A magical history
tour in Holmesburg

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

With clipboards in hand, 80 third-graders at the Joseph H. Brown School explored their Holmesburg neighborhood in search of the past last week.
Cindy O’Donnell and fellow third-grade team teachers Helene Gold and Christine Slegel led their students from their circa-1896 school at 3600 Stanwood St. to local landmarks dating back as far as 1697, including the King’s Highway Bridge, which was an early stagecoach stop traversed by Gen. George Washington; the Athenaeum, which was built about 1850 and served as a cultural center and meeting place as well as the first free library and first Holmesburg bank; and the Holmesburg Bakery, where the students pressed their noses to the window while dreaming of the sweet treats they’d enjoy upon returning to their classrooms.
"They’re detectives today," O’Donnell said, referring to the children’s mission to collect information for their multidisciplinary project, Holmesburg: A Historical Community.
Prior to the field trip, the children made postcards from photos of the local architecture and then recognized many of the buildings thanks to that earlier assignment.
The data they collected will be used for a variety of projects — a timeline in math class, persuasive essays and narrative stories in literacy classes, and classification of local leaves and rocks in science class.
The students also will make use of a DVD of the Holmesburg Library’s scrapbook of news clippings spanning 1912 to 1948, a collection that was digitalized over the summer under the direction of local historian Harry Silcox and funded by the Lower Dublin Academy, which provides educational opportunities for the young people of Lower Dublin.
Incorporated into the city of Philadelphia in 1854, Lower Dublin was a township that included Bustleton, Fox Chase and Holmesburg.
The students certainly seemed to enjoy their research project.
When third-grader Peter Vidra was asked what he thought of the historical tour, he answered, "It rocks." ••
Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com