By Norman Cain, October 29, 2020 — This story is a result, it’s not completed, but it’s a result of a workshop that I was in that was conducted by an architect, and he wanted us to write about a design we would have for a communal dwelling, dealing with space, lighting, heating, recreational space, and laundries and etcetera. But I decided to go to an organic concept, and the way I grew up, and my initial neighborhood. The concept and my story’s entitled, ‘Yesteryear’s Homes, Shared Resources, and Shared Spaces.’”
The concept of homes, shared resources, and shared spaces bring to mind my initial neighborhood located in the Bellmont neighborhood located on the north side of West Philadelphia. I’ve lived in a short alley-like street, which had a four-foot wall as its dead end. Its houses were constructed in the townhouse mold, consisting of a small living room, two small bedrooms, and a small kitchen. Then there were spacious backyards boarded by wooden fences. One family actually had an outhouse. There were approximately twenty homes on the street which could be considered the village it takes to raise a child.
In that village, shared homes, shared resources, and shared spaces, were the norm. Cooperation between and within neighborhoods was the unwritten rule of law. For instance, a child would on occasion be sent to the far end of the street with a note to a neighbor requesting eggs, sugar, salt, or milk. Communal meals frequently occurred. There was a block committee to ensure that the street was clean and children were assured recreational and educational alleys. When television was introduced into the neighborhood, the few families that had them would take turns having the neighborhood children to view that new phenomenon.
As far as shared physical and spiritual resources go, there were many more situations that exist. The aforementioned sharing of resources in homes and neighborhoods needs a resurgence. Gentrification hasn’t restored that concept. Fortunately, that concept has not been lost for each summer, the forgotten neighborhoods of the city are celebrated by numerous reunions, like the Black Bottom reunion and the Richard Island Project reunion. Well, the Richard Island Project was located in North Philadelphia and the Black Bottom, that area was between 40th street and 34th street and up to Lancaster Avenue, and at one point it went all the way over to Woodland Avenue. Even though [in] these neighborhoods, gentrification has taken place, folks that are scattered across the city and sometimes across the nation will always come for these reunions in remembrance of how they came up.
