2 WEEKLYPRESS.COM • UCREVIEW.COM • FEBRUARY 4, 2015 IUNTA’S


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Celebrate Charles Dickens’ 203rd Birthday this Sunday with T e Friends Of Clark Park!


By Bob Behr Special to the Press Review


T


he annual Charles Dickens Birthday Par- ty, a mid-winter tradi- tion of the Friends of Clark Park, will be held Sunday, February 8. This year’s performances begin at 2 pm sharp. Admission is free. In recognition of the park’s famous statue depict- ing Dickens and one of his fi ctional characters Little Nell, the Friends of Clark Park host this annual after- noon of drama and music. Local actors, neighborhood residents, and musicians put on a lively nineteenth-centu- ry show that draws fans of Dickens from West Philadel- phia and around the city. The indoor, on-stage por- tion of the festivities will be held in Griffi th Hall (University of the Sciences). Griffi th Hall is on the east side of 43rd


Street just above


Woodland Ave. and across the street from the southern tip of Clark Park.


Actors Ceil Mann and Larry Beck, along with members of the Curio The- atre Company, will perform scenes from The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist. Young Sophie Pettit, accom- panied by her father, the writer and Dickens enthu- siast Edward G. Pettit, will


continued from page 1 ST. PETER'S


help of Penn Historic Pres- ervation Professor Aaron Wunsch, local developer Ryan Spak and former May- or Wilson Goode—did just that. And from Laren’s ac- count, saving the Frank Fur- nace designed church from demolition, proves nothing short of miraculous. “The guy who owned the church didn’t keep up with his L&I maintenance,” Laren said, explaining that its dwindling congregation prevented the church from generating the revenue it needed to keep it up. The parish hall, Laren explained, wasn’t in good shape. And no one had used the sanc- tuary in at least ten years, “because it was rapidly de- teriorating.” Laren, who owns several


properties in the church’s West Shore neighborhood, found it advantageous to purchase and renovate the church as opposed to having the demolished structure become a vacant lot. Subsequently, Aaron Wunsch and Ryan Spak


Kingsessing Morris Men will lead a procession


enact a scene from The Old Curiosity Shop. We’ll also have a special performance inspired by the new benches recently installed surround- ing the Dickens statue. Sev- eral Dickens fans will read the quotations emblazoned on the benches and they’ll give us a taste of the scenes from which the quotes were “lifted.”


The dramatic program is followed by treats for all, Dickensian socializing, and a fi nale of music and danc- ing by the Kingsessing Mor- ris Men, fi rst place winners in the comic division at the 2012 Mummers Parade. Finally, the Kingsessing Morris Men will lead a pro- cession to the statue where youngsters will decorate Dickens and Little Nell with


laurel wreaths and everyone sings “Happy Birthday.” The entire program is ex- pected to last about one and a half hours. The impressive bronze statue of Dickens and Little Nell was created in 1890 by the renowned sculptor Frank Elwell and was in- stalled in Clark Park in 1901. For much of the time since then, it was the world’s only public statue of Dickens, due to the novelist’s request that no memorials or statues be erected in his honor. West Philadelphians and readers of Dickens from around the city have met annually on or near the author’s birth- day to commemorate the statue’s special role in the neighborhood’s history and in literary history.


114-year-old Saint Peter’s Church, designed by Frank Furness, saved from the wrecking ball. Photo: N.C.


“got very close to brokering a deal to buy the building from the pastor,” Laren ex- plained, adding, “We went before L&I and L&I said ‘no. It’s dangerous.’”


Given the collapse of the Salvation Army building in 2013, members of L&I “were sensitive,” Laren said, explaining that trees were growing through the walls, some of the building’s stones had dislodged and “the tower was particularly unsafe.” But Wunsch, refusing to quit, helped Laren “buy time for two weeks with


L&I.” To Laren, Wunsch’s deter- mination to save the church came as no surprise. After all, it was Wunsch “who would go into the building at night to close up holes and chase away squatters,” Laren relayed. He explained that Wunsch also “got an engineer who dealt with historic structures to write a letter to L&I stating that the church could be saved given some time.” Notably, the church, esteemed for its Frank Furness design, does not have historic designation.


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