Theresa Romanowska and Micheal Blichasz have worked at the Polish American Cultural Center in Old
City for years.
Romanowska, the center’s special events coordinator, is a Port Richmond native and a second-generation Polish American, her grandparents arriving to Philadelphia in the early 1900s. Romanowska began working at the Cultural Center 30 years agi after her husband’s passing.
Blichasz is a third-generation Polish American and has worked at the Polish-American Cultural Center
for several years. His family immigrated to Port Richmond in the late 1800s.
This interview was conducted with both participants together.
Can you talk about a little bit about the Polish American Cultural Center, like founding
origin?
Blichasz
Yeah so it started in 1908, as the immigrants were coming through the port of entry. It started as
Polish-American social services, and they organized to help the new immigrants coming on the
ships to Philadelphia. And over the years it grew, and the mission of the organization, started to
just help people who were here already, which was big numbers of people. The Cultural Center
started like a cultural part of the organization. One was social services, the other was the cultural
part, and they were located at 804, North 24th Street. It was a place where groups would
organize, and that people from Port Richmond would come there and for a long time and come to
South Philly to be part of this organization. And then they decided, one of the council people encouraged them to come and they were going to move, and they said, why don’t you come to historic fold up, you can open the museum exhibit hall, because we don’t have anything polish that we really can say we can promote as an additional tourist site. So, the story is, that is how this opened. And it opened on August 9th, 1988, President Bush came at this place here, and President Bush came to cut the ribbon on the opening. And here we are.
And so how does the Polish American Cultural Center interact with the Port Richmond Polish community? Is there and events or crossover in any type of way.
Displays of Polish History throughout American history at the Polish American Cultural Center. (credit. Kamil Rozanski)
Blichasz
They work together in Port Richmond with the polish community, they get involved in the Pulaski Day Parade, which we were at this past Sunday, they showed the entire parade on 6abc, that is coordinated out of here. Theresa’s involved in that also, and the committee gets together with every part of the city and the region to have the parade.
Romanowska
We work together with the St.Aldabert Polish Language School and their Polish Eagle Scouts,(Harcerze).
And so since you’ve lived there for so long, could you just explain just how has Port Richmond changed over the years for you personally, like, what have you noticed?
Romanowska
I was born, raised and grew up in Port Richmond. My entire life is Port Richmond. I’ve seen a lot of changes, but I still see the Polish people involved in the Port Richmond area, even though people die, their families, their children, buy the houses and stay in Port Richmond, and they try to go to the church, Polish language school, the businesses, there is a lot of people that even don’t live in Port Richmond and still come to Port Richmond, to the church and to the Polish businesses in East Allegheny Avenue, they support them, but there, of course, has been changes. There’s been a lot of different nationalities coming in, but the Polish are still very vibrant, and they’re keeping their neighborhoods clean. You can tell a Polish neighborhood. Their properties are clean. They’re keeping it clean. It’s not vacant. It’s not not destroyed in any way.
Blichasz
And I notice when people walk by, you know, they say we already have our lunch reservation or something, and we have to come back here to visit, because my grandparents came here, you know, 100 years ago. I want to go in and see what they have. Because I try to keep my Polishness, keeping Polish heritage in America, in Port Richmond, in bridesburg, in Manayunk in South Philly. It’s all the same, but Port Richmond is a more visible. They kept it more visible like you could go to South Philadelphia, and there’s a lot of Polish businesses just that they’re not as visible as is, because it’s they made Port Richmond like a focal point for this, this stuff, and people come back to the area to make sure that it continues. And that is the most important thing that you can do. It’s like Chinatown or anything else, get the people to come back to support and enjoy you live. You. You’re the perfect example. They enjoy having that Polish feeling about being part of the community. And yes, in Port Richmond, people do go out every week and make sure houses are kept up.
Romanowska
And I know, like Michael was saying about the shopping, when I go to church, I see a lot of the cars, and here they go to the mass, and then you go shopping, Polka Deli, even they do their banking. They come back to do their banking. They come back to the travel agencies when they need to do some traveling. They do come back if they don’t live in the area and those living nearby as well do shop there.
What surprises you the most about the Polish community in Port Richmond?
Blichasz
And you know, what’s amazing in Port Richmond, when you’re walking, of course, some of the people you know, they start speaking to you in Polish. Because I speak Polish, they’ll just greet me and talk in Polish. But what’s amazing the children are being taught Polish. They’re being raised speaking Polish at home, and that’s important because they’re keeping up their Polish heritage. Matter of fact, one of our priests mentioned he was amazed that there were Polish children who spoke English and Polish fluently, and they didn’t even have an accent.
Could you speak a little more about how Port Richmond came to be a Polish American Hub?
A map of Poland and its administrative divisions. (credit. Kamil Rozasnki)
Blichasz
They started in South Philly. There was a huge community in South Philly. And then they went to Bridesburg. After Bridesburg came Port Richmond. They went to Bridesburg because they wanted to open up farms and things like that. And Bridesburg was a wide-open area. Then they went, started to go in big numbers to Port Richmond. They worked in all the industries there. And as I said, 90% plus were either taken here by businesses and the other in the beginning, the other 10% were born today. It’s just the opposite. It’s everybody who’s born here in America, and you do get some people who immigrate, but it’s not to the degree that it used to be.
What are your hopes for the future of Port Richmond?
Blichasz
We have people that still go to those events, that are here five, six, and seven Generations their families were here in the early 1800s but because of the Polish part, they say, I want to have that in my family. It was instilled in me beginning some kind of whole deal, and I want my children and grandchildren to have that too. I like that you find, you know, you find a lot of people, like the Italians, love to keep their Italian heritage going, but it’s mainly with food and sometimes music, but not the language or the costumes you saw on Sunday in the parade.
We love that the Polish Communities in Port Richmond still pass down their traditions and language all these generations later even as the community changes and new cultures and new people come in.
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