16th & JFK

16th and JFK. On this block in 1911. , In the late 19th century, civic leaders in Philadelphia proposed a diagonal boulevard linking the new City Hall to Fairmount Park. In 1907, after nine different plans and much debate, Mayor John Reyburn enlisted architect Paul Crét to create a comprehensive plan for the parkway which was inspired by the neoclassical, grand civic buildings of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair., This "City Beautiful" image, drawn by John Harbeson, one of Crét's architecture students, was published in Public Ledger on March 19, 1911 and envisioned a great civic plaza surrounded by a new train station and other municipal buildings. The Parkway continued to extend as a roadway to 15th Street until the 1960s, when a new plaza was built over an underground parking garage and named John F. Kennedy Plaza, in honor of the recently assassinated president., Today, this prominent public space is being renovated into a park., 1911 , President: William Howard Taft (R) , Mayor: John E. Reyburn (R), Rudolph Blankenburg (Keystone Democrat) , Philadelphia population: 1,549,008, Money matters , Sausage: 20¢ / pound , Can of Jersey tomatoes: 12¢ , New Smyrna Figs: 18¢ / pound , Cheese: 17¢ / pound , Dozen eggs: 40¢ , Pecans: 18¢ / pound , Package of crystallized ginger: 30¢ , Tea: 50¢ / pound , First-class stamp: 2¢, Events , July 18, Eugene B. Ely landed on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship., May 26, First Indianapolis 500 auto race was run., June 20, The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was incorporated in New York., August 15, Procter and Gamble unveiled its Crisco shortening., August 22, The theft of the Mona Lisa was discovered in the Louvre. (Vincenzo Peruggia was captured and the painting returned in 1913.), October 24, Orville Wright remained in the air 9 minutes and 45 seconds in a glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, setting a new world record that stood for 10 years., October 26, Philadelphia Athletics won the World Series against the New York Giants 4 games to 2., British physicist Ernest Rutherford discovered the structure of an atom.