From its humble beginnings as a strip of wilderness just west of William Penn's "greene country towne," Powelton Village has seen a rise in both prestige and activism since its inception in the late 17th century. An aristocratic estate at its founding, Powelton has found itself in a state of constant evolution, from the summer retreat of George Washington to the home of Pennsylvania's agricultural fair and from the playground of the elite to a hotbed of activism. In spite of, or because of, its mixed history, Powelton ...
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From its humble beginnings as a strip of wilderness just west of William Penn's "greene country towne," Powelton Village has seen a rise in both prestige and activism since its inception in the late 17th century. An aristocratic estate at its founding, Powelton has found itself in a state of constant evolution, from the summer retreat of George Washington to the home of Pennsylvania's agricultural fair and from the playground of the elite to a hotbed of activism. In spite of, or because of, its mixed history, Powelton Village is unique among Philadelphia neighborhoods, both in its eclectic diversity and in its historic roots to the founding of the nation. Today, Powelton serves as a home to academics and their students, to the urban poor of Philadelphia, and to the elites of the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University.
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In the early 1970s, I attended the University of Pennsylvania and lived in graduate dorms on campus in West Philadelphia. During these years, I was self-absorbed and absorbed in my legal studies with little interest in local communities. In the intervening years, I have come to remember Philadelphia fondly and try to learn more about the city, particularly areas near where I lived.
Powelton Village is also a part of West Philadelphia and is immediately adjacent to University City and the Penn area. It is the home of Drexel University, a school I passed many times during my years at Penn. I took the opportunity at last to get to know Powelton Village better through reading "Powelton Village" (2016) published by Images of America as part of its series of photographic histories of local American communities.
Unlike many authors of books in the Images of America series, the author, M. Earl Smith, had no strong prior ties to the community. He writes that "a little over a year ago, I had no idea that Powelton Village even existed." Smith is a Southerner by birth and lived in Ohio for 12 years before moving to Philadelphia for graduate school at Penn where he got the idea for this book from a course. As I did in the 1970s, Smith came to Penn from somewhere else to study, but he wound up absorbed in the local community.
Smith's book offers a tour of Powelton Village beginning with its founding by Mayor Samuel Powell, a friend of George Washington, and continuing through a varied and changing history. The book captures a sense of the community and its dynamic. Dr. Deborah Burnham, one of Smith's teachers at Penn and a member of the Powelton Village Civic Association points out in her Introduction the ways in which Powelton Village, which she describes as "a village" rather than a community in Philadelphia has changed and how many of its residents have formed lifelong attachments to it. Burnham writes that Powelton "houses (literally and figuratively) people who are not in the mainstream (if such thing still exists) -- people who work for peace and justice, people who teach, write, paint, and sculpt, who create gardens and plant trees, , who fix our old houses and our new bikes and computers." Burnham's words are borne out by many of Smith's images and annotations.
The climax of Smith's photographic history takes place in 1978, a few years after I had left Philadelphia. By that time Powelton Village was in a state of decline and transition, as were many American inner city neighborhoods. A radical group called MOVE occupied some old properties in the Village and frequently acted with threats and hostility towards other community members. The Philadelphia police department ultimately moved in and tried to barricade the MOVE members in their building. On August 9, 1978, the police raided the MOVE headquarters resulting in death and injury on both sides. The police ultimately demolished the MOVE building. The group relocated to another Philadelphia neighborhood where it would soon have an even more tragic confrontation with the Philadelphia police. Smith's book offers many photographs of MOVE and the police action in Powelton Village as a centerpiece of his history.
In earlier sections of the book, Smith provides images and brief biographies of the many people of high achievement who called Powelton Village home during the nineteenth century and early years of the 20th century. Residents of Powelton Village included the DuPont family which gets considerable attention in the book. Smith also shows images of many of the large mansions which graced Powelton. Some of these large homes are gone, but many remain and a number are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Smith offers good detail on the stories of some of these old Powelton homes and of institutions such as the Pennsylvania Working Home for Blind Men which was a Powelton Village landmark for over 100 years.
In the min-20th Century Powelton Village entered into a decline, and Smith shows how the community was impacted by the large influx of students from Penn and Drexel Universities and by the expansion of Drexel's campus. The community included a diverse mix of residents at the time of the MOVE incident in 1978. From that time, forward, Smith shows how the community has continued to develop and reinvent itself, with a diverse mix of residents, community activities such as the "Second Friday" event which celebrates local musicians and artists, and political activism, as might be expected in an area home to many college students.
I enjoyed visiting West Philadelphia again in the company of M. Earl Smith and learning about a community near where I once lived. I was reminded of my own history, and I thought of the many wonderful local places throughout the United States, each with their own story to tell.
