A Return Engagement

The Project doesn't often go to the same church more than once. Part of that is our busy schedule, but it's also because few churches offer such a powerful experience that they warrant repeat trips.

That was the case with Project-fave St. Martin de Porres, which I last visited in December 2007. At the time I wrote:

The Fat Girl Principle: It’s baaaack! What, did you think I would venture to 24th & Lehigh without attracting any attention? We got the usual “visitors please stand and introduce yourselves," which never, ever gets any easier. Beyond that, we were greeted warmly by all parishioners, and several exhorted us to come back.

Sorry, the Project is by definition a nomad, although this is one church I would definitely like to see again.

It’s not the most prosperous parish, but their energy and determination would put most to shame.

The intervening 21 months have taken me far from St. Martin, but I've kept in touch with Father Ed and made repeated promises to find a way back. Today, I finally made the time to do so.

The parish is still passionate, the building is still pretty (actually, far prettier than I remembered it being), and Father Ed still "rules over the proceedings with a lively mixture of passion and humor." In this case, regaling the audience with some of the dance moves he learned at a couple of weddings earlier in the weekend. Good stuff. Oh, and he still loves the Project. Even better.

Perhaps most important, and this is a point I can only make now, with more experience under my belt: Martin de Porres has resisted the urge to tamper with its decor. In a time and a place where small and struggling parishes remove pews or move the altar out or do other wacky things, the building still looks very much like I imagined it did back in St. Columba's heyday.

A little grittier, sure, a little rougher around the edges. But it still has all of the pews, the altar and altar rail are still where they should be, and I can't tell you how happy the makes the Project. It's not easy to find architectural traditionalists, especially in scuffling parishes. It takes guts, and the proper sense of history and space.

St. Martin and Father Ed have that, and the Project solutes them for it. Keep up the good work.

Contiguous 48? Ha!

Image Courtesy St. Philip Neri

Lest you doubt the Project's broad geographic reach, consider the following e-mail from reader Joseph M. Przygodzinski of Olelomoana, Hawaii:

I live in Hawaii now, I came from old Southwark.

Sorry hate to call it Queens Village most of us who have roots there never call the old neighborhood that! (my family is still there since 1879)

St. Stanislaus was our parish which was at 240 Fitzwater Street I think.

I was back in 2006 for the first time since I went off to war in 1969.

You can still get in the church and I marveled at how beautiful it still is and well kept.

It is a safe neighborhood and plenty of parking in the church parking lot.

WHy not do something on it?

I have a map from the 1830's that shows the present church being a Lutheran church and Fitzwater Street being called German Street.

Give an old man his wish!

You would thrill us all to death who love your web site if you went into the history a little more of each parish, at least the ethnic origins.

Thank You From my whole heart for the wonderful web site you put together.

First, many thanks to Mr. Przygodzinski for his kind words. It sounds like the Project has quite the cult following out there. It's good to know the Hawaiians have superior taste in churches. Rock on!

The Polish national parish of St. Stanislaus closed in 2006, but the building is still in use as a worship site for neighboring St. Philip Neri. Rest assured, it's on the Project's to-do list and will be covered at some point in the future.

As to your request for more history, that's a little trickier. We've gotten better at that as the Project has gone on. But we're still limited by the constraints of time and information available--often we just can't do the research a more detailed history requires. And that's assuming the information is available. One thing we've learned is that when it comes to old parishes, records are often spotty.

Keep in mind, too, that the Project is first and foremost an architectural endeavor, so all other considerations are secondary. Still, we'll do our best to "thrill you all to death" (hopefully not literally) by trying to up the history ante.

Thanks for stopping by. Aloha!

Mailbag 9

Project reader Valentina Dolpies has a question about one of South Philadelphia's better churches, St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi.

Hi I would like to know about the Pastor that was there in the 50's.Rev.Mons. Vito Mazzone. I think I may have spelled his last name wrong. I belonged to that parish most of my life. I went to school there when he was pastor and I remember that he wrote some books and they were about communism. I wonder if you know if there is any way to get a hold of any of these books??

Valentina certainly wins the "obscure question of the week" award.

Believe it or not, the Project is not actually a vast repository of church information. When it comes to Roman Catholic churches, that would be the Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center (PAHRC). I suggest you start your search there. You can also try directly contacting St. Paul parish, the administrators of St. Mary Magdalen church and the keeper of her spiritual records.

Of course, given that the books in question are not directly related to the parish's history, it's very possible that neither of those sources will be able to help you. That's why I'm going to open it up to the Project's readers.

If any of you are familiar with the parish and these books, or you have any ideas on where Valentina can find them, feel free to chime in, either through the Project's e-mail or the comments feature.

Facebook Strikes Again!

Have you ever googled yourself? The Project does, simply to see the interesting places we show up. And, too, to catch would-be plaigarists red-handed.

One such search revealed a glowing Facebook endorsement from someone named Gina. I have no idea who she is, but her mostly kind words, and those of her friends, are appreciated.

A few comments, though:

1. I did not say that Incarnation of Our Lord has a pristine upper church. Nothing of the sort. My exact words:

Physically, the church is manageable shape. There’s some minor water damage, but overall it’s still pretty strong. Father P shared his concerns about preserving it, and the church has started a pledge drive for that very purpose. Still, I don’t think he needs to lie awake at night thinking about it. Not yet, anyway.

2. The "Yawn" rating for St. John the Evangelist is not any sort of indictment of the quality or excitement of their services. As an emergency rating, it denotes their level of danger. In this case, there is none. Hence, "Yawn."

That said, St. John is certainly not "buck wild." You want wild? Go to a Fat Girl parish. St. John's is nice and inviting, but certainly much farther down on the Love-o-Meter scale.

3. St. Ambrose and Our Lady of Ransom are ugly. No Project coverage needed.

4. And St. Helena? No more explanation needed.

Labor Day Surprise

Ok, so it took a little longer than I expected, but....

A new church for your viewing pleasure: St. Thomas of Villanova.

Enjoy.

Mailbag 8

From the good 'ole mailbag, courtesy Project reader Thomas Day:

Dear Friends, I came across the Philadelphia Church Project and I was delighted. An item about St. Monica Church Catholic Church in South Philadelphia that should be mentioned:

That building was destroyed in a fire maybe 30 or 40 years ago. (Something caught fire during the restoration work on the building.) The members of the parish (largely Italian in heritage) rebuilt the church to resemble the original one as much as possible. Up until about 1970. The parish used to have a vigorous choir of men and boys. They sounded very impressive.

Most of the earliest parishoners were Irish. Years ago I remember being in the old building and noticing all the Irish names of the donors and pastors who were listed on the walls and the windows. Then many Italians moved into the parish.

Best of luck.

With the Project going as long as it has, it's easy to forget some of our early adventures, especially those that don't generate a lot of reader mail. One of those is St. Monica, which was our inaugural voyage to South Philadelphia. And, it should be noted, one of the better ones. Trust us: on many fronts, it was all downhill from there.

The Project was actually aware of the St. Monica fire, although I don't mention it in the review. The event is in included in the stained glass parish history window, although at the time we didn't really understand the true scope of the destruction. Tabula Rasa, anyone?

The impressive thing is that, given the late date of the fire, it would have been easy to close the book on the old building and replace it with some modern monstrosity. The parishioners receive a ton of credit for working to recreate the classic decor, at a time when all of their contemporaries were far less imaginative.

Oh, and yes, a little known fact. Early in its history South Philadelphia used to be predominantly Irish until they moved to other neighborhoods, leaving the area to the Italians, who have since refused to let go.

It's an important lesson: a neighborhood's identity is irrevocably tied to the people who live there. It won't outlive you, and it won't survive if you all move away. In cases like this, it's as if you and those like you never existed.

The Brick St. Peter

Labor Day weekend finds the Project working as hard as ever. No rest for the wicked...err, the weary, it seems.

We'll have a surprise for you later this week. To tide you over, here's a vintage pictures of Northern Liberties' St. Peter the Apostle, back when it had its original red-brick facade.


In the early 1900s, for reasons probably long forgotten, the church was refaced with the granite it still wears today. The resurfacing seems to have been no simple matter, as St. Peter now bears a completely redesigned and expanded facade, with a columned porch and a larger choir window. The steeple, too, seems to have been structurally altered, since it no longer has the rounded cup near the spire.

I think the current black-and-white stone scheme is an awesome (and better) look, but hey, you gotta respect the original design.

Happy Labor Day!

The Never-Ending Visitation

Image Courtesy Visitation BVM

Project reader Pasquale Ciocco reminds us that we haven't heard the last of Visitation BVM:

I found your website and review of my old parish while surfing the web. I went to Visitation school and graduated back in 1979. My interest in the old parish was sparked when I heard from some old classmates on Facebook. My current parish is Our Lady of Calvary and although it is a nice parish, I always feel like it's not big enough to be a church. Growing up I served as a alter boy and there was nothing like hearing that booming church organ while you walked in procession or the choir that would sing when we would have Cardinal Krol perform a Confrimation or First Communion service.

My two older sisters and I were also in the choir (which actually released an album back in the 70s) and the choir loft is large enough to hold at least 30 choir members without a problem with benches to sit on. I also remember the night Nixon signed the peace treaty and we heard the church bells ringing for about an hour. Mind you these bells were not automated like most parishes today, but rather the alter boys or priest would have to pull the ropes to ring them, just thinking about it still makes my arms sore.

After seeing your pictures, I can honestly say that it has not changed much and albeit from the languages I would probably attend a few masses there still. One thing that I did notice is the use of a lot of blue trim throughout the church. I know that they did repaint most of the upper church when I was a kid. But the blue accents were not always that bright and some of the accent lines I think were not even blue. Also, again I'm almost 100% positive that the stations of the cross were not blue at the bottom but rather a reddish brown, so I'm thinking that they were painted as well the same color blue to match the accents. The church was actually in much need of repairs when I went there and I remember them starting to work on painting the celings which were badly peeling. The one thing that hasn't changed are the windows and the murals.

As an FYI, the lower church is also very nice. They actually have a war memorial in the lower church with statues of soldiers (I think a sailor and an army man) praying to Mary with a plaque listing all of the parish boys whos served in the wars (at least they did when I was a kid).

As for your Rocky story I can confirm that he actually did film outside of Visitation and used kids from Viso to run with him during the shooting of Rocky II over the Silver bridge, which is about a block north on B street and not Silver anymore. Also, Rocky carries Adrian up Kensington Ave above Lehigh during that movie and his house was always the last house on the first little street above Kensignton and Lehigh, which I believe is Tusculum St. But I guess I digressed a little too much about Rocky, but one final thing is that when you experience mass in a parish like this growing up, you really find it hard to image celebrating mass in smaller churches. This place is a work of art and I wish that I could have packed it with me when I left the old neighborhood.

Some good memories in there. Of interest to the Project is the revelation that Visitation's decor is not, as I once praised it, original. Like I wrote not too long ago, you never know. Frankly, when it comes to paint and plaster interiors, it's just easier to assume that it's not original. Even in ideal conditions paint needs to be touched up every so often, and many of these parishes wouldn't know ideal conditions if they tripped over them.

Oh, and yes: Rocky was from Kensington. Glad someone else agrees.