Collecting history
in Holmesburg

By Diane Villano-Prokop
Times Staff Writer

Safe isn’t just the call of umpires on baseball diamonds all over the country these days. It’s also the call of folks preserving local history.
That’s because disintegrating scrapbooks containing hundreds of photographs and articles documenting the history of Northeast Philadelphia are being preserved for future generations in the basement of the Holmesburg Library, 7810 Frankford Ave., which will celebrate its 100th birthday next month.
From 1901 to 1937, a history-minded librarian collected newspaper clippings from a variety of publications that focused on items of interest to the community, such as one on Camp Happy, the Torresdale resident summer camp operated by the city’s Welfare Department that benefits underprivileged children. Camp Happy moved to the Poconos in the 1950s and now is known as Camp William Penn.
"These are articles that don’t exist anywhere else," said local historian and former Abraham Lincoln High School principal Harry Silcox. With the assistance of branch manager Cathie Huntzberry, Silcox used the scrapbooks for reference as well, illustrating his Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood history books.
The library’s local history collection is very unique, according to Maxwell Rowland, Lower Dublin Academy trustee.
"It has some of the Academy’s original records, including a handwritten [Samuel] Willett’s history, the most complete history of Northeast Philadelphia, which includes biographies and how the railroad was built," Rowland said.
Silcox’s son Bruce, a professional photographer, was hard at work last week capturing page after fragile page of sepia tone clippings pasted onto scrapbook pages digitally.
The goal of the project is to give schools as well as the public easy access to the first-source material. Silcox will work with the local schools to design lesson plans around the materials.
"To connect the Colonial period to the present is really valuable stuff...They’ll know this community was central to a lot of issues in the country," Silcox said.
The Lower Dublin Academy, born through a bequest made in Thomas Holme’s will dated 1684 to provide educational opportunities for the young people of Lower Dublin, will fund the project. Incorporated into the city of Philadelphia in 1854, Lower Dublin was a township of Pennsylvania that included Bustleton, Fox Chase and Holmesburg.
The academy’s trustees also donated the land on which philanthropist Andrew Carnegie built the sixth branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia. A plaque on the front of the library still bears Holme’s name. The trustees, who meet quarterly, are looking to continue Holme’s vision, with a series of awards for education or educational projects, according to Rowland.
Upcoming projects include transcribing and printing Willett’s history of Northeast Philadelphia, as well as a project Silcox will work in conjunction with the Historical Society of Frankford to collect manuscripts and artifacts of the area’s rich history.
The Historical Society of Frankford’s founding mission was to collect and preserve the history of all of Northeast Philadelphia.
"This project will be a determined effort to fulfill that vision," said HSF archivist Jack McCarthy.
Silcox and McCarthy hope to form a committee of like-minded community members and representatives from local historical organizations to give the project a push and get it out into the community.
According to Silcox, so often when elderly family members die, photographs, magazine and newspaper articles wind up at the curb. The historian would rather people call him at 215-332-0807 so that the artifacts could be preserved. ••
Reporter Diane Villano-Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dvillano@phillynews.com