CELEBRATING A CENTENNIAL:A Look Back on the History of the Parkway and the Parkway Central Library

ALSO INSIDE:

PASSPORT SERVICES AT THE FREE LIBRARYBUILDING INSPIRATION UPDATESDISHING WITH MICHAEL SOLOMONOV

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A MAGAZINE FROM THE FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA

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UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTSFOR MORE INFO: 215-567-4341 • FREELIBRARY.ORG/AUTHOREVENTS

NOV 1 • 7:30 PM

Deb Perelman Smitten Kitchen

Every Day: Triumphant & Unfussy New Favorites

FREE

NOV 6 • 7:30 PM

Nikki GiovanniA Good Cry: What We Learn

from Tears and Laughter

FREE

NOV 30 • 7:30 PM

Bill McKibbenRadio Free Vermont:

A Fable of Resistance

FREE

OCT 23 • 7:30 PM

Alice McDermottThe Ninth Hour

TICKET REQUIRED

NOV 9 • 7:30 PM

Reza AslanGod: A Human History

TICKET REQUIRED

NOV 21 • 7:30 PM

Roz ChastGoing into Town:

A Love Letter to New York

TICKET REQUIRED

NOV 28 • 7:30 PM

Lawrence O’Donnell

Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and

the Transformation of American Politics

TICKET REQUIRED

DEC 5 • 7:30 PM

Jed PerlCalder: The Conquest

of Time: The Early Years: 1898–1940

TICKET REQUIRED

NOV 3 • 7:30 PM

Chris MatthewsBobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit

TICKET REQUIRED

DEC 7 • 7:30 PM

Ntozake ShangeWild Beauty:

New and Selected Poems

FREE

SUPPORT THE FREE LIBRARY FUND TODAY! freelibrary.org/support

The Free Library Fund ensures that Philadelphians of all ages have access to the books and programs that excite them the most.

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Welcome to the fall 2017 issue of Off the Shelf ! In these pages we take a look at our past, present, and future, celebrating the Library’s enduring impact on the life of our city.

In honor of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway’s centennial, our feature story looks back at the history of our city’s boulevard magnifique and that of the beloved Parkway Central Library. We are thrilled to join our Parkway neighbors in the Parkway 100 celebration, a year-long festival featuring exhibitions, events, conversations, and more. Our sister institution the Rosenbach is also taking a look back—at the evolution of two groundbreaking tales, in its chilling Frankenstein & Dracula: Gothic Monsters, Modern Science exhibition. We take a look at Bram Stoker’s handwritten Dracula notes on page 6.

Each and every day, our neighborhood libraries are meeting the needs of their surrounding communities in innovative ways. Northeast Regional Library has been officially designated as a U.S. Department of State Passport Acceptance Facility, and staff is thrilled to have another resource to serve the expansive community of new Americans surrounding the library. McPherson Square Library, which has the highest program attendance in the entire library system, celebrated its 100th anniversary, and the Lucien E. Blackwell West Philadelphia Regional Library is back and better than ever.

Amid our daily hard work serving Philadelphia’s vibrant communities, we are also hard at work becoming the library of the future. Four of our pilot 21st Century Libraries are preparing to reopen their doors after extensive renovations, and construction is underway at the Parkway Central Library to create new public spaces that serve teens, entrepreneurs and small-business owners, job seekers, collaborators, and literature lovers in exciting new ways.

Come celebrate with us this fall. Warmly,

Siobhan A. ReardonPRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR

FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA PRESIDENT AND DIRECTORSiobhan A. Reardon

DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENTJoseph Benford

INTERIM VICE PRESIDENT OF DEVELOPMENTSusan S. Gould

VICE PRESIDENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Sandra Horrocks

SENIOR WRITER AND EDITOR Julie Berger

COMMUNICATIONS AND PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Labonno Islam

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Gina Bixler Christopher BrownJennifer DonskyAlix Gerz Samantha Maldonado Laura Stroffolino

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERSRyan Brandenberg (pages 2, 5)Jules Vuotto (pages 5, 7, 11, 13)

FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION 1901 Vine Street, Suite 111 Philadelphia, PA 19103 215-567-7710 freelibrary.org/support

OFF THE SHELFofftheshelf@freelibrary.org freelibrary.org/publications

Off the Shelf is published twice annually for supporters of the Free Library of Philadelphia and showcases the Library’s educational, economic, and cultural contributions to the region.

FROM THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR

WHAT’S INSIDE

4 NEWS AND NOTES

6 HIDDEN GEMS: NOTES ON A VAMPIRE

7 FOCUS ON: PASSPORT SERVICES

8 CELEBRATING A CENTENNIAL: A LOOK BACK ON THE HISTORY OF THE PARKWAY AND THE PARKWAY CENTRAL LIBRARY

12 FROM THE NEIGHBORHOODS: MCPHERSON SQUARE LIBRARY’S 100TH ANNIVERSARY

14 THE FINAL WORD: MICHAEL SOLOMONOV

15 BOARD LISTS

ON THE COVER AND BELOW: THE PHILADELPHIA PARKWAY, SEEN BELOW AS

PLANNED FOR THE FAIRMOUNT PARK ART ASSOCIATION AT THE TURN OF THE 19TH CENTURY, HAS BECOME

THE ARTS AND CULTURE HUB ITS PLANNERS ENVISIONED. THE PARKWAY CENTRAL LIBRARY SITS

AT ITS VIBRANT MIDPOINT AT LOGAN CIRCLE.

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We are excited to announce the We are excited to announce the 2018 2018 One Book, One PhiladelphiaOne Book, One Philadelphia featured featured selection is selection is Another BrooklynAnother Brooklyn by National Book by National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson. Award winner Jacqueline Woodson. Young August is full of promise and hope when her fragmented family moves from the American South to Brooklyn, New York. While nurtured by friendships with three other neighborhood girls, August comes of age, faces challenges, and chases her dreams. Set in a 1970s transitioning urban landscape, Another Brooklyn is described as “beautifully lyrical” by The Guardian and “powerfully insightful” by The New York Times. The novel has been praised by The Washington Post as one that “mixes wonder and grief so poignantly. Woodson manages to remember what cannot be documented, to suggest what cannot be said. Another Brooklyn is another name for poetry.”

PLEASE JOIN US ON JANUARY 17 FOR A KICKOFF CELEBRATION FEATURING AUTHOR JACQUELINE WOODSON IN PARKWAY CENTRAL LIBRARY’S MONTGOMERY AUDITORIUM AT 7:30 P.M. IN THE MEANTIME, START READING!IN THE MEANTIME, START READING!

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ANNOUNCING THE

FEATURED SELECTION

NEW STAFFWe have been so pleased to welcome two new executive staff members.

They are great additions to the Free Library team!

ANDREW NURKIN has joined the Free Library as Deputy Director for Enrichment and Civic Engagement. In this role, he manages humanities, arts, and civic engagement programs systemwide and leads the newly established Center for Public Life. Before joining the Free Library, Andrew served as Executive Director of Princeton AlumniCorps, a civic leadership nonprofit with programs in seven cities across the U.S., and managed civic-engagement initiatives at Princeton University.

LESLIE WALKER, the new Library Chief of Staff, leads the Executive Office and oversees internal communications. She also works closely with the three boards—the Library Board of Trustees, the Foundation Board of Directors, and the Rosenbach Board of Directors—as well as with the Mayor’s Office and the City Council. Leslie previously worked at the Please Touch Museum, where she was responsible for shaping vision and strategy for the museum’s visitor experience, community partnerships, and education philosophy.

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Although Rashaun Williams was born and raised in Philadelphia, he had never spent much time at the library. But late last spring, the 23 year old found himself on the Broad Street Line and noticed an ad announcing the reopening of the South Philadelphia Library. He thought he’d check it out. “I had no expectations,” he said. “I just thought I’d be able to do work here.”

It’s been nearly a year and Rashaun—a DJ and community organizer whose work touches on everything from art initiatives and youth entrepreneurship to environmental advocacy—has ditched his paid memberships to coworking spaces and his extended visits to coffee shops. The South Philadelphia Library is now his office.

“The library gives me a creative space to both be serious about work and take time to relax and enjoy myself,” Rashaun says.

“Plus, the internet is extremely fast.”At the library, Rashaun isn’t pressured by time constraints—the kind that come with feeling the need to finish work in the period it takes to down a beverage in a café, for example. In a given week, Rashaun spends up to four days working in the library for most of the time it’s open. There, he holds meetings, conducts research, tweaks his website, and coordinates outreach for his various projects, including Elevation Celebrations, or

“Elebrations,” which are festive, collaborative events he organizes for artists of all types.

What draws Rashaun to the South Philadelphia Library aligns with the work he does: It’s all about the community.

“You get every kind of person here: homeless people who just need to rest, children who just need to run around and scream, folks who need to finish their work, professors and teachers who are in the middle of creating things, artists who are working on projects,” he says.

“The library is for everyday people. It’s just as important to and needed by an adult as a child.”

CUSTOMER CORNERRASHAUN WILLIAMS

Street Line and noticed an ad announcing the

It’s been nearly a year and Rashaun—a DJ and community

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AROUND THE SYSTEM1 Mayor Jim Kenney (third from left) and Free Library President

and Director Siobhan A. Reardon (at right), together with Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell (center) and her family, helped the community celebrate the reopening of the Lucien E. Blackwell West Philadelphia Regional Library.

2 Illustrator Greg Pizzoli helped students kick off the 2017 Summer of Wonder.

3 The David Cohen Ogontz Library celebrated Pride Month in June with a fabulous Drag Queen Storytime.

4 Participants were trained in CPR at the We <3 Hearts: A Heart Healthy Family Day, held at the Parkway Central Library.

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Utter the name Count Dracula and you’ll conjure up images of gothic castles, creaking coffins, and sharpened incisors. Utter the name Count Wampyr and you’ll conjure up little more than a raised eyebrow. In a manner of speaking, the latter Count doesn’t have quite the same … bite.

But Count Wampyr it was, until author Bram Stoker took his pencil and slashed through the name on a list of potential characters for the novel he was working on, inserting the word “Dracula” in its stead. It’s historic nuggets like this that are revealed in the more than 100 leaves of manuscript notes and outlines for Stoker’s Dracula housed at the Rosenbach.

Pages from these notes are among the treasures on display at the Rosenbach’s Frankenstein & Dracula: Gothic Monsters, Modern Science, which runs through February and uncovers the genesis of these two horror classics, explores how Mary Shelley and Stoker conceived of their respective novels in relation to the science of the day, and illustrates the ways in which these works remain metaphors for contemporary scientific issues.

In a historic first, these pages of Stoker’s will be on display alongside pages from Shelley’s manuscript for Frankenstein, on loan from the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.

“Each novel, while focusing on its own creature, presents the challenges that humanity faces when confronted with changing technology,” says curator Judy Guston. “Our exhibition looks at both ends of the century and asks how these challenges are still real for

Notes on a VampireHIDDEN GEMS

us today and why these novels still hold our attention. Stoker and Shelley were masterful in laying out this course for us, in creating lasting works with layered and enduring questions at their cores.”

The pages from Stoker’s Dracula notes featured in the exhibition specifically focus on the writer’s understanding and exploration of issues such as the science of blood, the power of the unconscious mind, criminology and degeneracy, and neurology.

Of these pages, Guston says, one of her favorites contains a sketch drawn by Stoker’s brother, a physician, illustrating a brain injury. “The connection between these notes and Stoker’s writing on Dracula’s ‘degeneracy’ is useful for interpreting the period understanding of scientific and cultural thinking about the brain and its effects on behavior,” she says.

In addition to highlighting Stoker’s understanding of Victorian-era science, the notes contain vivid details of traits of the vampire, making clear the Irishman’s role in creating the monster we still shudder at today.

So what sinister characteristics came right from Stoker’s notes?

“Dracula has no mirrors in his home, as he cannot be reflected in them; he never eats or drinks; [he] travels with his own coffins; and [he] has influence over rats, to name a few,” says Guston, adding that while some of the traits listed by Stoker didn’t make it into Dracula—and more recent stories have added in new characteristics—“the vampire we’ve come to know is thanks to Bram Stoker’s invention.”

FOR ROSENBACH VISITING HOURS AND MORE DETAILS ON STOKER’S NOTES AND FRANKENSTEIN & DRACULA: GOTHIC MONSTERS, MODERN SCIENCE, VISIT ROSENBACH.ORG.

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• • • BY ALIX GERZ

#32

MAJOR SUPPORT FOR FRANKENSTEIN & DRACULA: GOTHIC MONSTERS, MODERN SCIENCE HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY THE PEW MONSTERS, MODERN SCIENCE HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY THE PEW MONSTERS, MODERN SCIENCECENTER FOR ARTS & HERITAGE. THIS MATERIAL IS BASED UPON WORK SUPPORTED BY THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION UNDER GRANT NO. 1516684. ANY OPINIONS, FINDINGS, AND CONCLUSIONS OR RECOMMENDATIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS MATERIAL ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR(S) AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION. THE ROSENBACH ACKNOWLEDGES THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY’S CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND THE IMAGINATION AND SCHOOL FOR THE FUTURE OF INNOVATION IN SOCIETY.

BACKGROUND: BRAM STOKER’S LIST OF CHARACTERS HE PLANNED TO INCLUDE IN HIS NOVEL, SHOWING THE CHANGE FROM “COUNT WAMPYR” TO “COUNT DRACULA”

FOREGROUND: RESEARCH NOTES ON BRAIN TRAUMA USED BY BRAM STOKER AND WRITTEN BY HIS BROTHER WILLIAM THORNLEY STOKER, A PROMINENT BRAIN SURGEON

BRAM STOKER, DRACULA: NOTES AND OUTLINE, [CA. 1890-CA. 1896], PAGE 1, CAST OF CHARACTERS. “HISTORIAE PERSONAE” [ROSENBACH EL3 F.S874D MS]

BRAM STOKER, DRACULA: NOTES AND OUTLINE, [CA. 1890-CA. 1896], PAGE 45B, NOTE ON HEAD INJURIES BY SIR WILLIAM THORNLEY STOKER, P. [2-3] [ROSENBACH EL3 F.S874D MS]

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FOCUSON

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• • • BY JULIE BERGER

THE FREE LIBRARY HAS ALWAYS HELPED PEOPLE EXPLORE NEW WORLDS—THROUGH FICTIONAL TALES OF FAR-OFF PLACES AND EXTENSIVE INTERNATIONAL-MUSIC COLLECTIONS, AS WELL AS THROUGH ITS ROBUST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE MATERIALS AND TRAVEL RESOURCES. NOW IT CAN BRING PHILADELPHIANS ONE STEP CLOSER TO THEIR NEXT FOREIGN ADVENTURE OR INTERNATIONAL FAMILY VISIT, THROUGH NORTHEAST REGIONAL LIBRARY’S NEW PASSPORT OFFICE.

Northeast Regional Library has been officially designated as a U.S. Department of State Passport Acceptance Facility, offering passport processing for new U.S. passports or passport cards, passport photographs, and expedited service. In the office’s first three months of operation alone, it served nearly 600 customers.

Across Pennsylvania, many public libraries now offer passport services, including those in Jenkintown, Ephrata, Kutztown, and Lancaster. The State Department chose the new Northeast Philadelphia passport-office location strategically:

“Northeast Regional is surrounded by communities of new Americans and immigrants, so residents have families overseas and have a high demand for passports,” said regional librarian Peter Lehu.

“A passport office is a way to serve the local community’s needs—and at the same time attract them to the library and help them learn about our other resources and services.”

In fact, the community surrounding the Northeast Regional Library has one of the highest percentages of foreign-born residents in the city of Philadelphia. The passport services add to the Free Library system’s robust offerings for new Americans, which include English-as-a-Second-Language classes, travel and foreign-language materials, online Citizenship Test preparation resources, online language tutorials for over 70 languages, and more. Earlier this year, Northeast Regional Library hosted an Immigration Resource Fair that highlighted these resources as well as employment and housing information.

The Passport Office is staffed by two passport application acceptance agents. They have seen both native-born Americans and new Americans taking advantage of the new service, and many families coming in to submit applications for children and babies. Word is spreading: A couple that recently applied for new passports said they came on the recommendation of their niece, who had come in with her husband and three children to sign everyone up for passports a few days earlier.

Customers have welcomed the new service. “I think it is fantastic that your library has a passport office now,” said Michelle Revelle.

“Libraries are conveniently located for everyone—and I am usually in here once a week anyway!”

The Passport Office is on the first floor of the library, located at 2228 Cottman Avenue. For hours of operation and more information about the services available at the Northeast Regional Library’s Passport Office, visit freelibrary.org/passports or call 215-725-1740.

PASSPORT SERVICESAT THE FREE LIBRARY

REGIONAL LIBRARIAN PETER LEHU, PHILADELPHIA PASSPORT AGENCY CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER BRIDGET BIELICKI, STATE REPRESENTATIVE KEVIN J. BOYLE, AND FREE LIBRARY PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR SIOBHAN A. REARDON CUT THE RIBBON TO OFFICIALLY OPEN THE PASSPORT OFFICE IN JULY.

other resources and services.”

MANAGER BRIDGET BIELICKI,

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• • • CONTRIBUTING WRITERS CONTRIBUTING WRITERS• • •

JULIE BERGER, GINA BIXLER, CHRISTOPHER BROWN, KAREN LIGHTNER, DONALD ROOT, LAURA STROFFOLINOJULIE BERGER, GINA BIXLER, CHRISTOPHER BROWN, KAREN LIGHTNER, DONALD ROOT, LAURA STROFFOLINO

CELEBRATINGA CENTENNIAL:

A Look Back on the History of the Parkway A Look Back on the History of the Parkway and the Parkway Central Libraryand the Parkway Central Library

AERIAL VIEW OF LOGAN CIRCLE, THE PARKWAY CENTRAL LIBRARY, AND PHILADELPHIA ART MUSEUM, LOOKING TO THE NORTHWEST, CA. 1929 F

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T H E I D E A

The diagonal roadway running from City Hall to Fairmount Park had first been proposed after the Civil War. City planners and citizens alike saw creating a grand expanse akin to those in other cities as both essential to and befitting the dignity of the city of Philadelphia. “It would place Philadelphia on a par with the leading cosmopolitan cities of the world,” attested Chas F. Warwick, mayor of Philadelphia from 1895 to 1899.

Paris’s prime promenade, the Champs-Élysées—dotted with cultural institutions, gardens, and shops—served as a model. Planners also looked to the avenues of other cities, big and small: Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma, Berlin’s Siegesallee, and Buffalo’s Lincoln Parkway. In the later 19th century, there were several designs drafted for such a boulevard in Philadelphia, but these plans were ultimately abandoned during an economic downturn.

It was not an idea, however, city leaders and planners were willing to let die. In 1902, the Parkway Association compiled The Proposed Parkway for Philadelphia, a detailed plea and plan

“for the purpose of bringing to success that project for a diagonal boulevard from City Hall to Fairmount Park.” It mounted this campaign as a fight for Philadelphia’s soul: “If Philadelphia … confesses itself unequal to this splendid project, it will admit that it has no just place among the leading cities of the modern world.”

Supporters sought not only to bring beauty to the city, but to alleviate urban congestion and uplift the city. This mindset was inspired by the City Beautiful Movement—an embrace of the French neoclassical architectural principles of symmetry, balance, and grandeur—which aimed to instill a sense of pride and belonging in residents.

“Once constructed, it will remain a thing of beauty and a joy for all generations to come,” declared the Parkway Association in its 1902 Proposed Parkwayplan. We, the generations to come, have seen this promise borne out. The Benjamin Franklin Parkway is an international hallmark in the heart of Philadelphia. As it celebrates its centennial, we are paying tribute to our place on this boulevard magnifique and its cherished role in the life of our city.

T H E B U I L D I N G O F A B O U L E V A R D M A G N I F I Q U E

In 1903, following its report, the influential Parkway Association persuaded the City Councils to restart the Parkway Project. In 1907, architects Paul Philippe Crét, Horace Trumbauer, and Clarence Zantzinger conceptualized the grand promenade, and demolition of the area began. Factories and neighborhoods were removed in preparation for the new Parkway.

The Free Library’s place on the Parkway was not a given. In their quest for a permanent site on which to construct a dedicated central library, officials had considered the old U.S. Mint Building and demolishing the Academy of Music to create a site.

Head Librarian John Thompson urged the Parkway planners to give a main-library building a prime spot on the Parkway path, initially requesting a plot “at the city entrance of the magnificent Boulevard.”

In early 1910, library officials successfully petitioned Mayor John E. Reyburn to set aside a piece of land on the proposed Parkway for the building of the library. The mayor and

library officials worked diligently, acquiring by the summer of 1911 our current plot bounded by 19th, 20th, Vine, and Wood streets for $213,625. That fall, the Philadelphia House Wrecking Company demolished the existing structures, clearing the way for the new library.

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COVER OF THE PARKWAY ASSOCIATION’S 1902 THE PROPOSED PARKWAY FOR PHILADELPHIA, A PLEA AND PLAN TO DESIGN A DIAGONAL BOULEVARD

CONNECTING CITY HALL TO FAIRMOUNT PARK

FROM THE FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA PRINT AND PICTURE COLLECTION

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In the fall of 1911, Rudolph Blankenburg succeeded Mayor Reyburn, and the new mayor questioned the city’s capacity to fund the extravagant Parkway. Fearing that the Parkway would be abandoned, jeopardizing the library, Head Librarian Thomson rallied the city’s education and cultural institutions, which successfully pressed for the continuation of the boulevard’s construction.

In this same year, architect Horace Trumbauer and his chief designer, Julian Abele—one of the first university-trained African American architects—developed plans for the façade of the Free Library’s main building. Abele, who headed the project, unveiled a striking Beaux-Arts design for both the library and the neighboring family court, based on the twin façades of the Place de la Concorde’s Hôtel de Crillon and Hôtel de la Marine. The library design was approved the following year, but construction was delayed until 1920.

In 1917 the Fairmount Park Commission hired Jacques Gréber, a prominent figure in urban planning and design, to update the 1907 design for the Parkway. In the Gréber plan, Logan Square—transformed into a circle—served as the central anchor of the boulevard, again drawing inspiration from the Place de la Concorde on the Champs-Élysées. Construction of the Parkway officially began following the adoption of Gréber’s plan.

By 1926, the construction of the Parkway was considered complete, although many of its iconic institutions had not yet taken their places. The Parkway Central Library opened its doors in 1927—the first newly constructed building on the Parkway—and by 1935 the Franklin Institute, the Rodin Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art had all been erected. Originally named the Fairmount Parkway upon completion, in 1937 Philadelphia’s iconic strip was renamed to honor Benjamin Franklin.

RIGHT: STONE CARVERS FROM THE JOHN DONNELLY COMPANY COMPLETING CORINTHIAN CAPITALS AT PARKWAY CENTRAL, CA. 1924–1925

BOTTOM: ARCHITECT JACQUES GRÉBER’S GENERAL PLAN OF THE FAIRMOUNT PARKWAY, 1919

BOTH IMAGES FROM THE HISTORY OF THE FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA ARCHIVE

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See more historical images and artifacts at the Parkway Central

Library exhibition Corridor of Culture: 100 Years of the Benjamin

Franklin Parkway, on display through November 2018.

CORRIDOR OF CULTURE IS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH A GRANT CORRIDOR OF CULTURE IS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH A GRANT CORRIDOR OF CULTUREFROM THE INDEPENDENCE FOUNDATION.

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T H E P A R K W AY T O D AY

Today the Benjamin Franklin Parkway is a hub of Philadelphia’s civic life, housing some of the city’s most iconic cultural centers and hosting such annual city celebrations as the Wawa Welcome America 4th of July concert and fireworks and the Thanksgiving Day parade. It received national and international spotlight during Pope Francis’s visit in September 2015 and the NFL Draft in April 2017. The Parkway Museums District now encompasses 17 destinations, dotted by sculptures, fountains, and greenery and capped by Dilworth Park at City Hall and Fairmount Park to the north.

“Now is an exciting time for the Free Library to be on the Parkway, just as when the Parkway Central Library opened its doors 90 years ago,” said Free Library President and Director Siobhan A. Reardon. “As our city and the Parkway grow and change, we are thrilled that Parkway Central can grow and change in step, as the building undergoes construction to transform its spaces and services for the 21st century.”

Parkway Central’s front lawn—Shakespeare Park—has also gotten a makeover. Reopening in June 2017 after extensive reconstruction by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, this “majestic forecourt” (as described by Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Safron) welcomes children for open-air storytimes. The charming new space is in bloom with flowers mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays.

As new institutions take up residence on its borders, new parks and public spaces come to life, and the roadway itself is refurbished, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway continues to adapt to meet the needs of the institutions that call it home and the people who traverse it every day. A true center of arts and culture, with Robert Indiana’s LOVE statue greeting visitors in John F. Kennedy Plaza and the colorful flags of 90 nations waving along the boulevard’s length, this Philadelphia icon embodies the core values of our City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection—just as the planners dreamed more than 100 years ago.

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The Free Library joins our Parkway neighbors through November 2018 in celebrating the Parkway 100—a year-long festival featuring exhibitions, events, and conversations.

THE RENOVATED FORECOURT OF PARKWAY CENTRAL, SHAKESPEARE PARK, REOPENED IN JULY 2017.THE RENOVATED FORECOURT OF PARKWAY CENTRAL, SHAKESPEARE PARK, REOPENED IN JULY 2017.

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” wrote Charles Dickens in 1859 in A Tale of Two Cities. This fictional declaration has been top of mind when visiting—and, especially lately, reading about—McPherson Square Library and the Kensington community in which it is located. McPherson Square Library represents the best of what we hope libraries in the 21st century can be—steadfastly serving its community through robust programming and outreach. It does this while sitting at the center of one of the worst trials facing our country—the opioid crisis. In the worst of times, this library is creating some of the best opportunities for its community.

This year marked the centennial of this community hub, a domed, classically designed building on a hill within a neighborhood park. It first opened in 1898 in an old house known as the Webster Mansion. The original owner of Webster Mansion was General William MacPherson. The General was part of the Revolutionary patriot forces and a close friend to George Washington, who was often entertained at the home. After this original building was torn down in 1915, the current library building opened on May 25, 1917.

On May 20, 2017, there was a joyful celebration of the building’s centennial milestone, which purposefully coincided with Impact Services’s annual spring fair. It was a party for the whole neighborhood. Free Library President and Director Siobhan A. Reardon was joined in remarks by Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez; food, horse-and-carriage rides, crafts, and games brightened the rainy day.

The library’s anniversary was icing on the cake of its remarkable accomplishments. In the past year, McPherson Square has had the highest program attendance of all neighborhood libraries in Philadelphia. Through its afterschool meal program and summer lunch and snack program, it has served 12,880 free lunches to children, and the library has

partnered with Prevention Point to help addicted persons find services for addiction and homelessness. These mainstay programs, however, are not what have garnered McPherson Square considerable attention; this level of excellence is business-as-usual for the library staff.

McPherson Square Library was in the local and national news often this past spring and summer for devastating reasons. The opioid crisis that is headline news across the United States is deeply felt here. The beautiful park around this stunning library has become the temporary home to addicted persons whose self-destructive behaviors are on full view for everyone, including the neighborhood children. The library staff has taken amazing strides to confront this crisis and assist the community in addressing it.

Library Supervisor Judi Moore, with nearly 30 years of service at McPherson Square, is still full of hope. She and Chera Kowalski, adult and teen librarian, describe a compassionate community full of inquisitive, intelligent children. All staff members at the library are dedicated custodians of a historic building and caring people through and through. These worst of times, they assure us, will end. Until then, and far beyond, they will be there for the job-seeking adults, the storytime-enjoying families, and, especially, for the children.

from theNEIGHBORHOODS

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MCPHERSON SQUARE LIBRARY IS ONLY JUST GETTING STARTED AFTER 100 YEARS

• • • BY JENNIFER DONSKY

CA. 1940

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STAFF SPOTLIGHT:

NANI MANION REGIONAL LIBRARIAN AT LUCIEN E. BLACKWELL WEST PHILADELPHIA REGIONAL LIBRARY

How did you get started working for the Free Library? I have always loved and frequented libraries. After moving to Philadelphia, I found myself as a Free Library customer looking to make a career change into librarianship. At that time, the Free Library had a Library Trainee/Grow Your Own program. I was accepted into the program and completed my masters and my two-year post-degree commitment; I have continued to work for the Free Library and serve the Philadelphia community ever since.

What do you enjoy most about your current role as Regional Librarian at Lucien E. Blackwell West Philadelphia Regional Library? I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing former customers return to Blackwell Regional. I love that people continue to use the library throughout their lives and enjoy seeing them growing and achieving milestones: learning to read, graduating high school, starting college, and getting a job.

How has the library’s recent reopening impacted the community? Blackwell was closed for 16 months. During that time, our regular customers frequented other library locations. I am thrilled to see so many of our customers return—1,700 for our grand reopening! We were missed while we were closed, and customers are happy to return for our collections, computers, and programs and experiences for all ages, from storytimes to career support services to senior programs.

If you could have lunch with any author living or dead, who would it be and why? I would love to have lunch with Barbara Kingsolver on her farm in Virginia, with home-grown and locally sourced food from the region. I always return to her writing, her characters, and her ecosystems. As the creator of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, she has enabled talented authors to fully launch their literary careers, creating a richer, more diverse canon of American literature.

• • • BY JENNIFER DONSKY

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The Free Library’s first 21st Century Library, South

Philadelphia Library, has welcomed more than 150,000 visitors since reopening its doors in June 2016 as part of the South Philadelphia

Health and Literacy Center.

These critical updates are made possible in large part by the William Penn Foundation’s historic $25 million grant

to the Building Inspiration initiative, as well as by the generosity of a number of private individuals and the

City of Philadelphia, for which we continue to be so grateful.

Building Inspiration Updates

After extensive modernization and expansion, four more 21st Century

Libraries will soon reopen their doors!

At the Parkway Central Library, deconstruction of the original

six levels of stack-shelving units is now complete, clearing the way

for exciting new public spaces: The Common, the Business Resource

and Innovation Center (BRIC), the Marie H. and Joseph M. Field Teen

Center, and other innovative spaces and services. These spaces are expected to open in fall 2018.

IFE NII OWOO’S READ: A PATHWAY FOR HOPE—AN ORIGINAL ARTWORK COMMISSIONED BY THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PERCENT FOR ART PROGRAM AND THE FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA—WILL BE ON DISPLAY IN THE NEWLY RENOVATED LOGAN LIBRARY COMMUNITY ROOM.

LOGANNov 4

LILLIAN MARRERO

Nov 18TACONY

Dec 2

LOVETT MEMORIAL

Dec 16

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The Israel-born, Pittsburgh-raised chef is now claimed by Philadelphia as a favorite culinary son. As executive chef and co-owner of Zahav, a restaurant of international renown that celebrates Israeli cuisine, Michael Solomonov has “walked gingerly” into “the age of the rock-star chef/entrepreneur,” says Philadelphia Magazine. A four-time James Beard Award winner, he co-owns Philadelphia’s Federal Donuts, Dizengoff, Abe Fisher, Goldie, and the philanthropic Rooster Soup Company, which donates 100 percent of its profits to support Philadelphia’s most vulnerable citizens. Together with business partner Steven Cook, co-founder of CookNSolo Restaurant Partners, he penned the cookbook Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking and the new culinary chronicle Federal Donuts: The (Partially) True Spectacular Story, which tells the story of one of Philadelphia’s now-famous food pairings: fried chicken and donuts.

OTS WHAT ROLE HAVE LIBRARIES PLAYED IN YOUR

LIFE? WHAT ROLE DO YOU THINK THEY PLAY IN OUR

21ST-CENTURY WORLD?

MS With the way that we catalog our lives constantly in flux,

libraries are that rock-steady resource for every age. They’re the

backbone. And especially now that I have young kids, they’re an

indelible part of our community.

OTS FRIED CHICKEN AND DONUTS IS A DELICIOUS,

SOME SAY GENIUS, PAIRING. WHAT FOOD AND DRINK

PAIR BEST WITH CURLING UP IN YOUR FAVORITE

READING NOOK?

MS Ideally, I would crush a couple bourekas [baked filled pastries

with flaky dough] with Bulgarian feta. And since I don’t drink (but

even if you do), a lemonnana [mint lemonade] or turmeric lime

soda (toss some cucumber and cilantro in there if you have on

hand) are both as delicious as they are refreshing.

OTS ZAHAV, DIZENGOFF, AND GOLDIE ALL HAVE A

DISTINCT ISRAELI FLAIR. WHY DO YOU THINK THERE HAS

BEEN SUCH AN APPETITE FOR THESE CUISINES

IN PHILADELPHIA?

MS People are increasingly interested in where their food

comes from. And as this trend becomes not just a trend but a

mentality that’s here to stay, I think people are relating to Israeli

cuisine more and more, since the food of Israel is an ultimate

representation of such. The food in Israel is harvested right there—

it’s accessible, it’s as fresh as it gets, and the flavors are different.

All things that whet Philadelphians’ appetites.

OTS YOU’RE RUMORED TO HAVE TAKEN MEMBERS

OF YOUR STAFF SKY DIVING. WHY?! IS THIS A SECRET

INGREDIENT TO YOUR RESTAURANTS’ SUCCESS?

MS Life’s too short to not go on a slightly insane adventure every

once in a while.

OTS TO YOU, THE FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA

IS ALSO THE FREE LIBRARY OF_. WHY?

MS The Free Library of Philadelphia is also the Free Library of

The Future—a model for other metropolitan cities to get behind!

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TO LISTEN TO A FREE, DOWNLOADABLE PODCAST FEATURING MICHAEL SOLOM0NOV, VISIT FREELIBRARY.ORG/AUTHOREVENTS.

WITH

MICHAEL SOLOMONOV

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Join us as we celebrate the centennial of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in high style.

SAVE THE DATE

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2017

PARKWAY CENTRAL LIBRARY

FREELIBRARY.ORG/GALA

CHAIR Pamela Dembe

MEMBERSDonna AllieChristopher ArleneDouglas CarneyJenée Chizick-Agüero Jeffrey CooperBrigitte DanielDonald GeneralsMelissa GrimmAnuj GuptaRobert HeimNancy D. KolbH. W. Jerome MaddoxFolasade Olanipekun-LewisKathryn Ott LovellSonia SanchezSuzanne SimonsJohn J. SorokoElaine TomlinNicholas D. TorresIgnatius C. Wang

EMERITUSGloria Twine ChisumArmand Della PortaW. Wilson Goode, Sr.Herman MattlemanTeresa Sarmina

EX-OFFICIOTobey Gordon DichterChair, Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation Board of Directors

FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA BOARD OF TRUSTEES

CHAIR Tobey Gordon Dichter

MEMBERSRobert AdelsonCynthia AffleckCarol BanfordPhyllis W. BeckJeffry BenolielSheldon BonovitzBenito Cachinero-SánchezJeffrey CooperGeorge DayAndrea EhrlichDonna GersonRichard A. GreenawaltMelissa GrimmJanet HaasPekka Hakkarainen Robert HeimJohn ImbesiMike InnocenzoPhilip JaurigueGeoffrey KentAlexander KerrFolasade Olanipekun-Lewis Marciene MattlemanStephanie NaidoffBernard NewmanPatrick M. OatesWilliam R. SassoSusan G. SmithMiriam SpectorLenore SteinerShelley StewartBarbara SutherlandMonica VachherJay WeinsteinLarry Weiss

EMERITUSJames H. AverillPeter A. BenolielMarie FieldElizabeth GemmillW. Wilson Goode, Sr Daniel GordonLeslie Anne MillerA. Morris Williams, Jr.

EX-OFFICIOPamela DembeChair, Free Library of Philadelphia Board of Trustees

FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Frankenstein & Dracula: Gothic Monsters, Modern Science explores the creation of two of history’s most memorable monsters. In honor of the bicentennial of the publication of Frankenstein, handwritten pages of Mary Shelley’s groundbreaking novel will be displayed alongside Bram Stoker’s personal notes for Dracula for the first time, accompanied by scientific and medical works from the 19th century to the present.

ROSENBACH.ORG | @ROSENBACHMUSEUM

OCTOBER 13, 2017—FEBRUARY 11, 2018

MAJOR SUPPORT FOR FRANKENSTEIN & DRACULA: GOTHIC MONSTERS, MODERN SCIENCE HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY THE PEW CENTER FOR ARTS & HERITAGE, WITH ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FROM THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION UNDER GRANT NO. 1516684 AND ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY’S CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND THE IMAGINATION AND SCHOOL FOR THE FUTURE OF INNOVATION IN SOCIETY.

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SUPPORT THE FREE LIBRARY FUND TODAY! freelibrary.org/support

LEADERSHIP ANNUAL GIVINGfreelibrary.org/PepperSociety

YOUNG PROFESSIONALSfreelibrary.org/RavenSociety

The Free Library Fund ensures that Philadelphians of all ages have access to the books and programs that excite them the most.

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