On this page we will look back at life in the city during the war years. Here we will provide the visitor with the stories making the news, what was happening in sports and entertainment, city politics, the social scene and the prominent people at the time. We will also recount the events occurring in the war on that day. So, check back each day for new editions.
To share your family or neighborhood stories, please email PhillyWWIyears@gmail.com
TODAY IN PHILADELPHIA – SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1915
There will be fair skies over the city today with gentle winds from the west. The temperature will only reach a high of 60° with the overnight low near 53°.
And enormous demonstration with over 125,000 men, women and children took place this afternoon throughout the city. Neighborhood Sunday Schools turned out in force to show unity of purpose and protest the war in Europe. The boys and girls participating were all dressed in their finest clothing. Brass bands entertained with popular Christian songs including “Onward Christian soldiers”. The parades took place in various sections of the city with the largest one on Broad Street where over 50,000 participants including the various schools’ students marched from Ritner Street to Northeast Boulevard.
The Black Hand struck again in Little Italy last night. The target was a store owned by Pasquale Giordano at 1437 South 13th Street. As Giordano and his wife and daughter slept on the 2nd floor above the store a huge explosion ripped through the large front display window, tore off the store’s door and damaged the marble steps. Thankfully no one was hurt but the sound of the explosion was heard blocks away and the neighborhood was in a panic. The Black Hand had sent Giordano a letter in July demanding $800.00. He turned it over to police and then received another letter stating he was now a doomed man.
In baseball the Phillies game with the Braves was rained out so the new National League Champions boarded an early train to return home. In college football today at Franklin Field Penn defeated Franklin and Marshall 10 to 6. In other games Princeton beat Rutgers 10 to 0, Lehigh over Carlisle 14 to 0, Penn State 14 Lebanon Valley 0, Georgetown 9 Navy 0, Swarthmore 42 Dickinson 0, Syracuse 6 Bucknell 0 and Northeast High School 14 Villanova Prep 0.
In photoplays around the city this weekend at the Broad Street Casino, Broad & Erie, Ormi Hawley stars in the Lubin Company’s production of “The Phantom Happiness”. At the Locust, 52nd & Locust, Alice Brady stars in “The Lure of a Woman”. At the Bartram, 55th Street below Chester Avenue, Theda Bara appears in “The Clemenceau Case”. On stage at B.F. Keith’s, 12th & Chestnut Street, the Viennese Primadonna, Fritzi Scheff and comedians Herbert Williams and Hilda Wolfus are featured. And at the Alhambra, 12th & Morris Street, Hazel Dawn appears in “Heart of Jennifer”.
WAR NEWS
On the western front, the French are reporting further gains in both the Artois and the Champagne regions. Also, south of Ypres the British and French are within striking distance of Lens and its important railroad depot. In the east, the Russians are holding the German offensive along the Riga to Pinsk line and are forcing the German lines back towards Vilna.
GET YOUR COPY OF PHILADELPHIA: THE WORLD WAR I YEARS BY JUST CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW.