Shipbuilding
Palmer Cemetery: The Heart and History of Fishtown
Posted July 18th, 2008 by Scribe Video CenterFishtown Neighbors Association with Scribe Video Center
This video is available for purchase as part of the Precious Places Community History Project Vol. 3 compilation DVD.
No one seems to know exactly how many people are buried in Fishtown’s Palmer Cemetery. Created for the community by the merchant Anthony Palmer in the 1730s, the cemetery has been such a popular final destination for residents over the generations that the community’s historians have lost count of its eternal tenants, which could number as high as 50,000.
From the Del to the El: a Neighborhood Evolving
Posted July 17th, 2008 by Scribe Video CenterNew Kensington CDC with Scribe Video Center
This video is available for purchase as part of a Precious Places Community History Project Vol.2 compilation DVD.
Wedged between the Delaware River and the El train, Fishtown is a working class neighborhood northeast of Center City in Philadelphia. True to its namesake, the area was known in the 1700s as a prime fishing and shipbuilding site, built by German and Irish immigrants. Massive industrialization later transformed the neighborhood into the "workshop of the world," but the neighborhood grew poorer as the factories left after the second World War. By the 1970s, many residents were leaving for the suburbs.
