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City Cast Philly

People, places, and scenes from Philadelphia's past.

Siani Colón

The Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month, marking the celebration with a special performance on 

 featuring a new welcome center and plaza.

The Mann has established a reputation as a world-class entertainment venue, right inside Fairmount Park. But the outdoor concert space’s full history goes back over 100 years to its predecessor, the Dell Music Center.

Local historian and archivist Jack McCarthy collected this story in a new book, “A Century of Music Under the Stars: A History of the Mann Center for the Performing Arts and Robin Hood Dell.” 

He describes the Philadelphia Orchestra’s prominence in the 1920s, known to the world but out of reach to many Philadelphians. “There was this feeling that we have this phenomenal orchestra, but only a fraction of the local population gets to hear it — the people that can afford tickets in the Academy of Music, their regular season home,” McCarthy said. “There was this general belief in the cultural community, like, we have to make this orchestra more accessible to the people.”

Plus, after its regular concert season concluded in the spring, musicians were essentially out of work until the fall. So The Dell opened in July 1930 in East Fairmount Park as the orchestra’s summer home, narrowly avoiding the impacts of the Great Depression.

But in 1948, the Dell had its lowest-attended season yet due to bad weather and the fact that the Republican National Convention was in town. The venue ended the season three weeks early when money ran out. Help then arrived in the 

, a patron for the arts who made his fortune founding a cardboard box company. He agreed to help the Dell’s board with their troubles if he was granted full control of the institution.

“His strategy was to present the greatest music to the greatest number of people for the most affordable cost,” McCarthy said. “And so he began to present some free concerts and then, in 1952, he announced that the entire season would now be free. This is unheard of.”

Mann’s connections, innovative ideas, and wealth sustained the Dell for several more years. But as time went on, the venue’s golden era waned. Poor weather and the noisy, newly constructed Schuylkill Expressway disrupted performances. It was time to move.

The organization that founded the Dell East — renamed the Dell Music Center in 2010 — transferred management to the city in 1975. Then the Robin Hood Dell West opened across the river in 1976, and was renamed the Mann Center in 1979.

The opening of the new music center wasn’t without its hurdles. Ideally, a concert venue would have finished construction well before its debut. That wasn’t the case for The Dell West.

“The cement truck drivers went on strike that summer so there was no concrete delivered…things just were way, way behind,” McCarthy said. The seating in the balcony was installed like the day before opening night…The sod had not been laid on the lawn until like two days before. It was just a field of mud.”

The acoustics, the most important part, were the biggest problem.

“They did not have time to test and fine-tune that sound system, so it was a disaster,” McCarthy said. “They were able, over the course of the season, to fine-tune it. Then at the end of the season, they did a major upgrade so that the second season was much better.”

The move marked a shift in audience tastes. Though Mann was a big proponent of classical music, the market for that was shrinking as a new generation of music lovers preferred the genres dominating the airwaves. So Mann invited 

music promoter and founder of the Electric Factory, Larry Magid

, to present a series of rock and pop shows featuring artists such as James Taylor, Barry Manilow, and The Carpenters. Taylor was the first nonclassical artist to perform at the venue.

“Over the course of 30 years, it went from being a classical music venue with some rock and pop to a rock and pop venue with some classical music,” McCarthy said. “The audience for classical music was shrinking, but the cost of presenting the orchestra was rising dramatically, and they weren't getting enough income from those concerts to support that.”

The Mann remains the summer home of the Philadelphia Orchestra and has 

 across genres. It has connected with the Philadelphia community, especially its Parkside neighbors, through 

workforce development programs and arts education initiatives

. And as a result the Mann has remained an important gathering space for the city.

The full history with archival photos of both music venues and their impact on Philadelphia’s music scene can be read in “A Century of Music Under the Stars: A History of the Mann Center for the Performing Arts and Robin Hood Dell.” 

As the Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts celebrates a milestone on the cusp of the country's semiquincentennial, we look back at its interwoven history with the Dell Music Center and how it’s served Philly music lovers. 

A Dive Into the Musical Impact of The Mann and Dell Music Centers

Philly History

Philadelphia’s connection to soccer can be traced back to the late 19th century, when the sport was introduced by 

European immigrants laboring in factories in Fishtown

, Kensington, and other surrounding neighborhoods. Early teams were associated with the players’ neighborhoods, ethnicities, or athletic clubs — such as 

The nation’s first shot at establishing a professional soccer league in the U.S. began in 1894. And it’s all thanks to the sport most associated with America: baseball.

 in England, allowing players to profit from their work rather than play for the love of the game, players began ditching friendlies for higher-paying matches. In response, England’s Football League founder William McGregor created a league competition that would guarantee a specific number of home and away games for member clubs. There are claims that McGregor took inspiration from 

. The system was adopted, marking the sport's transition into a professional business.

Witnessing the success of soccer leagues abroad and the sport’s growth in the States, 

 owners saw a new way to make money during baseball's offseason.

Owners of baseball teams in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Brooklyn, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., established the American League of Professional Football in 1894. The soccer teams would take the names of their baseball counterparts. The group 

selected Phillies manager Arthur Irwin as the ALPF’s president

, and he also coached the soccer version of the Phillies. The inaugural game was 

Not everyone was happy with this, namely the American Football Association (AFA), the first organizing soccer body in the U.S., which attempted to standardize the sport's procedures. It 

 in AFA-sanctioned matches as the AFA favored amateurism over professionalism. Attendance was slim, likely because games were scheduled on weekday afternoons. The owners soon 

when rumors swirled of a rival upstart baseball league forming in the Midwest.

The ALPF lasted only one season, with Philadelphia 

The short-lived team was an effort to fill baseball stadiums during the offseason. 


The Origins of One of Philly’s Earliest Soccer Teams

How the Phillies Helped Found the Nation’s First Professional Soccer League

In 1965, Philadelphia was at the center of one of the earliest wins for the LGBTQ+ community.

At a time when gay and transgender people were considered unwelcome in many establishments, they 

, like at coffee shops such as Dewey’s. Two of the diner chain’s locations, on 13th Street and 17th Street, became central gathering spaces. While the one on 13th embraced its clientele, managers on 17th Street did not.

 instructed Dewey employees at the 17th Street location to refuse service to “

homosexuals and persons wearing non-conformist clothing.

And so on April 25, taking inspiration from the 

civil rights movement’s lunch-counter sit-ins

, more than 150 protesters of all backgrounds staged a peaceful sit-in at Dewey’s and were denied service. Police came and arrested three teenagers who refused to leave. Clark Polak, president of the Philadelphia-based homophile organization The Janus Society, was also arrested. All were charged with disorderly conduct.

 informing them of Dewey’s policies and patrons’ legal rights if they protest and are arrested. Protests continued for the next five days.

On May 2, a second sit-in was staged. When protesters refused to leave, the police were once again called to the restaurant. After speaking with demonstrators, the Philadelphia Police decided not to take further action and left. Polak, 

, said that police told him that “we could stay in there as long as we wanted as the police had no authority to ask us to leave.”

Seeing this as a victory, protesters stayed for another hour before leaving. The Janus Society 

reported in its publication Drum magazine

 that the sit-in accomplished all of its objectives, including “to bring about an immediate cessation to all indiscriminate denials of service.”

, and as the restaurant changed hands in later years – becoming the popular diner Little Pete’s – it continued to be a haven for the LGBTQ+ community.

Two months after the original Dewey’s protests, 

 picket outside of Independence Hall was held.

The act of civil disobedience against discrimination occurred before the more widely known Stonewall Riots, which are considered the catalyst for the modern LGBTQ+ movement.  


How Dewey’s Restaurant Sit-In Moved the Needle for LGBTQ+ Rights

The First Successful Sit-In for LGBTQ+ Rights Was in Philadelphia

City Cast Philly staff

On May 21, Philadelphia will celebrate a new holiday. City Council 

 last month recognizing the date as “Ona Judge Day.”

, an enslaved seamstress, and Andrew Judge, a white indentured servant, Ona “Oney” Judge inherited her mother’s status as a slave 

 and worked on the estate of George and Martha Washington in Mount Vernon.

When Judge was a pre-teen, she was assigned to serve as Martha’s personal maid. Despite the trust and responsibility required for this role, her enslaved status did not change. When George became president of the United States, the household moved to New York and later Philadelphia, bringing nine enslaved workers with them. Judge was among those moved to Philadelphia without a choice, leaving her mother and family behind.

exposed to the free Black and Quaker abolitionist

 communities working to abolish slavery. While inspiring, Judge was in a precarious situation. Pennsylvania’s 

 allowed slaves to claim freedom after six months of continuous residency, but Washington got around this by rotating his enslaved workers between Philadelphia and Virginia to prevent them from qualifying. Judge did not risk leaving.

That all changed when Judge, in her 20s, learned the Washingtons 

were planning to transfer her to Martha’s granddaughter as a wedding gift

, Judge said: “Whilst they were packing up to go to Virginia, I was packing to go, I didn't know where; for I knew that if I went back to Virginia, I should never get my liberty.”

On May 21, 1796, Judge slipped out of the president’s mansion during a dinner party. With the assistance of the free Black community, Judge 

, N.H. Two days after her escape, the Washingtons 

 demanding her capture, offering a $10 reward.

Judge would remain in New Hampshire, where she later married John Staines, a freed Black sailor with whom she had three children. The Washingtons never found her, and 

Visitors at Independence National Historical Park could 

literally walk in Ona Judge’s footsteps

. At the former site of Washington’s home, footsteps are embedded in the pavement, replicating the path she took to her escape.

executive order signed by President Donald Trump

 last year demanded the removal of materials from national parks, museums, and monuments that “inappropriately disparage Americans.” Several panels from the President’s House that referenced slavery were removed and later partially restored as a 

court battle between the Trump administration and the city drags on

🎧 Yet the inaugural Ona Judge Day ensures that her legacy will not be forgotten. Learn more about the Ona Judge Coalition’s efforts to preserve her story on 

A new holiday honors one woman’s brave escape to freedom even as there are efforts to erase that history. 

Why Philly Is Celebrating Ona Judge Day

Who Is Ona ‘Oney’ Judge?

, yet one particular park stands out as our most iconic. Fairmount Park is the jewel of our park system, with both east and west sides encompassing over 2,000 acres. Before it became home to important landmarks such as the Philadelphia Zoo, Please Touch Museum, and Boathouse Row, Philly’s oldest park was created for a practical purpose.

The park gets its name from “Faire Mount,” a hill overlooking the Schuylkill River where the Philadelphia Museum of Art exists today. The name and a sketch of the hillside are visible on the 

 designed by Surveyor General Thomas Holme. Its natural landscapes fit into William Penn’s vision for a “greene Country Towne” and attracted aristocrats to establish estates in the area.

As the city’s population grew, so did its risk for disease. Following the yellow fever epidemics in the 1790s, which were partially 

blamed on contaminated conditions in Philly’s water supply

, the city made it its duty to provide access to clean water. In 1812, the city purchased Faire Mount to establish the 

, Philadelphia’s sole pumping station. It was considered a marvel for its steam technology and Classical Revival exterior design. Gardens, walkways, and sculptures would later be added around the facility. The site quickly became a tourist attraction.

More needed to be done to protect the Schuylkill River as pollution from upriver mills and other growing industries put residents’ health and safety at risk. The city government continued to acquire more land in proximity to the river, 

starting with the Lemon Hill estate in 1843

, which would expand the city’s territory.

. The mayor at the time, Morton McMichael, advocated expanding the land to create a space that would rival New York’s Central Park. Philadelphia hosted a 

 to repurpose Lemon Hill and Sedgley to protect the city’s water supply.

Over the 19th century, Philadelphia would 

 associated with today’s Fairmount Park. Fairmount Park was 

 to be forever “an open public place and a park for the health and enjoyment of the people of said city, and the preservation of the purity of the city’s water supply.”

 in West Fairmount Park, which established new landmarks associated with the park today. Although many structures from the event no longer exist, 

 are still standing. Memorial Hall currently serves as the home for the Please Touch Museum.

So when you visit Fairmount Park today, remember that it was designed with public health, recreation, and natural beauty in mind.

Starting with just a large hill that left William Penn in awe, Fairmount Park is now the largest landscaped urban park in the world.

How Philly’s Fairmount Park Came To Be

Did you know Philadelphia has been celebrating St. Patrick’s Day since before the United States officially became a country?

By 1770, just a few years shy of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, 

one-third of Pennsylvania’s 350,000 residents

 were Irish. In Philadelphia, many Irish settlers lived along the Delaware River waterfront, in neighborhoods such as Kensington, Port Richmond, and Northern Liberties, 

poorly made vessels known as “coffin ships,”

 as nearly one out of five died on the journey to the port of Philadelphia. To support the wave of newcomers, the 

Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland

, or The Friendly Sons, was founded on March 17, 1771. The group kicked off its mission with a dinner celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, the first documented observance in the city.

the brotherhood included 24 regular and six honorary members

. These were well-to-do men who played significant roles in the American Revolution.

Membership would grow to include figures such as 

. Despite membership being restricted to men of Irish ancestry, George Washington was a member. Washington was granted honorary membership in 1781, eventually elevating his status further when members 

The dinners continued into the 19th century, but the celebrations grew beyond the annual feast and became more political. By the 1830s, the Irish community used their patron saint’s feast day to 

As the Irish population continued to grow, Irish Philadelphians began to splinter and form more aid groups. Amid these changes, the society continued to financially support people facing starvation or exile from Ireland, especially during the Great Famine between 1845 and 1852.

 beyond their countrymen at the turn of the century, with donations being made toward relief efforts for victims of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and the Spanish-American War.

 in 2016, former Irish ambassador Anne Anderson. The organization still exists today, now known as the 

Friendly Sons and Daughters of Saint Patrick

. It commits to promoting Irish culture, education, and aid. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which it helped start, continues to celebrate Irish heritage in the city over 250 years later under the leadership of the St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association.

Philadelphia’s annual parade celebrating Irish culture just happened on Sunday, a tradition dating back over 200 years.


How St. Patrick’s Day Started in Philly

March 8 was International Women’s Day, but we’re celebrating women’s contributions and history all month long. Learn about the women who shaped Philly and the nation at these upcoming tours and talks.

offers several history tours throughout the city, but this one is a feminist take on your typical history lesson. Go beyond your textbook to learn about Philly women’s role in medicine, the arts, and politics. Each tour is offered daily at 11 a.m.

If you prefer to do things on your own time, you can take a 

 along the Philadelphia Women’s History Trail. This tour takes you through 25 sites and historic markers in Philadelphia and its suburbs. Stops include the home of opera singer and activist Marian Anderson and a marker honoring abolitionist Anna E. Dickson.

Philadelphia has thousands of murals splashed on its walls, many created by women, depicting women. Lace up your shoes and take your own tour around the city and 

spot the murals celebrating our city’s women

 is hosting exhibits and talks spotlighting remarkable women throughout American history. Programs include a self-guided women’s history artifact tour, an exploration of four women all named Harriet who confronted slavery, and a trivia game. Can’t make it in person? The museum has virtual programming on March 10 and 24.

Join the Library Company of Philadelphia for a fireside chat on “

The Gendered Republic: Reimagining Identity in the New Nation”

 on March 18. The talk will explore how gender roles shaped the lives of people of all races in early America and their lasting impact on cultures and laws.

Betsy Ross is one of the most famous historical figures in Philadelphia. And while her role in the American Revolution is iconic, she wasn’t the only woman contributing to the war effort. On March 22, Interfaith Philadelphia is 

leading a talk on the other unsung heroes

 during the colonial era. The discussion will be from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Historic St. George’s United Methodist Church.

Both of Laurel Hill’s cemeteries are the eternal resting places for groundbreaking local figures. Walk the hallowed grounds and learn about the 

 in Bala Cynwyd on March 22 or stay on the east side of the Schuylkill River by visiting the 

Honor the women whose contributions impacted not just Philly, but the nation, on these tours throughout March. 

Where To Celebrate Women’s History Month in Philly

Natalia Aldana

Before it was a full-month celebration, there was Women’s History Week. In 1978, a group of women in Santa Rosa, California, recognized that 

 in academics, so they organized a week in March to celebrate and educate others about women’s contributions in the U.S.

During the week of March 8, over a hundred women participated in essay contests, distributed curriculum materials at local schools, and held a parade. The event's success soon inspired women’s groups nationwide to hold similar events.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the week of March 8 National Women’s History Week. Seven years later, Congress designated March as Women’s History Month.

The group from Santa Rosa, now known as the 

, selected the week of March 8 to correspond with 

, officially recognized by the United Nations in 1977.

 of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first Women’s Day on Feb. 28, 1909, honored the first anniversary of the garment worker’s strikes that saw thousands of women take to Manhattan’s streets. That strike was timed to honor another garment worker’s rally from March 1857. On March 3, 1913, thousands of 

 marched in Washington, D.C., to fight for a woman’s right to vote.

In 1911, inspired by the day of recognition held in the U.S., more than a million people rallied in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland to hold the first International Women’s Day rally. On March 8, 1917, 

many women went on strike during the Russian Revolution

, which many believe led to the selection of March 8 as the international day.

Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future

How do you honor Women’s History Month in Philly?

International events, such as International Women's Day, may be why we celebrate women's history in March in Philadelphia.

Why Women’s History Month is Celebrated in March

Why We Celebrate Women’s History in March

yearlong celebration of the nation’s founding

 is in full swing, culminating in major events this summer. While special attention is paid to Old City, where the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed, other Philadelphia neighborhoods played a special role in securing democracy.

Germantown may not have been officially part of Philadelphia in 1776, but its role in the American Revolution and beyond is crucial to understanding the history of our city and country. 

, a consortium of 20 independent cultural and historical organizations in North and Northwest Philadelphia, is making sure the neighborhood isn’t forgotten amid semiquincentennial festivities.

“A lot of people think of visiting historic sites, and they think of Independence Park or the Museum of the American Revolution,” said Tuomi Forrest, executive director of Historic Germantown. The locations in Germantown “are smaller, but the breadth of history and culture and its authenticity is something you won't experience anywhere else in the region or the country.”

The sites include museums that were once the private homes of families in the 18th century or earlier, historic cemeteries, and an arboretum, all educating about a stretch of history after European settlement.

“On one hand, you can visit a place like 

This Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood may not have been part of the city during the American Revolution, but it left a major impact on the legacy of our city and country.

Philly History

A Dive Into the Musical Impact of The Mann and Dell Music Centers

How the Phillies Helped Found the Nation’s First Professional Soccer League

The First Successful Sit-In for LGBTQ+ Rights Was in Philadelphia

Latest articles

Who Is Ona ‘Oney’ Judge?

How Philly’s Fairmount Park Came To Be

How St. Patrick’s Day Started in Philly

Where To Celebrate Women’s History Month in Philly

Why We Celebrate Women’s History in March

To Learn About the Founding of the U.S., Go to Philadelphia’s Germantown

Remember When Philly Burned Trash in Its Own Neighborhoods?