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All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

Brief biographies of permanent residents of Laurel Hill East in Philadelphia and Laurel Hill West in Bala Cywnyd, Pennsylvania. Often educational, always entertaining.

history

All Episodes

31:35

Samuel Perkins and the City Hall Cats

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/04/06

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #085, part 5Samuel Perkins was the driving force behind getting the job done at City Hall. He established a close relationship with architect John McArthur, Jr., and sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, who honored him with a series of playful cats tucked away in the south entrance vestibule.

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28:18

John Christian Bullitt: Philadelphia and the Bullitt...

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/04/05

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #085-4 John Christian Bullitt was a native Kentuckian who was pro-slavery, but who made his career as a Philadelphia lawyer. His constitutional knowledge and skills led to him rewriting the City's Charter, which immediately became known as The Bullitt Bill. He also helped clear Fitz John Porter of his court martial charges 15 years after the fact. His statue has stood at the northwest corner of City Hall for more than a century.

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21:45

John McArthur, Jr.: Nude Defending a Staircase

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/04/04

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #085, Part 3 for April 4 Like sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, Architect John McArthur, Jr., was a Scottish immigrant. He specialized in huge buildings that were meant to last a long time, which explains his selection as architect for Philadelphia's city hall, which when finished was the largest building in the Western Hemisphere. Calder honored him by having him model for the visage of "science" in the eastern portico. He is naked.

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73:30

Matthias Baldwin: Taking Pleasure in Perfection

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/04/03

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #085, part 2 for April 3, 2026 Matthias Baldwin was always good with his hands. He started as a jeweler, but progressed to bookbinding before he built one of the first steam engines in the nation. When the Age of Steam emerged, Baldwin became the foremost manufacturer of reliable locomotives that were also works of art.

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10:16

Re-introduction to City Hall Statues, This Time Outside

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/04/02

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #085, part 1 for April 2, 2026I have already talked about the 250 statues inside Philadelphia's City Hall back in ABC:LHS #018, part 1. But including Billy Penn on top, eight named statues also grace the building's outside, including two Civil War generals, a martyred US president, a civil rights hero, a merchant king, and two others. Industrialist / capitalist / philanthropist Matthias Baldwin and John Christian Bullitt, the lawyer who rewrote the city's

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193:41

Four Statues Outside City Hall: Baldwin, Bullitt,...

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/03/27

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #085 for April 2026Philadelphia's City Hall doubles as an art gallery and sculpture garden. More than 250 of Alexander Milne Calder's statues grace the massive walls of the building. But at ground level on the plaza outside the building there are seven more statues, two of them equestrian. Matthias William Baldwin was a precision jeweler turned locomotive manufacturer who gave away most of his wealth. His factory manufactured 75,000 railroad engines

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64:57

Sophie Hutchinson Drinker: Smashing the Patriarchy...

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/03/12

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #054 for mid-March, 2026Sophie Hutchinson Drinker (1888-1967) came from one Philadelphia blueblood family and married into another. She and her husband Harry led musical singing parties in their Merion home for 30 years. When Sophie started a woman's choir, she was frustrated in her search for music by, for, and about women. She made it her life's work to discover how woman had been shut out from their early roles in religion, medicine, and

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25:38

Clare Wofford: Emerging from the Shadow of Harris

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/03/05

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #084, part 4Emmy Lou "Clare" Linford Wofford was present at the creation of the United States Peace Corps, along with her husband Harris Wofford, one of John Kennedy's "Best and Brightest." While Harris served as college president and United States Senator, Clare served in the background at three Philadelphia Universities.

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41:10

Florence Cowanova: Teaching Dance and Elegance

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/03/04

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #084, part 3 Florence Cowanova (born Cowan in 1901) was the daughter of dancers Edward and Mary Cowan. On the suggestion of dancer Anna Pavlova, she adopted the surname Cowanova. Florence grew up immersed in dance, with her father specializing in kinesiology and her mother in dance instruction and publicity. By her teens, Florence was recognized as a versatile dancer and teacher, running a popular studio that staged large recitals at Philadelphia’s

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34:45

Tillie May Forney: Getting the Scoop from the Woman’s...

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/03/03

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #084, part 2 Matilda "Tillie May" Forney, raised in a prominent Philadelphia family with journalistic roots, gained experience as her father’s secretary and became a columnist known for her “Fashionable Luncheon and Tea Toilets” column, which focused on high society fashion and etiquette. Her column catered to an affluent audience, discussing topics like French fabrics and social customs. Tillie never married or left her family home on Washington Square

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33:28

Emily Elizabeth Holman: Philadelphia's Leading Woman...

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/03/02

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #084, part 1 Emily Elizabeth “Lillie” Smith Edwards Holman (1854–1925), aka "E.E. Holman," emerged as a trailblazer in architecture. After starting as a clerk in an architect’s office, she quickly demonstrated design talent and transitioned into practicing architecture independently. Holman designed numerous homes, theaters, and institutional buildings over a career spanning about twenty years. Holman encountered gender bias from clients but often overcame

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152:05

Four More for Women's History Month

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/02/23

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #084 Emily Elizabeth Holman was an accomplished architect who preferred using her initials so as not to disclose her gender. Matilda “Tillie May” Forney followed in the steps of her newspaper publisher father John Forney. She made newspaper work her career at a time when women were barely tolerated in the newsroom. Florence Cowanova was the ballet teacher all the little girls loved. Among her famed students: Zelda Fitzgerald, Imogene Coca, and Princess

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46:09

Walter R. Livingston, Jr.: Building with a Black...

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/02/15

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #053Architecture expanded during the 19th century period of European colonialization, ignoring influences from Asia and Africa. Although not buried at Laurel Hill, African American architect Julian Abele is thought to have designed mausoleums at both properties. Walter R. Livingston, Jr., interred at Laurel Hill West, is considered Philadelphia's top Black post-War architect; his masterwork is the Zion Baptist Church on North Broad

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35:32

Mpozi Tolbert: Mpozitivity in Naptown

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/02/05

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #083, part 4Mpozi Mshale Tolbert was a West Philadelphia native who became a beloved photojournalist and DJ in Indianapolis. Despite his 6'6" frame and waist-length dreadlocks, he was described by all who knew him as a gentle giant. Two murals of Mpozi exist in Indianapolis’s Broad Ripple and Fountain Square neighborhoods, celebrating his life and work.

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37:57

Julia Komai: Freedom for Liberia

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/02/04

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #083, part 3 Reverend John Komai, son of a Krahn chief, and his wife Julia Komai were prominent Liberians who fled their homeland during the 1989 coup, leaving behind their estate and enduring a perilous journey to Sierra Leone before resettling in the United States. John became a community leader for Liberian refugees in the U.S., working as a counselor and continuing efforts to support Liberian refugees. Julia was a political activist who had been jailed

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31:19

Rev. Leonard Smalls: A Parish of Prisoners

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/02/03

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #083, part 2 Leonard Leland Smalls was a Baptist minister who dedicated much of his life to prison ministry and community development. After military service and education at Virginia Union University, he was ordained in 1956 and became the first Black minister certified as a prison chaplain in Pennsylvania. He was active in civil rights, associated with figures like Martin Luther King Jr., and involved in political activism including a 1967 mayoral

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20:22

Frances "Mom" Williams: "Get Off Your Rocker and Vote!"

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/02/02

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #083, part 1 Frances “Mom” Williams was a dedicated community leader and advocate for seniors and the disabled in Philadelphia. Despite an unsuccessful run for City Council in 1979, her influence extended through her family and her activism, leaving a lasting impact on her city and community.

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141:20

Four More Black Champions

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/01/24

SNOWSTORM SPECIAL - EARLY RELEASE All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #083 for February 1, 2026 for Black History Month Frances “Mom” Williams was a dedicated community leader and activist in Philadelphia who campaigned for City Council in 1979 with a focus on seniors and neighborhood safety. Her son Hardy and Grandson Anthony became State Senators. This segment will be released as a separate podcast on February 2nd. Rev. Leonard Leland Smalls became the first Black minister certified as a

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71:14

Mary S. Costanza: Finding a Glimmer of Light in the...

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/01/12

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #052 for mid-February 2026Mary Scarpone Costanza was raised Roman Catholic. She claims she never met a Jew until she went to Temple University. After obtaining a degree in teaching, she developed an interest in art produced by victims of the Nazi Holocaust. It turned into her life work.

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19:58

Samuel Patch Frankenfield: Laying Out the Dead

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/01/06

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #082, part 5In 18th- and 19th-century Pennsylvania, women played a central role in caring for the dying and the dead, performing tasks that combined practical, emotional, and ritual duties. Over time, the profession of undertaking evolved, becoming male-dominated and more specialized, reducing women’s involvement in death care. Early undertakers often apprenticed from trades like cabinetmaking, expanding into funeral services; Samuel Patch Frankenfield was

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