• The Custom House and Appraisers Stores, 200 Chestnut Street: “Custom House and Court Activities” and “Various Port Activities in Philadelphia,” 1938 mural in 31 panels by George Harding (pictured at right)

• The Kingsessing Post Office branch, 52nd Street and Baltimore Avenue: “Philadelphia Waterways with Ben Franklin Bridge” and “View of Downtown Philadelphia Skyline,” 1939 oils on canvas by Moses and Raphael Soyer

• The North Philadelphia Post Office branch, 2601 North 16th Street:  “Mail Delivery,” “City,” “Country,” “Northern Coast,” “Office,” “Home,” “Tropics,” and “History of Mail Transportation by Water,” 1939 tempera paintings by George Harding

• The Southwark Post Office branch, 925 Dickinson Street:  “Iron Plantation near Southwark – 1800″ and “Shipyards at Southward – 1800,″ 1938 oils on canvas Philadelphia by Robert E. Larter (pictured at right)

• The Spring Garden Post Office branch, 7th and Thompson Streets: “Streets of Philadelphia," 1938 oil on canvas by Walter Gardner 

• The William Penn Annex Post Office branch, 900 Market Street: “Mail Delivery – North, South, East, West,” 1941 bas relief sculptures by Edmond R. Amateis

• The William Penn Annex Post Office branch, 900 Market Street: “Law,” “Justice,” and two eagles,  1940 bas relief sculptures by Donald De Lue ("Justice" pictured below, complete with fasces – just like our Bok stage and the back of the 1935 Liberty dime!)

Fairmount Park is home to thirteen shelters built by the Works Progress Administration in 1938 and 1939.  Pictured at left, the Wissahickon Shelter, like all of the park's WPA structures, is situated along the path of the Wissahickon Creek.

Philadelphia's Central High School opened in 1838 and was the oldest high school in the United States not in New England. The school changed buildings many times over the years, including in 1854 and in 1900.  Its final and current iteration is a WPA-built structure from 1939, located at 1700 West Olney Avenue.

Philadelphia's 30th Street Post Office building, located at 30th and Market Streets, is a giant art deco masterpiece built by the WPA in 1935.  Serving as the city's main post office for over seventy years, it has been renovated into a multipurpose office building.

Tomorrow, we'll take a look at some of Philadelphia's public art created by the WPA's Federal Project Number One.

Thoughtful presentation of food can enhance a meal, especially when you're eating on the cheap. 
In honor of Earth Day, we've picked this pretty salad recipe from the Great Depression to send you a vitamin-rich bouquet of green(s).

Ingredients
Romaine lettuce, center leaves
1 carrot, cut in long, thin slices
multicolored peppers, cut in strips
turnip tips

Directions
• Place pepper slices inside 2 Romaine leaves
• Roll the leaves tightly at the bottom, creating a "bouquet"
• Tie with a carrot slice
• Slip turnip tips into the bouquet center
• Place on a plate and serve with your favorite dressing

Even though Spare A Dime's performances for the 2013 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts are complete, we'll be continuing our daily blog posts throughout the festival – and beyond, to May 6, the anniversary of the founding of the Works Progress Administration.

Today, our history Sunday post is particularly appropriate for a musical blog!  On April 20, 1935, "Your Hit Parade" began its radio broadcasts.  Every Saturday night, the show reviewed the top 15 songs of the week, both by song purchase data (including sales of records and sheet music) and by audience surveys. The earliest format involved a presentation of the top 15 songs. The show popularized the idea of a countdown to the top three finalists and featured a performance of the number one song as a finale.  Since the show was sponsored by Lucky Strike cigarettes, songs not on the top fifteen list (including past favorites and popular standards) were performed as "Lucky Strike Extras."  The show stayed on the radio until 1950 when it moved to television for an additional nine year run.

The paradigm
of Spare A Dime
finds parallels of place and time,
the mystery
of history
repeating, and we hope you'll see
true Liberty
finds unity
of purpose in community.
Rise or fall, we'll always be
together, indivisibly.

A big shout out and our deepest gratitude to the fantastic cast, musicians, and crew of Spare A Dime, and to all of the project's community participants.  You define the very essence of the power of art to transform lives.  Thank you.

Song, story, and new media design came together seamlessly in our first performance.

Above: the Bok Tech Theater entrance, photo by Bradley Maule at Hidden City.

Spare A Dime's performances this weekend are a wonderful opportunity for the community at large to see Bok Tech High School and its glorious theater before the building is closed by the School District of Philadelphia in June.  Hidden City is publishing a two-part article this week on Bok and the Spare A Dime project. You can read about Bok in Part 1 here and Spare A Dime in Part 2 here.  It's also a special chance for all Bok alums in the area to visit the school as we celebrate its 75th anniversary and Works Progress Administration origins.  Bok's culinary department is even cooking up some Depression-era recipes for our concession stand!  Please join us!  Your $10 ticket cost benefits COSACOSA's youth programs!

Tickets online: www.pifa.org/events/10
Tickets by phone:  215-893-1999
Tickets at the door, starting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this week: Bok Tech Theater, 8th and Mifflin Streets in South Philadelphia
For more information, please call COSACOSA at 215.385.2554
We look forward to singing for you!

Spare A Dime's cast works it at the final number of our final dress rehearsal!  Please join us!
If you don't already have your tickets, it's not too late!  Just $10 gets you great entertainment, and supports COSACOSA's youth programs citywide!

Tickets online: www.pifa.org/events/10
Tickets by phone:  215-893-1999
Tickets at the door, starting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this week: Bok Tech Theater, 8th and Mifflin Streets in South Philadelphia
For more information, please call COSACOSA at 215.385.2554
We look forward to singing for you!

Two long-lived American products, one purpose: a delicious and creamy treat not requiring preparation or planning.  Great Depression flummery mixes Jello with evaporated milk to make a creamy fruit-flavored dessert that was popular due to the availability of ingredients. Traditionally, flummery was a Welsh pudding made from boiling sour oatmeal jelly with husks; it characteristically had either a very bland or asharply acidic taste. Over the years, modern flummery has appeared in many varations and styles. This particular version boasts a very flavorful and fluffy outcome. You may find fancier versions in Wales today made with stewed fruit thickened with cornstarch.

Ingredients
2 boxes cherry Jello
2 cups boiling water
1 can Carnation Evaporated Milk

Directions
1.  Put the evaporated milk in the freezer for an hour or so to chill. Alternatively, refrigerate overnight.
2. Stir the boiling water into the Jello powder, stirring until completely dissolved. Put in the refrigerator to cool, but DON’T let it set. Stir it every so often to check.
3.  Pour the chilled milk into a metal mixing bowl and beat on high until it forms soft peaks (like whipping cream).  N.B., one little can of milk will turn into about five times the amount of whipped milk, so use a big bowl!
4.  Now, continue to beat on high while slowly pouring the cooled Jello into the whipped milk, then continue stirring until the mixture is uniform in color.  (You might need to scrape down the sides with a spatula a couple of times to achieve this.)
5.   At this point, you can put the flummery into a mold, or simply leave it in the bowl.  Put in the refrigerator to chill for a couple of hours, and serve.  The flummery will be frothy and melt sweetly in your mouth – the perfectly easy dessert.

The economic turmoil of the Great Depression was exacerbated by hundreds of dust storms pounding the Midwest throughout the 1930s.  Drought and over-farming had depleted 100 million acres across the Great Plains. Once the "bread basket" of America, this previously fertile land became a "Dust Bowl."  Unanchored topsoil was swept up into massive storms over and over again.
On April 14, 1935, also known as "Black Sunday," twenty of the "black blizzards" occurred throughout the Dust Bowl at once, turning the day to night.  By early afternoon, many of the areas affected were in total darkness; people could not see even five feet in front of them.  Eventually, unable to farm or find other work at home, over 400,000 people left the Midwest to travel the country as migrant workers.