wife Elvira Hancock. The film was considered violent by most critics, but became a commercial hit. Pfeiffer received positive reviews for her turn, Richard Corliss of Time Magazine wrote, most of the large cast is fine
40.
Animal Factory
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Animal Factory is a 2000 crime drama film about life in prison, set in San Quentin. Ron Decker, a man convicted for drug possession, is sent to prison where veteran con Earl Copen takes Decker under his wing. Over the next few days, Copen helps Decker out by getting him jobs, food. However, after large inmate Buck Rowan attempts to rape Decker in the bathroom, Decker stabs Rowan in a fight involving Copen, Rowan signs a statement claiming Decker and Copen are responsible and their cells are stripped and they are restricted to them. Because of the stabbing, Deckers attempt at a sentence is denied. Meanwhile, Copen manages to get word out Rowan is snitching, the case against Copen and Decker is thrown out as the victim and main witness is dead. Shortly after their release, Copen tells Decker he plans to escape, Decker escapes in one truck, Copen however stays behind, unable to jump into the truck after the appearance of one of the prison guards. Hosspack Antony Hegarty makes an appearance as a prisoner performing at a musical night in the prison. Animal Factory was filmed at Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, filming was completed in 30 days, two days longer than originally scheduled. Buscemi employed hundreds of prisoners from Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, the prison that replaced Holmesburg Prison in 1995, the film is based upon the novel of the same name by writer Edward Bunker. Bunker, who has a part in the film, also co-starred alongside Animal Factorys director Buscemi in Quentin Tarantinos Reservoir Dogs. The film received positive reviews, it was highly praised at the Sundance Film Festival. It currently holds an rating of 81% at Rotten Tomatoes based on 33 reviews. Animal Factory at the Internet Movie Database Animal Factory at AllMovie Animal Factory at Box Office Mojo Animal Factory at Rotten Tomatoes Animal Factory at Metacritic
41.
Willem Dafoe
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William J. Willem Dafoe is an American actor. His other film appearances include The Last Temptation of Christ, The English Patient, American Psycho and he has also had voice roles in Finding Nemo and Finding Dory, Fantastic Mr. Fox and the forthcoming adaptation of Death Note. Dafoe was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, in high school, he acquired the nickname Willem. His fathers ancestry is French-Canadian, Swiss and English, and his mothers ancestry is German and he was once expelled from high school for shooting a pornographic film. She, with her romantic partner Spalding Gray and others, edged out Schechner. Within a year Dafoe was part of the company, Dafoe, who would continue with the Wooster Group into the 2000s, began his film career in 1981, when he was cast in Heavens Gate only to see his role removed from the film during editing. As Dafoe recalled of his first film experience, I worked for Jeff Bridges character in the story, I was there for three months and I worked a lot. It was the kind of thing where you were hired to play an unscripted character, cimino turned around and said, Willem step out, and that was that. I was the lamb for sacrifice, in 1982, he starred as the leader of an Outlaw motorcycle club in The Loveless, and then played a similar role in Streets of Fire. In the mid-1980s, he was cast by William Friedkin to star in To Live, and, also, its fun to be bad and the only problem is often villain roles are devices and they lack a certain depth. Theyre signs, theyre signals and after a little while you want something to chew on, I think the best work comes when youre unsure, when youre terrified, when youre off balance. Dafoe would go on to gain his widest exposure up to that point playing the compassionate Sergeant Elias in Oliver Stones Platoon and he enjoyed the opportunity to play a heroic role, and said the film gave him a chance to display his versatility. I think all characters live in you and you just frame them, give them circumstances, and that character will happen. In 1988, Dafoe starred in another film set during the Vietnam War and he has since become a popular character actor. He is often cast as unstable or villainous characters, such as the Green Goblin in Spider-Man, before that, he was briefly considered for the role of the Joker by Tim Burton and Sam Hamm for 1989s Batman. Hamm recalls We thought, Well, Willem Dafoe looks just like The Joker, the role eventually went to Jack Nicholson. Dafoe starred in the erotic drama Body of Evidence with Madonna, in 1991, he portrayed a Manhattan drug dealer in the Paul Schrader film Light Sleeper. Dafoe played an eccentric FBI agent in The Boondock Saints and an investigator in American Psycho
42.
Mickey Rourke
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Philip Andre Rourke Jr. known professionally as Mickey Rourke, is an American actor, screenwriter, and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in drama, action, and thriller films. In 1991 Rourke, who had trained as a boxer in his years, left acting. In the 2008 film The Wrestler, Rourke portrayed a past-his-prime wrestler, and received a 2009 Golden Globe award, a BAFTA award, and a nomination for an Academy Award. Since then, Rourke has appeared in commercially successful films including the 2010 films Iron Man 2 and The Expendables. Philip Andre Rourke, Jr. was born in Schenectady, New York and his father was of Irish and German descent, and his mother had Scottish, French, English, and German ancestry. He was raised Roman Catholic and still practices his faith and his father, an amateur body builder, left the family when Mickey was six years old. After his parents divorced, his mother married Eugene Addis, a Miami Beach police officer with five sons, and moved Rourke, his younger brother, there, he graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School in 1971. He was supposed to graduate in 1970, but he had held back at 1st grade because he wasnt ready to move on at the time. During his teenage years, Rourke focused his attention mainly on sports and he took up self-defense training at the Boys Club of Miami. It was there that he learned boxing skills and decided on an amateur career, at age 12, Rourke won his first boxing match as a 112-pound flyweight, fighting some of his early matches under the name Phil Rourke. He continued his training at the famed 5th Street Gym, in Miami Beach. In 1969 Rourke, then weighing 140 pounds, sparred with former World Welterweight Champion Luis Rodríguez, Rodriguez was the number one–rated middleweight boxer in the world and was training for his match with world champion Nino Benvenuti. Rourke claims to have received a concussion from his match with Rodriguez. At the 1971 Florida Golden Gloves, Rourke suffered another concussion in a boxing match, after being told by doctors to take a year off and rest, Rourke temporarily retired from the ring. Rourkes amateur boxing record was 27 wins and 3 losses, in 1971, as a senior at Miami Beach Senior High School, Rourke had a small acting role in the Jay W. Jensen–directed school play The Serpent. However, Rourkes interests were geared to boxing, and he never appeared in any other school productions. Soon after he gave up boxing, a friend at the University of Miami told Rourke about a play he was directing, Deathwatch. Rourke got the part and immediately became enamored with acting, borrowing $400 from his sister, he went to New York and took private lessons with Actors Studio teacher Sandra Seacat