Schedule of Tours and Events
THURSDAY, JUNE 7 - Early Bird Tours
Although we expect tours to proceed as outlined, individual sites and other details may change. Consult confirmation letter and the website for updates. Final details will be provided at the Crowne Plaza. SIA reserves the right to cancel any tour.
11:00 am - 5:00 pm ARCHIVES & ARTIFACTS
Philadelphia is rich in archives and museums that collect the industrial history of the region. Visit four of the great repositories of industrial history: the Franklin Institute, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, and the American Philosophical Society. View Frederick Graff’s original drawings for the Philadelphia Water Works; photographs and documents from Brill Company; a plan of Baldwin’s first locomotive factory with Baldwin’s notes in the margins; and the Wright Brothers papers and drawings. Lunch on your own at the Reading Terminal Market. Tour leader is Jeffrey Ray. Limited to 31 participants.
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm CENTER CITY POST-INDUSTRIAL WALKING TOUR
Take a guided walking tour through the post-industrial landscape of downtown Philadelphia. This 2.5-mile tour will depart from the hotel, continue to the Delaware River, and return to the hotel via the Market Street Subway. See factories, warehouses, bridges, tunnels, and river piers along the way; there will be a few pit stops. Brief visits to a handful of industrial structures—most now used for different purposes. Eat a hearty lunch and wear comfortable shoes, as this will be a 4-hour trek over gritty streets, uneven Belgian blocks, abandoned railroad tracks, and even a set of 300 year old steps. Tour leader is Harry Kyriakodis. Limited to 22 participants.
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm PHILADELPHIA BREWERYTOWN
Often described as “Workshop of the World” and having a neighborhood named Brewerytown, Philadelphia was “One Big Brewerytown.” While ultimately surpassed in size by other breweries, Brewerytown was truly “The Granddaddy of Them All!” The Brewery Tour explores what’s left of this neighborhood, and includes two of Philadelphia’s premier brewery preservation sites. Yards Brewing Co. is located in the Bottling House of the old Weisbrod & Hess brewery and provides us with a brewery process tour. Tour is led by Rich Wagner. Limited to 31 participants.
NEWCOMERS’ RECEPTION - 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
New members and first-time conference attendees are invited to join the SIA Board and chapter officers for refreshments and networking. Reception will be held in conjunction with the Opening Reception, described below.
OPENING RECEPTION - 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Reception will be at the Benjamin Franklin Hall of the American Philosophical Society, located on Chestnut Street between 4th and 5th Sts. Sponsors for this event are the University of Pennsylvania History & Sociology of Science Dept., American Philosophical Society and the Philadelphia Area Consortium for the History of Science (PACHS). Shuttle service between the Crowne Plaza and the reception will be provided beginning at 5 pm.
At 7:30 pm there will be a lecture, Industrializing/De-industrializing America, by Dr. Walter C. Licht, Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, whose interest in social and economic change includes its effect on the individual. He is familiar with Philadelphia’s industrial past, and his 1986 book, Work Sights: Industrial Philadelphia, 1890-1950, co-authored with Philip Scranton, gives a verbal and pictorial account of many industries that flourished here.
FRIDAY, JUNE 8 - All-Day Tours: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Each tour includes continental breakfast at the Crowne Plaza beginning at 6:30 am and a box lunch or food ticket. Factory tours can be rigorous. Attendees should be able to walk long distances and climb stairs.
1. ON THE DELAWARE: NAVY YARD TOUR
The last station log for the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was entered on September 27, 1996, ending over 200 years of the U.S. Navy’s operation of a military base in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) is hard at work redeveloping the property by attracting industrial and commercial businesses to this historic industrial site. Our tour will be led by PIDC’s Bob Gorgone, a 30-plus-year veteran of Navy Yards. We will visit businesses that have renovated the interior spaces for their own use while respecting the original use of the space; the Aker Shipyard which builds commercial ships; and the dry-docks and shipways where such ships as the battleship USS New Jersey and the carrier USS John F. Kennedy were built or renovated. We are working to obtain access to the 1926 Delaware River Bridge (Benjamin Franklin Bridge) as part of this tour package.
2. BRIDGING THE SCHUYLKILL: FROM BARTRAM’S GARDEN TO RITTENHOUSE TOWN
This tour features more than two dozen historic bridges of the Schuylkill River and Wissahickon Creek, representing a cross-section of 19th- and 20th-century bridge engineering, with side explorations of the history of botany and papermaking. We begin at Bartram’s Garden, the oldest botanical garden in America. John Bartram (1699-1777) and his son, William (1739-1823), were explorers, naturalists and entrepreneurs who collected and sold information in the form of plants. We then board a water taxi to cruise the lower (tidal) section of the river and view its movable bridges and industries. Next is a bus tour of the historic bridges in Fairmount Park. Lunch is planned near Memorial Hall on the site of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. The tour will end at Rittenhouse Town, the site of America’s first paper mill (1690), where we explore the historic buildings, learn about recent archeological discoveries, and make paper using traditional hand techniques. The tour leader is bridge historian Pat Harshbarger. NOTE: This tour will require walking over uneven terrain. Papermaking is messy, so appropriate clothing and footwear are recommended. Extra charge of $30 for this tour.
3. PHILADELPHIA TRANSIT PAST & PRESENT
What ever happens to old carbarns? Travel along with transit historian Joel Spivak and see. A recycling center now occupies the Luzerne carbarn, which when built in 1913 could handle nearly 350 cars and was the largest concrete structure in the world. Artists share studio space in one of the few remaining steam dummy carbarns in America, built in 1877. Woodworkers occupy another carbarn. Visit a PECO electric generating facility and learn about the early street car influence on electric power. Proceed to the Woodland repair facility where Philadelphia street cars are kept running. We’ll see Philadelphia’s most complex trolley rail intersection, still in use, which contains eight switches and four crossovers. Cruise by Philadelphia’s only trolley depot. This tour is a must for those interested in transit history.
4. THE JERSEY SIDE OF THE DELAWARE
We will tour the Griffin Pipe Products foundry on the Delaware River in Florence where sewer and water pipes have been made since the 1850s. At the nearby National Gypsum plant we will watch mounds of gypsum become wallboard. We will stop in Burlington, a seventeenth century port town now a tourism and antiquing destination. After a gourmet lunch there will be a walking tour of its historic district including a restored steam pumper at the Hope Fire House and the old water works. We will examine artifacts from Philadelphia excavations while enjoying dessert with archaeologists and material culture experts at the offices of URS. Before leaving Burlington we’ll visit Centryco, makers of a variety of metal and fabric covers and guards for industry. At our last stop on the Camden waterfront, we will learn the story of licorice processing at one of only two licorice plants operating in this country. Tour leaders are Ingrid Wuebber and Linny Schenck.
5. KENSINGTON & FRANKFORD - TEXTILES, METALS & BEER
Tour Philadelphia’s most complete dyeing and bleaching mill, started in 1867 and operating until recently. Along with adjacent textile buildings, this site is soon to be redeveloped. Tour the William Cramp & Sons Ship and Engine Building Company’s monumental Turret & Machine Shop, soon to be demolished for new ramps to I-95. Tide willing, we will see the remnants of the Jacob Tees Shipyard slipway adjacent to Penn Treaty Park. Learn about the foundries and plating shops that supported the shipyards. Today’s smaller-scale foundries cast bronze sculptures using the lost wax process. Cattie Galvanizing survives under new ownership. Tour the former Weisbrod & Hess Brewery (1880-1939) rejuvenated by Yards Brewing. Learn how beer is brewed and sample their superb ales, all brewed according to authentic recipes of the Founding Fathers as researched by historian and chef Walter Staib at CityTavern. This tour will be through industrial sites with associated dirt and hazards. Hard hats, safety glasses and secure shoes a must. Tour leader is Torben Jenk.
6. EAST FALLS & MANAYUNK
We will visit Philadelphia University (formerly Philadelphia College of Textiles & Sciences) for demonstrations on old Jacquard looms, new computer-controlled looms, and knitting machines, and about the textile printing process. Then off to Littlewood Dye Works (1868), still in operation. We’ll lunch at Manayunk Brew Pub overlooking the Schuylkill Navigation’s Manayunk Canal and Locks, and walk the towpath. We will cross the Schuylkill on the Falls Bridge (1905) to Fairmount Park, site of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition that celebrated industry, where we will view the Centennial scale model made in 1894. We will drive to the location of the Inclined Plane (1834-1854) where a stationary steam engine pulled railroad cars up Belmont Hill, and return to the city via Strawberry Mansion Trolley Bridge (1896-7). We will drive by the Tasty Baking Co., the site of Midvale Steel Co. and the Queen Lane Reservoir. Tour leader is Jane Mork Gibson.
SHOW and TELL - 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Bring your unidentified industrial artifact, your research-in-progress or images from your latest site exploration to share with other members at this informal gathering. Please bring your slides in a carousel. Anyone with power point needs must make prior arrangements. Dessert and coffee will be served.
SATURDAY, JUNE 9 - Paper Sessions, Annual Meeting/Lunch & Evening Philly Foods at the Water Works
PAPER SESSIONS and Annual Meeting/Lunch - 8:15 am - 5:00 pm
Formal paper presentations, an exhibit hall and the SIA annual business meeting/luncheon. To exhibit, please contact Reese Davis.
Philly Foods - 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Shuttle buses will convey you from the hotel to the impressively restored Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center where a feast of Philly Foods will be served. House drinks included.
SUNDAY, JUNE 10 - Post-Conference Tours
8:30 am - 12:30 pm DELAWARE RIVER CRUISE ALONG PHILADELPHIA & CAMDEN WATERFRONTS
This narrated cruise will celebrate the history of the Delaware River from the Navy Yard and Gloucester, NJ to the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge. The emphasis will be on structure, machinery and other materials that survive, including views of the SS United States, USS Olympia, USS New Jersey, Walt Whitman Bridge and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Refreshments served on board will include coffee, bagels and donuts.
8:00 am - 3:00 pm LIGHT RAIL TO ROEBLING, A MODEL COMPANY TOWN
Join us for a trip through picturesque river towns along New Jersey’s oldest rail line, the Camden & Amboy, to the village of Roebling. Charles G. Roebling chose this site on the Delaware River in 1904 to build his steel mill and workers’ village. Members of the Roebling Historical Society, including former mill workers, will take us on a tour of the remaining mill complex and the remarkably intact company town. In 1999 the EPA made the former Roebling Steel Mills one of the first ten Superfund redevelopment sites, with the proposed Main Gate House museum devoted to Roebling’s industry and people. In the old craneway there is a sculpture garden, made from equipment left behind after the mills closed in 1981, including an 80-ton steelcast fly wheel, 28 feet in diameter. Our tour includes a stop at Pinto’s Hardware Store. The tour ends with a hearty Hungarian-style lunch in the Roebling Auditorium. Tour leader is Ingrid Wuebber. Limited to 45 participants.
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