The Penn Alexander School (4209 Spruce St.) today was named a National Blue Ribbon School, an award the U.S. Department of Education gives to about 350 schools around the country each year deemed “high performing” or “achievement gap closing.” Both public and private schools are eligible.

Penn Alexander was recognized as an “exemplary achievement gap closing school,” an award that recognizes schools that have consistently improved academic achievement against other schools around the state.

School officials received the award during a ceremony in the school this afternoon.

In its application, Penn Alexander officials wrote that, “Penn Alexander faculty spends a great deal of time developing programming and extracurricular activities to engage and support our diverse community. We believe the growth and achievement outside of the classroom has a direct impact on bridging the gap of student achievement inside the classroom.”

Two other schools in Philadelphia were also awarded the National Blue Ribbon. St. Mary Interparochial School at 5th and Locusts Streets was named an “exemplary high performing school,” as was the Folk Arts-Culture Charter School at 1023 Callowhill St.

Photo by Rebecca Gudelunas

OK, now here is something to look forward to as the days get shorter and the leaves begin to fall. Curio Theatre Company will be staging The Birds in October.

Yes, we’re talking Hitchcock (based on Daphne du Maurier’s novelette, of course). Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s play builds on the story of birds gone wild as three people retreat to an abandoned farmhouse, where relationships begin to unravel. As it becomes clear that the birds are a signal of the apocalypse, the rules of society change.

While it shares its name with du Maurier’s work, which was set in her native Cornwall, England, and Hithcock’s frightening film, McPherson’s work charts its own course that includes explorations of human frailty under extreme duress.  Continue Reading

                Shooting victim Sara Salih

While the man whose shooting rampage had parts of West Philly in fear on Friday night expressed a hatred for police, the bullets he fired did far more damage to innocent people in the neighborhood.

Stories have emerged about other victims, including 25-year-old Sara Salih. She was killed when shooter Nicholas Glenn began firing shots at random bystanders as he fled after firing 18 shots at a police officer at 52nd and Sansom. Police later killed Glenn in a shootout near 48th and Sansom.

Salih’s father, an Ethiopian immigrant who heard the shots that killed his daughter, talked to Philadelphia Inquirer Sam Wood about the tragedy.

UPDATE: Sara’s friends have created a GoFundMe page to help her family.

The Inquirer‘s Stephanie Farr reported the story of Martice Washington, a bouncer at Maximum Level Lounge near 52nd and Sansom (one of his three jobs) who was shot in both legs. Washington has two children and is married to a Philadelphia police officer, according to reports. Continue Reading

The Post Brothers, a real estate development firm that has been gobbling up residential properties in West Philly, is shopping around plans for a newly renovated Hamilton Court, the historic apartment building complex at 39th and Chestnut.

The plans include a glassy new two-story structure in the courtyard (see rendering above) that would include ground-floor retail and a second-floor gym for residents. Built in 1901, Hamilton Court was one of West Philadelphia’s grand apartment buildings. Most of its grandeur has worn away as it’s now mostly filled with Penn undergraduates and its once elegant courtyard that once included a large fountain is now fenced off.  Continue Reading

Photo by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local

A panel of city preservation experts offered a standing-room-only crowd some strategies last night on helping to preserve historic neighborhood buildings as waves of development continue to roll across the city.

Several groups have been fighting to save historically important buildings from demolition proposed by developers looking to build housing for the young professionals and students who are largely responsible for the recent upswing in the city’s population.

“We need to stop the demolition derby,” Paul Steinke, head of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, told an audience at the Walnut West Public Library (40th and Walnut).

The goal of Wednesday’s meeting was to provide local residents and community organizations some ways to save historic buildings, including private residences, from future demolition. Steinke and others on the panel hope the fight currently brewing over Jewelers’ Row along the 700 block of Sansom Street might garner enough attention that city officials, including politicians, might become more preservation friendly.  Continue Reading

As demand for housing and commercial development in parts of the city increases, historic buildings have come under threat of demolition. The University City Historical Society is holding an important public meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 24 to provide residents and community organizations with tools and information that will help them rally to preserve historic buildings.

The meeting, titled “The State of Preservation in West Philadelphia,” will include Martine Decamp of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission; Penn Professor Aaron Wunsch; Paul Steinke of the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia; and Greg Pastore, a former member of the Zoning Board of Adjustment.

Organizers hope the meeting will help people understand:  Continue Reading