All Episodes

BBB:LHWS #015   Pulling Out All the Stops
The Wanamaker Organ is the largest playable musical instrument in the world and sits in Center City Philadelphia; there are several Laurel Hill connections. 
William B. Irvine left his estate to the University of Pennsylvania but did not know they would use it to build an auditorium named for him, designed by architect Horace Trumbauer.  The magazine publisher Cyrus Curtis donated an organ.  All three of these men are at Laurel Hill West.
For more than 40 years, organist Larry Ferrari kept Philadelphians company on Sunday mornings by playing popular music on his television show.  Larry is also at Laurel Hill West.

ABC:LHS #045-4   Henrietta Garrett...
...married into millions. Snuff manufacturer Walter Garrett fell in love with Henrietta on first meeting, even though they were from opposite side of the tracks. The marriage was strong and Walter's death left her a very rich widow. Years later when Henrietta died, nobody could find her will. "Long lost relatives" appeared out of nowhere and it took years to settle the estate.  

ABC:LHS #045-3   Caleb Milne...
...was a Scottish immigrant who made his fortune in textiles.  He rented space to a cigar maker, who hired immigrant girls who spoke no English.  A fire "false alarm" panicked the girls, who stampeded the stairwells. And some jumped. Many of them died.  

ABC:LHS #045-2   Otto Eisenlohr...
...and his brother were German immigrants who learned the tobacco business.  Their 5-cent cigar 'Cinco' was sold at every cigar stand in the country, and they got quite rich.  

ABC:LHS #045-1   Juan Portuondo...
...was a Cuban immigrant who learned the craft of cigar making from his father.  His cigars were always of the highest quality, and he was constantly swatting away competition that tried to take advantage of his reputation.

ABC:LHS #045   Philadelphia...
...was at one time the home to 900 cigar makers who made a sizable portion of the 7 billion cigars sold every year in the United States. 
Cuban native Juan Portuondo featured a top-quality cigar that was copied by many.
German American Otto Eisenlohr and his brothers made one of the bestselling fiver-centers in the country, the ubiquitous 'Cinco'.
Caleb J. Milne rented three floors of his Washington Avenue factory to a cigar company that illegally hired immigrant girls; a fire false alarm panicked them into a stampede and a stairwell of death.
Walter Garrett made a fortune in the snuff business which he left to his beloved wife Henrietta.  But when Henrietta died more than three decades later, nobody could find her will and literally tens of thousands of people tried to claim her fortune as their own. 
 

BBB:LHWS #014   Bushrod Washington James...
...serves as a common thread to baseball Hall-of-Famers Frank Robinson and Willie Stargell, a library in Northeast Philadelphia, the towns of Radnor and Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a bed and breakfast in Tennessee, and the Wills Eye Hospital. Connect the dots with this podcast.

ABC:LHS #044-4   James A. Garfield's...
...1896 Memorial on East River Drive involved many familiar names from Laurel Hill. They were involved in the design, construction, and dedication of a memorial to the late President 15 years after his assassination.

ABC:LHS #044-3   Dr. Charles K. Mills, MD... 
...was a Philadelphia anatomist summoned to perform autopsy on the assassin Charles Guiteau.  Parts of Guiteau's brain ended up in the Mütter Collection. 

ABC:LHS #044-2   David Hayes Agnew, MD...
...learned his craft well while caring for wounded soldiers during the Civil War.  He was one of the first to be summoned to the President's bedside after he was shot.

ABC:LHS #044-1   Samuel Jackson Randall...
...defeated Garfield three times for the position of Speaker of the House until Garfield leapfrogged him to become the 1880 candidate for the Presidency.

ABC:LHS #044   James Abram Garfield...
...was 20th President of the United States, a “dark horse” candidate in the 1880 election and the only sitting member of the house to ever be elected to the highest office in the land.  His time as president was short, and four months into his term he was shot by a crazed office seeker in Washington.  After lingering for 10 weeks, he died in New Jersey.  What are his Laurel Hill connections? 
Philadelphia’s Samuel Jackson Randall defeated Garfield for Speaker of the House three times before Garfield leapfrogged him to become President.
University of Pennsylvania’s Dr. David Hayes Agnew, probably the best surgeon in the country, was summoned to Garfield’s bedside as a consultant after he was shot.
Penn’s Dr. Charles Karsner Mills testified against Garfield’s assassin Charles Guiteau and then assisted in Guiteau’s autopsy.
Numerous Laurel Hill residents were involved in the grand unveiling of the Garfield Memorial in 1896.  You have probably passed it dozens of times along Kelly Drive. 

BBB #013   Ice Cream...
...is universally loved. Philadelphia made huge contributions to the history of this delectable warm weather treat.  If you’re from the area, you grew up with Bassetts and Breyers; maybe you got some nonpareils or sprinkles on your soft serve; or you looked forward to going into a center city drug store so you could sit at the counter and have an ice cream float.  All of these have a Quaker City confection connection.

ABC:LHS #043-4   Henry Seybert...
...had a clock and a bell built for Independence Hall for the 1876 Centennial Celebration; 150 years later, they still stand.

ABC:LHS #043-3   Isaiah Lukens...
...not only built clocks that can still be seen at The Athenaeum and the Germantown City Hall, but he also built an air gun that may have been used by Lewis & Clark during their expedition.