THE SOUTH STREET PAGE

THE CREATION OF THE SOUTH STREET MUSEUM

South Street, originally called Cedar Street, was founded by William Penn as the southern boundary of Philadelphia, and became a successful commercial corridor.

In 1969 I was helping a friend opening a business on the 300 block of South Street. The store had been closed for many years.

A few businesses had escaped to the suburbs as the neighborhood became vacant as it waited for the building of the Crosstown Expressway.

The space was filled with things from the previous owner who had just gone out the door and never returned. It was so much fun sitting at the office desk looking at some family photos and business papers and even some of the products they sold.

As I looked around the store all covered in dust and cobwebs it reminded me of a museum exhibit. I was that was a recreation of some famous person's office where they created something important.

I wanted to put it all behind glass with some better lighting, but my friend was more interested in cleaning out the place and opening his store.

I gathered up the treasures in some paper bags and boxes with the address and the date I found it.

This happened over and over as more and more people moved in and I had that opportunity to gather up another pile of treasures from the not-too-distant past.

In early 1974, when 337 South Street was available for a short time, I asked if I could create a museum about the history of the area.

That became the first South Street museum, as featured in Philadelphia Magazine, August 1974 issue. There was also a walking tour, "From Headhouse to Levis' - South Street's Unique Contribution to American History." When we got to Levis' you could buy a soda from the oldest operating soda machine in the country for the original price.

For the 10th anniversary in 1980, the museum was exhibited at the Painted Bride on the 600 block of South Street. Then in 1990 for the 20th anniversary of South Street I created an exhibition in a large vacant store on the 400 block of South Street.

While putting together the exhibits I discovered that some of the objects were fragile and needed to be preserved. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania was interested, and loved that the collection had items tagged and dated. When they documented their collection it made "The Hippie History of South Street" official Pennsylvania history. Some of the items were exhibited at the Atwater Kent Museum until it closed.

The museum is now virtual, and if you have some South Street history, please fill out our questionaire.