#fairmountarchives

Enjoy this #Throwback of an illuminated Boathouse Row from 1984.

This Friday, Boathouse Row will be lit in red, green, silver and gold in honor of the Christmas holiday. For one week, the lights will be programmed to display a 5-minute light show at the top of every hour.

October is Archives Month Philly, a time for celebrating archives, the work of archivists, and Philadelphia’s rich history. Archives are information centers where records about the past – including diaries, financial records, photographs, and emails – are made available to researchers. Philadelphia Parks & Recreation (PPR) houses the Fairmount Park Historic Resource Archives, a collection of over 10,000 archival documents focusing on a variety of aspects of the Philadelphia park system history, including a wealth of material on the parks’ architectural history.

Since the Fairmount Park Commission and the Philadelphia Department of Recreation merged in 2010, PPR historic preservation staff have worked to compile and incorporate into the Fairmount Park Historic Resource Archives information about the history of the City’s former Department of Recreation. To celebrate Archives Month Philly, PPR is featuring a series of weekly posts highlighting the rich history of municipal recreation in Philadelphia this October and November. Each week, we will be sharing an installment of, “A History of Philadelphia’s Department of Recreation from 1880-2010,” a narrative researched and written by former PPR historic researcher Meredith Leep. Follow along with us each Thursday with #PhillyRecHistory.

Part 3: Bringing the Public Bath Houses on Board

In 1913, the new Board of Recreation assumed responsibility for Philadelphia’s public bath houses from the Department of Public Safety’s Bureau of City Property. [36] The bath houses had grown in number to 23. At this time, the Board of Recreation began taking steps to literally clean up the baths, “securing proper disinfection” for the bathing pools from the Bureau of Health, and installing mandatory shower baths for bathers to use before swimming. [37] In the words of the 1914 commission: “We would not allow our own children to use the baths without these changes, and do not feel justified in allowing other people’s children to risk infection.” [38] Philadelphia’s Board of Recreation, formed as a relatively independent entity according to the 1910 recommendations of the Public Playgrounds Commission, was vulnerable to political maneuverings that prioritized political advantage over recreational professionalism. After the supervisor of recreation resigned in 1918, Mayor Thomas B. Smith removed the experience requirements from the civil service examination for the position, in order to appoint a newspaper reporter named Gudehus, who supported him politically, to the post. [39]

Board members, and an individual known as Otto T. Mallery, who had served as secretary to the Board of Recreation between 1912 and 1915 and was a board member of both the Playgrounds Association of Philadelphia and the Playground Association of America, considered the candidate “incompetent” and “unfit” for the position due to his lack of practical experience. Mayor Smith replaced board members who refused to vote for his candidate of choice, who he nevertheless appointed. [40] Mallery filed an outraged and ultimately ineffective report “calling for the arrest for the mayor for committing the crime of misbehavior and misdemeanor in office.”[41] Ultimately, the Board of Recreation was absorbed into the Department of Public Welfare, becoming the Bureau of Recreation, when Philadelphia enacted a new charter in 1919. At least one of the board members replaced by the Mayor, Sophia L. Ross, [42] was re-hired, serving as the Chief of the Bureau of Recreation in the early 1920s. Otto Mallery “reportedly . . . had a hand in the creation of this Bureau and in helping it weather difficult periods,”[43] though the Bureau remained “ineffective and politically dominated” despite his efforts and the efforts of other recreation professionals.”[44]

(1929 Pet and doll show, Water Tower Recreation Center(Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, PA)

The construction of recreation facilities continued in the 1920s. By 1928, the Bureau of Recreation possessed 48 recreation sites, 14 of which featured large, state of the art recreation buildings with furnished gymnasiums. The Bureau also operated 37 public pools, which were segregated by gender. [45] In addition, the Board of Public Education continued to run after-school and vacation playgrounds for youth. [46] Throughout the 1920s, the chiefs of the Bureau of Recreation were women, including Sophia L. Ross, a member of the Civic Club and one of the founding members of the Playgrounds Association of Philadelphia. [47]

 Stay tuned for next week’s installment in the series, titled “The Bureau of Recreation in the Great Depression.”

View all posts in the Philadelphia Recreation History series

 Sources:

[36] Ordinances of the City of Philadelphia from January 1 to December 31, 1912 (Philadelphia Select and Common Councils, Philadelphia, 1912) (Dunlap Printing Company, 1913), 508.

[37] “Playgrounds for Philadelphia: Report of the Board of Recreation,” (Philadelphia Board of Recreation, Philadelphia, 1914), Philadelphia City Archives, 6.

[38] Ibid.

[39] “Putting Playgrounds into Politics,” The Survey XLI (1918), 46.

[40] George D. Butler, Pioneers in Public Recreation (Minneapolis: Burgess Publishing Company, 1965), 84.

[41] “Warrant for Mayor; Avers He Defied Law in Naming of Gudehus,” Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia, PA), Sept. 26, 1918, 1.

[42] “Gudehus Case,” Thirty-Eighth Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the Civil Service Reform Association of Pennsylvania for the Year Ending April 1, 1919 (Philadelphia, 1919), 6.

[43] Butler, Pioneers, 84.

[44] Butler, Pioneers, 85.

[45] First Annual Message of Harry A. Mackey, Mayor of Philadelphia, Containing the Reports of the Various Departments of the City of Philadelphia for the Year Ending December 31, 1928 (City of Philadelphia, Department of Welfare, Bureau of Recreation, Philadelphia, 1928), Philadelphia City Archives, 563-564.

[46] “A Study of Municipal Recreation in Philadelphia, May 1929” (Charles J. Storey Department of Recreation, Russell Sage Foundation, Playgrounds Association of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, 1929), 9.

Adapted from text researched and written by former PPR Recreation History Researcher Laura Proctor

To celebrate the rich history of Philadelphia’s parks and recreational facilities, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation (PPR) is highlighting historic structures located at parks and recreation sites throughout the city. The first structure to be highlighted in this new monthly series is the Fish Hatchery at Pleasant Hill Park, a 35-acre park along the Delaware River in the Torresdale section of Northeast Philadelphia. The history of the hatchery extends back to the early twentieth century, when a section of the park property was part of the Pennsylvania’s Department of Fisheries’ Torresdale Fish Hatchery. While the hatchery is no longer in operation today, visitors to Pleasant Hill Park can still participate in a variety of fishing programs at the park’s stocked hatchery ponds. 

During the first quarter of the twentieth century, the southwestern section of Pleasant Hill Park served as the Torresdale Fish Hatchery. In 1904, the Pennsylvania Department of Fisheries relocated its hatchery building from the Bristol Hatchery in Bucks County and began to lease ten acres of City-owned land in Torresdale along the Delaware River for $1 per year. With its natural springs and two ponds, the new site allowed the Department of Fisheries to expand its focus from exclusively cultivating shad to also cultivating other species of fish such as trout, black bass, catfish, and pickerel. [1]

During its first ten years in operation, the Torresdale Fish Hatchery used the former Bristol Hatchery building that had been moved from Bucks County. [2] Within a few years, it became evident that the old building could not meet the demands of an increasingly complicated and high-yield hatchery operation, which led the Department of Fisheries to replace the dilapidated building with a permanent, fireproof structure. [3]

In 1914, the new hatchery building was opened. The two-story brick structure was designed by Philadelphia architect James Carson Marshall Shirk and featured a tower adjacent to the entranceway, Spanish red roof tiles, and terracotta decorative details. The hatchery’s interior housed state of the art equipment, including three large hatching tanks. [4]

While the facility no longer functions as a hatchery, the hatchery ponds have been a popular spot for children to learn how to fish since the former Department of Recreation (now Philadelphia Parks & Recreation) assumed control of the hatchery in 1956. [5] In the 1960s and 1970s, thousands of children were bused to the ponds each year to fish in the ponds. [6]

(Recreation - Fish Ponds at Linden Avenue and the Delaware River, 06.18.1963. Collection: Philadelphia Office of the City Representative. From www.phillyhistory.org.)

The video clip below was excerpted from a film about the Philadelphia Department of Recreation produced by WFIL-TV in 1965. It shows children fishing at Pleasant Hill Park’s hatchery ponds during the 1960s.

(1965. WFIL Salutes the Philadelphia Department of Recreation. Courtesy of the Fairmount Park Historic Resource Archives.)

In recent years, extensive improvements were made to Pleasant Hill Park through the Pleasant Hill Development Project, a Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources-funded effort. Improvements included addressing stormwater and flooding issues, installing a riverfront pedestrian path, installing bioswales to prevent pollution from entering the river, rehabilitating the site’s fish ponds, adding new walkways, improving site fencing, and creating a new picnic area and shade pavilion.

PPR offers a variety of free programs at this historic riverfront site through which children can try out their fishing skills, participate in fun activities, and learn about watersheds and the importance of healthy waterways. These programs include Community Fishing Days throughout spring, summer, and early fall which are open to the public as well as summer programs where children from PPR day camps fish, do arts and crafts, play field games, learn how to canoe, and learn about watersheds.

Click here to learn more about fishing programs at Pleasant Hill Park, and follow the Friends of Pleasant Hill Park on Facebook for updates on fishing programs and events.

 Sources:

[1] Report of the Department of Fisheries of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, from December 1, 1905 to November 30, 1906, Harrisburg: Harrisburg Publishing Co., State Printer, 1907, p. 11.

[2] Report of the Department of Fisheries of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, from December 1, 1904 to November 30, 1905, Harrisburg: Harrisburg Publishing Co., State Printer, 1906, pp. 47-48.

[3] Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Report of the Department of Fisheries, from December 1, 1913 to November 30, 1914, Harrisburg: Wm. Stanley Ray, State Printer, 1915, p. 41.

[4] “Plan of the New Torresdale Hatchery: Large Hatchery Will Be Power in Conservation,” Philadelphia Inquirer.  Volume 170, Issue 88, page 1. 29 March 1914.

[5] “Annual Report: 1956,” Department of Recreation, City of Philadelphia, 1 Apr 1957, p. 5.

Journey through Philadelphia in this 1978 short film focused on the Department of Recreation (now Philadelphia Parks & Recreation).

"Better Break," narrated by Larry Kane, presents the comprehensive recreational programming set forth by the City of Philadelphia during summer months. The decade-long Better Break initiative, created by the Mayor's Youth Opportunities Program, provided jobs for youth, as well as cultural and educational experiences for all Philadelphians. By the time this film was made, the City's Better Break program had been around for a decade and could boast of 300 individual activities during that summer. 

We get brief glimpses of performances in several recreation centers and, most prominently, at the Robin Hood Dell, where a ten-night session called "August at the Dell"featured a star-studded cast that included Lionel Hampton, Arthur Prysock, Carmen McRae, Maynard Ferguson, Count Basie, the Duke Ellington Orchestra and Erroll Garner with Ray Charles. 

Other highlights include footage from the Carousel House, the first municipal recreation center for people with disabilities in the country, Camp William Penn, the nature-based camp that used to be maintained by the department, and the annual senior citizen's event held at Strawberry Mansion called Rally in the Park with Mayor Rizzo greeting the seniors.