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“What happens is people don’t normally leave,” said Charles Valentine, a resident of East Columbia Avenue in Fishtown. “They live and die here.”
Valentine can list almost all of the names of the residents on the block – first and last – and how long they have lived there. When people walk down the street, he enthusiastically greets them by first name. In order to be close to his mother and father, he bought the house at 1440 E. Columbia Ave. in 1989, but a fire in the two houses next door caused it to be vacant for 20 years.
“The roof of my house was gone, so it was exposed to the elements for 20 years,” Valentine said. “I renovated it on weekends for a five year period, and then we actually moved into the house in 1993 and have been here for 16 years.”
Valentine, who works on the development of affordable housing, lives on the block with his wife, Deborah McColloch, director for Philadelphia’s Office of Housing and Community Development, and their daughter, Rebecca, 13.
Patricia “Pat” Kee, a medical transcriptionist, has lived on East Columbia Avenue for 63 out of 65 years of her life. After marrying her husband Robert, a retired steamfitter, in 1970, they moved to an apartment for two years, then moved and settled at a three-story home at 1438 E. Columbia Ave.
“We bought the house for $6,800,” Kee said. “There was no kitchen, just a back room with a refrigerator. My sink and stove were outside in a shed.”
It was an easy choice when deciding where she and her husband would start their family, for East Columbia Avenue was the block that she grew up on.
“Years ago when I was a kid, the factory right across the street where they now built the Memphis Flats was the Pepsi Cola factory,” she reminisces. “Mr. Branigan, who lived across the street on the corner, was Pepsi’s first cross-country driver. After Pepsi Cola left, it became a popcorn factory, and that’s how my kids remember it.”
As she grew older, the factories, movies theaters and family drug stores disappeared, but the people she grew up with did not.
“Most of the people who were on this block when I was younger have been here for many years and I know all of them,” Kee said.
In fact, family homes are not uncommon on this block. Valentine points out that many of the homes and businesses have been in families for three or four generations.
Burns Funeral Home, located at 1428 E. Columbia Ave. was once the residence of Martin J. Burns Sr., an ice and coal delivery man.
“If Marty [Burns] would see you 50 times a day, he would have said hello to you and made a fuss over you 50 times a day,” Kee remembers.
After working at a funeral home part-time, he decided to open one of his own. Although he has since deceased, his sons have taken over the family business, keeping close ties with the residents on their block.
Andy Dinoulas’ father opened up the family’s Pizza Shop at 1451 E. Columbia Ave. about 25 years ago. When he died, he passed it down to his sons as well.
“We’re close with Andy across the street who owns the Pizza Shop,” Kee said. “Actually, my one son Christopher used to work over there part-time, and when Andy’s brother Bill got married, Chris was in his wedding.”
Kee also remembers a family-run drug store that was located at the end of the corner. Kate Kozul, who lived on the block with her many siblings, then bought it and turned it into a candy store.
“It was a real candy store with penny candy and fresh dipped ice cream,” Kee recalls. “She had that for maybe 12 or 13 years.”
Although Ms. Kozul died, her sister Rosie still lives in the house where they grew up, and Rosie’s nephew, wife and daughter bought the house next-door.
Bernice Bickings, a stay-at-home mom, and her husband Craig, an electrical contractor, are relatively new to the neighborhood. After living in West Deptford, N.J., they decided to move to Fishtown eight and a half years ago to be closer to their uncle, who also lives on the block. They bought a house at 1446 E. Columbia Ave. and started a family of their own.
“We rent from the Burns family, and so does our uncle and our cousin,” Bickings said. “The block is quiet and the people are very pleasant.”
Some people moved out of their houses, but did not make it very far.
“Mrs. Entenmann used to live at our end of the block, and at one point, she moved down to the other end, probably because it was a smaller house,” Kee said. “She recently moved in with her daughter because she’s up in years, and actually, the Kozul’s bought her house. Also, the woman who sold us our house moved across the street, and her daughter also lives up on my side of the street.”
Although Kee only notices slight modifications, Valentine is very aware of the changes that have happened on his block.
“There’s no real jobs in the neighborhood like there used to be when it was self-contained,” Valentine notes. “People used to walk to work, purchase everything in the neighborhood, go to church and school in the neighborhood, but not anymore. This was a blue collar community, and its now probably middle class as time moves on because of migration.”
However, he does note how the migration has made a positive impact on his block.
“It’s a gentrifying community, and the houses we bought 10 or 20 years ago for $30,000 and $40,000 are now selling for over $400,000,” Valentine notes. “There’s a large influx of arts people from New York, and eight to 12 art studios in this neighborhood have opened up in the last 10 years.”
Valentine, along with many of the other residents of this block, will not be leaving anytime soon.
“I love the neighborhood, and just like Pat, I feel safe here,” Valentine said. “I feel like I am a part of it because I know everybody and everybody knows us. The parents move here and get to know each other, and their kids play and go to school together, and it goes down through generations.”
However, Valentine’s daughter Rebecca has other plans for her future living arrangements, which are very different from her father’s and neighbors’.
“I think when I’m older, I’ll probably move out,” she said. “I love Fishtown and I love all the people here, but I like taking adventures, and I think it will be cool to live somewhere else.”
Although the younger generation is very much aware of the history and familiar with the residents of the block, they will most likely move away.
“I went to a junior college and commuted, but my daughter went away for four years to Arcadia University,” Kee said. “In my generation, you stayed at home with your parents until you got married, and most of the kids now-a-days move out before that.”
No matter where residents may end up, they still have the 1400 block of East Columbia Avenue to come home to, a block filled with history and neighbors who are able to recount the story.
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