Profile: Don Liuzzi, Philadelphia Orchestra Timpanist

Cherri Gregg Mincey profiles Philadelphia Orchestra Timpanist Don Liuzzi.

Building Profile

Historic Firehouse: Another Example of vacant and neglected city property

The 117-year old firehouse located at 1221-25 N. Fourth Street sits vacant and neglected.

For more than one hundred years, paper mills, tanning mills, textile mills and other industrial factories employed hundreds of workers near the corner of North Fourth Street and Girard Avenue in Philadelphia.  People from Puerto Rico, Cuba and other Spanish speaking countries immigrated to the United States to live and to work in this section of what is now referred to as Kensington South.

In 1893, the City of Philadelphia built a three-story firehouse at 1221-25 North Fourth Street to protect the scores of four and five story buildings in this bustling area.  Located in the heart of the mill district, this bronze-stoned building housed more than 15 career firemen.  It was designed to hold the early 20th century hose and ladder trucks needed to save lives in a part of the city where industrial fire hazards were common.

“This was such a nice part of the city back then,” said Ramona, smiling.  “In the summer, the fireman used to open the windows wide because they didn’t have air conditioning.  You could see them sliding down the brass pole to the [fire] trucks on the first floor.”

Ramona, who declined to give her last name, moved onto North Fourth Street and has lived across the street from the firehouse since the 1960s. Click here to read on.

Profile Story

Clay Cauley for Judge

Clay Cauley works fast and hard.  He skipped kindergarten, graduated from high school at age 16 and got his college degree at 20.  He was a homeowner at 22 when most people his age were still going to keg parties.  Cauley, now 33, is the Democratic candidate for magisterial district judge in Southern Chester County, Pennsylvania.

But this is just one part of his master plan.  Over the past seventeen years, Cauley has moved from a dead-end job to become a criminal defense attorney, reality television star and now, a judicial candidate.

Growing up, Cauley’s role models were his parents who were self-made entrepreneurs.  His mother, now deceased, owned a beauty salon.  His father owned a cleaning business. They raised him to work hard.

Cauley believes in hard work and believes in family.  He is focused, faithful to his dream and not afraid to reach for opportunity.  Now it will be his determination that takes him to the next level.  This is only the beginning.

Click here for full article.