Marconi Plaza, Philadelphia

Marconi Plaza is an urban park square located in South Philadelphia enclave neighborhood and became the designation location of the annual Columbus Day Parade.

Marconi Plaza has two main halves, East and West, which are divided in the middle by Broad Street. It is located at the most southern end of the city and within the northern border of the Sports Complex Special Services District and the southern border of Lower Moyamensing. The park plaza is accessible via the Oregon Avenue station of the Broad Street subway.

Boundaries of the Marconi Plaza neighborhood:

The urban park plaza itself, from which the neighborhood derives its name (Marconi East and "Marco" Marconi West), is a rectangular park. The Roman-styled plaza is divided in the center by Broad Street and is bordered by 13th Street, 15th Street, Bigler Street, and Oregon Avenue.

History

The plaza design is credited to the strong influence of renowned architect Paul Philippe Cret in 1904 as part of his participation in the Art Jury reviewing the preliminary plans presented by landscape architects the Olmsted Brothers, who were then charged with a modified design to complete the work.
. The Plaza later served as the grand pre-entrance for the 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition, leading visitors south along a tree lined Southern Boulevard Parkway (landscaped segment of South Broad Street) to the exhibition grounds that started at Packer Avenue and continued to League Island Park. This neighborhood twin park is mirrored on both sides of Broad Street and became property of the Fairmount Park system. It held the common name of Oregon Plaza until October 18, 1937 when it was officially named Marconi Plaza in honor of the Nobel Prize Laureate Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of Radio.

The F. Amadee Bregy School was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Architecture

The original design of the Plaza was a two level terrace with pathways, marble trims, urns, influenced by landscaped architecture modeling after Roman gardens and English gardens. The east and west plaza reflected the same winding pathways leading to a raised stepped terrace surrounded by stone railings and entrance sculptures of large urns with two small "reflecting" pools of water facing Broad Street at the center point, which at that time was cut away from the curbline forming half circles open to traffic on both the east and west. This accent was used in 1926 to position a large Liberty Bell at the center of the street permitting traffic to circle around.

Over the years many of the fine details have been erased including the half circled indented curbline on either side of Broad Street at the center. This location also had on both sides of the plaza, two reflecting pools of water. The pools were filled in to provide the foundation for the two statues that were later erected to support the cultural history of the immigrant Italian community and respond to Anti-Italianism.

The park is currently lushly covered with 25% trees adorned with park benches, open areas for two tot lots, a baseball field, basketball court, and country cottage style enclosed bocce court. The sidewalk border surrounding the park is densely lined with large maple trees with heights of 30–50 feet high.

Public art

Bronze statue of Guglielmo Marconi, sculpted by Saleppichi Giancarlo, was erected on the east plaza in 1975 though the efforts of the Italo-American Community organized as the "Marconi Memorial Association" headed by Dr. Frank P. DiDio. The statue was dedicated on April 25, 1980, to commemorate the 106th anniversary of the birthday of the world-famous Italian scientist and inventor.

Marble statue of Christopher Columbus was erected on the west plaza in 1976. This work was originally located along Belmont Avenue in Fairmount Park, having been unveiled on October 12, 1876, for Philadelphia's Centennial Exposition. Thought to be the work of Emanuele Caroni, this is said to be first publicly funded monument to Christopher Columbus in the United States. It was purchased for $18,000 with money raised by Italian-Americans and the Columbus Monument Association, through the efforts of Alonzo Viti of Philadelphia and his brothers. The statue's initial installation began an annual tradition for the colony of mostly Italian Americans in South Philadelphia to march each year on Columbus Day to the statue in Fairmount Park. The journey was found to be too exhausting and in 1920 the celebration changed locations.

Controversy surrounding Christopher Columbus statue
*2018
The words "Italian-Americans against racism" were painted on the pavement in front of the statue as part of a series of vandalism events on Columbus Day.
*2020
During the aftermath of the George Floyd protests and greater Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in June, statues depicting Christopher Columbus as well as other historical figures had become a target for vandalism and city sanctioned removal nationwide. Some members of the Italian-American community of South Philadelphia

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