Civil Society/High Society/Overview
– Zach Ertz, Philadelphia Eagle
The old money in Philadelphia has more or less always existed along the Main Line, so named for the name of the railroad trunk that used to pass through it. Commuter rail still passes through the northwestern regions and suburbs of Philadelphia, although the locals refer to it interchangeably as the R5 or the Paoli-Thorndale line. The Gilded Age of the 1880s to the 1920s was the peak of prestige for the Main Line. Townships like Radnor, Wayne, Merion, Haverford, and Devon sprung up around the palatial country estates of Philadelphia's wealthy elites. Those days are long since gone, and the upper-middle class has filled itself in around the ever shrinking lots of the old mansions still occupied by the truly wealthy, but it remains an undeniable truth that the Main Line is where the wealthy and powerful of the region live and play. Money and power pour into this part of the region and rarely, if ever, flow back out again. The poor and the powerless may only catch a glimpse of these places through the frosted window of a SEPTA train, or when they show up to clean the toilets of the people that live there. And the residents are happy with that arrangement.
High Society in Philadelphia is quite subjective. The old money families with names like DuPont, Widener, and Lenfest still live at the gleaming tip of the diamond, admired for their history and achievements as much as their contemporary fortunes and influence. Yet the newly wealthy and powerful continue to make names for themselves, establishing their own nascent dynasties in technology, media, and the arts. The cosmopolitan nature of the city ensures that class is the true factor in these social circles. Race and religion are of vanishing importance where the solidarity of the wealthy is concerned. Wealth and its utility eclipse all other concerns. And in a town where whole hospitals can bear the name of a wealthy founder, vanity and charity are frequent bedfellows.
Are you old blood or new money? Do you wish to share your prosperity or build a higher wall around your country club? Or is your goal buying enough politicians and police officers to tear down the walls of someone else's and absorb their influence for your own? It's all there for the taking now. The Gilded Age has ended. And we're making America Great Again.