New Frankford Development President Felicia Richardson addresses the Northwood Civic Association at its monthly meeting Tuesday, April 20, 2010.

It seems the Northwood Civic Association has made nice with the for-profit company poised take operational control over the storied Frankford Y.

“This has the prospects of being a well established part of the community,” civic President Barry Howell told nearly 40 residents inside the St. James’ church basement at Castor Avenue and Bridge Street Tuesday night.

It was Howell, of course, who said in December that he “sensed a rat” around the proposal. But Howell now says lots has changed since then.

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The original Frankford High School building -- an annex of Central High School. Photo by Jennifer Reardon for Philadelphia Neighborhoods.

Dr. Thomas Mills, the current Frankford Alumni Association president, graduated from Frankford High School in 1948 with 477 other high school seniors. All but two of the 478 individuals were Caucasian males.

Terry Tobin, the Alumni Association’s financial secretary and treasurer, graduated from Frankford High in 1962. In his first year at Frankford, he witnessed the voluntary desegregation of the school.

Joe Farina, a first-year health and physical education teacher and a wrestling and baseball coach at Frankford, graduated in 2004. Frankford’s demographics during his last year there closely resemble the current statistics.

During the 2008-2009 school year, the most recent school year for which data are available, African Americans made up the majority of Frankford’s student population at 62.4 percent. At 9.9 percent of the student population, Caucasians ranked third. Latinos were second at 25.1 percent. The high school had 1,921 students enrolled that year, quite a jump from the 37 students who attended the Central High School annex its first year, September 1910, 100 years ago. continue reading »

Frankford residents ask questions at the Dec. 3 Civic meeting about the proposal for the new Frankford Y.

A starry-eyed plan for reinvigorating the century-old Frankford Y has now lost the support of the civic association to whom the proposal was first presented.

Northwood Civic Association President Barry Howell, who presided over the November meeting of his neighborhood group that featured the announcement that a for-profit group would purchase the cherished, nonprofit community center, stood up at Thursday night’s Frankford Civic Association meeting and addressed the issue aggressively.

“I sense a rat,” Howell said, to chatters of approval from the 16 residents and 10 Frankford board members in attendance. “They fed us Disney World, but this ain’t Disney World.” continue reading »

Anthony Bannister, a partner in the company that is purchasing the Frankford Y, addresses the Nov. 17, 2009 Northwood Civic Association meeting.

A for-profit development company has agreed on terms to purchase the New Frankford Y, as announced at Tuesday night’s Northwood Civic Association meeting. The Y closed its doors back in May after 68 years as a neighborhood hub.

Portraying himself as well-connected and well-funded, a young and charismatic quarter partner in the Frankford Development Corporation said they plan to reopen the Y as the Frankford Community Center by September 2010.

“The place brings such a rich, beautiful element to the neighborhood,” Anthony Bannister told a dozen residents and the civic board inside a well-heated classroom at St. James Lutheran Church. “I’m not afraid of Frankford. You just need a vision, and I can see it.”

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By Christopher Wink

In 1941, the New Frankford Community Y opened its doors. Today, 68 years later, it will close.

The center, a big brown mansion with an addition that includes an indoor swimming pool, is self-funded, depending largely on state grants. One grant for a cool $200,000 never came through last year. Employees haven’t been paid for a month, as reported by 6ABC. continue reading »