A note before I start-ALL the photoblogs written on Myspace since I started doing them are now copied onto my Blogspot page. I tried to link you here but Myspace says its a no no-so to avoid Tom's bullshit, just copy this link http://elizabethphotoblogs.blogspot.com/ and paste it into your browser. All the photoblogs are arranged geographically so it's easy to see your favorite places. Come by and tell me what you think!
Happy Valentine's Day-or happy Saturday the 14th!
It's time for another photoblog. Of course you know that Philly is my first and favorite city, and you've seen many pictures here in my photoblogs. Last week I had the opportunity to see my favorite city from another angle-across the river in Camden. I do get a fleeting view of Philly from the NJ side of the river when I go over the Ben Franklin Bridge
but of course it's very difficult to get any shots driving over a bridge.
The shot above was taken from the fourth floor balcony of the building I was working in that sits right on the river. Unfortunately our conference room was windowless, but I was able to get many pix in the morning and evening, as you will see.
The first day, after I found the place finally, I was awed at the view of Philly from the NJ side. Camden is notorious for being the hotbed of crime and lousy schools in South Jersey, but it has an interesting history-Wiki page and another page from Camden County history website dating back to the Dutch East India Company, and was the site of many manufacturing companies back in the 19th and early 20th century, including Victor (later RCA Victor) and Campbell's Soup.
Some shots from the first day
The battleship NJ with the ferry terminal in the foreground
Would you believe that for a long time, buildings were not allowed to be taller than Billy Penn's hat? There's even a silly superstition that changing this ordinance to allow taller buildings is the reason Philly sports teams had such a long drought between championships! Many people are convinced that they erased this problem by putting a miniature Billy Penn statue on top of the Comcast building; now the tallest in the city (Article on the subject with a pix of the miniature Billy Penn.) Silly, maybe, but the Phillies are World F**king Champions now, so go figure. (And yes, we call him Billy-get over it!)
The sky was glorious as we were leaving that night- I love this shot
The next day was a little cloudy in the morning
(that's the Moshulu-I bartended there back in the 80's-but those days deserve their own blog!)
but the day turned out to be just glorious! My colleagues and I took a walk around downtown Camden, and this gave me a chance to check out a building I'd passed several times on my way down Cooper St. It looked to me like a Carnegie librarywith a beautiful mosaic over the front facade, and of course I had to go explore, even though the Rutgers University signs warned not to go in unless having business there. Pshaw!
I found out that the building had indeed started as a library, but it was built the owner of the Victor Talking Machine Company for his employees, with a park around it also for their use. I won't bore you with the history but this Rutgers page has a good history of the park, and there are some good shots of the mosaic at the bottom of this page
My shot of the one of the statues outside. The building behind it is one of the three original Victor buildings.
The other two are the original headquarters building, now used by the Camden school district, and the original factory building, now the the Victor, an upscale loft apartment building. The Victor is beautiful inside from what I saw, but they still haven't restored the famous stained glass rendering of the picture of the dog listening to his master's voice.
The window was designed and built by the same company that made the mosaic on the library. BTW, inside this tower is the building's three story fitness center-imagine working out to those views!
The sky was gorgeous as we left that night, and as the sun set over the Philly skyline, I had to hang around for a bit to get these pictures.
This shot looks straight down Market Street to City Hall, where Billy Penn resides. Look closely and you'll see it.
Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful weekend and a happy Saturday the 14th.
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