Philadelphia, a city founded as part of William Penn's efforts to create a utopian society free of violence and tyranny, was filled with green space and agriculture. In "Philadelphia, The Holy Experiment, we witness the trajectory of his dream.

In the early 1900s, Philadelphia was a thriving steel town with a population of more than two million people. But the city was hit hard when its economy turned away from heavy manufacturing and its population declined by half a million people. The city is still working to demolish or repair thousands of vacant homes and abandoned buildings. Restoration efforts take place one lot at a time as the city and its community members take responsibility for their neighborhoods.

I wanted neighbors around here to look out their window and see that crazy woman is still out here picking up trash, says Doris Gwaltney, the President of Carroll Park Neighbors. In her neighborhood, repeated efforts to save the park from drug dealers withered until the Horticultural Society stepped in with a $30,000 grant. It's just one of 150 neighborhood parks sponsored by the Society that echoes back to Penn's plan for a green country town.

A pioneer in urban agriculture, Mary Seton Corboy has been a model for city farmers across the nation. Now you're a pioneer but initially you're just a nutcase, says Corboy, Project Manager of Greensgrow, and I don't think that I was really cut out to be a pioneer. At her hydroponic urban farm in South Philadelphia, produce is grown above what was a Superfund industrial waste cleanup site. It has nothing to do with optimism or belief. I'm determined I'm going to beat this thing.

Urban agriculture's success depends on restaurants to buy locally-grown produce. Our survival really depends on making business decisions in the best interest of the common good, says Judy Wicks, owner of the 21-year-old White Dog Caf in Philadelphia, which buys only local, sustainably grown, in-season produce and humanely raised meats. have personal relationships with all the farmers, she says. She believes that small businesses add character to a city and are vital because through them capital is retained and recirculated within the community.

Philadelphia's restoration projects go further than clearing away decades of debris. The heart of community revitalization is the ability to touch people's heart and souls, and I think that art can do that, says Jane Golden, Program Director of the Murals Art Project, which started as a cleanup effort to reduce graffiti. What we do shows us the powerful catalytic role art can play in healing the wounds of a city, says Golden. Her organization's large murals on buildings have become the voice of the community and the project's artists have turned the city itself into a large canvas.

The journey starts here and now, says Lilly Yeh, an artist who is the head of another public arts project in what was one of the toughest abandoned lots in North Philadelphia. It lies in the very small modest act. She has transformed a wasteland of abandoned buildings into a kaleidoscope of beautiful colors, a place for people to live and congregate. The project has also transformed lives.

I was on a very destructive path, says James Big Man Maxton, a mosaic artist. Now I'm constantly trying to build something positive for the community.

Ed Ellis didn't know his neighbors and closed his eyes to the car parts and junk in the abandoned lot next to his home in South Philadelphia. But after his son Michael Ellis died at age 33 of a drug overdose, he began working through his grief by cleaning up the lot by himself. When Philadelphia's Green Project offered to help but only if 85% of his community was willing to help, too he went knocking on doors to make it happen. Today he's created a green public space that school children use to play and learn. We all have our trials and tribulations, he says. And we all get up and go and make each day better than the day before.

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
100 N. 20th Street - 5th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Telephone: 215-988-8800
e-mail PHS

Philadelphia Green

Greensgrow
2501 E. Cumberland Street
Philadelphia, PA 19125
215-427-2702
e-mail Greensgrow

White Dog Cafe
White Dog Cafe
3420 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
215-386-9224
e-mail White Dog Cafe

Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center
640 Waterworks Drive
Philadelphia Pennsylvania 19130
215-685-0723

Neighborhood Transformation Initiative
Eva Gladstein Director
One Parkway 1515 Arch St. 12th Floor
Philadelphia PA 19102
215-683-2154

New Kensington Community Development Corporation
Sandy Salzman ssalzman@nkcdc.org
2515 Frankford Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19125
215-427-0350
ssalzman@nkcdc.org

Somerton Tanks Project
Philadelphia Water Department
Ed Grusheski
ARAMark Tower - 5th Floor
1101 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107-2994

Norris Square Neighborhood Project
2141 North Howard Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122
215-634-2227
e-mail NSNP info@nsnp.org

Read More about Jane Golden and the Art Mural Project:
Temple University
Penn University