Ocean City Council on Thursday night declared a local emergency over beach erosion, and urged state and federal officials to help.
The resolution comes after the community suffered severe erosion during two recent storms. Hurricane Erin in August and a nor’easter in October battered the city’s beaches, scouring out cliffs of sand.
“This could be a tool to help our legislators who are fighting to fund a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beach replenishment project,” Mayor Jay Gillian explained.
Gillian said city officials spoke with Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew and shared ideas to deal with the erosion. This year marked the first year since 1996 that Congress approved zero federal dollars for beach projects in New Jersey.
A New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) assessment of the damage from the October nor’easter found that the city experienced erosion between 1st and 11th streets, with new dune scarping or loss in that entire stretch.
Some of the scarping — vertical sandy cliffs caused by storms —exceeded five feet in height.
High waves caused additional damage under the boardwalk at 5th and 6th Streets, according to the DEP.
“Ocean City is currently experiencing critical and accelerating beach erosion, including significant dune loss, destruction of protective berms, and threats to both public and private property,” the resolution states, “placing the city in an emergency state of vulnerability ahead of the winter storm season.”
The resolution said beach width and height had already been compromised before the storms.
Further, it said, the city “lacks the financial resources to independently implement large-scale beach replenishment, dune restoration, or long-term protective measures, and requires urgent and immediate assistance and funding,” from state and federal sources.
Officials say Army Corps replenishment efforts have already been delayed without any clear timeline to continue.
The resolution was sent to Gov. Phil Murphy, and multiple U.S. and state legislators, as well as multiple county, state, and federal departments.
“Ocean City stands ready to work collaboratively with all levels of government to protect the lives, homes, economy, and natural resources of its residents,” the resolution states, “and requests that this growing crisis be met with the urgency and seriousness it warrants.”
Ocean City is not alone in having felt the wrath of the storms without any funding help in site. The continued federal shutdown has only resulted in more delays in seeking money.
Coming after Hurricane Erin, the October nor’easter erased sand and seriously compromised dune systems, the DEP said in its preliminary assessment of the storm.
“Moderate to major erosion” was reported on Long Beach Island and from Strathmere to Cape May, and “moderate to minor” erosion from Brigantine through Ocean City, according to that assessment.
Although Erin stayed well offshore when it struck in August, the winds and waves it generated caused at least minor erosion on 85% of all Jersey beaches, according to the department’s analysis.
That included “moderate” sand losses in Avalon, Ocean City, Strathmere, and North Wildwood.
Contributing to the sand losses resulting from the nor’easter was the fact that the beaches already had endured consecutive days of onshore winds on four occasions since Aug. 18.
Alec Bohm returned from the injured list last month and got eight hits in three games, giving rise to a theory: If Bohm stayed hot, maybe the star hitter who precedes him in the Phillies’ batting order would see more strikes.
Harper knew how that sounded, so he made clear that he meant no disrespect to Bohm. But his point remained. Harper faced a lower rate of pitches in the zone (43%) than any hitter in baseball this season (minimum 150 pitches), so the notion that any Phillies lineup protection short of peak Mike Schmidt would affect how he was pitched ranked somewhere between wishful thinking and delusion.
It has been this way for most of Harper’s life. He recalls being 11 years old and competing in travel tournaments in which the opposing coach would point to him and direct pitchers not to give him anything to hit. In 2016, the Cubs walked him 13 times, four intentionally, in 19 plate appearances over four games at Wrigley Field.
Quite simply, teams game-plan against Harper specifically.
“When we go into a series, we circle guys’ names, too,” Harper said earlier in the season. “It happens that way.”
Even so, there was something different about this season. When Harper did get pitches in the zone, he didn’t do as much damage. As such, he didn’t produce his typical numbers.
Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper saw a lower rate of pitches in the strike zone (43%) than any hitter in baseball this season.
Harper reached base at a .357 clip, his lowest mark since 2014. He slugged .487 with an .844 OPS, his worst totals since 2016. He mashed 27 home runs, despite missing a month with an inflamed right wrist. Although he outproduced the league average by 29%, based on OPS+, he has been 42% better than average over his career.
So, upon being asked at his end-of-the-season news conference on Oct. 16 — coincidentally, Harper’s 33rd birthday — if the Phillies believe this was a down year and not the start of a downturn for the face of the franchise, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski offered an eyebrow-raising answer.
“He’s still an All-Star-caliber player,” he said. “He didn’t have an elite season like he has had in the past. And I guess we only find out if he becomes elite [again] or he continues to be good. If you look around the league, Freddie Freeman, he’s a really good player, right? Is he elite like he was before? Probably not to the same extent. Freddie is a tremendous player, and that, to me, is Bryce.
“Can he rise to the next level again? I don’t really know that answer. He’s the one that will dictate that more than anything else.
“I don’t think he’s content with the year that he had. And, again, it wasn’t a bad year. But when you think of Bryce Harper, you think of elite, right? You think of one of the top-10 players in baseball, and I don’t think [this season] fit into that category. But again, a very good player. I’ve seen guys at his age — again, he’s not old — that level off. Or I’ve seen guys rise again.”
Maybe we just aren’t accustomed to that level of candor from a high-ranking executive, especially at a news conference. Or maybe Dombrowski calculated that challenging a future Hall of Famer to be better would have the effect of poking a grizzly.
Regardless, it sparked conversation — even idle speculation about Harper’s future with six years and $153.25 million left on his contract and no-trade rights based on more than 10 years of major-league service, more than five with the Phillies.
“I’ve been reading that, ‘Oh, the Phillies may trade Bryce Harper.’ That couldn’t be further from the truth,” Dombrowski said the other day on Foul Territory TV. “We love him, think he’s a great player. He’s a very important part of our team.
“When I think of Bryce Harper, it’s a compliment. Because the reality is, there are eight to 10 players in the game of baseball every year when they’re not, let’s say, in the MVP consideration for whatever reason — sometimes it can be an injury factor; sometimes they just have a bad year — it’s not an elite year for them.
“I’ve seen him have better years. I look for him to have better years.”
Especially if the Phillies give him more help.
Bryce Harper hit 27 homers this season, despite missing one month with an inflamed right wrist.
Missing the mistakes
Let there be no doubt about Harper’s state of mind in the aftermath of the Phillies’ second consecutive divisional-round knockout.
“I want [a championship] more than probably a lot of people,” he said. “I want to hold that trophy. On a personal level, I’m going to work my butt off this offseason again and get ready for next year and hopefully take another swing at it and see what we can do.”
But who will follow Harper in the batting order?
It was a topic of conversation early this season. Harper got walked intentionally twice with runners in scoring position on April 11 in Atlanta, prompting Rob Thomson to tweak the lineup the next day. Rather than keeping a struggling Bohm — or fellow right-handed hitters J.T. Realmuto or Nick Castellanos — behind Harper, the manager moved Kyle Schwarber into that spot.
“Just trying to protect Harper the best we can,” Thomson said.
Schwarber should have represented Secret Service-level lineup protection. He batted behind Harper for 42 consecutive games and hit 12 homers in that span.
And yet Harper didn’t see many more pitches in the zone.
“It’s actually gotten worse, which is crazy,” Harper told The Inquirer in May during a series in Cleveland. “Just got to try to hone in as much as possible and hit the mistakes. That’s one thing where [Barry] Bonds was so good at. You get the mistakes and let the other ones go.”
Usually, it’s a trademark of Harper’s, too.
Through six seasons with the Phillies (2019 to 2024), he saw only 42.6% of pitches in the zone, tied for second-lowest rate among 293 players who faced at least 500 pitches, according to Statcast. But he punished those strikes, slugging .680, fifth-best behind Aaron Judge (.763), Shohei Ohtani (.710), Yordan Alvarez (.695), and Mike Trout (.695).
Kyle Schwarber (right) batted behind Bryce Harper early in the season before the Phillies got away from that alignment.
This year, with opponents still coming after him in the zone only 43% of the time, Harper’s slugging percentage on those pitches fell to .591. His weighted on-base average slipped, too, from .424 to .378.
Reasons for the drop-off weren’t clear. Harper’s average bat speed wasn’t diminished (74.2 mph vs. 74.0 mph in 2024). His average exit velocity (91.3 mph) and hard-hit rate (47.5%) were consistent with the last two seasons (91.5 mph, 47.5%).
There was a notable difference in how teams attacked Harper. He faced fewer fastballs (46.7%) and more breaking pitches — curveballs and sliders (41.3%) — than ever before. By comparison, the breakdown last season was 52.9% fastballs and 32.3% breaking stuff.
Why the change?
“Because I’m not hitting them,” Harper said. “Like, don’t try to fix what’s not broken, right?”
Indeed, Harper slugged .438 against curveballs and sliders, down from .458 in 2024, .466 in 2023, and .495 in 2022.
At least Harper didn’t overreact by swinging at many more pitches out of the zone. His chase rate ticked up to 35.6%, according to Statcast, but wasn’t far off his 33.4% mark from each of the previous two seasons. He walked in 12.1% of his plate appearances, nearly identical to his 12% mark from 2024.
But as the Phillies seek explanations for Harper’s subpar season, they can start by tracing why he didn’t crush as many pitches — of any variety — in the zone as usual.
Bryce Harper is a two-time Gold Glove finalist at first base. The Phillies haven’t discussed moving him back to the outfield.
Better protection
Maybe it would’ve helped if Thomson stuck with Schwarber behind Harper.
Instead, Schwarber moved into the No. 2 hole while Harper was sidelined in June and stayed there en route to joining Ryan Howard in the pantheon of Phillies’ 50-homer hitters. Once Harper came back, he most often was followed in the order by Realmuto (41 games), Bohm (18), and Castellanos (13).
Harper was the Phillies’ primary No. 3 hitter (117 games); Phillies cleanup hitters combined to rank 20th in slugging (.408) and OPS (.720).
Scott Boras, Harper’s agent, didn’t respond to messages in recent days. But he told MLB.com that the best way for the Phillies to restore Harper’s elite performance is to “give Bryce Harper more pitches to hit.”
Translation: Upgrade the lineup protection.
Maybe it’s as simple as re-signing Schwarber and sticking him in the cleanup spot. Maybe the Phillies can add even more slug by putting the $24.5 million that will come off the books with the departures of Max Kepler, Jordan Romano, and David Robertson into an offer for, say, Alex Bregman, then swapping Bohm for Angels outfielder Taylor Ward.
But unless 2006 Ryan Howard comes out of retirement, history suggests that Harper will continue to see fewer pitches in the zone than almost any hitter in baseball.
He needs to get back to crushing them.
“I think he’s highly motivated to have the best season of his career next year,” Thomson said. “He hasn’t told me this, but that type of person — and I’ve seen it before — they’ve had bad years, they’ll go like gangbusters during the offseason to get better because they want to get back to where they normally are at. I think that’s just Harp’s mindset. I think that’s what he’s going to do.”
Early on a recent sky-blue Saturday, 12 people stood rapt at Sixth and Washington, gazing up at a flock of pigeons perched along a telephone wire.
“What do you see?” a guide posed, as the pigeons cooed, contently.
The docent’s cheerful query loosened a chorus of replies and conversation, including enthusiastic observations on the birds’ shimmering iridescent hues and micro-feather structure, to discussions on the airfoil-like curvature of their wings, obsessive preening, and seasonal molting.
Just then, a white-speckled feather drifted down from the high wire.
“Here’s a feather floating down right here to make a point,” another guide interjected to laughter.
Avery Breyne-Cartwright, of West Philadelphia, uses binoculars to look at a flock of pigeons on the power lines along Sixth Street and Washington Avenue during a tour.
Welcome to South Philly’s hottest new excursion: Philly Pigeon Tours. A weekly, 90-minute morning stroll to several of the Italian Market’s most established flocks, offering an engaging and enlightening glimpse into the long-revered — and more recently rocky — relationship between humans and rock doves, the fancy term for urban pigeons. It’s a look at South Philly through a pigeon’s eyes.
5,000 years of pigeon history
Founded by partners and pigeon owners (more on that in a moment) Hannah Michelle Brower, 34, and Aspen Simone, 36, Philly Pigeon Tours have quickly transformed into a hot ticket. In June, the pair’s first tour, organized as a one-off, sold out all 25 slots. The crowds keep flocking.
Casually covering 5,000 years of pigeon history — from the rock doves’ esteemed status in ancient times as symbols of love, sexuality, and war to their more thorny present-day urban existence, dodging hungry hawks and alley cats, and navigating anti-pigeon netting and spikes — the pair ask tour takers to challenge skewed cultural narratives.
“We teach people everything we know about pigeons,” said Brower, originally from New Orleans, who first moved to Philly to attend Haverford College, and then returned after earning a master’s degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. Earlier this year, federal cuts eliminated her job as a public health consultant.
In August, Simone closed Birdhouse Gelato, after DOGE cuts cost them their day job at an agency that helped improve federal digital efficiency — a gig that helped fund the popular Bella Vista shop.
Pigeons flying in the sky along Sixth Street and Washington Avenue during a pigeon tour.
“We debunk a lot of pigeon misinformation and replace it with facts,” Brower said of the tours.
Having seemingly cornered the Philly pigeon-tour market — the pair will soon start tours in West Philly, with Old City walks coming in the spring, and a podcast just dropping — the outings no doubt appeal to secret pigeon-lovers everywhere. But much of the charm of the pleasant pigeon rambles is found in Brower and Simone’s sincere and catchy love for birds derided by many as “rats with wings.”
“We often talk about how hating pigeons is a choice,” said Simone.
Primrose the Pet Pigeon
The couple weren’t always pigeon boosters themselves.
Brower had never cared much for pigeons until three years ago, when a neighborhood woman caring for an ailing pigeon called out to her.
“I was really like, ‘I don’t understand why we have to care about this,’” she recalls. “I figured that the pigeon could be a tasty snack for some city hawk or cat.”
Convinced by the woman to seek help for the malnourished bird, Brower fell in love with the pigeon before she made it home.
Hannah Michelle Brower (left) and Aspen Simone do some introductions before heading out for a Philly Pigeon Tour.
“I remember thinking, ‘Don’t name the pigeon. You’re gonna become attached.’ But then I said, ‘Primrose is her name.’ She just wanted to be close to me. She was very cuddly, and I just completely fell in love with her.”
Simone recoils when recalling their thoughts upon finding a pigeon stowed in a cardboard box that first night in the couple’s South Philly apartment.
“That’s kind of gross,” they said. But Primrose quickly won Simone over, too.
“It turns out she was a baby and might have been left a little too soon by her parents,” Brower said. “The rehabilitator said, ‘This is the sweetest, most cuddliest pigeon I ever met. I don’t think she’s going to survive on the streets. Do you want a pet pigeon?’”
Pigeon behavior and croissant crumbs
“She’s very much like a cat or a dog,” Brower said with a smile of Primrose, who favors a sunny spot on a guest-bedroom blanket. “She’s a free-roaming indoor pigeon. People always ask about the poop. She has her favorite spots in the house, so we just put down cage paper and it catches the poop. It doesn’t smell.”
Primrose the pet pigeon relaxing at home in a favorite sun spot.
(They are searching the internet for Philadelphia Eagles-themed pigeon poop pants that Primrose can don for guests.)
Regal and stout, with a scarf of green and purple neck feathers and striking orange eyes, the affectionate pigeon quickly made herself at home, perching on the couple’s shoulders and heads during work-from-home Zoom meetings — and whenever the couple prepare to head out the door, wanting to stay with the family flock.
“She likes to sit on our laps and we just pet her,” Brower said, adding that Primrose does the same with company.
Conscientious pigeon owners, Brower and Simone became keen observers of pigeon behavior. Like when Primrose perches near the sink to signal bath time, before luxuriating in a warm bowl of water. Or when she interrupts a TV show or work call to perform a pigeon’s elaborate mating dance, cooing, walking in circles, and running close to the ground, before bowing and elegantly fanning her tail feathers. How she sits atop the unfertilized pigeon eggs she lays, for weeks, until she is confident they will not hatch. Her sweet tooth for croissant crumbs.
Soon, they couldn’t help but spot the same sorts of behaviors among the pigeons they encountered around the neighborhood. They pored over pigeon books.
“We began to look a bit more into the science behind it and learned more about pigeon group dynamics,” said Simone.
Misconceptions based on fear
Holding aloft guide sticks with small cardboard cutouts of Primrose (a decided homebody, Primrose does not join the strolls), Brower and Simone share their newfound pigeon truths one tour at a time.
In ancient Mesopotamia rock doves were associated with gods — and viewed as signs of safety in Abrahamic religions, and symbols of status before the French Revolution, Brower said.
Aspen Simone, of South Philadelphia, leads a Philly Pigeon Tour in the Italian Market.
By the 1960s, the urban pigeon’s reputation was roundly sullied after a media-fueled panic blamed their droppings for causing meningitis in New York City, she said.
“Woody Allen repeated the phrase ‘rats with wings’ in Stardust Memories, and that’s when it spread and took hold,” Simone said of the 1980 film.
A recent tour included two young biologists, a pair of pigeon enthusiast sisters, and a group of young friends. They had all seen advertisements for the tours tacked up in the neighborhood or on Instagram.
A mated pair of pigeons seen resting on top of a storefront in the Italian Market.
“We were talking about how pigeons make us feel emotional,” said Tess Cronin, on why she and her friends signed up for the tour. “How pigeons were bred by human beings, and now we think of them as rats and pests.”
Near Ninth Street, where businesses are outfitted with spikes to keep birds from roosting, Brower and Simone preached pigeon empathy. Starting with the lessons they learned from Primrose.
Like with all things, Brower said, it’s never just about pigeons.
“Our misconceptions originated with fear,” she said. “And I think we’ve really been able to catch ourselves better when we notice ourselves maybe stereotyping.”
With that, the tour set out to find more pigeons.
A white pigeon seen resting on a sign during the Philly Pigeon tour in Philadelphia, Pa., on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.
In May 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh became the first person to fly nonstop between New York and Paris. A feat that launched him and his plane into a level of stardom today reserved for the likes of Taylor Swift.
He was held up as the poster boy for an expanding empire. He epitomized the delicate balance of American exceptionalism and humble appreciation.
So when he returned stateside, there was a nationwide celebration. The victory tour covered nearly 100 cities and ended in Philadelphia.
So maybe he was a little cranky when a gaggle of reporters fawned over the 25-year-old aviator from Missouri.
One problem
Lindbergh landing the Spirit of St. Louis at Philadelphia’s airport on Oct. 22, 1927, was a big deal.
During this PR tour, which also helped sell his forthcoming memoir We, the city saw an opportunity to hype its airport.
Only problem?
Lindbergh said he didn’t like the airport.
His thoughts
After landing, Lindbergh raised Old Glory as part of ceremony to dedicate what was then called Philadelphia Municipal Airport, which is now part of the Philadelphia International Airport. Two years earlier, in 1925, the municipal airport had opened as a training facility for National Guard aviators.
Charles Lindbergh flew nonstop between New York and Paris in the Spirit of St. Louis.
Later, he was honored at a reception at Municipal Stadium, which stood at the site of what’s now Xfinity Mobile Arena. The stadium was originally built for the 1926 Sesquicentennial.
It was followed by a banquet at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, which is where he made his thoughts on the airport known.
“What do you think of Philadelphia’s landing field?” a reporter asked.
“Well,” he paused, “it could be improved.”
He laughed at his frankness, The Inquirer reported.
He thought that the airport needed longer runways and needed to be closer to the city.
“I think that the field is a little far out,” he said.
An Inquirer reporter covering the event observed Lindbergh was not the only out-of-towner to express disdain for the city.
“A stranger finds Philadelphia the most difficult of American cities at first,” Richard Beamish wrote in The Inquirer, “and the most charming after he has become known.”
In fairness, Lindbergh was also advocating for the expansion of airports and expansion of aerial accommodationsacross the country.
Think you know your news? There’s only one way to find out. Welcome back to our weekly News Quiz — a quick way to see if your reading habits are sinking in and to put your local news knowledge to the test.
Question 1 of 10
The jewel heist at the Louvre this week caused a stir, marking one of the highest-profile museum thefts in living memory. But Philly’s seen its own fair share of heists over the years. In 2017, a man attending a party at the Franklin Institute broke this body part off a life-size Chinese terracotta warrior statue.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
While attending an after-hours ugly sweater party at the Franklin Institute, Michael Rohana broke the thumb off the warrior statue. He described the incident as a “drunken mistake” and returned the thumb, which he had taken home. Still, it caused international turmoil, with Chinese officials accusing the Franklin Institute of carelessness with the artifact. Rohana was eventually sentenced to five years’ probation, a $5,000 fine, and community service.
Question 2 of 10
In an interview on Switch the Play (with Roger Bennett of Men in Blazers), Joel Embiid said this sport was his first love:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
A young Embiid had dreams of being a footballer (as in soccer, not the NFL) until the 7-footer grew too tall for that to be in the cards. Even though he doesn’t play anymore, he’s still a passionate fan of Real Madrid and the Cameroonian national team.
Subscribe to The Philadelphia Inquirer
Our reporting is directly supported by reader subscriptions. If you want more journalism like this story, please subscribe today.
Which supermarket is opening at the former Walgreens in South Philadelphia at Broad and Snyder Streets in early 2026?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
New York-based Met Fresh is on track to open its first Philly location. The 13,000-square-foot supermarket will include a pharmacy, a fresh-cut produce department, and a deli counter. It is also applying for a license to sell beer and wine.
Question 4 of 10
In its review of HBO mini-series Task, the New York Times describes Delaware County as a ___ stretch of rural America.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
In the opinion piece, television journalist Alan Sepinwall, a New Jersey native who went to Penn, says show creator Brad Ingelsby — who grew up in Chester County — “transports us to a downtrodden stretch of rural America where a guy like Robbie has to resort to stealing from drug dealers in order to make ends meet.” But statistically, there’s really no argument to support that Delco is rural.
Question 5 of 10
Prime Video’s three-part series on this Philly-tied athlete premiered at the Philadelphia Film Festival this week:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Prime Video’s Allen Iv3rsonfollows the journey of 11-time NBA All-Star Allen Iverson from Newport News, Va., to his career in the NBA, covering his life both on and off the court.
story continues after advertisement
Question 6 of 10
The popular phrase among Gen Z and chronically online crowds, “six-seven” (or “6-7”), has ties to Philly. Which local rapper kicked off the trend through lyrics in their song?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Skrilla, 27, has more than 130 million streams across platforms and continues to rise in popularity. The Kensington-based artist’s song “Doot Doot (6 7)” features the first reference to “6-7.”
Question 7 of 10
This popular musician made an appearance in the crowds at Philadelphia’s installment of the “No Kings” rally against President Donald Trump and his administration. Who was it?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Former Talking Heads singer David Byrne, amid three solo shows at the Met Philadelphia, told a fan at the "No Kings" march that “he wanted to be here for this.”
Question 8 of 10
Barry Leonard, 87, formerly of Philadelphia, known for pioneering legal change to allow unisex hair salons, died this month at his home in Hallandale Beach, Fla. Leonard was best known as this term:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
In the late 1960s, Mr. Leonard gave local advertising whiz Elliott Curson a haircut, and Curson, delighted with the result, suggested rebranding Mr. Leonard as “a crimper,” British slang for hairdresser. What followed was a hugely successful ad campaign and a friendship that lasted more than 50 years.
Question 9 of 10
As the United States women's national soccer team took on Portugal at Subaru Park this week, it’s worth noting that this USWNT player is an “honorary Philadelphian” due to her local ties — and Inquirer reporter sister.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Sam Coffey, 26, is a product of Penn State and now one of the U.S. team’s certifiable stars: an Olympic gold medalist, defensive midfield stalwart, and even a captain for a few recent games. She’s also the sister of Inquirer sports writer Alex Coffey.
Question 10 of 10
What is the title of Josh Shapiro’s upcoming memoir?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
On Tuesday, Harper — an imprint of HarperCollins Publishing — announced the release of Shapiro’s forthcoming memoir, Where We Keep the Light: Stories From a Life of Service, which will hit shelves on Jan. 27, 2026. The book will detail Shapiro’s career and personal life, including when a man firebombed the governor’s mansion while Shapiro and his family slept inside and his place on the short list for Kamala Harris’ vice president.
Your Results
You have skipped .
You scored XX out of 10.
The average reader scored XX out of 10
Seems like you’ve been skimming more than reading there, buddy. There’s always next week.
You’ve read some articles (or made some educated guesses) but we wouldn’t come to you first for our local news recaps. Better luck next week!
Do you work here? You’re a local news stan with the latest updates on Philly happenings. Your friends definitely ask you for summaries on what’s going on and it shows.
Woodmere Art Museum director and CEO William R. Valerio never thought he’d be standing in a former second-floor bedroom turned into a cozy, copper-hued art gallery, admiring Violet Oakley’s famous series of paintings: Building the House of Wisdom.
Yet, there he was.
Two weeks before the new Frances M. Maguire Hall for Art and Education opens on Nov. 1, Valerio was brimming with excitement.
The Victorian mansion and former convent is the new home to the 112-year-old Chestnut Hill museum’s permanent collection, the most definitive group of paintings, sculptures, and prints by Philadelphia artists in the region — if not the world.
William R. Valerio surrounded by Violet Oakley’s seminal work “Building the House of Wisdom” in the Frances M. Maguire’s second floor Violet Oakley Gallery. Valerio recreated this gallery as a replica of Charlton Yarnall’s early 20th century Rittenhouse Square home where the 12-piece series was commissioned for the mansion’s music room.
“I’ve been at the museum for 15 years and I’ve always wanted to build a space to show House of Wisdom the way Oakley intended it to be shown,” Valerio said. “But I never could have imagined this.”
This is a four-story, 17,000-square-foot,gleaming house museum.
The Violet Oakley Gallery is particularly noteworthy. The 375-square-foot space is a recreation of early 20th-century banker Charlton Yarnall’s music room, where Oakley’s vibrant murals were nestled in the Rittenhouse Square mansion’s vaulted ceilings.
At Maguire Hall, Oakley’s allegorical interpretations of wisdom in the arts and sciences are fixed in lunettes positioned at eye level, allowing museumgoers to sit in a meditative gaze under a glowing replica of Italian designer Nicola d’Ascenzo’s stained glass dome.
Oakley’s House of Wisdom has been on and off view at Woodmere since 1962, when the museum’s then director — and Oakley’s life partner — Edith Emerson brought the 12-piece series to the museum. Yarnall’s mansion was being converted to an office building, and Emerson feared her late partner’s seminal work would be carelessly discarded.
“The House of Wisdom is among the roughly 11,000 pieces of art we’ve acquired over the decades that now have a place to shine like never before,“ Valerio said.
View of hallway between six second-floor galleries at Woodmere’s soon-to-be-opened Frances M. Maguire Hall.
‘Philadelphia’s great masterpieces’
Charles Knox Smith opened the Woodmere Museum — what is now the museum’s Charles Knox Smith Hall — in 1913. It holds Woodmere’s vast 18th- and 19th-century collections, including Smith’s beloved Philadelphia landscapes, and is open Wednesday to Sunday.
A few houses down and across the street, Maguire Hall’s 14 galleries hold paintings, sculptures, illustrations, photographs, and mixed media murals centering 20th-century Philadelphia artists.
William R. Valerio, director and CEO of Woodmere Museum, chatting in front of George Biddle’s 1966 oil on canvas “Evocation of the Past.”
“The idea is to show off Philadelphia’s great masterpieces,” Valerio said.
He and his four-person curatorial team spent months mounting golden frames on the monochromatic walls, so closely together they nearly touched. It gives Maguire Hall the intimate vibe of a 19th-century home.
Every major 20th-century art movement is represented, but the curation is a nod to 21st-century diversity.
African American realist Ellen Powell Tiberino’s striking nude Repose shares gallery space with Martha Mayer Erlebacher’s stunning life-size portrait The Path. Both are only a few feet away from a work by George Biddle — of the illustrious Philadelphia family that traces its roots to the 17th century — the thoughtful Evocation of the Past.
Black Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts scholar Charles Jay’s meticulous floral still life paintings from the early 1980s line Maguire Hall’s grand staircase. It leads to the second-floor galleries, where lauded 1920s impressionist Walter Elmer Schofield’s bucolic renderings of snowy Wissahickon trails coolly hang.
William R. Valerio, director and CEO of Woodmere Art Museum in conversation with Syd Carpenter’s arresting “Frank as the Sun King,” paying homage to Carpenter’s brother who served in the Army during the 90s during Desert Storm and returned to Philadelphia as a quadriplegic.
An entire gallery is dedicated to female artists, featuring portraits by Oakley and Emerson. They are in conversation with an arresting sculpture by Syd Carpenter, Frank as the Sun King, an homage to Carpenter’s brother, who served in Desert Storm and came home to Philadelphia as a quadriplegic. Carpenter curated the Colored Girls Museum’s Livingroom Garden in 2024.
“These diverse backgrounds and social experiences reshape and expand the canon of 20th-century art through a Philadelphia lens,” Valerio said.
A major gift
Maguire Hall was built in 1854 as a country estate for the family of William Henry Trotter, an importer of steel, copper, and tin. In the 1890s, the house was renovated by sugar merchant Alfred C. Harrison.
The Sisters of St. Joseph bought the stately home from developers in the 1920s to serve as the Norwood-Fontbonne Academy dorm. The nuns lived there until 2021, when Woodmere purchased it for $2.5 million.
“It gave us the opportunity to take items out of storage and show the beauty of Woodmere to the world,” Valerio said.
Overview of the former Sisters of St. Joseph Convent that’s been transformed to Woodmere’s Frances M. Maguire Hall for Art and Education in Chestnut Hill.
James J. Maguire Sr. built a string of small insurance companies into a national conglomerate in the mid- to late 20th century. In 2008, he completed a $5 billion merger with a Japanese firm and, with his wife, Frances, became one of the region’s largest philanthropic donors.
An artist and patron of the arts, Frances Maguire died in 2020. Three years later, the Frances M. Maguire Art Museum was opened at the former home of the Barnes by St. Joseph’s University, which had received a $50 million donation from the Maguire Foundation in 2017.
Frances Maguire also spent a lot of time at Woodmere, taking classes and serving on the board of trustees. In her honor, the Maguire Foundation gave the museum $10 million. Valerio raised an additional $18 million from donors, state, and federal funding. The $28 million was used to renovate the mansion and start an endowment.
Entrance way of the Frances M. Maguire hall. To the left is a portrait of Maguire by Kassem Amoudi. The chandelier Chestnut Street’s Boyd Theater open from 1928 to 2002.
A portrait of Frances Maguire by Kassem Amoudi hangs in the foyer.
“In creating the Frances M. Maguire Hall and supporting Woodmere, we are assuring that her legacy is shared with current and future generations,” said Megan Maguire Nicoletti, one of the Maguires’ nine children and CEO of the Maguire Foundation.
All the details
Krieger Architects worked with New York-based Baird Architects to turn the ramshackle convent into a modern museum, complete with wheelchair-accessible ramps and a shiny glass elevator overlooking the art trail connecting Maguire Hall to Charles Knox Smith Hall.
Mammoth sculptures by 1959 Penn graduate Robinson Fredenthal are visible from the elevator as well as chokeberry, bayberry, and pawpaw trees, planted in Woodmere’s perennial Outdoor Wonder garden in honor of the Lenape Indians. Maguire Hall boasts a brand-new porch dotted with bright Adirondack chairs that once belonged to the University of the Arts.
Detail of Belgium carver Edward Maene’s work in The Frances M. Maguire Hall breakfast nook. During the renovation, the carvings original red, green, and golden hues were discovered.
In the mansion’s dining room, breakfast room, and central staircase are exquisite woodcarvings from 20th-century master and Belgium immigrant Edward Maene.
“He went all out and carved fantastical medallions with images of fish that turned into birds and humans that turned into lions,” Valerio said of Maene’s work.
There is the MacDonald Family Children’s Art Studio, where little ones can try their hands at finger painting, watercolors, and perhaps a bit of jewelry making. Right across from it is a jewelry vault, where an ankle-length Henri David coat sparkles with jewels from local Victorian-era jewelry houses: Bailey, Banks & Biddle and Caldwell.
Tyler School of Art and Architecture graduate Theophilus Annor fashioned hand mannequins for the baubles. (Annor also carved Adinkra symbols into John Rais’ decorative wrought iron)
Jewels shown on a hand mannequin fashioned by Ghanian artist Theophilus Annor in the Frances M. Maguire jewelry vault. (L) Theophilus Annor, Holding On, 2024, Gold & faceted gemstone. (R) Richard Reinhardt, Ring, date unknown.
Housing history
The second-floor illustrative arts rooms feature wartime drawings from 1940s issues of the Saturday Evening Post and framed TV Guide images of Kojak’s Telly Savalas and Columbo’s Peter Falk. (TV Guide was owned by former Inquirer and Daily News publisher Walter Annenberg.)
“This part of our history is often forgotten,” Valerio said. “But it was important to artists who lived here and made a living in what was then a big media city.”
The first floor gallery of the Frances M. Maguire Hall featuring (left) Ashley Flynn’s stark mural of drug culture in Kensington and “Madre del Nene” a1990, oil on linen from Bo Bartlett
But the bottom floor is the star. Housed here are Maguire’s most evocative pieces, like an abstract collage by Danny Simmons — brother of hip-hop luminaries Russell and Joseph “Run” Simmons — titled Hocus Pocus, which interrogates magic in the Black community. Ashley Flynn’s gripping mural depicting drug abuse in Kensington and gay artist and collage maker Stuart Netsky’sHave Your Cake and Eat it Too, which puts a naughty twist on Victorian-era prudishness, radiate under the Boyd Theatre’s chandelier.
With this work, Valerio hopes Maguire Hall plays a role in shaping a more inclusive future in Philadelphia — and around the world — through the arts.
“We do what no other museum does in exploring the art and culture of this city in depth,” Valerio said. “And we welcome everyoneto take part in the conversation.”
Woodmere’s Frances M. Maguire Hall for Art and Education, 9001 Germantown Ave., opens to the public on Nov. 1 and 2. Charles Knox Smith Hall is located at 9201 Germantown Ave. Both are open Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $10. Free on Sundays. woodmere.museum.org
The article was updated to reflect the new name of the children’s art studio at Woodmere Museum, and the last name of Maguire Foundation’s CEO.
One thing nobody will dispute is that Thursday was a victory for the scolds. All at once, they logged on, and logged in, and limbered up their Twitter fingers and sent them dancing across the keyboard like Herbie Hancock on the ivories.
A good old-fashioned gambling scandal was erupting, and they weren’t going to let it pass without imparting some grave moral lessons.
Look here, they said. The most important indictment announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Eastern District of New York office on Thursday wasn’t the one that laid out the charges against NBA guard Terry Rozier for his alleged role in a prop-bet-fixing scheme, or the one that detailed NBA head coach Chauncey Billups’ alleged involvement in rigging illegal poker games.
No, the important indictment was the metaphorical one handed down against the NBA itself. For embracing legalized sports gambling. For partnering with online sportsbooks like DraftKings. For prioritizing profit over the integrity of the game.
This wasn’t just criminals allegedly doing as criminals allegedly do. It was the inevitable end result of the NBA’s embrace of an industry that should not exist.
Again, according to the scolds.
But the scolds are wrong. In fact, their interpretation of Thursday’s events, and of last year’s Jontay Porter guilty plea in a separate investigation, is the exact opposite of the real lesson to draw. A world where people can gamble openly with reputable companies that operate within the jurisdiction of federal law enforcement and in cooperation with sports leagues is a world where any bad actors are likely to be caught. That is not the world as it used to be.
We all remember the old world, right? Pete Rose, Paul Hornung and Alex Karras, the Black Sox, Boston College and CCNY. These were some of the biggest individual or institutional names of their eras, all of them involving serious wagers on the outcomes of games over an extended period of time, most of them in concert with the criminal underworld.
Pete Rose, who was banned from baseball for 35 years for betting on the sport, was reinstated last May.
The responsibility of protecting the integrity of games fell primarily on sports executives. Karras and Hornung, two of the NFL’s biggest stars in the 1960s, were suspended for a season as a result of commissioner Pete Rozelle’s investigation into players’ ties with bettors.
Nobody knows the old world as well as the NBA. Two decades ago, the league found itself mired in the biggest scandal of them all when it learned that referee Tim Donaghy had spent four years wagering on games that he officiated. Donaghy, a Delco native who attended Cardinal O’Hara, later claimed that 80% of his bets ended up cashing.
His gambling was eventually uncovered by an FBI investigation that resulted in prison time, but only after he’d inflicted four years’ worth of reputational damage on the league.
Compare the Donaghy scandal to what the feds laid out in their indictments on Thursday. Rozier is alleged to have provided nonpublic information to gamblers who bet on at least seven games between March 2023 and March 2024.
The indictment involving Rozier also includes mention of a “Co-Conspirator 8″ who provided gamblers with information about Portland Trailblazers personnel decisions, although Billups was not explicitly named. (Billups’ charges stem from a separate case involving the rigging of illegal poker games.)
The Rozier case stems from an earlier investigation into Porter, a then-Toronto Raptors player who later admitted in court that he manipulated his performance in two games. (Porter was banned from the NBA in the spring of 2024 and is currently awaiting sentencing in his case).
I don’t mean to minimize the seriousness of the cases involving Rozier, Billups, and Porter. Rozier and Billups deserve to join Porter with lifetime bans, and Billups should be removed from the Hall of Fame.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver and the league need to do some serious self-scouting to figure out if there is anything they can do beyond wielding heavy-handed punishment as a deterrent.
The scolds are correct in at least one regard. The NBA and its fellow sports leagues should seriously reconsider the extent to which they have encouraged the integration of betting with their telecasts and live events. The rise in popularity of betting on individual player props and so-called same-game parlay promotions has created a huge new front of incentives and avenues for malfeasance, packaged and promoted in a way that can feel more like fantasy sports than gambling.
It is more than fair to suggest that commissioners should create more distance between themselves and the sportsbooks, particularly when it comes to marketing.
The NBA’s increasingly close relationship with sportsbooks has brought in significant revenue but also led to additional problems.
Let’s not lose sight of the real issue. The leagues had no choice but to accept the reality of legal sports gambling. In the years before its adoption in the United States, overseas sportsbooks were exploding in popularity. Daily Fantasy cash games were already legal. Sports gambling was going to achieve critical mass at some point in the United States.
The decision that the leagues had to make was whether they wanted to help create a world where it could be regulated and policed most effectively.
We saw that world play out in Porter’s case. The gambling syndicate that attempted to profit from his prop bets was flagged due to the irregular nature of the wagers. The ability to detect abnormal betting patterns is the single biggest weapon in the fight against sports-fixing, and it should be the single biggest deterrent to anybody who attempts to engage in it.
The legalization of sports gambling is shifting all of the money that used to be wagered in the underworld onto audited books overseen by billion-dollar companies with sophisticated detection methods in place. It would be silly for a league like the NBA not to encourage that sort of framework in favor of one where forensic accounting is nearly impossible.
The cases of Rozier, Billups, and Porter are an indication that the world still isn’t perfect. But it is silly to suggest that stuff like this was less prevalent in the old world. We were just less likely to find out about it.
Donald Trump had the nation’s somber attention last month as he delivered the Arizona football stadium eulogy for assassinated right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk, and — as the 47th president is wont to do — took an unexpected detour to promise a scientific breakthrough for a condition his regime has called a national tragedy.
“I think you’re going to find it to be amazing,” Trump said of a pending White House announcement. “I think we found an answer to autism.” With typical bravado, he suggested that a total end to a neurodevelopment order was at hand, that “we’re not going to let it happen anymore.”
What was actually announced in the coming days — a debunked claim that autism is linked to pregnant women taking the pain reliever Tylenol, as well as a suggestion of a connection to circumcision — was attacked by many experts as a gross misreading of the existing scientific data, and nothing like the breakthrough that Trump had promised in Glendale.
But whatwas even more telling was the reaction from families or adults who’ve been living for years with a diagnosis of neurodivergence, who aren’t realistically asking for a “cure” — especially not one cloaked in alleged quackery — but simply a more compassionate approach from a government they feel is stigmatizing a community that wants support.
They don’t see life on the autism spectrum — a mix of communication and emotional struggles with passionate interests and insight, varying greatly from person to person — as a disease, but as a difference, to be better understood and nurtured.
In this photo provided by Ana Fiero, Kelly Sue Milano holds her 6-year-old son, who is on the autism spectrum, at an outdoor party in Irvine, Calif., on Monday.
“My daughter’s an amazing person that contributes to society and contributes to our family, and she’s not a crisis,” Jenny Shank of St. Louis told the local NPR affiliate. She said that what the autism community really needs from the government “is awareness, acceptance and opportunities in our communities, and funding for schools for help to meet their maximum potential.”
Studies have shown higher rates of autism — more than 3% of 8-year-olds, according to recent research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — than was once believed. But experts theorize this may be more from greater awareness than the conspiracy theories around Tylenol or vaccines that are an obsession with Trump’s contrarian U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
RFK Jr. has said that “autism destroys families,” while Trump has called it “a horrible, horrible crisis,” but statements like those have deeply dismayed many of the households for which the Trump regime seems to want a gold star for trying to help. Ashley Kline, whose 5-year-old son has been diagnosed with autism, told the Washington Post, “I don’t want it to get to a point where inclusion is just thrown out the window, and people start insisting that the best thing for autistic children and adults is to be hidden behind walls once again.”
The Trump regime’s misguided obsession with faulty research in seeking a magic bullet “cure” for autism has been portrayed as one more example of science under siege in America, and it is that. But it’s also a window into something deeper, and arguably even more disturbing.
Whether it’s an autism community it pretends to be helping or the transgender community it openly seeks to destroy, our authoritarian government is waging war to flatten any differences, to make America great again with a forced monochrome lens.
Protesters for and against gender-affirming care for transgender minors demonstrate outside the U.S. Supreme Court Building in December.
You see it almost every day with Trump and his MAGA administration. Often it’s big and obvious, like the president’s Day One executive order that targeted America’s nearly three million transgender people by declaring the government would only recognize two unchangeable sexes, male and female, and end any policies that aided the transgender community.
But Trump’s war on the different also permeates the smaller stuff, like his “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth’s much-ballyhooed and much-ridiculed “warrior ethos” lecture to 800 appalled-looking generals and admirals. Hegseth included in his vision a mandate that would ban soldiers with facial hair, declaring “no beardos,” and adding, “The age of rampant and ridiculous shaving profiles is done.”
Hegseth also declared an end to “fat” generals and overweight troops (apparently the Texas National Guard didn’t get the memo), and, OK, maybe that’s required for certain types of combat soldiers. But the broader message from the Pentagon is clear: that the new regime wants a sea of troops who look alike. Beardless, slimmed down, and, evidently— given the ouster of so many women and Black top commanders — as white and male as possible in 2025 America.
I think we vastly underrate how central this contempt for anyone who looks or acts differently from an idealized pre-1960 vision of America is to the entire fascist enterprise that we have too kindly branded “Trumpism.”
The idea of a new type of personal freedom — a quest for individualfulfillment, aided by post-World War II prosperity, shattering the artificial constraints of conformity — was birthed in a New Left philosophy spelled out in texts like 1962’s “Port Huron Statement.”
Ah, 1967 and the Summer of Love. No, brothers and sisters, this is not Haight Ashbury. It was Griffith Park on Easter 1967, the first of several Love-Ins where young folks gathered near the merry-go-round to promote the counter-culture movement in their own expressive ways. pic.twitter.com/YUI84bP0xK
This outlook, rooted in the upheavals of the 1960s and ‘70s, is celebrated by many as the birth of everything from the LGBTQ+ rights movement, to efforts to replace stigma with empathy and treatment for conditions such as mental illness, to “letting your freak flag fly” by growing long hair or a beard. And this is also the thing that a reactionary far-right — deeply insecure and desperate for a cocoon of white privileged patriarchy — has ceaselessly sought to destroy for 60 years.
While Trump himself has relished one aspect of 1960s freedom — the sexual revolution, as he once called the threat of STDs “my personal Vietnam” — in his political reinvention, he has recoiled at many others, wanting even a return to the Willowbrook-style warehousing of the mentally ill. As president, he is the perfect point man for the right’s revanchist project — clearly believing in the worst kinds of debunked eugenics theory.
A classic example occurred the other day in the Oval Office with a rant that belonged to 1925’s The Great Gatsby and its racist millionaire Tom Buchanan, and not 100 years later. Trump bemoaned his bad relationship with Boston’s Asian American mayor, Michelle Wu, despite her “reasonable IQ,” in contrast with his war with Chicago’s “low IQ” leader, Brandon Johnson. The Windy City mayor happens to be Black, just like almost every other figure — like Reps. Maxine Waters or Jasmine Crockett — branded “low IQ” in the most thinly disguised racism possible.
Trump’s 21st-century eugenics — from ending diversity programs in colleges or the workplace to the obsession with finding the pill or shot or whatever that has made some kids “not normal” — is the unifying force of his dictatorship. It’s why what was sold to 2024’s voters as an effort to remove undocumented criminals from America turned out to be members of a masked secret police force chasing hardworking family men across the Home Depot parking lot because they have brown skin or speak Spanish.
You know. Different.
True, Trump’s rage toward immigrants or programs aimed to recruit more Black and brown kids into colleges was no secret, but what’s been more surprising has been the broader sense of hostility toward any government program that offers aid and empathy to those born with real challenges. Few predicted that Trump would seek to decimate the special education office in the U.S. Department of Education, or work more broadly to undermine the rights of the disabled.
You may have noticed that some of these slashed federal programs would help children diagnosed with autism. But putting these children on a path toward happier and more fulfilling lives isn’t the goal of the Trump-RFK Jr. focus on autism, but rather making sure the next generation conforms to their constricted definition of normal.
We need to understand Trump’s war on the different because we need to defeat it. Boomers of my generation were born into the world of stigmatization and conformity that Trump wants to bring back, erasing the liberation movements that have been the victory of our lifetime. Sure, I want the next president to care about affordable healthcare and lowering egg prices, but America also needs leaders who will celebrate and defend our fundamental human right simply to be different.
Sure, Philly’s the birthplace of the nation. But we’re also the site of the first hot-air balloon ride (1793), the first selfie (1839), and the first pencil with an attached eraser (1858). So why not celebrate these Philly firsts and many more?
That’s the idea behind the Philadelphia Historic District 250th Committee’s “52 Weeks of Firsts” in 2026. Every week, all year, there will be a party somewhere in the city honoring a different “Philly-born” first, replete with a “first-ival,” storytelling, giveaways, scavenger hunts, and an oversized #1 sculpture made of foam to mark the exact spot, or closest thing to it, of the milestone.
On Thursday, during a festive gathering at the Constitution Center featuring circus performers, Mummers, Once Upon A Nation storytellers, and ice cream sodas from Franklin Fountain, officials announced the complete schedule for “52 Weeks of Firsts.”
“Philadelphia has always been a city of firsts — from the founding of our nation to innovations that shaped everyday life,” said Amy Needle, president and CEO of Historic Philadelphia Inc. “It’s an opportunity for residents and visitors alike to go and explore and find these firsts and learn about all the amazing history and innovation that has happened in Philadelphia in the last 250 years.”
Fitting with planners’ promise to bring the 250th celebration to the neighborhoods, the 52 Weeks festivities will take place across at least 16 different sections of the city, Needle said. In compiling the list, a partnership of representatives from 22 Philly museums and cultural institutions adhered to a strict definition of first from Merriam Webster: “preceding all others in time, order, or importance.”
Some Philly firsts are known to every schoolchild. Like the first American flag (thanks, Betsy: 1777). And first naming of the United States (1776.) Others may stump even the most ardent Philly booster. Like the country’s first public showing of a motion picture (1870), first U.S. weather bureau office (also 1870), and first electronic computer (1945).
The 52 Weeks of First aims to capture all that has made Philly first in the nation throughout the years, Needle said.
“There are so many things that Philadelphia has to be excited about,” she said.
Here is the full list, with the schedule for the whole year.
52 Weeks of Firsts: Week by week
First Hot Air Balloon Flight in America: 1793
The Athenaeum, Jan. 3, 2026
First Folk Parade: 1901
Mummers Museum, Jan. 10, 2026
First Volunteer Fire Company: 1736
Fireman’s Hall Museum, Jan. 17, 2026
First Professional Basketball League: 1898
Location TBD, Jan. 24, 2026
First Public Girl Scout Cookie Sale: 1932
Location TBD, Jan. 31, 2026
First African Methodist Episcopal Congregation: 1794
Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, Feb. 7, 2026
First Abolitionist Society in America: 1775
The African American Museum in Philadelphia, Feb. 14, 2026
First Authentic Chinese Gate Built in America: 1984
Ghostly films will meet ghosts of department stores past in a pop-up film series leading up to Halloween. Film historian and former Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey has curated five silent films from the 1920s to be shown at the Pipe Up! series in the Wanamaker Building — each one accompanied by live organ.
Among the films being screened are Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) and Faust (1926).
“What was scary a century ago when the great German filmmakers invented these templates of the modern horror movie aren’t exactly spine-tingling today,” said Rickey. “But they are creepy, in the manner of folk and fairy tales — and artists like Hieronymus Bosch. They get under the skin. And they’re inventive.”
Also being shown are two lesser-known Swedish films: Victor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage (1921) — “a huge influence on Ingmar Bergman,” says Rickey — and Häxan (1922), Benjamin Christensen’s film purporting to be documentary.
“It hypothesizes what medievalists called possessed nuns and black sabbaths, and what Freud would call female hysteria. It is the earliest example of goth horror that I’ve ever seen,” Rickey said.
The screenings are scheduled to take place in the Wanamaker Building’s Greek Hall, which means the musical accompaniment will be played on an instrument that gets considerably less attention than the one in the Grand Court.
That smaller instrument is a theater organ, a restored 1929 Wurlitzer originally from the Fox Theatre in Appleton, Wis.
“It’s pristine, it hasn’t been fooled with like a lot of Wurlitzers,” said Friends of the Wanamaker Organ president Ray Biswanger. “It’s got a lot of color in it and represents well the experience of hearing a silent movie.”
Organists have different approaches to scoring silent film, said Peter Richard Conte, the Wanamaker Grand Court organist who is playing two of the five nights. His method is to watch the film 10 to 15 times, prepare a cue sheet, and play leitmotifs (recurrent themes) for various characters and places.
“And you just watch the film like a hawk and improvise,” he said.
Conte tends to avoid tucking in popular tunes or familiar musical references. “It distracts from the film. It can be cute and occasionally I will do it, but almost like a joke. What you want to do is disappear. If the audience forgets that you’re there,” Conte says, “that’s the biggest compliment I can get.”
The lineup: Monday, “Faust,” organist Ian Fraser; Tuesday, “The Phantom Carriage,” organist Don Kinnier; Wednesday, “Nosferatu,” organist Peter Richard Conte; Thursday, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” organist Peter Richard Conte; Friday, “Häxan,” organist Don Kinnear.
Screenings begin at 7 p.m. at the Wanamaker Building, 1300 Market St. Admission is free with advance registration. operaphila.org.
Conte will also perform on the Grand Court Organ for a live-to-screen presentation of the 1925 film “The Phantom of the Opera,” Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. The event is free and requires no advance registration.
