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| Philadelphia's once-famous bank |
Remember Beaver College? Columbia Avenue? PSFS Bank?
Well. Beaver College is now Arcadia University.
Columbia Avenue is Cecil B. Moore Avenue.
PSFS, once Philadelphia's premier bank, became Meritor and then Mellon.
Perhaps, the name change champion is First Pennsylvania Bank which was consumed by PNB then CoreStates then First Union then Wachovia and finally Wells Fargo Bank.
About 1980, Grover Washington Jr. wrote a song called East River Drive. If he wrote the same tune today it would be Kelly Drive.
The most common name in this city is “Franklin.” More than a dozen places are named to honor Ben Franklin including a bridge and three streets. And while there is still a “Franklin Mills Boulevard,” there is no longer a Franklin Mills Shopping Mall. Now it’s Philadelphia Mills Mall.
This is rather hard to believe:
About 5,000 people submitted new names for the former Electric Factory which became North Second music venue (because it is on 7th Street). Guess the winner.
You are correct – another “Franklin.” It’s now the Franklin Music Hall.
Remember Philadelphia Textile College?
Not too long ago it became Philadelphia University.
And now it’s Jefferson University.
Standby for the next name change.
The University of the Arts has seen four name changes since its founding in 1876 as the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Arts.
Sometimes rich guys pay for a name change. So, Glassboro College became Rowan College in 1992 when inventor-engineer Henry Rowan – who did not attend Glasboro – donated $100 million to the former teachers training school.
Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman thought $25 million would get his alma mater Abington High School to suddenly become Schwarzman High. At first, the school board agreed, but a public outcry scotched the name change.
Neighborhood names come and go.
Southwark has given way to Queen Village and Pennsport.
Old neighborhood names die: Branchtown, Bricktown,
The Neck and Jewtown are gone.
Now we have to learn many recent names for old places such as Sharswood, Passayunk Crossing, Pelham, Ludlow and Hawthorne, just to name a few.
Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Evening Bulletin asked readers to suggest names for the war. The British were just calling it “The War.” The Bulletin got scores of ideas and 15,000 citizens wrote directly to the War Department with names. Without thinking a lot about it, President Franklin Roosevelt just called it the Second World War - the name that stuck.