John Lewis’ “A Tribute to Wilt Chamberlain,” on the wall of 1243 Vine Street, is one of 3,000 works in the City of Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program.
American urbanism comes forward from the Colonial Period in the most eclectic way in ‘City of Brotherly Love’
By Albert C. Jones
America, The Diversity Place
STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia is a preservation city where names and elements of the nation’s founding experience are maintained, an eclectic mix of keepers in trust, as it were, various essential features brought forward from the Colonial Period.
Iconography of America appeal, at once, to the eyes and heart, saying go to this monument or that memorial and then commands the camera lens to capture images of names synonymous with men and women who championed a revolution, historic buildings that served as meeting places, even rowhouse architecture and celebration of art in public spaces, taken altogether, make an imaginative and eclectic statement. Murals on the walls of buildings both honor subjects and broaden participation of the city’s artists.
It’s an early start from the motel across the Delaware River in Maple Shade, New Jersey. Today’s itinerary includes marketing stops at GlaxoSmithKline, Philadelphia Eagles, Comcast and offices of the 76ers at what was then named the Wachovia Center Complex. It has since been renamed the Wells Fargo Center, where the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League also play and have offices.
Park the car, then bound footloose on the streets of Philadelphia, stories are captured as images, even three women who present themselves as exuberant Phillies fans, through the eye of multiple lenses — normal, wide angle and telephoto.
Row houses have their origin in Philadelphia, starting in the Colonial Period to more recent times in the 20th Century. Three-story rowhouses on South 15th Street, in the 1100 block near Small Impressions Academy, are photographed from the middle of the one-way street.
On-street parking on both sides means “The Garages of Philadelphia” is a story that just doesn’t exist in parts of the city that have row houses. Cars were never considered in the center city when the first row houses were built in the Colonial Period. These old South Philly row houses with narrow street frontage were built in the early 1900s. According to a listing on a realtor’s Web site, these three-story row houses feature 2,200 square feet with three bedrooms and three baths.
American urbanism in this city, with street food vendors and the Liberty Bell, offers an intrinsic sense of belonging in those who come here from all over the country. Street food vendors in silver trailers offer iconic Philly Cheese Steaks along with other fast food.
Downtown has a heavy confluence of pedestrians on squares, traffic flowing easily through the boulevards, people going into office buildings, hotels and restaurants, museums and, of course, scores of statues and monuments.
Certain places, especially Church Street in Burlington, Vermont, present themselves as ideal for writing stories about sitting in public places. Philadelphia presents a grand spectacle for walking in public places and effervescent thoughts about freedom enliven the human spirit.
Street sign directs to Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, Masonic Temple, Free Library and Rodin Museum. “Cleopatra: Search for the Last Queen of Egypt,” an exhibition of The National Geographic, “unravels the mystery” in The Franklin Institute. Another sign in the Parkway Museum District points to the Academy of Natural Sciences, JFK Plaza, also known as Love Park, and the trendy Rittenhouse Square District.
“Love,” a sculpture by Robert Indiana overlooking JFK Plaza, is a favorite spot for people to interact with art and take pictures. Philadelphia is a Greek expression for “brotherly love.”
There is a statue of Mary Baker Dyer in front of the Friends Center at 1501 Cherry Street. She was martyred in Boston on June 1, 1660 for being a Quaker. It is identical to the cast sculpture of Dyer in the Boston Commons created in 1959 by “Quaker sculptor Sylvia Shaw Judson.” The American Friends Service Committee complex also includes offices, meeting house that dates back to 1856, and the Friends Child Care Center.
A marker from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission cites “the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) for worldwide humanitarian work has reflected a commitment to nonviolence and justice.” The American Friends Service Committee was co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947.
Craig Schanz was met in Stamford, Connecticut at the Dozynki Harvest Festival at Holy Name of Jesus Church on Gen. Casimir Pulaski Street. He was mindful of contributions that people from his native Poland nave made to the American experience, going back to the Revolutionary War.
“People from Poland have been contributors to this country from the beginning,” Schanz said. “They came here and fought in the Revolutionary War. Gen. Thaddeus Kosciuszko had a part in developing West Point. Look it up, you will see that Polish people have been part of this country from the start.”
There is a statue of Gen. Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Bicentennial gift from the people of Poland to the United States, on Logan Square in front of the Four Seasons Hotel. Kosciuszko came to America in 1777 and fought with colonists in the Revolutionary War. At www.poles.org, it says, “In 1783, Congress offered him citizenship, land, a pension and the rank of Brigadier General.” Kosciuszko's last residence in America, at 301 Pine Street, officially became a national memorial in dedication ceremonies on February 4, 1976.”
On Tuesday, July 3, 1979, the city of Philadelphia officially dedicated the Kosciuszko monument.
Logan Circle, on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, is an open space in the northwest quadrant of Philadelphia’s center city. The space is also known as Logan Square. In the center of square circle is the Swann Memorial Fountain, which offers a place for children and adults to splash in on hot summer days like today. In the midst of the fountain, children ride water-spouting green turtles. Downtown workers come here for a respite from the office, take in some sunshine. Visitors sit on the edge of the fountain to take a break from being footloose. Swann Fountain is also called “Fountain of the Three Rivers” and, according to Wikipedia, the “large Native American figures symbolize the area’s major streams, the Delaware, Schuylkill and Wissahickon.”
“Freedom,” title of the bronze sculpture by Zenos Frudakis, sits provocatively in front of GlaxoSmithKline World Headquarters, 200 North 16th Street. The animated human figures exhibit gleefully most people feel taking in history and culture germane to “The Philadelphia Story.”
“I wanted to create a sculpture almost anyone, regardless of their background, could look at and instantly recognize that it is about the idea of struggling to break free,” Frudakis says on his Web site. “This sculpture is about the struggle for achievement of freedom through the creative process.”
At Benjamin Franklin Parkway at N. 16th Street Between 16th & 17th Streets, there is the “Monument to the Six Million Jewish Martyrs,” a Holocaust memorial created by Polish native Nathan Rappoport. The memorial, dedicated on April 26, 1964, has “twisted bodies rising like flames from the burning bush in the Book of Exodus.” The memorial was presented to the city by The Association of New Jewish Americans in cooperation with The Federation of Jewish Agencies of Greater Philadelphia.
Tonight, the Philadelphia Phillies will be playing the San Francisco Giants in Citizens Bank Park. Fans across the National League have made it popular to imitate Giants pitcher Brian Wilson, who at times has dyed black his bushy beard. Three ladies on the streets of Philadelphia had on their Phillies jerseys and were game ready donning faux Brian Wilson beards.
Sylvester Stallone’s statue of Rocky Balboa, busy with people stopping to take photographs, celebrates a boxing victory with gloves raised triumphantly. The famed Philadelphia Museum of Art, which Balboa climbs during a training run in the “Rocky” movie, is behind the statue.
Although Rocky Balboa is a fictional Hollywood character, no other Philadelphia athlete wears the legend of sports tag better than Wilt Chamberlain. He ranks among the greatest basketball players ever to play the game. There is a mural by John Lewis, “A Tribute to Wilt Chamberlain” on the side of 1243 Vine Street. It is one of the brilliant murals included in city’s Mural Arts Program, “the largest public art program in the United States,” with more than 3,000 murals and public works of art.
Text by Barbara O. Chamberlain-Lewis, the late basketball player’s sister, recalls their graduation memories in 1955 from the city’s Overbrook High School.
“The Mural Arts Program began in 1984 as a component of the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network, an effort spearheaded by then Mayor Wilson Goode to eradicate the graffiti crisis plaguing the city,” the Web site says. “The Anti-Graffiti Network hired muralist Jane Golden to reach out to graffiti writers and to redirect their energies from destructive graffiti writing to constructive mural painting.
“Mural Arts’ award-winning art education and youth development programs give students pride in their own capabilities as artists and activists while presenting opportunities that many young people are too frequently denied. These programs annually provide 1,600 underserved Philadelphia youth with access to quality art education and youth development experiences through mural-making.”
It’s been two days of going about the city, delivering sponsorship proposals to the city’s brand name corporations and taking hundreds of photos. The second day photo shoot is completed at Independence National Historic Park.
Photographs are taken of the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the statue of President George Washington and Park Rangers, Dottie Vauls, from Severna Park, Maryland, and Keith Bassolina, a Queens native. Their photos are included with the story on ProRangers, the partnership between the National Park Service and Temple University to increase the number of rangers at urban parks.
These three ladies, mocking San Francisco pitcher Brian Wilson, are ready to attend the game tonight against the Giants in Citizens Bank Park.