East Falls Retrospective: THEN & NOW Pics Around Town

Indian Queen Lane and Krail -- right up the road from Hohenadel House. You'd hardly know the difference 53 years makes. What's up with that, East Falls? Last week, we stumbled on a cache of East Falls photos from all the way back to the early 1900's; this week, we took comparison pics. You'd think over a hundred years would've radically changed our streets and parks but, well.... See for yourself. EAST FALLS, PHILADELPHIA Then & Now The...

When were streets renamed? Fourth-generation Fallser writes in

Tony Gallagher asks a deceptively simple question about when some of the streets in East Falls were renamed. Email to EastFallsHouse.com: Loved your article on East Falls street names. One question I've always had, what year were the street names changed? I'm a fourth generation Fallser and when I lived on Division St. my mother, who was born in 1908, always referred to Conrad St. as 35th St., Vaux St., as 34th St. and Henry as 33rd. St. The...

The Hessians are coming! (for our beer)

It wasn’t as famous as Paul Revere’s warning, but the cry "The Hessians are coming!" was, for many colonial Americans, a terrifying prospect. And in 1777, our own Indian Queen Lane in East Falls was "Ground Zero" for an entire encampment.   This area was strategically important as a major thoroughfare into the heart of Philadelphia, and it was also flush with natural resources. The Falls were prime fishing grounds, and the forests teamed...

Party Like a Patroit: GW’s Favorite Fish House Punch

There's a little place just out of town, Where, if you go to lunch, They'll make you forget your mother-in-law With a drink called Fish-House Punch.   --  The Cook (1885) Forgive us, John Hohenadel, but in honor of our founding fathers today, we're stepping away from beer (an every day sustenance in colonial America) to punch -- a treat of the upper classes, a social drink meant to be shared communally along with debate and conversation. The...

A Schuylkill river fish tale

Who hasn't seen the Falls Bridge fishermen and winced at the thought of eating fish out of the Schuylkill? Are they even edible? Are they radioactive or full of PCBs or BPAs or WMDs or something...?? What's even down there? It’s almost a Philadelphia birthright to look into the murky waters of the Schuylkill river and imagine all sorts of auto parts, rubber boots, and petroleum products clinging to the ooze of the river bed. It’s a mindset...

When oysters were peanuts

They sure loved their oysters at the Hohenadel Brewery on Indian Queen Lane. We found hundreds of shells at the site this morning, unearthed by a construction crew digging up the site of the old brewery for condominiums. That many fresh oysters would be worth thousands of dollars today at an upscale center city restaurant, but in 19th century bars, oysters were the peanuts of the day. They were the cheap eats that kept customers coming back for...

Dangerous crossings: Railroads in the 19th century

“The repetition of serious or fatal accidents, by which men, women and children are crushed, decapitated, cut in two, or dismembered loses its effect by its frequency. The cases fall one by one, upon the public; we are told that, in the usual phrase – “the accident was inevitable and no blame is to be attached to the driver;” the survivors gather up the reeking remains of the victim – and the matter passes away and is forgotten.”...

For the Love of Dogs, Then & Now

How much is your dog worth? Five bucks? In 1854, that was the reward offered for a “large white pointer dog” that was stolen from the Falls Hotel. That seems pretty cheap, until you consider that $5 then is worth about $140 today. In the mid 19th century, dogs weren’t invited to restaurants or spoiled with Busy Bee toys, they were mostly bred for usefulness. As industrialization began to increase during the mid to late 19th century, many...

Great Moments in “Hoh-Story” — a Timeline of Hohenadels in East Falls

Our Höhenadel timeline jumps around quite a bit -- records in the 1800's were poorly kept, and complicated endeavors such as moving households or establishing businesses could take years (subsequently, important dates tend to overlap). Höhenadel history in East Falls begins with a veritable boat load of bakers & brewers who came to America from the southern Rhine region of Germany in the 1850's. They dispersed throughout Philadelphia and...

An evening with Harry Prime at Epicure Cafe

Harry Prime doesn’t let anyone piss in his pockets and he doesn’t forget a friend. Both poles of his personality were on display at his dinner show at the Epicure Cafe on Saturday May 24th. And, oh yeah, he can still sing. Some people go to Harry’s shows to hear about Grace Kelly or the picture postcard stories from the good old days. And Harry doesn’t disappoint. He can spin a clean, upbeat tale as well as anyone, evoking the old...