HistorySpeak.com PodCasts
PodCasts
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Who was Mabel Walker Willebrandt? (Learn, Because You're Curious)
​Mabel Walker Willebrandt was a teacher, lawyer, author, prison reformer, Assistant United States Attorney General, the highest-ranking woman in the federal government during most of the turbulent Prohibition-era, which was from 1920 through 1933, and she argued over 40 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. She became a household name in the 1920s and 1930s and was so well-known that she acquired several nick names including: “Dry Czarina”, “Little Miss Trouble”, “Prohibition Portia”, and “The First Lady of Law.”​
Remembering Lebanon, Pennsylvania's Legendary Colonial Theater
The Colonial Theater was built in 1923 at the northwest corner of 9th and Cumberland streets in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Now more than 100 years later, its elegance has not been equaled locally. It was Lebanon’s finest and most elaborately decorated and furnished theater. It also included the first commercial air conditioning system in the city. The Colonial Theater thrived when live theater shows such as vaudeville, barbershop quartets, and big band performances were all the rage. It also witnessed the transition from silent films to talkies. By 2000, the building was far beyond economical repair, a public hazard, and deemed an eyesore. The City of Lebanon had no other choice but to order the demolition of the structure.​
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Remembering the Ormond Hotel (featuring Claudia Malo)
The Ormond Hotel in Ormond Beach, Florida was once a world-class resort and a playground for the rich and famous. It was built in 1887 by John Anderson and Joseph Price. On November 24, 1980, the Ormond Hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural significance. In 1986, the city of Ormond Beach ordered the evacuation of the building for safety concerns. Over the next 6 years numerous attempts to save and restore the hotel failed. Finally, in 1992, the Ormond Hotel was demolished.​
Lebanon, Pennsylvania's Bygone City Hall Building
This building was constructed in 1873 in the Italianate architectural style. In 1897, the City of Lebanon purchased the building to house its city offices and police department for the sum of $15,000. City officials announced the property transaction as “an excellent deal.” For the next 65 years the structure served as Lebanon’s City Hall building. In 1962, it was abandoned after the City of Lebanon moved all of its offices into the newly constructed Lebanon County-City Municipal building located at 400 South 8th Street. In 1963, the building was demolished.
The Decimation of Florida's Indigenous Peoples
(featuring Jerald T. Milanich, Ph.D.)
In 1513, when the Spanish Conquistador, Juan Ponce de León, landed his expedition in la Florida, the indigenous peoples were organized into around 200 tribes with a population of around estimated at 350,000 people. Ancestors of Florida’s native peoples had lived in the region for more than 14,000 years. Only 250 years after Ponce de León stepped foot in Florida almost all of its original indigenous peoples and tribes were gone. This PodCast will explore how such a widespread demographic catastrophe occurred in Florida in such a short period of time.
The Once Luxurious Eagle/Weimer Hotel of Lebanon, Pennsylvania
In 1821, the Eagle Hotel was built at the southeast corner of 9th and Cumberland Streets in downtown Lebanon. It was the first local hotel to be updated with electric and other modernized amenities, and it earned a fine reputation locally and around the state of Pennsylvania as a luxurious lodging establishment. A May 17, 1963 Lebanon Daily News article summed up the fate of Hotel Weimer when it stated, “During its existence the hotel had brought considerable fame and honor to the city, but it had outlived its usefulness.” The building was demolished in 1963.