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    Poppy seed pod
    Poppy Seed Pod

    The poppy seed pod, from which opium is processed

    Poppy Flower and Seed Pod
    Poppy Flower and Seed Pod

    The poppy flower and seed pod, the natural source of opium

    Color photo of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, shown facing the camera and standing with his left arm resting on a chair. He wears a dark blue suit, white shirt, and blue tie with pink stripes. The room is apparently a library of sorts. It is painted white with a Greco-Roman decorative design.
    President Lyndon Baines Johnson

    President Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963–1969), who orchestrated the Great Society social welfare programs of the mid-1960s, crippled his presidency by escalating the Vietnam War and honoring the Pentagon’s persistent demands for more troops. From 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the nation’s most controversial critic of the Vietnam War and its sapping of resources from Johnson’s social welfare programs; he and Johnson stood at loggerheads on “guns vs. butter,” and King became persona non gratis in Washington.

    Woodside Park Photo Studio

    Photo from Woodside Park’s early years. 

    Drexel’s Construction Site

    This Google image of July 2019 shows the construction fence on the Filbert St. side of the former high school; the trees and vestigial greenspaces beyond the temporary wooden fence at right were removed shortly thereafter.  

    Contemporary color photo of a mural of James Baldwin. The mural features an image of Baldwin, which is painted gray with blue highlights and depicts the activist in a reflective pose. A quote from Baldwin’s THE FIRE NEXT TIME is hand-printed in black letters, the words distributed in several white bubbles arrayed against a red backdrop that frames the entire mural. The quote is: THE POWER OF THE WHITE WORLD IS THREATENED WHENEVER THE BLACK WORLD REFUSES TO ACCEPT THE WHITE WORLD’S DEFINITION.
    James Baldwin

    James Baldwin, the provocative writer who understood the radical ideas that bonded Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    The Croydon: The Field’s Backdrop

    Since the late 1920s, the “E”-shaped Croydon, an eight-story apartment building with two four-story north and south wings, has formed a backdrop for the athletic field at 48th and Spruce streets. Facing S. 49th Street between Spruce and Locust, the Croydon has a checkered past. By the turn of the Millennium, the once-thriving 127-unit edifice stood shuttered, crumbling, and in tax arrears. Known in counter-cultural circles as “Paradise City,” the abandoned building attracted hobo-like squatters, some brandishing guard dogs, from around the country. In recent years, Orens Brothers Real Estate, Inc., a Center City firm, has renovated the once-decaying complex and offers upgraded 1- and 2-bedroom rental units. 

    Black and white postcard of the Paradise Room, likely printed in the 1930s. Numerous tables, each with a white tablecloth, menu, and hairpin side chairs, fill up the spacious room. A photo of Ed Smalls, in coat and tie, appears in the top-right corner of the postcard.
    Smalls Paradise

    The Paradise Room at Smalls Paradise in New York. The man pictured at upper right is Ed Smalls, founder of the club and its owner. While working here, Malcolm Little learned the nuances of New York’s numbers racket. Smalls fired him in the fall of 1943.

    Colorful historic postcard of Roseland Ballroom, a dazzling dance floor with a ceiling of multicolored oval shapes and Art Deco floor furnishings. Three floor-to-ceiling flared columns of steel and glass hold up the ceiling. The floor itself is designed in the form of numerous bluish-gray linear strips that cover the entire ballroom.
    Roseland Ballroom in Boston

    Roseland Ballroom, Boston, where Malcolm Little worked for a short while in 1941, using this venue as a staging ground for various street hustles.

    On the Eve of Destruction

    This Google image of May 2014 shows the relationship of the two doomed schools, UCHS & Drew Elementary, along the line of 37th St.

    Aspen Farms "Main Street"

    Aspen Farms "Main Street"

    Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind

    Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, founded in 1832, relocated in this Spanish Renaissance building designed by the architectural firm of Cope & Stewardson, 1898-1899; later renamed the Overbrook School for the Blind.

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