Meet Moses Pierce, Philly's 'traveling concierge'
Center City District service representative Moses Pierce stood amid the shuffle of tourists and commuters outside Philadelphia's City Hall, eager to engage passersby who rarely looked up from their cellphones.
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Moses Pierce stood amid the shuffle of tourists and commuters outside City Hall, eager to engage passersby who rarely looked up from their cellphones.
He didn't let "the devices," as he calls them, inhibit his job, though.
Hello, ma'am. Can I help you get to where you're going today?
Welcome to the park, my man. Please, remember for next time -- no smoking, all right?
For 25 years, Pierce has walked the streets and parks of Center City, a "traveling concierge," as he describes himself, as a member of the Center City District's Community Service Representative team.
He was an original hire of the Center City District, which turned 25 this spring.
"I'm the last of the original Mohicans," said Pierce, last week posted up at Dilworth Park - one of the many spaces he's seen transform over the years.
A few moments later, a tourist from Australia lugging a rolling bag asked for directions to Market Street. Pierce launched into a series of follow-ups.
Where are you trying to get to?
The train station.
And, what time is your train? Did you want to get some breakfast before you go?
Well actually, I've got some time . . .
. . . Midtown diner - and tell them Moses sent you.
"When I greet people, I try to make the person feel like they're coming into my living room," Pierce said. "A smile and a hello is a key to unlock apprehension."
Pierce, 67, displays the hospitality of a gracious bed-and-breakfast host. He is a human GPS and a walking Philadelphia historian who can toss off a dozen sunny sayings in a 15-minute conversation.
"You give a smile, you'll get a smile. You give respect, you'll get respect," he said, explaining the art of getting smokers in the park to put out their cigarettes.
Off the job, Pierce splits his time between a home in West Philadelphia and a farm in Berlin, N.J. His father purchased both properties when Pierce was young. He was raised by his father after his mother died when he was 8.
His father also raised chickens and hogs, and ran a landscaping business in South Jersey. When Pierce was 10, at his father's prompting, he started living by himself in the family's West Philadelphia home, going to school during the week and visiting the farm on the weekends.
"It was a different world then and it worked out well because of how he raised me," Pierce said. "I wasn't a city kid, per se. I lived in the city but I was country all the way. I'm still country."
Pierce graduated from West Philadelphia High School and served 18 months in Vietnam, returning, he said, "with all my limbs and my sanity."
He graduated from Pennsylvania State University and worked as a cable salesman and for the now-defunct Eastern Airlines. In 1991, he saw an ad about a new special services district.
"It was new," he said. "It seemed exciting and it was all about promoting Philadelphia."
Pierce halted his story to jog down a rogue bicyclist. He's a stickler for the park's few rules: No smoking, no biking, no skateboarding.
In a job built on people watching, Pierce has witnessed a lot of historic Philadelphia scenes over the years.
In 1991, his first year on patrol, he saw an ambulance take former Mayor Frank Rizzo away from the Center City office building where he'd suffered a heart attack.
He caught glimpses of Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington filming scenes for Philadelphia the following year.
He's helped Republicans and Democrats, alike, navigate the town during their conventions and he swelled with pride at the sight of the packed Benjamin Franklin Parkway during the papal visit.
Pierce, who is divorced with a grown daughter, says he's nearing retirement. He can't bend over as easily to pick up items people drop, and more and more bikes are getting away from him these days.
His hope for the people he meets is that they find a job to love as much as he cherishes his own.
"Like my father used to say, it's the small things in life that mean so much - everybody's reaching for the stars, the sun," he said. "No man's arm is long enough to touch the stars, so find out where your niche is in life and be happy.
"I've been happy at what I'm doing because I relish meeting people. I'm hoping if they're having a bad day, I give them a smile and they feel a little better, and their day, hopefully, goes a little smoother because they met Moses."
215-854-5506 @juliaterruso