Franklintown, Philadelphia

Matthias Baldwin Park is a two-acre (0.81 ha) public park at 423 North 19th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1991, the park was dedicated as Franklin Town Park as part of the 50-acre development called Franklin Town. The Franklin Town Development Corporation was a private consortium which, along with City of Philadelphia officials, announced plans in 1971 to build a new "city-within-a-city" within ten years, in order to clear what they considered blight in a parcel just north of the commercial core of Philadelphia. The developers could earn a profit while the City tax base would increase. Eminent domain was threatened in order to remove the 600 inhabitants and business owners in the proposed development. The park was to be the apex of a new diagonal street called Franklin Town Boulevard and was to be the centerpiece of the development. By 1974 construction began but due to economic uncertainty in the 1970’s the project progressed in fits and starts, and still, 50 years later, is not completed. The park itself was a Percent for Art requirement of the developers of Franklin Town. Landscape artist Athena Tacha was commissioned to design the park, and the final version was the art piece titled Connections, which is made up of a terraced set of planting beds surrounded by a level surface with paved pathways and fifty trees. The park is one of the over 150 parks in the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation system. In 2009, many of the residents living in the neighborhood around the park had become disgusted by the many surface parking lots resulting from the demolition of their houses and businesses in the name of the desultory Franklin Town development. They petitioned the City to change the name of the park to Matthias Baldwin Park, which was officially done in 2011. For the same reason, the name of the neighborhood on the community bulletin board Nextdoor was changed from Franklin Town to Baldwin Park in 2019. Matthias W. Baldwin was a locomotive builder whose factories occupied most of the neighborhood from 1835 though 1928, at one time being the largest locomotive builder in the world. A State of Pennsylvania historical marker was placed at the northwest corner of the park in 2009 commemorating the location of the Baldwin Locomotive Works. The Friends of Matthias Baldwin Park, a non-profit volunteer group committed to maintaining and preserving the park, became involved in a national controversy in June of 2020. During protests after the murder of George Floyd, a statue of Matthias W. Baldwin at Philadelphia City Hall was defaced with the words "murderer" and "colonizer." Members of the Friends group were sought out for comments and educated a national audience on the fact that Baldwin was in fact an abolitionist, a defender of Black franchise, a donor for schools for Blacks, and a workforce integrator, all of which caused him to lose business in Southern states in the decades preceding the Civil War. Liberal and especially conservative news outlets caricatured the protestors as ignorant of history.

The Graham and Laird, Schober and Mitchell Factories were two historic factory buildings that were located in the Franklintown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

John W. Hallahan Catholic Girls' High School was an all-girls Roman Catholic high school located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. It is the country's first all-girls diocesan Catholic high school.

Logan Square is a neighborhood in Philadelphia. Bounded by Market Street on the south, Spring Garden Street on the north, Broad Street on the east, and the Schuylkill River on the west, it occupies the northwest quadrant of Center City. The square for which it is named is one of the five "squares", or parks, central to William Penn's design for Philadelphia. Originally called Northwest Square, it was renamed in honor of James Logan, an eighteenth-century mayor of Philadelphia. Located here are a number of sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Arch Street Presbyterian Church, the Bell Telephone Company Building, the Board of Education Building, the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, the Harris Building, the Insurance Company of North America Building, the Larkin–Belber Building, Logan Square, the Francis McIlvain House, St. Clement's Protestant Episcopal Church, the Inquirer Building, and the Wesley Building. Other notable sites are the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Barnes Foundation, the Franklin Institute, the Moore College of Art and Design, the Parkway Central Library, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the Philadelphia Pennsylvania (Mormon) Temple, Matthias Baldwin Park, and the main campus of the Community College of Philadelphia. Penn Center, Franklintown, and much of Philadelphia's central business district are located in Logan Square.

The Harrington Machine Shop is a historic industrial building located in the Franklintown area of Philadelphia. It is located next to the former Middishade Clothing Factory. Built in 1903, it is a five-story building with a steel and wood frame, faced with brick and ashlar stone. It measures 215 feet by 100 feet. The company made hoists. The Harrington Machine Shop was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The interior has been converted into loft apartments.

The Reading Company Grain Elevator was built as a grain elevator in 1925 by the Reading Railroad in Center City Philadelphia to replace an elevator that had operated on the same spot since the Civil War. The building was abandoned in the 1950s and refitted in the 1970, with the lower floor made into offices, the grain storage areas essentially untouched, and the upper levels made into penthouses.

The Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) is a public community college with campuses throughout Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The college was founded in 1965 and is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. It offers over 100 associate degree and certificate programs through its four locations.CCP's athletic teams compete in the Eastern Pennsylvania Athletic Conference (EPAC) of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). They are collectively known as the Lions and have more than 50 championships as current members of the EPAC and members of the former Pennsylvania Collegiate Athletic Association.

The Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple is a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in the Logan Square neighborhood of Philadelphia. Completed in 2016, the intent to construct the temple was announced on October 4, 2008, during the church's 178th Semiannual General Conference by LDS Church president Thomas S. Monson. The temple is the church's first in the state of Pennsylvania, and the first temple between Washington, D.C. and New York City.

The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system that serves Philadelphia. It is the 13th-largest public library system in the United States. The Free Library of Philadelphia is a non-Mayoral agency of the City of Philadelphia governed by an independent Board of Trustees as per the Charter of the City of Philadelphia. The Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation is a separate 501c3 non-profit with its own board of directors and serves to support the mission of the Free Library of Philadelphia through philanthropic dollars.

Parkway Central Library also known as Free Library or Central Library is the main public library building and administrative headquarters of the Free Library of Philadelphia system. It is the largest library, and only research library, of 54 library branches in the Free Library system. The library opened on Vine Street, Philadelphia in 1927. Four stories and the ground floor are open to the public. The main entrance steps are on Vine Street, between 19th and 20th Street.

The General Galusha Pennypacker Memorial is a monument in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Located in the city's Logan Circle, the monument honors Galusha Pennypacker, a Pennsylvanian who served as a general officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Work on the memorial first commenced under sculptor Charles Grafly, though after his death in 1929, work was continued by Albert Laessle, a former student of Grafly, who completed the sculpture in 1934. The overall design for the sculpture depicts Pennypacker in classical dress descending from a stylized cannon that is surrounded by two tigers.

The Julia Reynolds Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School is a middle and secondary school located in Philadelphia. It is a magnet school, ranked 10th in the nation, located in the Spring Garden neighborhood. Prior to 1958, the school building was used by the Philadelphia High School for Girls and the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places under that name in 1986.