Speaking of history

By Jeannie O’Sullivan
Times Staff Writer

The Frankford Historical Society museum celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, but doubts that it will turn 101 are many.
The landscape for smaller historical societies and museums is "grim and challenging," said Roland Woodward, a consultant for non-profit communities who addressed an eclectic mix of historians, business leaders, educators and neighbors who met at the museum’s auditorium on May 5 to discuss its future.
With an average operating budget that hovers between $10,000 and $15,000, the ailing museum falls impossibly short of the average $250,000 Woodward estimated is needed to run a "sustainable" museum.
The Frankford Historical Society, a roughly 80-member organization, is struggling to maintain the once-thriving repository of Frankford history, faced with funding challenges, stalled volunteerism and a rapidly deteriorating library lauded as one of the greatest archival collections in Philadelphia.
"Our goal is (for the society) to become an effective and stable community organization, but currently it is not," said Jack McCarthy, archival consultant for the museum. "We need a lot of direction and effort."
Without the staffing and support for formal fund-raisers, the museum has inched along on grants and donations in recent years, said McCarthy.
The museum is open to the public only for history seminars held eight times a year. The society cannot conduct sessions during harsh winter and summer months because the building lacks adequate heating and has no climate-control system, so seminars are not held in January, February, July and August.
Additionally, a few of the books in its massive library have become moldy. The relics are recorded in a detailed but archaic card catalog.
Friends of Womrath Park member Janet Bernstein wants to replace the park’s historical plaque that disappeared 20 years ago. A new plaque could be constructed using information that exists somewhere within the museum’s confines. But Bernstein, who also directs the Frankford Group Ministry’s neighborhood transformation department, knows she "wouldn’t be able to find it."
One man said he was "amazed and appalled" when he perused the archival collection.
Perhaps even worse than decay and disarray is oblivion. Not many people know the museum or society exists.
In 1905, a group of wealthy historians and collectors led by T. Comly Hunter formed and nurtured the society during Frankford’s heyday of wealth and burgeoning commerce.
Built in 1930, the two-story brick home at 1507 Orthodox St. houses a collection that includes documents signed by William Penn in the 1600s; the complete records of the nation’s first savings-and-loan; paperwork from the first grist mill established by Swedes who had settled in Frankford; and memorabilia from the Frankford Yellow Jackets, forerunners to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Frankford is also home to the first Quaker Friends Meeting House, as well as Campbell AME, the second African American Methodist Episcopal Church ever established in the United States.
The Jolly Post Tavern, which closed after its owner was gunned down while leaving the building in 1999, is the rumored resting place for George Washington during the Revolutionary War.
"This collection tells a microcosm of history," said non-profit consultant Ann Barton Brown, who moderated the meeting with Woodward.
But Philadelphia is "absolutely overloaded with smaller historical societies," with an overreliance on a shrinking volunteer base, said Woodward.
Many were formed in changing neighborhoods, Woodward continued, and as time went on the stories they were founded to tell became less relevant.
"We need to get the message across that it’s about bringing the community together, not dividing it," said Leon Brantly, a neighbor who fears Frankford’s newer residents feel disconnected from the area’s history.
Society vice president Edwin Moore thinks that waning values, not so much a demographic shift, are more to blame for the museum’s decline.
A member since 1967, Moore has watched people "slowly drift away" from the meetings.
"People don’t sit around and talk about history anymore," he said. "They talk about Desperate Housewives, not the Jolly Post."
Most agreed that more exposure would generate the interest and volunteerism needed to support the museum. The board has applied for grants, but they must come up with matching funds, said society president Debbie Klak.
Transforming the overwhelming cataloging project into an internship for an aspiring librarian is one suggestion the society is strongly considering, said Klak.
After immediate needs are met, the society aims to "enter the twenty-first century," she said.
Another possibility is renting out museum space for weddings and business conferences.
Joan "Penny" Colgan-Davis, who next year will replace retiring Frankford Friends School principal J. Terrence Farley, envisions a "service learning project" in which students would create an audiotape "tour" of the museum.
Others focused on immediate fiscal solutions.
One suggestion, to sell off a few relics of high dollar value but low worth and relevance to the community, was not well received.
Many were also skeptical of the notion of "lending" relics to bigger museums in exchange for their upkeep, a common practice in the museum industry.
The discussion closed with many lingering questions, but Woodward urged attendees to continue pondering the museum’s role in Frankford and Northeast Philadelphia.
With clearly defined goals, "organizations can be effective engines of change," he said. ••
Contact the Frankford Historical Society at 215-743-6030.
Reporter Jeannie O’Sullivan can be reached at 215-354-3038 or osullivanj@phillynews.com