A school library built from scratch | Morning Newsletter
And a timeline of the Wanamaker Building
The Morning Newsletter
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Good morning.
It’s a sunny Sunday and we’re promised ideal playoff football weather and a reprieve from gusty winds.
In a school district with only two full-time school librarians across 216 schools, the mere idea of opening a new library is an uphill battle. Our main story goes inside one Philly school to learn how a group of students built one from the ground up.
— Paola Pérez (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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When teens at Kensington Health Sciences Academy were challenged to think of a way to positively change their community, they zeroed in on a project that felt perfect.
Enter the DreamEscape Library, named to reflect what books can mean for readers.
“People use books to escape reality, to live lives that are inaccessible to them,” said Brooklyn Grigger, a senior at KHSA. “That’s how most of us describe reading books, what we use books for.”
With no money for staff or space, the library started as a humble cart of books pushed around by students. DreamEscape would later expand into a multipurpose room with couches, beanbag chairs and sturdy bookshelves.
The library is small, but the hype over its existence within a historically underfunded school district is huge. Teachers at the school say it has also favorably impacted classroom performance.
Philly schools reporter Kristen Graham has the story on how this project went from what-if to grand opening.
The closure of the Macy’s store at 13th and Market Streets will mark the end of a nearly two-decade-long run at the historic Wanamaker Building. However, the building’s history runs well beyond Macy’s.
Over 100 years in Philly:
🏢 It was dedicated by a president in a ceremony attended by 30,000 people
🎹 It housed one of the world’s largest pipe organs, which played its first notes in a coronation anthem
🎄 It debuted a different holiday display before what is now known as the Christmas Light Show
From the Philadelphia traditions born there to the retail tenants that have called it home, let reporter Nick Vadala take you through the iconic building’s storied timeline.
Further reading: As Macy’s closes, the future of the Market East corridor has become a defining issue for Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.
What you should know today
A massive cargo ship that had been stuck in the Delaware River near Tacony since Wednesday has been freed.
The search continued Saturday for a man who went missing Friday afternoon in the Delaware River near Philadelphia’s Tacony section, police said.
A water main break caused street flooding Friday night in the city’s Grays Ferry section and repairs continued Saturday, a Philadelphia Water Department spokesperson said.
A pack of pit bulls loose in West Fairmount Park early Friday morning attacked and critically injured a 61-year-old man and also hurt a second man, police said.
Weeks after a New Jersey woman’s body was found inside a refrigerator abandoned in a South Jersey state park, her boyfriend has been charged with dumping the corpse in Belleplain State Forest in Cape May County.
A Delaware County worker who reported sexual abuse by her boss says she was placed on leave and has faced retaliation for speaking out.
Democrats in the Senate, including the representatives from Pennsylvania and Delaware, overwhelmingly supported advancing a GOP-led bill aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration Thursday. New Jersey’s Democratic senators, meanwhile, were among the nine members who voted against it.
A civil trial involving former Jackass star Bam Margera was scheduled to start this week but his attorneys got a delay and the presiding judge replaced by recently unearthing a 17-year-old case involving the actor that the judge also was involved in, according to court records.
Philadelphia-based nonprofit OIC of America is building out a national job training program, aiming to train thousands per year.
A new virtual reality experience is coming to Walnut Street in Center City.
❓Pop quiz
Tom, the beloved wild turkey harassing one South Jersey town, now has his own:
A) street name
B) statue
C) crossing sign
D) plaque
Think you know? Check your answer.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: The Union’s teen phenom
SILVANA VULCAN
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Jane Auster who correctly guessed Saturday’s answer: The Brutalist. The epic award-winning film is set mostly in Philadelphia and Doylestown, Bucks County, but the state of Pennsylvania is central to its narrative for another reason.
Photo of the day
🎶 Today’s track goes like this: “Now don’t you ever feel sad / Lean on me when the times are bad.” Rest easy, Sam Moore.
👋🏽 Have a great day. Go Birds.