ONLINE SALES HAVE ENDED FOR THIS EVENT. If you would like to attend, you can pay cash at the door, $15 member and $25 non-member, exact change only. Venmo payments will also be available on site. 

As part of its 2025 Fall Training Program, 19th Century Growing Pains or We The People… Now What?, the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides (APT) is offering a Lunch & Learn Talk: Workshop of the World on Thursday, November 13 from 12:30-1:30 pm at Mother Bethel AME Church (419 6th St.).

After the Civil War, Philadelphia acquired the moniker ‘The Workshop of the World.’ Philadelphia made more stuff than any city in the country – everything from steam engines to ships, textiles to leather goods, saws to linoleum, pocket watch cases to umbrellas, railroad passenger cars to automobile frames, and the list goes on. The U.S. Census from the time listed approximately 300 manufactured products, and Philadelphia produced 90% of them. No other city could match that. There are still many buildings dotting the city’s landscape where all of this labor took place. The present-day neighborhood of Tacony was created by Henry Disston as a worker’s community for the employees of the Disston Saw Works, the largest of its kind in the world. Preservationist Torben Jenk, creator of the website The Workshop of the World and a member of Philadelphia’s Oliver Evans Chapter of The Society of Industrial Archeology leads the talk.

Lunch: Arrangements for lunch are to pre-order individually with APT corporate member Campo’s. Order after 5 pm on Wednesday November 12 and before 11 am on Thursday November 13. Use code APT10BETHEL – this will give you 10% off and will indicate that you want your lunch delivered to Mother Bethel by noon on Thursday. Use this link to the online menu to order. If you order before or after that window, you are not guaranteed to get your meal with the noon delivery to Mother Bethel.

The food is scheduled to be dropped off no later than 12 noon. You are also welcome to bring your own food or find something else locally (though there is not a lot of free time to do that without missing an event).

Please note that a free Tour of Mother Bethel AME Church, from 11:30 am-12:30 pm, will precede the Lunch & Learn. Registration requested.

Check out the complete training program description to figure out the best combination of events and pricing for you. The full package of a possible 9 events PLUS a full day bus tour to Fairmount Park is ($100/$150/$270), or you may prefer to choose individual tour or lecture events ($15 member/$25 non-member) with or without the full bus day ($50/$70).

Non-members may wish to join APT – early bird pricing in effect through December 31 – to receive the member discount.

Please join us!