PHILADELPHIA, PA – Chestnut Hill College welcomes Dan Rottenberg, author of “The Outsider, Albert M. Greenfield and the Fall of the Protestant Establishment,” to discuss the book and sign copies. The event takes place Thursday, October 9, at 7:30 p.m. on the College’s SugarLoaf Hill campus. In 2006, CHC bought the 30-acre Sugarloaf Estate from the Albert M. Greenfield Foundation for $11 million, doubling the size of its campus.
Greenfield, who lived from 1887 to 1967, was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who became a real-estate giant in the Philadelphia community. Today, his company, established in 1905, is known as Albert M. Greenfield & Co., Inc., or AMG, and is one of the area’s oldest real estate companies and one of the country’s largest. Greenfield handled all real estate and insurance matters for various high profile properties around the area including the Bellevue Stratford Hotel, the Benjamin Franklin Hotel and Lit Brothers Department Store. Greenfield was also active in Philadelphia’s political and civic affairs and was courted for his business acumen by mayors, senators, governors and presidents across all parties. He advised presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson. He also played a key role in bringing the Republican and Democratic conventions to Philadelphia in 1948 and formed major business alliances with Jews, Catholics and African Americans.
Rottenberg chronicles Greenfield’s rises, falls and reinventions and his powerful reach, which crossed social, religious and ethnic boundaries.
Former Philadelphia mayor and Pennsylvania governor, Edward G. Rendell, says this about the book: “Dan Rottenberg has written an insightful, fascinating book about Albert M. Greenfield — a man who had as much to do with the mid-20th-century renaissance of Philadelphia as the dynamic team of Joe Clark and Richard Dilworth. They brought Philadelphia back to life. Greenfield’s business acumen and inexhaustible energy changed the nature of Philadelphia’s business establishment forever. An amazing book about an amazing man!”
Chestnut Hill College uses the facilities at SugarLoaf Hill as classrooms, a student residence hall and for social events and plans to expand the area in the future.
This event is open to the public and registration is requested. Please email westveerd@chc.eduto register.
