Bethlehem Steel, Newark, Brooklyn Wanderers, and Fall River Marksmen identified as teams in historical American soccer footage

This article would have not come about without the amazing Ed Farnsworth. Ed and I had a back and forth about the clips and where the games may have been located. He provided most of the images, indicators, and informational text locating the I & East Tioga Street and Northeast High School  grounds in Philadelphia. Ed is a real mensch.

Introduction

I’m a proud member (and former board member) of the Society for American Soccer History. SASH recently launched the Historical American Soccer Footage Campaign to find and preserve footage of old soccer matches. I urge you to donate as much as you can for this long-needed project.

As part of the Historical American Soccer Footage Release Campaign, SASH recently uncovered four clips of soccer matches from the Ellwood F. Hoffmann Collection curated by the Center for Home Movies. Hoffmann owned Lucille Hosiery, a silk stocking factory in Philadelphia, and was an amateur filmmaker. Most of his collection of film reels have been transferred to video and uploaded to the Internet Archive by the Center for Home Movies.

Each of the Hoffmann reels is identified by a year and a subject. The clips found by SASH are from the reel titled “1933 Princeton Ave.” Archive.org notes that the reel contains “1933 home movie footage of soccer game, construction of a mill, and boxing match.” No further information was available about the teams in the footage, or where and when the footage was shot. SASH identified and extracted four separate clips of soccer footage from the “1933 Princeton Ave.” reel and published each clip separately on the Society’s YouTube Channel as Clip 1, Clip, 2, Clip 3, and Clip 4 of unidentified Philadelphia teams and grounds from 1933.

This article summarizes my research on those clips and the subsequent identification (with a lot of help) of the venues, teams, and year.

Location of the I & East Tioga Street grounds

I’m going to skip Clip 1 for now and come back to it later. That’s because Clips 2, 3, and 4 were all filmed at the same field. From what we can see in those clips and what we know from newspaper articles and photo archive sources, Clips 2 through 4 were filmed at the I & Tioga Street grounds (I Street and East Tioga Street today) in the neighborhood known as Harrowgate in North Philadelphia.

First off, here’s the location of the grounds from an aerial view taken in August 1926, courtesy of the Facebook page Philadelphia Stories by Bob Mcnulty:

Here’s the same location on the 1925 North Philadelphia map. Note the giant United Gas Improvement Company tank to the left of the grounds visible in the image above and on the map (all map in this essay images come from the Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network):

If you zoom in on the 1926 aerial photo, it looks like there is a prepared and leveled rectangular grounds with a baseball diamond visible in the lower left corner. Compare this to the rough ground that is crisscrossed with paths further to the right. The likely orientation of the soccer ground goals of the I &Tioga Street grounds is marked as Goal 1 and Goal 2 for reference:

Finally, let’s look at a 1939 aerial photo from the Library Company of Philadelphia of the same location:

The Boger and Crawford mill buildings are roughly centered in the image. Partially obscured on the right by the white cropping tape is the Notaseme Mill. The I and Tioga grounds were between the two mills.

The home plate of the baseball diamond is likely faintly viewable in the close up above. Newspaper reports of a benefit baseball game at the I & Tioga Grounds played in 1923 that featured Babe Ruth describe fans gathering to watch the game on a railroad embankment. The embankment is visible in the foreground.

Identifying the grounds in Clip 2

The still below from Clip 2 shows a mill building. Note the window details, the large water tower legs just above and behind the mill, and the supporting beams on the backside of large wooden billboards. This is the Boger and Crawford Mill.

These details are also visible in the 1939 aerial photo:

Identifying the grounds in Clip 3

The still below from Clip 3 shows the Notaseme Mill building to the left of Goal 2. Note the style of the windows and that building is four stories tall.

The homes visible in the background are also visible in the aerial view.

Clip 3 also shows a view of Goal 1 looking from the Boger and Crawford Mill side. The backdrop of the goal in the still below is the back of the billboards visible in the 1939 aerial photo:

This closeup from the 1939 aerial photo shows the approximate location of Goal 1 behind the billboards:

Identifying the grounds in Clip 4

Clip 4 repeats the view of Goal 1 looking from the Boger and Crawford side of the grounds. Again, Goal 1 is backdropped by the large Boger and Crawford billboard:

Identifying the grounds in Clip 1

The grounds shown in Clip 1 do not look like the I & East Tioga Street grounds. The view of the first goal visible to the left of the bleachers does not match either of the goals in Clips 2 through 4:

The brief view (likely because Hoffmann was filming towards the sun) of the goal to the right of the bleachers also does not match the I & Tioga Street grounds:

Finally, the bleachers themselves in Clip 1 are unlike those at the I & Tioga Street grounds. The bleachers shown in Clip 1 are larger and more substantive than those found at the I & Tioga Street grounds:

We don’t have images of Northeast High School Field to compare with the footage in Clip 1. For reasons given later in this article, I believe that the match shown in Clip 1 took place at Northeast High School Field.

Dating the clips

By 1933, the I & Tioga Street grounds were not being used for soccer matches at the level shown in Clips 2 through 4, if at all. The size of the crowds speak to a level of interest more than just the level of neighborhood soccer. And the fact that the players were wearing numbers on their jerseys (a very rare occurrence at that time) signifies that these are prominent teams. As such, there was a practical disconnect between the location of the matches and the year given on Hoffmann’s film reel.

Because film is a linear physical medium, the later non-soccer clips on the “1933 Princeton Ave.” reel that SASH edited out to present the soccer footage may have been from 1933, but that doesn’t mean all the filming was done in 1933.

So, time for a quick soccer history lesson which will provide some context of why the clips are likely not from 1933.

The Bethlehem Steel FC 1927-28 season

Bethlehem Steel FC was one of the great American soccer dynasties. Founded in 1907 as Bethlehem FC, the team gained the sponsorship of the Bethlehem Steel Athletic Association in 1914 and officially played as Bethlehem Steel Company FC with the start of the 1915-16 season. With that backing, Bethlehem Steel went on to win four National Challenge Cups (better known today as the US Open Cup) and five American Football Association Challenge Cups (often referred to as the American Cup) over the span of six seasons. The team went professional and joined the National Association Football League in 1917 and, after a second-place finish in its first season, Bethlehem went on to win the league three straight times.

While Bethlehem Steel FC was a massive draw on the road, the team struggled to draw crowds at its home pitch in Bethlehem, Bethlehem Steel Athletic Field. Bethlehem was slated to be a founding member of the American Soccer League but dropped out just before the inaugural 1921-22 season started because the league ruled that home teams could keep all the gate receipts. Bethlehem was a big draw on the road and the team wanted a share of the receipts from road games.

Bethlehem Steel joined the ASL for the league’s second season, finishing in second place for the next three seasons. The team managed to win the final AFA Cup competition at the end of the 1923-24 season and one last National Challenge Cup at the end of the 1925-26 season. The Steelmen finally won their first, and only, ASL title in the 1926-27 season.

That offseason the situation in the ASL began to quickly change. Charles Stoneham was the owner of the New York Giants of baseball’s National League. Just days before the 1927-28 ASL season started he bought the Indiana Flooring Company FC franchise (despite its name, New York City was the Indiana Flooring team’s home). Stoneham couldn’t rename the team after his baseball franchise so it became the New York Nationals instead. Stoneham immediately moved the team’s home pitch from the relatively grubby New York Oval to the home of his baseball team, the much grander Polo Grounds.

A week before Stoneham bought the Indiana Flooring franchise, the ASL changed its by-laws to circumvent U.S. Football Association rules about state associations receiving a percentage of the gate from foreign exhibitions and introduced a new clause granting territorial rights of a seven-mile radius around a club’s home grounds. These new by-laws were likely made to entice Stoneham to join the league.

Stoneham’s addition to the league moved the ASL towards a more antagonistic relationship with the USFA. It also was another step in the league’s attempts to become as important a major sports league as baseball. These pressures internal to the ASL and pressures caused by the financial downturn of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, meant Bethlehem Steel FC began to lose ground competitively due to its relative lack of resources compared to better-funded franchises.

Bethlehem Steel FC considered moving its operations to Philadelphia a number of times over its stint in the ASL. The team struggled to draw crowds in Bethlehem and various Philadelphia franchises had formed and disbanded over the ASL’s first half dozen seasons. That seemed ready to change during the 1927-28 season.

The ASL decided to split the season into two halves starting in 1927-28. A winter break between the halves was introduced so the league’s teams could play opening round matches of the National Challenge Cup. In its first round NCC match, Bethlehem Steel visited Centennial AC of Philadelphia on January 15, 1928 at the I & Tioga Street grounds. Bethlehem won easily, 3-1, and the match drew 3000 spectators. Bethlehem Steel returned to Lehigh Field (renamed from Bethlehem Steel Athletic Field a couple of years earlier) to play a few more cup and league matches as the ASL’s second half got underway.

The first rounds of the ASL Cup (aka the “Lewis Cup”) also began during the winter break. Bethlehem defeated Stoneham’s New York Nationals in a two-leg series and were then bracketed to meet Newark SC in the semifinals.

The first leg of the Bethlehem-Newark ASL Cup semifinal was due to take place on March 3, 1928, at Lehigh Field. The ASL had been without a Philadelphia franchise since the Philadelphia Celtics dropped out just a month into the 1927-28 season. At the end of February, the ASL decided to move the semifinal match to Philadelphia because of the poor gate receipts at Bethlehem home matches. The league wanted more fans in the stands than the paltry few hundred who regularly showed up at Lehigh Field. The league executives were also interested in testing the waters to decide whether to put yet another franchise in Philadelphia the following season.

Clip 1 match identified: March 3, 1928,  Bethlehem Steel FC 3-2 Newark SC (ASL Cup semifinal)

The first leg of the ASL Cup semifinals between Bethlehem Steel and Newark was played at Northeast High School Field in Philadelphia. The attendance of 2,000 was above the usual home crowd for Bethlehem. And, for the purposes of this article, it is highly likely that this match is Clip 1 from Hoffmann’s “1933 Princeton Ave.” reel.

Let’s first jump forward to the April 1, 1928, edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer. That edition included a photograph of the previous day’s Bethlehem Steel home ASL match against Newark SC before 1,800 at the I & Tioga Street grounds.

In that photo, you can see Newark players wearing dark tops featuring a deep white v-neck collar. The Newark jerseys also have a white gothic-style “N” on the upper left chest. The Bethlehem Steel players wear less dark tops and a plain white “B” on the upper left chest:

Let’s compare that photograph to stills from Clip 1. A player runs close by the camera from around 1:52 to 1:56 in that clip. That player is wearing a black jersey with a deep v-neck:

While a bit obscured due to his position, a gothic-style “N” can be easily seen on his upper left chest. The team from Clip 1 must be Newark SC.

What about the other team in Clip 1? Well, while we might not know too much about the kits of Newark SC from this time, we do have ample evidence that Bethlehem Steel wore blue tops with a white “B” on them. Just look at Ed Farnsworth’s essay Evolution of a Kit: Bethlehem Steel FC here on the SASH site, which shows Bethlehem wearing a similar kit from 1925 through 1930.

Clip 1 does not offer many good shots of the team opposing Newark but there is one stretch from around 2:48 to 2:54 of the clip that does. Here we see a player in the lighter colored jersey with a plain white “B” on the upper left chest. Behind him are two Newark players in their darker jerseys. You can even see a glimpse of the gothic-styled “N” on the right Newark player:

To make sure that our identification is correct we need to ask if Bethlehem Steel and Newark played any more during the 1927-28 soccer season. In fact, those two teams played three more times that season. The first match was the ASL Cup semifinal second leg. That game was played the next day, March 4, at Newark’s home field of Davids’ Stadium. The two other matches were both ASL matches: Newark hosted Bethlehem on March 25 and Bethlehem Steel hosted Newark on March 31. That second match took place at the I & Tioga Street grounds, not Northeast High School field. The Philadelphia Inquirer photograph from that match was referenced earlier in this article. In this match, the legendary Archie Stark scored a brace for Bethlehem Steel in the 3-2 win. The match also included the great wing players Bob McGregor and William Reid, along with Stark’s attacking partners Tom Gillespie, Malcolm Goldie, and Johnny Rollo. The Newark roster included their own top-notch wingersTommy Nicol and Bill Daley. Newark also had Tommy Murdoch in goal who played in 42 of Newark’s 47 ASL matches that season.

Given all the above evidence I believe that Clip 1 is from the March 3, 1928, ASL Cup semifinal first leg match between Bethlehem Steel and Newark played before 2,000 fans at Northeast High School field at 29th & Cambria Streets (North 29th Street and West Cambria Street today) in Philadelphia.  At the time, the location of Northeast High School Field was reported in newspapers as 29th and Clearfield because Cambria Street then did not extend as far as the field.

Clip 2 match identified: March 31, 1928, Bethlehem Steel FC 1-2 Newark SC (ASL)

Following the ASL Cup semifinal matches on March 3 and 4 against Newark, Bethlehem Steel played an ASL league match at home in Bethlehem against the New York Nationals on March 10 at Lehigh Field. After that, Bethlehem’s next seven home matches were played at the I & Tioga Street grounds. The first two were ASL matches, the first against Fall River FC, better known as the Fall River Marksmen, on March 17, the next against Brooklyn Wanderers on March 24.

After the Fall River and Brooklyn games, the next home match at the I & Tioga Street grounds was the previously referenced March 31 league match against Newark. Clip 2 is almost certainly from that match as the Newark SC jerseys are now easily identifiable.

Newark upset Bethlehem 2-1 in that March 31 match before a crowd of 1,800. Another indicator of the identity of that match are news reports that state Walter Jackson (brother of fellow Bethlehem Steel player and member of the “Wembley Wizards,” Alex Jackson) scored the lone goal for Bethlehem Steel off a penalty kick. The penalty kick from that match can be seen from 0:38 through 0:43 of Clip 2:

Clip 3 match identified: March 17, 1928, Bethlehem Steel FC 2-0 Fall River FC (ASL)

Things get tougher with Clip 3. Bethlehem Steel is still wearing their usual blue tops with the white “B”. Their opposing team, however, is wearing white jerseys and black shorts. No identifying logos can be seen on the team playing against Bethlehem.

Bethlehem’s next home match after the one shown in Clip 2 was the first leg of the ASL Cup finals against Boston SFC. That match took place on April 7 at the I & Tioga Street grounds before a crowd of 4,000. A photograph from the following day’s Philadelphia Inquirer gives us some direction.

In that photo, shown below, Bethlehem are in their usual kits and Boston in dark tops and white shorts. The team opposing Bethlehem Steel in Clip 3 is wearing white tops and dark shorts. As such, Clip 3 cannot be the April 7 match. (A quick note about that ASL Cup final match. That match ended tied 2-2 at regulation. Archie Stark scored the game-winner for Bethlehem just three minutes into the two 15-minute overtime periods.)

Bethlehem Steel’s next match was an ASL game on April 21 at I & Tioga Streets against Fall River FC. The match ended in a 2-2 draw with only 600 in attendance. The crowd number was kept down due to rain which cancelled Bethlehem’s home match against Stoneham’s New York Nationals the following day.

Bethlehem’s next game was at a very muddy I & Tioga Street grounds on April 28, 1928 when the Steelmen faced off against the New York Giants in an ASL match. Bethlehem won the game 3-1 off an Archie Stark hat trick. Photos from the the Philadelphia Inquirer show the Giants wearing light colored jerseys and white shorts, which does not match the opponents uniforms in Clip 3. This match also cannot be the match shown in Clip 3 because of the lack of a muddy pitch in the footage.

Bethlehem Steel’s final match of the 1927-28 season at the I & Tioga Street grounds was on May 6. That game was an ASL match against Providence AFC. Bethlehem’s game against Providence ended in a 0-0 draw as both teams dealt with end of season fitness woes. Unfortunately, no photos from that match have been found.

While photos of the Bethlehem-Providence match are not forthcoming, a photograph from an earlier match that season may help us identify the match in Clip 3. On January 8, 1928, Fall River FC hosted Providence at Mark’s Stadium in North Tiverton, Rhode Island. A photograph published the next day in the Fall River Herald News gives us a good view of both the Fall River and Providence players.

The photo shows three Providence field players on the left with the Providence goalkeeper on the right. In between is Fall River player Davey McEachran wearing a plain white top and black shorts with no lettering. McEachran’s kit matches the kits of Bethlehem’s opponent in Clip 3. That Fall River wore a plain white jersey with dark shorts is confirmed by a Fall River Globe report published on November 8, 1926: “The Marksmen appeared in new uniforms…The outfits consist of an ordinary sports shirt with black trunks, not lettering whatsoever.”

So, Clip 3 shows Bethlehem Steel hosting Fall River at the I & Tioga Street grounds. The issue now is that Fall River visited those grounds twice during the second half of the 1927-28 season. The Marksmen lost to the Steelmen 2-0 on March 17 before the teams drew 2-2 on March 21.

The March 17 match is likely what is shown in Clip 3 for one important reason: Fall River’s Davey McEachran failed to convert a penalty kick. The March 19, 1928, edition of the Fall River Herald News notes this: “One of the bad breaks that Fall River got came early when Dave McEachran muffed a penalty kick. His shot was slow and lacked direction and [Bethlehem goalkeeper] Edwards had no trouble pouncing on the spheroid.”

We see this happen in Clip 3. Starting at 0:46 and running through 0:52, McEachran takes the penalty kick, which Bethlehem keeper Dave Edwards snuffs out before immediately kicking the ball downfield:

Clip 4 match identified: March 24, 1928: Bethlehem Steel FC 2-1 Brooklyn Wanderers (ASL)

For clip 4 we have to jump forward again to March 24. On that day Bethlehem Steel faced off against the Brooklyn Wanderers in an ASL match. Bethlehem won that game 2-1 before 2,300 at the I & Tioga Street grounds.

A photograph from the March 25, 1928 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer gives us a good look at the kits Brooklyn Wanderers’ wore in the loss to Bethlehem. In the picture we see Johnny Grainger’s header off a Bethlehem corner kick going past the outstretched arm of Brooklyn goalkeeper Steve Smith, just before the ball went in for the Steelmen’s first goal:

The iconic dark sash running diagonally down from the left shoulder is clearly visible in the photo. Inside the sash is written “BROOKLYN” in block letters.

Clip 4 does not provide any close-up shots of the action so it is difficult to positively identify the teams. Bethlehem is in their usual dark tops and white shorts. Their opponents are in dark tops and black shorts. Of the teams that Bethlehem Steel played at the I & Tioga Street grounds, that combination of kit was only worn by the Brooklyn Wanderers. While we don’t get a good look at the front of the opposing team’s jerseys in the clip, there are a few flashes of the back of their shirts. In one still we can see the dark sash running up the back of one player’s jersey:

Here’s a closeup of that image. While it’s hard to make out, you can see the darker sash and, just to the right of it, a faint light indication of a jersey number:

While it’s not 100 percent definitive, I believe there is enough evidence in the aggregate to conclude that Clip 4 is the Bethlehem Steel-Brooklyn Wanderers match on March 24, 1928. It would also make sense in the context of the other three clips given the timeline of the matches.

Summary

To summarize, here are what I believe are the four clips from Ellwood Hoffmann’s “1933 Princeton Ave.” reel . These games are:

• Clip 1: Bethlehem Steel 3-2 Newark SC at Northeast High School Field on March 3, 1928 in the first leg of the ASL Cup semifinals
• Clip 2: Bethlehem Steel 1-2 Newark SC at the I & East Tioga Street grounds on March 31, 1928 in an ASL league match
• Clip 3: Bethlehem Steel 2-0 Fall River FC at the I & East Tioga Street grounds on March 17, 1928
• Clip 4: Bethlehem Steel 2-1 Brooklyn Wanderers at the I & East Tioga Street grounds on March 24, 1928

This would establish that Ellwood Hoffmann attended and filmed Bethlehem Steel’s first four home matches, all played in Philadelphia in March during the second half of the 1927-28 soccer season.

Bethlehem Steel FC epilogue

Following the March 31 match against Newark, Bethlehem Steel played three more home matches at the I & Tioga Street grounds. The first was the first leg of the ASL Cup finals against

Boston on April 7. After that were ASL league matches against Fall River on April 21, the New York Giants on April 28, and Providence on May 5.

Bethlehem had two final home matches in that 1927-28 soccer season. Those were moved to Northeast High School field due to the onset of the baseball season. Both were ASL league matches, the first on May 12 against the New York Nationals and the second on May 19 versus J & P Coats FC from Pawtucket.

Bethlehem Steel returned home to Lehigh Field for the 1928-29 season. But, the “Golden Age’s” Soccer Wars would start just three weeks into the ASL season. Before the start of the 1928-29 season the league had voted that its teams could not take part in the National Challenge Cup. Bethlehem, the New York Giants, and Newark SC were kicked out of the ASL for deciding to enter the National Challenge Cup despite the ASL’s new rule. The US Football Association then removed the ASL’s sanctioning (rendering it an “outlaw” league) and launched the Eastern Soccer League to replace it with the three former ASL teams as its core. The two warring factions eventually found peace and joined the USFA’s Atlantic Coast Soccer League. The ACSL was formed after the start of the 1929-30 season out of a merger of the top ASL and ESL teams at the end of the Soccer Wars.

Bethlehem Steel FC financial struggles continued as the ACSL season wore on. The team hung on for a classic National Challenge Cup Eastern Final matchup with Fall River FC on March 23, 1930 before 13,000 in New Bedford’s Battery Park. The Marksmen won the match. With that loss Bethlehem’s days were numbered. Two weeks later Bethlehem Steel FC announced that it had decided to disband at the end of April 1930. The Steelmen played three ASL matches away from home and officially disbanded following a 3-2 loss on April 27, 1930, to the Hakoah All-Stars before 3,000 at Commercial Field in Brooklyn.

The I & Tioga Street grounds today

Shown below is what the location of the I & Tioga Street grounds looks like today. The old grounds would have covered part of what is now East Venango Street and the Joseph A. Scanlon Ice Rink and Playground. The ice rink is the large white building that makes up much of the former grounds’ footprint. A street hockey rink roughly occupies the space where Goal 2 was located:

Below is the same image with arrows pointing to some important identifiers. On the left, are the remains of the double water towers on the roof of the Notaseme Mill building. The smokestack connected to the American Manufacturing Company building just above the Notaseme Mill building visible in the 1926 and 1939 aerial photographs is a famous local landmark today. On the right, are the single water tower on the roof of the main Boger & Crawford building and the smokestack connected to the adjoining building to the left of the main building:

These features are also viewable in the 1926 aerial photograph:

Looking more closely at the Boger & Crawford building today shown below as compared to the 1939 aerial photograph, the arrows point to important features such as the smokestack, the railroad trestle, the pitched roof, the water tower, and the angled building. The view today:

The view in 1939:

As seen in the recent image below, time has not been kind to the Boger & Crawford complex. But, identifying details like the smokestack, water tower, and the central window elements are still visible:

By contrast, the Notaseme Mills building has been renovated, including a major alteration. In the 1925 North Philadelphia map and the 1926 aerial image the building is shaped like a reverse “C” with a central courtyard. Here’s the 1925 North Philadelphia map view:

The view in the 1926 aerial image:

In recent years, the courtyard has been built over and now appears to be a garage entrance:

Northeast High School Field today

Northeast High School opened in 1890 as the Northeast Manual Training School. The school’s athletic field were dedicated in 1908 at 29th and Cambria (North 29th Street and West Cambria Street today), far from the school’s location at 8th and Lehigh (North 8th Street and East Lehigh Avenue). Here’s what the athletic field layout looked like in G.W. Bromley’s 1910 Philadelphia Atlas:

The arrow on the left points to gridiron football field with grandstands is indicated on the map adjacent to “Central High School Athletic Field.” While the description above — “Athletic Field of the Manual Training Schools”– suggests the grounds were shared, the gridiron football field and grandstands are likely not the location of the Bethlehem Steel vs. Newark SC ASL Cup semifinal match eighteen years later on March 3, 1928. Instead, Northeast High School Field was located in the area labeled “Athletic Field of the Manual Training Schools.” The top arrow points to Clearfield Street. Note that Cambria Street does not yet extend as far as the athletic fields, as indicated by the arrow on the right.

A view of the 1925 North Philadelphia Map confirms the Central and Northeast High Schools each had separate and distinct athletic fields and Cambria Street has been extended to the athletic fields:

When the Northeast High School moved from 8th and Lehigh (North 8th Street and East Lehigh Avenue) in 1957 to its present location at Cottman and Algon Avenues, the school’s original location became Thomas Alva Edison High School and the athletic field became known as Edison Field. Philadelphia’s Ukrainian Nationals won the 1960, 1963, and 1966 US Open Cup championships at Edison Field. A view of the 1962 Land Use Map confirms Northeast High School Field was now Thomas A Edison Field:

In 1988, Thomas Alva Edison High School relocated to Front and Luzerne Streets with a new Edison Field on campus. Below is an aerial view of the location of the original Northeast Manual Training School/Northeast High/Edison Field today. The location of the field is indicated by the top arrow on the right. The likely location of the grandstand viewable in the 1928 footage — replaced by more modern grandstands since 1928 — is indicated by the top arrow on the left. The bottom arrow indicates the curved outline of the Central High School gridiron football field visible in the 1910 Philadelphia Atlas map: