The Stoop

I had a conversation with someone recently about the neighborhood we grew up in and we talked about the stoops which of course are the front steps in a rowhouse city neighborhood. Or at least that is what we called them in Philly. The house I lived in on Greene Street through the 50's and 60's and the house on Seymour Street I lived from 74 to 79 both had two sets of steps leading up to a porch so technically that wasn't a stoop. I did hang out on a lot of stoops throughout the neighborhood.

We hung out on our steps too. The lower ones near the sidewalk. The whole thing about the stoop was the social aspect of talking to everyone who walked down the street even if just to say hello or acknowledge their presence. We lived in a very walkable neighborhood. People walked to the many neighborhood corner stores, to the churches and schools, to the trolley stops, the parks and recreation centers, the boys club, the police athlete league building, the VFW post, the avenue, the shopping district, the Wissahickon, the library, the train station, the corner bar, your friends house and the list goes on and on.

Sometimes as teenagers we would hang out on someone's stoop for awhile and then move on around the corner or down the block and hang out on another stoop. I was also the one who always carried around a little transistor radio that provided music for our hanging out.

Today I sit on my porch a lot. It is also a social thing and I live in a neighborhood that is very walkable. Lately during the pandemic sitting on the porch was a source of solace as I talked with people walking their dogs, getting some exercise, taking their babies out in the strollers. Many times people greeted me as they walked by our house and it reminded me of the stoops of Germantown where I grew up.

I found a story about Philadelphia stoop culture and the attempt to preserve stoops. Very interesting. Preserving Philly Stoops.