Buildings over bones | Morning Newsletter
🚽 And Philly Phlush, one year later
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The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Hi, Philly, it’s Sunday once again. It should be mostly sunny, and we’re feeling the heat with temps near 91.
What happens to the remains of Philadelphians when they are moved to make room for construction? Our main read explores the complexities involved when the city’s colonial-era history and its modern development interests clash, all while the exhumed bones wait for a final resting place.
— Paola Pérez (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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Bones were discovered after workers broke ground to build luxury units at Second and Arch Streets in Philadelphia in the fall of 2016. Construction continued after the Medical Examiner’s Office determined the remains were historical. Then more graves were found in February 2017.
The remains belonged to nearly 500 Philadelphians, buried in the 18th century at what was once Philly’s old First Baptist Church cemetery.
Today, the site is known as the 218 Arch apartment building. Meanwhile, the bones are stored in a climate-controlled basement in Camden, waiting for a final resting place — again.
These events didn’t just unearth the historical remains of Philadelphians of the past. They also revealed sharp divisions between private archeologists and the city.
Take the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum, a nonprofit group of archaeologists who advocate for more respectful treatment of remains buried in historic or forgotten cemeteries all over the city. They have gone to court over the handling of exhumed graves, but progress is delayed due to a lack of protocols for burial.
Continue reading for more on questions surrounding developers’ responsibilities, and how city officials interpret and enforce laws concerning old burial grounds.
What you should know today
Philadelphia police have charged two drivers and are awaiting the toxicology results for a third in connection with three crashes last week that left a bicyclist and one pedestrian dead and another pedestrian critically injured. Following the cyclist’s death, advocates are again pushing for better barriers between bike lanes and cars.
The Israeli flag on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway was defaced on Friday, drawing condemnation from Jewish leaders in the region.
A 28-year-old woman has been charged in the Thursday night shooting of a 7-month-old infant in the city’s Holmesburg section that police say stemmed from a $100 drug debt with the child’s parents.
An international technology outage scrambled operations across the Philadelphia region Friday, with airlines grounding flights, some hospitals canceling elective surgeries, and workplaces shutting down for the day. A Boy Scout troop from Camden County was stuck in the U.S. Virgin Islands following the outage, with some about to run out of medication just as help came to the rescue.
A Chester woman was sentenced to decades in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree murder in the fatal beating of her infant daughter in 2021.
City Council came to Kensington on Thursday looking for answers about Philadelphia’s drug treatment system, and one question loomed large: Does the city have enough treatment beds for people in addiction?
A former student at Pennsylvania State University’s Abington campus pleaded guilty Friday to lying in federal documents about whether he’d ever communicated with ISIS sympathizers or other potential terrorists.
West Nile virus has been detected in mosquitos for the first time this summer in Delaware County, according to the county’s health department.
In what Philadelphia real estate observers say is a first in Center City, an office building has opened a restaurant complete with a bar — for tenants only.
Tofani doors once embellished many South Philly rowhouses, but are now hard to come by. One man scours neighborhood trash heaps with a mission to preserve the iconic doors.
Philadelphia’s lack of public restrooms really stinks. So when word spread about a pilot program bringing public bathrooms to the city, it was a pretty huge deal.
People were so excited that they even participated in a “potty poll” to name the toilets. The winner: Philly Phlush.
One year later, Inquirer columnist Stephanie Farr gave herself what she termed a “crappy assignment” to follow up on the state of the loos, but for good reasons.
In her own words: “Because I want these bathrooms to succeed, because the U.S. is way behind Europe in providing access to public restrooms, and because if Philadelphia can’t meet people’s basic human needs, how can we expect to meet the more complicated ones?”
In Farr’s update, she found that while there were supposed to be three model bathrooms up and running by now, there are only two. This clog in the rollout concerns her about the future of this public bathroom project.
Get in the stall with Farr for her firsthand account on the state of the bathrooms, and what may be next.
❓Pop quiz
Outdoorsy readers get Brownie points on this one.
In this week’s newsletter, we explored the Pine Barrens, a forestland with hiking trails, water recreation, stellar views — and good food. We can’t forget the food.
Which famous foodie visited a local diner there in 2015?
A) Bobby Flay
B) Gordon Ramsay
C) Anthony Bourdain
D) Guy Fieri
Think you know? Check your answer.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: This group of quirky, lesser-known Phillies mascots have no problem pushing, pecking, or eating anyone who gets in their way of defending the Phanatic’s honor.
GOG GAP LASAGNA
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Lisa Eizen who correctly guessed Friday’s answer: Kennett Square. Thanks to a $50,000 grant, Kennett Square’s Fussell House will be rehabbed as an education center. The house was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
Photo of the day
🎶 Today’s Sunday track goes like this: “God, it’s brutal out here.” If that ain’t the truth, Olivia. Sincerely, an unapologetic elder millennial fan.
Philly fans brought their unique flair to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Guts Tour” stop at the Wells Fargo Center on Friday. The rest of us can live vicariously through pop critic Dan DeLuca’s experience of the highly anticipated and “terrifically entertaining” performance.
👋🏽 Thanks for starting your morning with The Inquirer. Have a great rest of your day.