Skip to main content

Philadelphia Renewal

March 2023
1min read

In “Unexpected Philadelphia,” John Lukacs states, “The Independence National Historical Park project rose together with the reconstruction of Old Philadelphia that was the work of civicminded Philadelphians themselves … in what is known as Society Hill.… the rebuilding and repeopling of a long-decayed and abandoned portion of Philadelphia that now is not only teeming with tourists but pulsating with everyday life.”

Not so. The Society Hill area, which by the end of World War 11 had declined into rows of neglected warehouses and cheap rooming houses and retail stores, was redeemed by the federally assisted urban renewal program created under the Housing Act of 1949. Philadelphia was one of the first American cities to request such aid, and tens of millions of dollars were poured into Society Hill and a number of other projects, to subsidize the removal of blight and deterioration and make possible rebuilding and renovation.

These remarks are not designed to denigrate the efforts of Philadelphians, which were considerable, but to set the record straight on the coniributions of the national urban renewal program to local efforts for the reclamation and revitalization of cities all across the U.S A

I know. I was Director of Public Information for the Urban Renewal Administration during its most active and productive years, 1961 to 1968.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Stories published from "September/October 1987"

Authored by: Irwin F. Fredman

An old, familiar show is back in Washington. There’s a new cast, of course, but the script is pretty much the same as ever. Here’s the program.

Authored by: Edward Abrahams

In a career that made her one of the greatest American artist of the century, Georgia O’Keeffe claimed to have done it all by herself—without influence from family, friends, or fellow artists. The real story is less romantic though just as extraordinary.

Authored by: Megan Marshall

Elizabeth, Mary, and Sophia Peabody managed to extend the boundaries that cramped the lives of nineteenth-century women. Elizabeth introduced the kindergarten movement to America, Mary developed a new philosophy of mothering that we now take for granted, and Sophia was liberated from invalidism by her passionate love for her husband.

Authored by: Ruth Schwartz Cowan

Modern technology enables the housewife to do much more in the house than ever before. That’s good- and not so good.

Authored by: Charles L. Mee, Jr.

After a summer of debate, three of the delegates in Philadelphia could not bring themselves to put their names to the document they had worked so hard to create

Authored by: The Editors

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner for 150 Years

Authored by: Benedict B. Kimmelman

Of the thousands of American soldiers court-martialed for desertion in World War II, Eddie Slovik was the only one put to death. One of the judges who convicted him looks back with regret.

Featured Articles

Often thought to have been a weak president, Carter was strong-willed in doing what he thought was right, regardless of expediency or the political fallout.

Rarely has the full story been told how a famed botanist, a pioneering female journalist, and First Lady Helen Taft battled reluctant bureaucrats to bring Japanese cherry trees to Washington. 

Why have thousands of U.S. banks failed over the years? The answers are in our history and politics.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.

Native American peoples and the lands they possessed loomed large for Washington, from his first trips westward as a surveyor to his years as President.

A hundred years ago, America was rocked by riots, repression, and racial violence.

During Pres. Washington’s first term, an epidemic killed one tenth of all the inhabitants of Philadelphia, then the capital of the young United States.

Now a popular state park, the unassuming geological feature along the Illinois River has served as the site of centuries of human habitation and discovery.  

The recent discovery of the hull of the battleship Nevada recalls her dramatic action at Pearl Harbor and ultimate revenge on D-Day as the first ship to fire on the Nazis.

Our research reveals that 19 artworks in the U.S. Capitol honor men who were Confederate officers or officials. What many of them said, and did, is truly despicable.

Here is probably the most wide-ranging look at Presidential misbehavior ever published in a magazine.

When Germany unleashed its blitzkreig in 1939, the U.S. Army was only the 17th largest in the world. FDR and Marshall had to build a fighting force able to take on the Nazis, against the wishes of many in Congress.