Shawmont Station in 2013 | Photo: Mike Szilagyi

Editor’s Note:Yesterday, the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia released its 2013 Endangered Property List. Among the 36 buildings on the list the Shawmont Station, above Manayunk, stands out for its sheer historical value. Mike Szilagyi reports on the building’s unique significance.

Perhaps cyclists and runners on the Manayunk Towpath trail and riders on SEPTA’s Manayunk/Norristown rail line take little notice of the faded, modest Shawmont Station just above Manayunk. Trains haven’t stopped here since 1996, but the station holds real significance: opened in 1834, Shawmont is no less than the oldest railroad station standing in the United States, and likely the world.

Despite its long history, Shawmont Station, named yesterday as one of Philadelphia’s most endangered historical properties by the Preservation Alliance, is in dire need of the most basic maintenance if it is to survive. Shawmont Civic Association members have begun to float ideas for the building’s reuse. And the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has expressed willingness to support efforts to save Shawmont Station, which in 2009 was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, legally protecting it from demolition.

Shawmont Station in 1929 | Reading Company Technical and Historical Society

The Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad Company was chartered by an act of the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1831 to construct a railroad between its namesake cities. When service from Ninth and Green Streets to Germantown was initiated the following year, most trains were hauled by horses. Only one train each day was steam powered, although on rainy days horses provided all service, as the powerful but primitive locomotive’s self-propelled wheels could do little more than spin in place on wet rails.

When railroad engineers realized that PG&N’s projected route from Germantown to Norristown wasn’t feasible due to hilly terrain, they surveyed a new route along the north bank of the Schuylkill River. Branching off the original line near what was to become the intersection of Broad Street and Lehigh Avenue, the line to Norristown was placed in service with great fanfare in August 1834. At the time, what we now called Shawmont Station was named Green Tree, taking its name from Green Tree Run, a small tributary to the Schuylkill that still runs alongside. For the first two years, trains to Norristown were horse drawn, with the one novel and expensive steam-powered locomotive assigned full time to the Germantown line.

Designed in the then-fashionable Greek Revival style (sometimes called National Style), the station looks nothing like our image of a standard 19th century station. In fact, railroad architecture was years in coming. Historian John Johnstone points out that the building looks more like a stagecoach stop, and indeed its shape resembles the old two-story road houses with wide front porches that still line the historic pikes that radiate out from Philadelphia. It is unconfirmed but assumed that William Strickland, then chief architect of the PG&N, designed the structure.

Green Tree re-named Shawmont Station, August 1873 | Reading Company Technical and Historical Society

The Philadelphia & Reading Railroad bought control of the PG&N lines in 1870, as well as the Schuylkill Navigation, whose towpath followed the riverbank behind the station. At that time, Victorian alterations were made and a wood-frame addition were added. Three years later the P&R renamed the station Shawmont, to avoid potential confusion with a Green Tree station elsewhere in the sprawling Reading system.

For much of the 20th century, the station was capably managed by several generations of one family. The son of one stationmaster remembers that one of his duties growing up was to row a small boat across the Schuylkill to ferry railroad passengers who lived across the river in Lower Merion.

In its nearly two centuries of service the station has come close to extinction at least once. In April 1976, a three-car commuter train collided with a truck on the grade crossing alongside the station. The resulting fire destroyed one railroad car, but thankfully spared the station (and contemporary accounts make no mention of serious injuries).

In later years Shawmont Station became a flag stop, which meant that unless a passenger informed the train crew that they’d be getting off there, the train would pass through without stopping. Finally in 1996, during one of its periodic funding crises, the SEPTA board voted to cancel train service at half a dozen lightly used stations, including Shawmont.

Following the decommissioning of the structure as a train station, descendants of the stationmaster (who lived above in the apartment) continued to rent the building from SEPTA. In the years after, the transit authority gave the station little or no maintenance, and this neglect had begun to take its toll. SEPTA officials have told Shawmont Civic Association’s Dave Cellini that the authority has no plans to restore the building, the agency’s funding priorities of necessity limited to the maintenance of crucial infrastructure such as bridges. Recently however, SEPTA has taken measures to prevent further deterioration.

At a meeting of Shawmont Civic Association late last month, neighbors agreed that they want the station preserved. Among the ideas floated for Shawmont Station’s future are its restoration and re-use as a historical museum, as a concession, or as an outfitter to rent kayaks. Renovation of the stationmaster’s apartment would allow the building to be occupied as a residence as well.

Casey says the Bridgeport Viaduct will be closed in order to replace its timber | Photo: Plan Philly

• Plan Philly sat down with SEPTA General Manager Joe Casey to get a sense of what the public can expect after the state earmarked $300 million late last month toward transportation. Casey calls the funding—much of which is bondable—a “game changer,” allowing SEPTA to approach an operating budget that is 2/3 (!) of that of similarly sized agencies around the country. Much of the infrastructure that would have been forsaken within a “doomsday budget” may now be supported, including work on the Media Line, the Crum Creek Bridge, the Jenkintown substation, and the gradual replacement of trolleys. Casey also credited the Economy League and the Chamber of Commerce for their lobbying efforts to convince decision makers of the economic necessity of regional transportation.

• Grid looks back at September’s Reclaiming Vacant Properties conference, which saw about 800 municipal officials and community leaders from across the country meet here in Philly for “three days of interactive panel sessions, walking tours of Philadelphia neighborhoods and plenty of networking and skill-sharing.” Closing speaker Bill Strickland, creator of Pittsburgh’s Manchester Craftsmen Guild arts and trade training center, urged attendees not to focus on fixing the negatives as much as striving for something beautiful and positive.

• The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia is very excited to announce that they have been award a $50,000 grant from NBCUniversal to support its Walking School Bus program, where chaperons lead students to and from school. The 21st Century Solutions grant “supports initiatives designed to address emerging and ongoing community challenges in new and creative ways.”

• Several of PATCO’s escalators have not functioned since July, and The Inquirer reports that irate passengers will probably not see some of them fixed for another year, as the new maintenance company is urging their replacement in the interest of “safety and efficiency.” The affected escalators in Center City are at 13^th& Locust and 8^th& Market; there are several others across the river.

Tony at Kerr’s Building Materials at 16th & Washington, a major supplier of black brick to Philly builders | Photo: Theresa Stigale

Every ten days or so, the Belden Brick Company of Canton, Ohio ships a flat-bed tractor trailer’s worth of bricks to Kerr’s Building Materials at 1528 Washington Avenue. With row house construction seemingly everywhere, Bella Vista to Brewerytown and well beyond, demand is high. But these shipments don’t contain traditional Old Philadelphia red brick. Instead, demand calls for “Black Diamond” brick–and for distressed, tumbled, and slate-like brick–that reflects a growing taste for contemporary residential architecture.

Nic D’Amico & Nicole Amoroso’s custom home in Northern Liberties | Photo: Theresa Stigale

“We chose the black brick because it best fit the overall aesthetic of the modern house. It also looked beautiful with the stained cedar rain screen,” says Nicole Amoroso, of the house she recently built with her husband Pier Nicola D’Amico designed by Richard A. Miller of RKM Architects. “We liked black brick because it offered the durable and time honored reliability of regular brick but the black color gave it a modern sensibility.”

Developers (and brothers) Netanel and Shimon Levi agree. They decided to face their new six-unit condominium at 1307 & 1309 North 6th Street in South Kensington in black brick in order to hint at the modern-feeling interior. “The dark brick looks so modern and just makes sense since we have such a nice clean interior, without old-fashioned trim and molding,” says Netanel Levi.

Realtors and developers I spoke to in Francisville, Fishtown, and South Philadelphia all say they’re using black brick. In Francisville, partners Doris Harris, Anthony B. Miles and Maryam Amaker decided on black brick for a series of residential projects on 16th Street, after researching materials and also previewing other new residential properties, especially in Northern Liberties. “We really wanted our project to stand out, and the darker brick has such a rich look, it’s really different”, says Harris.

“The buyers really love the darker brick, not one person has ever said no about the the color choice,” says realtor Steve Osiecki of the Hagert Square development in Fishtown designed by Moto Designshop. He says the neighbors, too, “really liked the modern look.”

In reality of course, black bricks, which are also made locally by McAvoy in Phoenixville and by Glen-Gery in York, are not always exactly black, but can range in color values from medium flat gray to a deep glossy black. Depending on the light, the bricks can appear to be different colors at different times of the day and can sometimes look iridescent.

Tony Bisicchia, the owner of Kerr’s, says the differences are a matter of the quality of the raw clay. In the brickyard, raw clay is ground to a fine powder, mixed with shale and water and then extruded onto a conveyor belt, in one continuous log. Workers add black dye to the mix while it’s soft and a wire mold cuts the brick to spec before they go in the 2,000 degree oven. Bisicchia says the dark color won’t fade because it’s integrated into the clay. Because of the dark color, they bake longer than traditional brick.

At about $.90 a piece, black bricks cost almost double red. “That sounds like a big difference,” says Bisicchia, “but a typical house will take about 2,000 bricks. So if you look at it in context of a sales price of upwards of a half million, that $800 differential is really not that big of a deal.” Regardless, due to the higher cost, most builders choose to use black brick only on the front of the house, and sometimes selectively at that.

And what about the mortar? “Choosing a mortar color is like putting on a suit–you gotta put on the right tie,” says Bisiccha. Black mortar, for example, creates a monochromatic appearance.

Shiny black brick: LEFT, 17th & Titan in Point Breeze, RIGHT, 4th & Poplar in Northern Liberties | Photos: Theresa Stigale

At the Leed-H Platinum Stable Flats development in the Northern Liberties, architect/developer Tim McDonald is using black brick and “black horizontal joints ‘raked’ à la Frank Lloyd Wright.” McDonald says the black brick is meant to last longer than traditional red.

Demand for black brick emerged after the 2009 construction of the “Split Level House” at Fourth and Poplar Streets nearby designed by Qb³ Design, says McDonald. “This is truly where it all began! Mark my words.”

The Split Level House is characterized by a large curving wall of Endicott brand “Manganese Ironspot” black brick. “Early on, it was always thought of as a pale brick building with a slate base,” says Qb³ principal architect Kevin Angstadt. “As we developed the project, that increasingly seemed like the wrong move. For quite a while it was thought of as a chocolate brick similar to the IM Pei building in St James Court. There are people that love it, there are people that don’t. Over all, the reactions have been positive. It seems like it gets more at home every year.”

Angstadt says his building wasn’t the black brick pioneer–rather it was the Residences at the Western Union at 11th and Locust Streets, designed by Cecil Baker and completed in 2007. He says, however, before the Split Level House, “black brick had no context in Northern Liberties. Now that is not the case. It is an interesting case study on how the fabric of the city evolves.”

“It is undoubtedly a trend that will fade away just like the beige brick of the 1950s and 1960s faded away and it will be associated with an era, but that is what brings texture to the city,” he says.

Photo by Alaina Mabaso for Flying Kite

• “Freelance writer, designer and branding maven” Elisabeth Garson shares with Flying Kite her vision for the Philadelphia Arts Market, a “good old-fashioned flea market, craft fair, and farmers market” that would rejuvenate a 4.5-acre vacant lot at Broad & Washington.“Her multi-faceted plan that would involve 300 to 500 paying vendors manning a Saturday/Sunday flea market from March through September. The proposed arts, culture and commerce mecca would have several components for an interactive, all-ages appeal.” While Garson’s funding scheme has yet to be worked out entirely, she nevertheless has attracted the support of local officials, such as Councilman Mark Squilla and US Representative Bob Brady.

• The Philadelphia Real Estate Blogcounters City Council President Darrell Clarke and Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell’s opposition to two recent bills meant to disencumber development from councilmanic veto and other regulatory measures.“We will grant Council members Blackwell and Clarke this much: Residents of poorer neighborhoods like the ones they represent tend not to organize in the way those in better-off ones do, and formal rules and qualifications tend to work against having those residents’ voices heard. But where they do organize, as in Francisville, they are often at odds with other residents who would rather no development took place at all than see the gentrification they fear.”

• During his time living in Society Hill while a transplant surgeon at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Ignazio Marino grew to appreciate the proliferation of bike lanes in Philadelphia and as TheInquirer’s Inga Saffron reports, is now doing his best as the new mayor of Rome to improve walkability and to create a pedestrian experience that respects its ancient surroundings. His push to strip the Via dei Fori Imperiali of car traffic might take some getting used to for Romans, but as he explains, “Philadelphia taught me how to go around a city without a car.”

• NewsWorks previews “Due North,” a print exhibit presented by Philagrafika at Kensington’s Crane Arts Building. The exhibit, which opens January 9, includes American-inspired work by Icelanders and Icelandic-inspired pieces by American artists—often pushing the 3D printing technology to its limits.

Aerial rendering of SLS International on the Philly skyline | Rendering provided by Dranoff Properties and Kohn Pedersen Fox architects

With a who’s who of Philly politics in attendance and a decidedly techno soundtrack (i.e. not TSOP), Carl Dranoff today announced the coming of SLS International. The hotel-condo tower, whose news the Hidden City Daily broke last month, will break ground in 2014 at 301-311 South Broad Street—the longtime home of Gamble & Huff’s Philadelphia International Records.

SLS International, nighttime rendering | Provided by Dranoff Properties and Kohn Pedersen Fox

With 150 hotel rooms and 125 luxury condominiums, SLS International will stand at 47 stories and 562′ tall, the tallest original residential building in Pennsylvania. (Two Liberty Place, which is half residential, opened in 1990 solely as an office tower.) “Yes, that is taller than William Penn,” Carl Dranoff said to a laughing crowd. “The name pays homage to Philadelphia International Records,” he said. Acknowledging Kenny Gamble with a wave, he thanked him for everything he’s done for the city, then said that his favorite song was the O’Jays’ “Peace Train”—a faux-pas quickly corrected by someone in the front to “Love Train,” drawing more laughter from everyone, including Gamble (but perhaps not Yusuf Islam, the former Cat Stevens). “Well, it was about peace,” Dranoff said, correcting himself.

Gene Kohn, principal of Kohn Pedersen Fox, the firm responsible for the glass tower with fins (“metal or stone, we’re not quite sure yet,” he mentioned), called the building a “marker on the skyline of the arts district.”

The Avenue of the Arts was indeed a recurring topic during the hourlong press event, and many, including Dranoff, Councilman Mark Squilla, and especially Mayor Michael Nutter, cited former Mayor and Governor Ed Rendell for his foresight and belief in the Avenue of the Arts as a district. “At this tipping point for South Broad Street, we need to recognize Ed Rendell,” Nutter said before half-jokingly saying that his staff always says how happy everyone was during Rendell’s eight years as mayor.

Ed Rendell and Carl Dranoff discuss hoagies under the spotlight | Photo: Bradley Maule

Nutter also suggested directly to Kohn, Dranoff, and Sam Nazarian, president of SBE Entertainment (parent company of SLS Hotels), to “be mindful of the man who made that building across the street—Kenny Gamble (and his wife Faatimah and partner Leon Huff)… to incorporate recognition of the history across the street,” not only as the home of Philadelphia International Records (and Cameo-Parkway Records), but also as the offices of Wilson Goode, Philadelphia’s first African-American mayor.

Nutter’s suggestion was the only hint of the demolition to come. Before 2014 even begins, two buildings will start the Lost Buildings of 2014 list. (We’ll present our annual Top Ten Lost Buildings of the Year before the year’s end.) Fortunately, an action plan has already formed for its replacement, and it includes people who get things done. And at least partially in name, the legacy of Philadelphia International will live on as SLS International.

Photo: Michael Bryant, for The Inquirer

• The Inquirer analyzes federal data from an American Community Survey (ACS) report released yesterday, finding that “poverty has increased a startling 62 percent in the communities of Lower Northeast Philadelphia since 1999,” while those in the Lower Northwest have seen an increase of 42%. The shifts are attributable to the influx of immigrants and college-age students, respectively. Center City and South Philadelphia each saw a bit of income growth, at 16% and 13%.

• Using Center City’s Macy’s department store on Market as its reference, Next City ponders the continued viability of the downtown American department store. Beyond Manhattan, their decline, which only began in the late 1970s, has been accelerating, with locations in St. Louis, St. Paul, Houston, and Honolulu all recently closed. Yet the Philadelphia Macy’s—with a tenth the workforce of the Manhattan branch—lingers, sustaining itself with the foot traffic of heritage tourists, convention goers, South Broad restaurant patrons, and of course, wayward Amtrak and SEPTA passengers. “But it’s also clear from those stores that Macy’s has closed, says historian John Hepp, that it is “looking very carefully at the bottom lines of individual stores. If that store starts to lose money on a consistent basis, Macy’s may very well close it. And I don’t see any other retailer coming in.” (Watch the Hidden City Daily later this week for a feature on the historic department store.)

• The Passyunk Square Civic Association (PSCA) is organizing a preservation “watch list,” which would guide its efforts to secure the designation of at least one historic property within its operating boundaries (between 6^th& Broad, and Washington & Tasker). The PSCA’s Karin Morris tells Naked Philly that the loss of the Armory building at 1221 South Broad Street as the impetus for this community initiative.

• The Fire Department will begin to prioritize its emergency responses this spring with new technology from a Utah-based firm, Priority Dispatch, says Technical.ly Philly. The City will spend $400,000 to $500,000 in the system’s implementation, which will hopefully lighten the load of Philadelphia’s overworked paramedics.

• Curbed Philly shares a photo tour of the snow and graffiti covered remains of Pier 124, last used in 1991 by Conrail as a coal pier.

From Drexel to Center City, and the future in between | Photo: Bradley Maule

Editor’s Note:Brooklyn born John Fry landed in Philadelphia in 1995, when he was named by then Penn president Judith Rodin as the university’s executive vice president—its chief operations officer. At the top of his urgent to do list was to shape and implement a series of “West Philadelphia Strategies” for economic development, housing, public education, and safety. (As a young planner in my first professional position, I worked closely with Fry and other Penn officials on the initiative, which was at the leading edge of university-community engagement.) At the heart of the thinking behind the strategies was the notion that the city was Penn’s greatest asset; the fates of both were intertwined.

Almost 20 years later, after an eight year stint as president of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Fry is deep into making a similar case for Penn’s upstart neighbor, Drexel University. Fry was named Drexel’s 14th president in 2010; three years on, he’s put Drexel at the center of an ambitious plan to reimagine the city’s economy, the “Innovation Neighborhood.” Fry’s approach is to form partnerships, exploit geography and infrastructure, and to integrate learning, research, and commerce in what he imagines will be a potent mix. Brad Maule and I met with Fry this week, just as Drexel had submitted a bid to the City to transform the vacant seven acre University City High School campus.

His way is the highway: Drexel President John Fry | Photo: Bradley Maule

Nathaniel Popkin: How is it different here from across the street at Penn, what makes what you’ve done so quickly possible?
John Fry: In part what we did across the street. There was a platform. A simple thing like the formation of the University City District back when we started at Penn, it was really hard to create a critical mass of like-minded institutions and people, and so much time was spent building bridges and relationships. And now, however many years later, it’s not only intact but it’s also matured. So things that used to take a longer period of time now the relationships are built and frankly it gives the opportunity to get a little more through play. It’s nice to see that stuff we did in the mid-to-late ’90s enable so much of what is being done today.

The big challenge is economic development. We took on public safety and neighborhood revitalization then. Now, I’d love to see more and deeper collaboration around academic and research related programs that have a real pointed economic development focus and that are meant to take the strategy to the next level, which is new business formation in the area. We all have the nicely built verticals with tech transfers—we’re doing this thing Drexel Ventures. But when you get to this thing we’re calling the Innovation Neighborhood, it depends on all the institutions coming together programmatically. It was easy to do the clarion call of safety—who’s against safety?—but when you’re talking about sharing ideas and putting companies together and collaborating across different institutions, that’s a different level of complexity.

The good news is that a lot of relationships are built and there’s a lot of goodwill. The tricky thing is how to enable what we did with DreamIt Ventures that’s absolutely crucial—in that room that day were Science Center people, Wistar people, Penn people, Drexel people, and they all know that the whole point of this thing is to bring to life new companies and frankly I could care less if they’re CHOP people or Wistar people or Science Center or Penn people—and I hope there will be Drexel people. But to me, bringing all those types of people together to form companies and to begin to strengthen the economic fabric of West Philadelphia.

NP: The Innovation Neighborhood is based on a set of different—but potentially equally powerful—partnerships.
JF: The Innovation Neighborhood was initially driven off two things: First, the incredibly smart investment made by the Board of Trustees in the mid-1990s right before Taki [former Drexel President Constantine "Taki" Papadakis] came to buy the old Bulletin Building and plant and I think the very complementary move that we made two years ago to buy all of the JFK lots, we sort of sewed up the core properties west of 30th Street Station. I think those two real estate moves put together, gave us a viewpoint that, ‘Hey, we have plenty of opportunity for expansion; it should be done in a thoughtful and strategic way and it shouldn’t be merely just an extension of the Drexel campus; it should be something larger and more meaningful.’ Second, when I was at Penn, we bought the Post Office and I had the same point of view: that you want to wrap these campuses around the third busiest train station in the country. Nothing bad can happen with that of course and given all of the land that is there, it provides an opportunity for people to step back and talk about, “Okay, so what are we going to do about this?”

And I give my compliments to [Brandywine Realty Trust CEO] Jerry Sweeney, who I think has really taken advantage of the subsequent transition of that land to Brandywine and I think what he’s going to be doing with FMC, the chemical company at 30th & Walnut, is exactly the kind of thing that you want to have; and of course it will be done in a mixed-use way and projects in the Innovation Neighborhood will probably have the same signature—academic and research use, commercial use, residential, retail—nice buildings that continue to build on some campus tradition but open up new possibilities.

NP: So the Innovation Neighborhood starts on these Drexel-owned properties and then extends to the 30th Street rail yards.
JF: Think of that as the second phase. Think of the Innovation Neighborhood as down payment, 20 years, how do we take advantage of 12.2-acres of property and about 6.5 million square feet of developable land; that’s sort of what that is. That’s a long time but it’s a wonderful opportunity and it really sets the stage for the feasibility study that we’re just about to reward the contract to. If this idea about the Innovation Neighborhood is right, at one point people are going to look up and say ‘Well, where else do we go?’ and if you can go there, now that’s another 25 years. We’re not talking about anything that’s going to happen right away, but if each generation doesn’t take care of that long-term play, you’ll never get done by definition.

NP: Phase One timeline?
JF: Two decades. I think we have about ten sites; if you did a site every two years if you’re lucky and then at a certain point and time, you’re going to have something, and I think the study itself should take another two and a half, three years on the outset. By the time you have your first or second project up and running, you’ll know if it’s technically feasible to do an overbuild over these yards and what it’s going to cost, but by then, when you bring people in to show them, if it’s possible, you can show them some real product, you can say, ‘it’s going to be more of this.’ And so I’m very excited about this because I think when you’re dealing with these sort of areas, if you don’t have a fifty-year point-of-view, then you’re really sort of missing out.

NP: Do you have companies in mind?
JF: We have sectors in mind, healthcare related, like health informatics would be a natural because we’re so heavily invested in nursing, health professions, public health and medicine. If you add all of that up, it’s probably 40-45 percent of our operating budget devoted to health sciences and we have a new College of Computing and Informatics. So that’s a natural nexus right there.

Energy and the environment would be a very interesting play especially given the natural resources here in the Commonwealth. How do you protect the environment while you extract those resources, what do you do with them once you’ve got them, and the fact that Pennsylvania could end up being one of the great energy capitals in this country is not an unrelated fact.

So if I were to make three bets right now, I’d say health, computing and informatics, energy and environment. Now, it is extremely convenient that our brand new business school is located right on the western end of the neighborhood and across the street you have biomedical engineering and the College of Engineering. So when you think of the agglomeration of all those fields, it’s very compelling and we’re also dealing with not only areas where there’s a great societal need, but our strengths as an institution.

A new Drexel icon: Gerri C LeBow Hall of the LeBow College of Business | Photo: Bradley Maule

NP: And does the corporate world see that?
JF: We’re making them aware of that and I think they do get it, because I think you see in a lot of big pharma—these internal R&D departments—sourcing to universities and partnerships. So I view the neighborhood as a way of bringing people together: academic institutions, corporate institutions, and other commercial amenity providers, residential, retail, and really doing something different. As a co-op university where virtually all of our kids—over 90 percent are involved in one to three co-ops in their five years—heavily, heavily focused on translational research, which is a results-oriented research, it sort of makes sense to have these people together who we want to give to our students or the opportunities that we want for our faculty separate from the for-profit sector, and we have 1,500 co-op partners worldwide. We have 50-year relationships with places like PECO for example, so it’s natural for us to be in a neighborhood where it’s not just a corporate thing, or an academic thing, or some other thing, it’s just really a bringing together of all these various interests.

“Drexel: Transforming the modern urban university.” Robert A.M. Stern’s LeBow Hall | Photo: Bradley Maule

NP: The pace of change on this campus is astounding. What enabled you to get moving so quickly and effectively here?
JF: I think it’s the tradition and culture established by my predecessors, particularly Taki, a very can-do, let’s-get-it-done, fast-moving type of person, and I’m naturally inclined to be that way. I’m a different person from him but our spirit is very much the same and by its very nature, Drexel is sort of a scrappy institution that certainly doesn’t have enough time and money to do what it wants to do and as a result we come to do very well in the art of partnership because in order for us to move our agenda forward it would be very hard to do that completely independently—we just don’t have the capital. If you can build really good and big mutually beneficial relationships with organizations that enables you to do more, so the merger with the Academy of Natural Sciences, the partnerships with American Campus Communities—these are very big steps forward that we’re taking in partnership with other organizations and I think the last is that there’s something about this institution that is both very focused and devoted to all things Philadelphia and is very humble and easy going compared to other institutions.

We’re very aware of our roots; we were founded as a commuter institution for first-generation, blue-collar kids to get an education and I’ll tell ya—I’m not just telling you this because I’m the president—I am surprised at how many people that I talk to around here, and I’m talking not just the senior administrative types, but of the all the categories of employees here, who really can reflect on and talk meaningfully about the tradition of this institution, starting in 1891, why we are here and what we did and why we do co-op, why we now do translational research, why all the civic engagement they can really articulate. It’s not an abstraction, they really want to be here because they really like what the institution does; the culture is one that is very open to new opportunities and moving quickly to taking advantage of those opportunities and when you put that together, we’re in a good place. This is how we do our work.

NP: One of the challenges is Mantua.
JF: We don’t have a history of doing anything in Mantua, so it’s a challenge but it also is a great opportunity; I think it’s a great opportunity for Mantua, it’s a great opportunity for Drexel University because there I think we see some of the greatest challenges facing this city and in a community that has been I think very underinvested in, and very isolated.

Where do you go if you want to work with Mantua neighborhood? Well the fact is that there are many different groups, all trying to do their best. I just feel for us, our commitment to civic engagement and neighborhood revitalization would have been incomplete if we only thought of Powelton Village or even West Powelton, but know that you can take a look at our police boundaries and our housing programs, we put our arms around all of Mantua, and its not that we want to gentrify Mantua because we have all this space east down to the station, we have millions of square feet that we can develop so this isn’t, ‘let’s move into the neighborhood so we can buy up the properties and we can develop them’—it’s quite the opposite. It’s almost like what we saw west of 40th Street, the institution really needs to put a boundary on its growth, to grow into areas like the Post Office and the Civic Center where there’s no one there and you’re not displacing anyone. In turn, try to make the neighborhoods as good as you can.

Room for growth on the grounds of University High School | Photo: Bradley Maule

NP: Public education is a significant part of this strategy.
JF: The McMichael School was kept open thanks to Bill Hite and the SRC, but we’re doing a ton of stuff there and we really hope that more things can happen with McMichael and on the University City High site. We just put in a bid at 4 o’clock [Monday] for developing the site in partnership with a development company. The bid is the purchase of the site, the development of the site, which would include a K-8 STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) based school, which would have us as partners with the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Franklin Institute, Science Leadership Academy, which would run the middle-school part, and Drexel University, and we’re hoping to add one more really exciting partner as well. For us, as the co-bidder on this, it’s about the school, and the university would have some adjacent land to develop for its academic programs which we hope would be very complimentary to what would happen in the school. The rest of it is commercial and we’re hoping that commercial development would yield an operating income that helps us figure out how to fund the school.

NP: And commercial would include retail?
JF: It will. What you do on Filbert is not what you do on Powelton Avenue or on Lancaster. Lancaster and Powelton Avenues want to have the school, really nice retail, they want to have some nice low-to-medium rise residential. It wants to make itself into West Powelton and Powelton Village on the other side it wants to be next to Penn Presbyterian Hospital and so I think the site is so exciting because it’s so versatile. You can really serve the needs of your commercial and academic parcels on the southern side of the site at Filbert, sort of going up 38th and into the site, but when you get to the middle part when you head a little further north and they want to become part of the neighborhood, and so I think the site can do both; we have a bid that we’re proud of and hopefully things will break our way; the only thing we’re worried about is buyers who are just going use it to land bank and we’re proposing active development right away and the problem with land banking is that you have a bunch of shut-down buildings and a site that has really been compromised. I hope that we’re chosen not only because I want us to be chosen but because I know you would see real vitality in that neighborhood.

NP: A key part of the proposal is to move the Powel School there so it has room to serve its students.
JF: It’s in its own part of the neighborhood, so if we can do right by that school and its children and its parents and everything else that’s going on, I think we have a pretty decent situation. The problem with Powel is it’s a K-4 type site, it’s operating at something like 134 percent capacity. Powel gets put in a better place, and you have Science Leadership Academy. And the only reason that it’s K-4 is because the site is so small and you can’t really do anything and have a decent drop-off point and a pickup point and a playground. Powel is a great school but it deserves a more generous site and it deserves a better school capability and if the Science Leadership Academy can do that, we’re really bringing the richness of all our institutions together.

Eagle-eye Fry: Drexel President John Fry chats with Hidden City’s Nathaniel Popkin | Photo: Bradley Maule

NP: Back to the Innovation Neighborhood: I understand you’re interested in having a foreign university (or universities) set up an American campus. I have always thought this was a great idea. Do you have partners in mind?
JF: We do, and we’re talking to a number right now and we’re basically saying, ‘if you want to have US operations, come to the Innovation Neighborhood, we’ll figure out how to give you dedicated space, we’ll make collaborations with you.’ I think the model right now would be the partnership that we just nabbed in Israel with Hebrew University, CHOP, and Drexel Pediatric pharmacology. Now I’m not sure that that’s going to result in Hebrew University coming in and putting a branch in University City, but the idea that you have one of the world’s greatest children’s hospitals and one of the world’s most distinguished international universities and one of the fastest rising American universities coming together makes me think that we’re going to learn a whole lot about them and they’re going to learn a whole lot about us. I can’t imagine that we’re not going to be doing more both in Jerusalem and in Philadelphia and maybe it could be an institution like that or there are others. I know that we just had a very large delegation of colleges from some institutions in Turkey and we’re going back in April, and we have a wonderful relationship with Shanghai right now where we have a branch that’s focused on biomedical research, so we are seeding all of these relationships around the world and I hope that one day someone will say, ‘you know what, we really want to do something in the US and we want to be next to our friends from Drexel,’ and so I could imagine, I could pray that some of the space in this Innovation Neighborhood would be devoted to those types of purposes, and when you think about it, it makes sense, the idea of setting an entire branch campus on your own, in the US, is a really costly and expensive idea. Why not piggyback on the enormous infrastructure in University City, and devote yourself to programmatic concerns and not try to build out a full-fledged campus.

NP: Has anyone else tried this in the US?
JF: The biggest thing that everyone is watching is the Technion-Cornell project on Roosevelt Island in New York. I’m sure that there are international universities that have these branches but not on the scale that we’re talking about, certainly not on the scale of what they’re doing in New York so it’s really exciting.

NP: But are they a competitor?
JF: No I don’t think any of this stuff is competitive, I think it’s just the opposite. You aggregate all of this talent up and down the East Coast and eventually it’s going to find each other. Look at these ecosystems that have developed in Cambridge—no one had a master plan for Cambridge—well you have MIT and Harvard, they’re competitive institutions, but I don’t think people view that as a competitive situation. The same has happened at Stanford and in Silicon Valley and that was planned more deliberately but the fact that we can let this work organically and not consider if something is competitive or not and just sort of let it happen. The spirit of the Innovation Neighborhood is to create the necessary conditions for all of these people to come together because they need each other to advance their work, be they for-profit or not-for-profit or governmental or whatever it is.

NP: Is government a partner in this?
JF: It is. Michael Nutter has been great, absolutely terrific. He helped to facilitate the trip that we had to Israel that we had recently, and he and I are working on some other things. He has some superb deputies who totally get this stuff and [Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Director of Commerce] Alan Greenberger said that the city was going to put in around $750,000 into the whole thing. This is really tremendous stuff and so I think the Nutter Administration and the institutions that have been working on this are in total alignment.

NP: And Federal?
JF: I think eventually when we get to the transportation piece, the second part of this Innovation Neighborhood cannot be possibly be realized without some major federal transportation money and so I think that we’re holding out hope there. And Governor Corbett has also been very helpful in a number of ways. It’s nice that multiple people are supportive, Harrisburg people are supportive and even though we’re still in the really early stages of these conversations at the federal level regarding transportation, I mean they see the possibilities here and the city. The plans for Union Station [in Washington DC] and in New York with the Hudson Yards. This is the future—this is just what’s going to happen and if you take those three cities and do something significant in each of them and make them by high speed rail, it’s crazy what can happen.

NP: What else is missing from University City?
JF: Well I’m sort of resigned to the fact that the institutions are going to have to figure that one out on their own and do that in collaboration like with what DreamIt is doing. But we need more people like [venture capitalist] Josh Kopelman and there are others who will join him in a stage and really start to invest in the city and I think that a lot of that money is now in Conshohocken and King of Prussia—nothing against those places—but honestly we need more of them. Public education, as we’ve talked about already, is totally essential. These neighborhoods never get to be the neighborhoods that they can be if they don’t have decent K-8 education, and we’ll talk about high school down the road.

The corner of 33rd & Chestnut will play a pivotal role in the growth of University City as the nexus of Penn and Drexel. At left, construction crews begin prep work for Penn’s New College House; behind that, the rumored site of a new hotel; at center, Drexel’s Papadakis Building; at right, Drexel’s Chestnut Square | Photo: Bradley Maule

NP: Can you talk about rumors concerning a hotel product at 33rd and Chestnut?
JF: Filling in amenities, I think the Inn at Penn has done very well, I’m not sure about the future of the Sheraton; it’s obviously lived a long life as a hotel. We thought about a niched, University City-oriented boutique hotel and picking up all the traffic from Drexel and Science Center, from Penn and from CHOP, and there’s some nice products out there and we’re close to bringing some good news to everyone about that.

The development of those four corners [at 33rd & Chestnut] is vital because that’s really where Penn and Drexel touch each other. The fact is that with Papadakis [Integrated Sciences Building] and with the new residential/retail [Chestnut Square], and Penn developing Hill Field, the last corner needs to be developed.

Lancaster Square, currently under construction at 34th & Lancaster | Rendering by Solomon Cordwell Buenz via Drexel University

NP: There are five residential towers underway right now in West Philly, which is astounding to me and it must be to you as well, and that’s all based on some imagined University City-based market.
JF: Well, you know, I can only speak about ours [Lancaster Square] and we think at some point we were something like 5,000 beds short of where we wanted to be. If we could do 870 [at Chestnut Square] and this would be about 1,300, we get to 2,200, and I think we pause, we watch and see. The fact is that I have thousands of kids living in neighborhoods and I would rather have more of them living on my campus so that those neighborhoods can go back as neighborhoods, which is what they’re intended to be. I know what transient housing does to these neighborhoods—by nature it just destroys the fabric of neighborhoods. The real estate people coming in speculating, buying these properties and carving them into multi-family units and single-family homeowners move away because they don’t want to live next to ten kids who have late night hours and things like that.

Jerry [Sweeney] is doing the tower [evo, formerly The Grove at Cira South]—I think he’s looking east towards Center City and I think he’s actually looking at places like 2400 Chestnut and saying ‘if I can do a great product here, I can take some of that western Center City market and bring it over to eastern University City.’ I’m not as familiar as to what the Science Center folks are doing and so my view is that we just wait and see what the rate of absorption is.

When [Lancaster Square] opens in September 2015, we will have put a really large dent in these numbers and taken some pressure off the neighborhood. Now we have a sophomore housing requirement that we haven’t had until this year and I think we’ll be in good shape and we’ll see how much of a gap we have in terms of our remaining undergraduate needs and we’ll decide what to do next in 2015.

NP: A great part of your vision is based on the idea of high speed rail.
JF: We need everyone to get serious with high-speed rail, even with the Acela. Flying has gotten too expensive; who wants to schlep to an airport, land, and schlep to the next place? With high-speed rail, it’s 45 minutes to New York and about an hour to Washington. That puts Philadelphia at the 50-yard line of the United States; that is a brilliant geographic place and so if high-speed rail came, I think this Innovation Neighborhood thing and maybe even the larger redevelopment of the Amtrak-SEPTA yards, I think there’s a distinct possibility. It would be a brilliant way of tying everything together.

Drexel’s URBN Center by MS&R, upping the ante on academic architecture | Photo: Bradley Maule

NP: Back in the 1990s we were thinking about 24/7 neighborhoods but we weren’t talking all that much about top level design adding economic value. Do you see that to be the case now?
JF: Well look at the last two projects that we finished. It’s all about street-facing, transparent, exciting programs to draw kids in 24 hours a day. Look at the URBN Center—they live in that building. It’s better as a 24-hour building than it would be as a 12-hour building and I think that LeBow, with it the way that it addresses the street and its transparency and the way it’s set up it’s going to be another hub, so I think that anything we do, we’re going to do at a higher level of quality architecturally, with a real emphasis on ground floor amenities or at least transparency and then plenty of density. My ideal for a building is retail, academic, commercial, residential: keep it going at all hours of the day.

NP: How important is it to bring the world’s best architects to take some of this through?
JF: I happen to love Cira 1; I think Cesar Pelli did a great job, I think he created a landmark building and I think that’s what we’ll see at Cira 2. We used Robert Stern for two of the last projects that we did, the Minneapolis firm MS&R [who transformed the interior of URBN Center] are amazing, so I think that if you spend a little more money and you’re a little more thoughtful, you’re going to get a better building. You can see how many lost opportunities there are in University City where the building puts its back to the street and opens up in the middle, and we’ve really blown it in a lot of cases. I don’t want to do anything on this campus that isn’t in the new tradition.

* * *

A growing Philly skyline, viewed from Drexel University, bookended by Cira Centre and evo at Cira Centre South; the forthcoming Innovation Neighborhood will encompass the left half of the picture in the foreground of 30th Street Station | Photo: Bradley Maule

Special thanks to Stephen Currall for his assistance in transcribing the interview.

Broad and Washington | Photo: Passyunk Post

• It was just Tuesday that we linked to a Flying Kite piece that told of Elisabeth Garson’s efforts to use a long-vacant lot at Broad & Washington as temporary home for a Philadelphia Arts Market. Today, sources tell the Passyunk Post that developer Bart Blatstein is under contract to acquire the parcel from Hudson Capital.

• On the corner of Main and Cotton in Manayunk, garden supply store Tiny Terra Ferma owners Jeff Lorenz and Annie Scott are out to alter the January tradition of a city collectively throwing out a forest on the curb. Buy a potted hemlock or juniper from Pennsylvania or New Jersey, and then agree to reuse it, either in your backyard or through a donation to an arboretum or park. Lorenz and Scott, says NewsWorks, “see their Christmas tree project as an opportunity to get the community educated and enthusiastic about land restoration.”

• Sunoco bought and closed on a property in Newtown Square, Delaware County, to which it will transfer its headquarters from its current location in the Mellon Bank Center at 1735 Market Street, says the Philadelphia Business Journal. “The company’s decision to move creates another dent in Mellon Bank, which will eventually see FMC Corporation vacate 250,000 square feet when it moves to University City, and saw other firms cut back on their occupancy.”

• The zoning board unanimously approved the construction yesterday of 75 townhouses near Columbus Boulevard & Catharine in Queen Village, reports Plan Philly. Multiple neighbors voiced their opposition to the project, as the deal on the table only provided for 105 parking spaces associated with the site; the lot, zoned RSA-5 requires no parking.

El Bar, Front and Master Sts. | Photo: Peter Woodall

When an elevated train rolls through Kensington you not only hear its low rumble, you can feel it. Windowpanes rattle. Streetlights flicker. During peak hours a Market-Frankford train passes every four minutes, punctuating conversations in its wake. The El’s imposition on the visual landscape is as daunting, its studded steel support beams straddling either side of the street like a thousand-legged Behemoth kicking anything out of its way.

In fact, even in the best of times it isn’t easy to live or do business under the El. But five decades of economic decline has only heightened the destructive impact of the train line. Between Girard and York along Front Street–and certainly well beyond there along Frankford Avenue–there are nearly as many vacant lots as there are active business operations, used car lots, and row houses.

Yet the El is also convenient. A decade or so after the difficult rebuilding of tracks and stations was completed, it is a critical asset to the mending river ward neighborhoods it passes through. Service is improved, ridership is up, and certain stations–notably Girard and Berks–have become vital neighborhood hubs. Developers are beginning to respond to the reversal of fortune: what was seen as repellant is now attracting eyes, investment, and new ideas. And for their part, Kensington civic groups would like to see Front Street under the El flourish as a commercial corridor while retaining some of the factory neighborhood’s historic feel.

Recently, a few of these developers have teamed with architects on the vanguard of sustainable, place-making design to begin shaping some of the rugged real estate. In 2009, the Philadelphia School District enlisted SMP and SMK Architects to design the handsome LEED Platinum-certified Kensington High School for the Creative and Performing Arts at Front and Norris Streets, by the Berks station. This month, the developer Peter Crawford and Interface Studio Architects revealed a striking design for a four-story mixed-use building near Front and Master.

Rendering of proposed building at 1312 N. Front St. | Image: Interface Studio Architects

Both these projects demonstrate that building in the shadow of the El presents challenges and necessitates inventive design approaches as well as sensitivity to context. Several other projects that have been proposed or are in the works fail this test, though not for lack of public engagement. Examples of unremarkable projects include the Tower Investment’s 30 townhouse development at Front and Girard on the border of Northern Liberties and Kensington, and the now canceled low-income residential development that would have replaced two historic textile industry banks at Front and Norris Streets. In both of these cases a neighborhood group—the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association and the East Kensington Neighbors Association, respectively—intervened to foster a better outcome (the future of the Front and Norris banks remains uncertain as the Norris Square Civic Association reviews a new set of proposals for the site).

Former Bromley carpet mill, Front and Jasper Sts. | Photo: Peter Woodall

A further challenge is what to do with the remaining textile mills whose workers the El once served. While adaptive reuse projects have not kept pace with the alarming rate at which fires have destroyed so many of these factories, a handful of former factories have been, or are in the process of being repurposed.

At Front and Master, the Mulherin’s Sons building has seen slow motion renovations–and a change of owners–over the last few years. Eventually, the former whiskey distillery will house a ground floor café or restaurant, as indicated by the orange liquor license in the window, and residential units on the upper floors. It has lost none of its historic character, retaining its high arched windows and much of the handsome woodwork within.

At Front and Palmer a former barrel factory was converted into an industrial chic catering hall, complete with 35 foot ceilings, exposed beams and chandeliers made from repurposed bedsprings.

As Hidden City’s Nic Esposito reported earlier this year, the original Bromley carpet mill adjacent to the York-Dauphin El stop will be converted to mixed use apartments and retail, if its owner Jesse Muñoz has his way. Muñoz’s plan for the historic mill–a progenitor of Kensington’s textile economy–however is still a long way from coming to fruition. The response from the EKNA has been lukewarm, as neighbors question Muñoz’s capacity to meet the design challenges of building apartments smack up against the El.

Muñoz could learn a thing or two from Interface Studio Architects, the boutique firm with an appetite for tight constraints, whose design for Peter Crawford’s four story mixed-use building will feel like an organic response to the environment. ISA cut its teeth on the 100K house, a proof of concept that green home building can be done cost effectively–the single-family prefab house cost around $100,000 to construct and is LEED Platinum certified. The mixed-use building will include two stories of offices or another commercial use, coming nearly level with the elevated tracks before plunging downward at an acute angle and sloping back up and away, with terraces embedded in the sloped, metal-faced wall. Double stud wall construction, a tight building envelope, and triple-glazed windows will help abate noise from the El, improving the building’s energy performance as well.

Future site of the Crawford/ISA building at 1312 N. Front St. | Photo: Peter Woodall

ISA’s principal architect Brian Phillips says such an approach, including double stud construction and careful air sealing “can be done at a reasonable cost.” However, at the hearing earlier this month where officials from the City’s Zoning Board of Adjustment approved the project, the developer’s team argued successfully that the costs associated with building desirable residential units next to the El constituted a hardship, meriting the zoning variances they requested.

At that same zoning hearing, another developer made a similar appeal for hardship. Her plan for a project near Front and Montgomery called for six brick-faced townhouses divided into triplexes, with no commercial use and parking in the rear. Other than setting the houses back 20 feet from the curb, the developer did not propose any additional noise abatement measures.

This proposal has the advantage of filling in a half-empty row of row houses and stores, adding eyes on the street across from the Kensington High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. But it was not clear from the developer’s presentation how the units would be priced or to whom they would marketed (a decision on the project was held by the ZBA pending some missing paperwork). In fact, the question of the market for residential units under the El afflicts both these new construction proposals and Muñoz’s plan for adaptive reuse of the Bromley Mill.

Chris Somers, a realtor who works largely in Fishtown and Kensington, says most people would rather live a few blocks to the east or west of Front Street, benefiting from proximity to mass-transit without the noise and “stigma” associated with the El. Somers recently marketed Norris Point, a ten unit townhouse development, incidentally designed by ISA, on a relatively quiet block a short walk from the Berks station. But he also says that innovative projects like Crawford’s will lead to more infill development. For now, residential units are a risky proposition, and easier to rent than sell.

JKR Partners’ residential development, Front St. just south of Girard | Photo: Peter Woodall

One El stop south, at Front Street and Girard Avenue, a large-scale residential development designed by JKR Partners may be an indication that the stigma associated with living under the El is dissipating. The fire last July that destroyed the L.H. Parke coffee roastery cleared the way for Bart Blatstein’s Tower Investments to build 30 townhouses and mixed-use buildings there. One row of houses, framed and sheathed at the time of this writing, will front on Hope Street. Another row of mixed-use buildings with commercial space, not yet begun, will press up against the El.

JKR Partners’ residential projects tend to be self-contained, sometimes gated, and they usually provide one-to-one parking. Despite the proximity to the El, this project will unfortunately not depart from that scheme; parking will be placed in the center of the parcel, surrounded by the residential and commercial buildings. But had it not been for the NLNA’s input, it’s likely the project would have been even less responsive to the site than it is. The civic group recommended the mixed-use side of the project maintain an industrial look, a nod to place, and take the El into account. JKR Partners returned with a design that moves the hallways to the east side of the 10 mixed-use buildings facing the El, creating a buffer for the living spaces further in.

Lauren Eckberg, the architect on this phase of the project, says she is still mulling noise abatement approaches for those buildings.

The standard for context-sensitive, energy efficient design along the Market-Frankford line was established with the construction of the Kensington High School for the Creative and Performing Arts at Front and Berks. The school’s large, double-glazed windows allow for ample daytime lighting. None of the windows face the El, a good portion of the building is set back from the curb, and classrooms are situated in the rear of the building, a design strategy that–to be fair–would not work for a mixed-use project with retail offerings.

But it is the building’s energy efficient envelope that really keeps out the noise. “Something goes by every two minutes. Before the building was sealed it was so loud,” says Jane Rath, SMP’s lead architect. “People don’t really notice it now.” Moreover, the laminated glass that the School District requires for safety, performs better at noise abatement than double-glazed windows alone would have. “There was no way we could ignore the El,” Rath says.

* * *

Map of current, ongoing, and planned developments under the el.

Courtesy of the Harvard University Archives, via The Atlantic Cities

• The Atlantic Cities recalls the near-extinction of urban squirrel populations during the nineteenth century. By mid-century, social reformers were urging the animals’ reintroduction, claiming that wildlife would remind citizens enough of nature so as to check immorality. Philadelphia was the first city to bring back the squirrel in 1847, launching a national trend that warded off a return of antipathy towards the pest for a few decades.

• After nearly a year of work, the mayor’s task force for attracting more manufacturing in the city released yesterday its “Manufacturing Growth Strategy for Philadelphia” at the Northeast’s AgustaWestland helicopter factory.“The report,” says The Inquirer, “lists a series of recommendations the city plans to implement to heighten its competitiveness for manufacturing on an international stage. Among them, the task force gave a lengthy list of improvements on how the city solicits itself in the areas of talent, innovation, access to capital, government and regulation, energy and advocacy networks, and business development.”

• Since 1986, when an explosion brought attention the woes of one section of Logan that was sinking due to its compromised foundations (mostly coal ash), the “Logan Triangle” has sat mostly empty, in a limbo that has severely depressed real estate values in the area.Philadelphia Neighborhoods looks at the past 27 years of forfeited development schemes and mounting trash heaps.

• Naked Philly is underwhelmed at the long-awaited rehab of 1244 Ridge Avenue. When the site shared a rendering from Harman Deutsch this summer they were excited “that the look of the building would be restored to something that echoed its historic appearance while also looking forward.” Yet what is there is missing “something.” Stucco? Altered windows? My vote is on the less defined metal bays.

• Philadelphia magazine shares photographer Cory J. Popp’s “A Very Philly Christmas,” a visual reminder of just how darn gorgeous this city can be around the holidays.”

Mention Wanamaker’s and the two synonymous features that come to mind are the eagle and the organ | Photo: Shadowbat

For Philadelphians, Wanamaker’s was more than just a department store; it was a civic landmark with the world’s largest pipe organ, a monorail that snaked through the eighth floor toy department, and noontime appearances by celebrities and political figures. Visitors dined at the Crystal Tea Room or met “at the eagle” in the grand court. Viewers of films like Blow Out, Mannequin, and 12 Monkeys saw it as a backdrop.

The story of Wanamaker’s began in 1861 when Grays Ferry native John Wanamaker entered a partnership with his brother-in-law Nathan Brown. Named Oak Hall, the store sold men and boys apparel. Employing unique merchandising methods such as posting set prices (as opposed to haggling) and allowing full refunds, the business grew at a brisk pace. When Brown passed away in 1868, Wanamaker gained full control and opened a second location in 1869.

The John Wanamaker store at the Grand Depot on Market Street, circa 1890 | Image: PhillyHistory.org

In order to stay on top of European fashion, Wanamaker maintained buying offices in London and Paris, the only American merchant to do so at the time. While there, he became exposed to a new European concept: the department store. Wanamaker sensed that something like this could be successful in Philadelphia, but his two existing menswear shops were too small. In 1874, the Pennsylvania Railroad put their obsolete freight depot at 13th and Market up for sale. A block in size and mostly one floor, this building was perfect for the glorious marketplace Wanamaker imagined—and just in time for the American Centennial.

America’s industrial might and advances took center stage in Fairmount Park at the Centennial Exposition in 1876. Swelled with patriotic pride, ten million people attended the expo, and Wanamaker took full advantage, opening his flagship store the Grand Depot two months before it began.

This emporium was a first in North American retailing—billed as the world’s first department store. Wanamaker hated that term, insisting that it be called a “composite store”. (There’s also some question as to whether it even merits that title. New York City’s Iron Palace opened in 1862; the Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution in Salt Lake City was founded in 1868.)

Wanamaker’s “composite store” was a marvel. Set up like the European markets he admired, the store had a wagon wheel setup, with a circular counter in the middle and aisles radiating outward. Unheard of amenities like sitting rooms and a restaurant gave a rest to weary shoppers, while tour guides showed visitors around. The store was a smashing success, and after a post-Centennial renovation, the store’s 16 departments offered everything from ladies’ dresses to furniture.

Wanamaker strove to incorporate the latest innovations. In 1878 it became the first store to have electric lighting, and in 1879, the first with telephones. A pneumatic tube system transported cash and papers beginning in 1880, an art gallery opened in 1881, and elevators came in 1882. In 1885, he sold his other two stores to his brothers in order to focus on the Grand Depot, now called John Wanamaker. A New York John Wanamaker store opened in 1896 at Eighth and Broadway.

The Daniel Burnham-designed Wanamaker Building, circa 1933 | Image: PhillyHistory.org

New challenges greeted Wanamaker at the beginning of the twentieth century, however. John Wanamaker now had to compete with stores “down the street” such as Strawbridge & Clothier in Philadelphia and R.H. Macy in New York, as well as Gimbels in both cities. In response, Wanamaker met with famed Chicago architect Daniel Burnham to design new stores. In New York, Wanamaker built a 32-acre annex building with a music auditorium in 1907. That store closed in 1954.

In Philadelphia, the Grand Depot needed replacement. It was too small and due to its wood construction, a fire hazard too. Demolition and rebuilding happened in three phases: the Market Street side, the Grand Court, and then the side fronting Chestnut Street. The store officially reopened in 1911 with the only department store dedication overseen by a US President. Speaking to a crowd of 35,000, President William Howard Taft did the honors as an act of thanks for Wanamaker supporting his previous campaign. Architect Daniel Burnham spoke loftily of his latest creation as the “most monumental commercial structure erected anywhere in the world” and as “simple, unpretentious, noble classic… monument to all time.” The granite clad edifice had a base of Doric columns and a crown reminiscent of a subdued Florentine Palazzo. Inside the marble lined Grand Court—a 150 foot high space taking up the first six floors—sat the two features that made Wanamaker’s an instant and enduring landmark: the Eagle and the Organ.

Produced in Frankfurt, Germany for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, August Gaul’s bronze eagle was purchased by Wanamaker for $10,000. Extra steel girders beneath the floor support the 2,500 pound statue. The eagle quickly became the store’s unofficial mascot; when suburban branches of John Wanamaker opened in the 1950s and ’60s, the company installed an eagle in each one.

John Wanamaker’s son Rodman, who had lived in Paris and was a steady patron of the arts in New York and Philadelphia, led the effort to bring the organ to the flagship. He saw the store as incomplete without quality music. Like the eagle, the organ was acquired from the 1904 St. Louis world’s fair. Manufactured by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company, the instrument contained 10,059 pipes and 140 stops. Thirteen railroad cars were required to transport the organ to Philadelphia, and installation took two years.

The Grand Court with its organ on glorious display | Photo: Shadowbat

On June 22, 1911 the Grand Court organ was officially unveiled at an event coinciding with the crowning of England’s King George V. Dissatisfied with its sound, Rodman had the instrument enlarged with 8,000 pipes. All work was done in a store workshop in a 12th floor attic by a staff of 40. The organ as seen and heard today was finished in 1930 with an astounding 461 ranks and 28,482 pipes. Organists from around the world travel to Philadelphia just to hear and play the worlds largest functioning pipe organ.

Two smaller organs also inhabited the building at one time. A 15-rank pipe organ occupied the second floor Greek Hall until the 1930s when it was replaced by a Hammond Electric organ. A 60-rank organ in the Egyptian Hall accompanied the store’s piano department until it was removed in the 1930s. An organ was also installed in the New York store’s third floor auditorium.

Grand Court fully decked out for the holidays | Photo: Shadowbat

During the holiday season, the organ took center stage as part of a light show held in the center court. Starting in 1956, elaborate displays formed what was called the Christmas Cathedral. Carols were accompanied by the Enchanted Fountains in front of the organ. Based on the fountains of St. Peter’s Square in Rome, water jets with colored lights ran in sync with the music. The Pageant of Lights changed each year under the direction of store event promoter Fredrick Yost. Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, the 1980 World Series Phillies, and E.T., all made it in one time or another. Sportscaster John Facenda did the narration during the 13-minute spectacle from 1966 to 1994; since 2006, Julie Andrews’ voice has accompanied the performance.

In addition to the uniqueness of the organ, Wanamaker’s further distinguished itself with a monorail in the toy department during the holiday season. Suspended from the eighth floor ceiling, this child-sized train allowed younger guests a view of the store’s latest offerings in the “biggest toy department on Earth.” Discontinued in 1984, the monorail and its train cars found life again in the Please Touch Museum at Memorial Hall.

Rapid suburbanization in the 1950s led to the development of branch stores and later shopping malls. Arch rival Strawbridge & Clothier was aggressive in mall construction, anchoring or in some cases codeveloping venues in Cherry Hill, Springfield, Plymouth Meeting, Neshaminy, and Voorhees in the 1960s and ’70s. As part of an agreement with mall developers, Strawbridge’s chose which department stores would co-anchor these centers and it was certainly not John Wanamaker. As a result Wanamaker’s had to compete for market share in the suburbs with less desirable locations.

During this period, Center City’s identity as a shopping destination declined. A plan was hatched in the late 1950s for an ambitious redevelopment of Market East including hotels, offices, a train station to replace the Reading Terminal at Twelfth and Market as well as parking garages for suburbanites and tourists. All these developments would center on a multilevel shopping mall that would begin at Strawbridge’s flagship store at Eighth and Market Streets and end at Wanamaker’s. It was not until the late 1970s and early 80s that the plan was somewhat realized in the form of the Gallery and related developments. By then Lit Brothers, another Philadelphia retail stalwart, had gone out of business. Strawbridge’s was renovated as part of the gallery development and a downsized Gimbels opened to co-anchor the new mall. Later, J.C. Penney opened as well. Wanamaker’s needed to refresh itself to keep up with the changing environment. However the Wanamaker family had little desire to make significant investment, and they sold their interest in the store to Carter Hawley Hale on October 8, 1978.

Detailed mosaics on the walls and ceiling of the entryways still bear the initials of John Wanamaker, despite many changes over the years | Photo: Shadowbat

The L.A.-based Carter Hawley Hale (CHH) operated several department store chains on the west coast. Under CHH’s tenure departments were remade, designer brands were featured at in-store boutiques, and the menu in the Crystal Tea Room was upgraded. CHH kept traditional Philadelphia merchandise and offerings around so as not to alienate the store’s base. But when the company was forced to restructure in the wake of a hostile buyout in the 1980s, serious thought was given to jettisoning Wanamaker’s and other losing chains.

On November 4th 1986, Woodward & Lothrup of Washington, DC purchased Wanamaker’s for $183 million. “Woodies” was a 99-year-old chain with 16 locations in the D.C. area, with similar clientele to Wanamaker’s. Under W & L’s ownership the store began downsizing. At over 1 million square feet spanning 14 floors, the Center City location was considered too big for the market. Plans called for the store to take up five floors and the rest of the building to be converted to mixed-use, an effort spearheaded by W & L’s owner, Detroit developer A. Alfred Taubman.

In October of 1987, W & L sold the Wanamaker Building under a leaseback agreement for $49.7 million to California developer U.S. Managers Realty. At the time, the firm had just completed the $90 million conversion of the Lit Brothers building at Eighth and Market, transforming the former store into offices, shops and a food court. John Kusmiersky, head of U.S. Managers, told the Inquirer in March 1988 that he would spend another $125 million to restore the façade, replace the windows, and upgrade the building services.

Kusmiersky enlisted Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann to oversee the building’s refurbishment and the repurposing of the upper floors as state of the art office space. An atrium was carved out starting at the ninth floor allowing daylight to penetrate the large floorplates and make the space appealing to high paying tenants. A conference center with two 400-seat auditoriums was added as well. A new Juniper Street lobby provided entry to the new rooms. To keep intrusions on the first floor (viewed by the retailer as its most valuable space) to a minimum, the office lobby was placed on the mezzanine level reached by escalators from Juniper Street. From there, tenants took the former store elevators to reach their offices starting on floor six. On the top floor, the area occupied by the legendary Tea Room was restored and reopened as an event space.

Once home to the Budget store and service areas, the three basement levels now serve as parking | Photo: Shadowbat

Woodward & Lothrup spent $60 million to renovate the now five-floor Wanamaker store. Under the oversight of architect Ewing Cole, the Grand Court, the organ, and the eagle were left intact, along with architectural features such as columns and ceilings that were also cleaned and repainted. Everything else was replaced with the emphasis of reestablishing Wanamaker’s as a high-end store. Worn carpeting and linoleum gave way to marble, and all new fixtures were recessed away from the columns and railings to heighten their grandeur. In-store boutiques showcased luxury brands, and a restaurant opened on the fifth floor. The three-level basement that was formally used as a bargain store and service areas became a 400-space parking garage; additional plans for an 11-screen movie theater there never materialized. It was supposedly the costliest historic retrofit ever at $185 million. (The cost of the office conversion grew to $150 million.)

September 26, 1991 saw the debut of the newly renovated and modernized John Wanamaker’s—albeit one without its Crystal Tea Room, piano department, and other unique features. Still, the future was dim. Serious debt weighed down W & L, and Taubman decided to put the company up for sale in 1995.

The impending sale worried building owner John Kusmiersky and his partner John J. Connors. Their company, now named Brickstone Realty Group, still owned the Wanamaker Building, where they’d spent $150 million—$25 million more than anticipated—to modernize. Two suitors for the store, Federated Department Stores and May Department Stores, wanted to renegotiate the lease if they were to keep shop in the building. In the end, May was awarded the Wanamaker chain after a bankruptcy judge allowed its purchase offer of $725 million on August 8th, 1995. The Center City store remained open after all, much to Brickstone’s relief, but sadly, this meant the venerable Wanamaker name would now be history. May operated all stores under their Hecht’s brand, with the renaming taking place on September 3rd.

Under the Hecht’s name, sales continued to decline and May decided that instead of trying to compete with rival Strawbridge & Clothier in the Philadelphia market, they would just buy that company out. Despite resistance from several members of the Strawbridge family, the sale went through on July 15, 1996. During this time the Hecht’s name, unpopular with Philadelphians from the start, was discontinued. The Strawbridge name would grace the doors of the former John Wanamaker—ironic given the bitter rivalry just decades before. However, the long term plan called for May’s Lord & Taylor division to fill the spot.

Strawbridge’s closed its brief stay in the Wanamaker Building on February 1st, 1997 and reopened as Lord & Taylor on August 6th of that year, still with its eagle and organ, but now reduced to 156,550 square feet on three floors. And yet, profit was still hard to come by, but the company stated that they would continued to operate the store nevertheless in hopes for a turnaround.

Yet another name change occurred with the Federated-May merger on February 28, 2005. By September 2006, all May divisions including Strawbridge’s and Hecht’s, as well as such esteemed names as Filene’s of Boston and Marshall Field’s of Chicago, took on Federated names of Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s. The Lord & Taylor brand was eventually sold to a private equity firm, but not before the choice was made to convert the Wanamaker Lord & Taylor to Macy’s. Strawbridge’s at Eighth and Market closed, leaving Center City with just one department store.

From Wanamaker’s through Macy’s, the bronze eagle has been a star | Photo: Shadowbat

Unlike Macy’s conversion of the Marshall Field’s nameplate in Chicago that touched off protests and customer revolt, a Macy’s branch in the Wanamaker Building appears to have been a success from the start. Today, Macy’s Center City is among the top performers in the chain.

To their credit, Macy’s recognizes the importance of this special landmark. Being the only store in the world with a functioning pipe organ sets it apart from the competition, Macy’s CEO Terry J. Lundgren told the Inquirer in a profile last month. “[The Center City Philadelphia branch] is one of the most unique stores in the entire enterprise,” he told the Inquirer. Macy’s has set aside funding for the maintenance of the organ, which was designated an National Historic Landmark in 1980. In conjunction with the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, a nonprofit group founded in 1991 to oversee the preservation of the instrument, refurbishment of various components is underway. Restoration of the elaborate wood cage surrounding the organist’s console was recently completed.

Along with the Christmas Pageant of Lights, Macy’s has also brought over a Philadelphia Christmas tradition it inherited when it took over Strawbridge’s: the Dickens Village. Housed in the former Egyptian Room, this recreation allows Philadelphians “to take a trip back in time to 1840s London. With 26 heart-warming scenes, the stage is set for the story of ‘Scrooge’,” according to the Visit Macy’s Philadelphia website. Holiday display windows were also installed, continuing a tradition Macy’s began in the 1870s. Every March and April the Wanamaker building location is one of six downtown stores to host the Macy’s Flower Show, a tradition that started in the retailer’s San Fransisco location following the Second World War.

Macy’s see nothing but success in downtown Philadelphia. Currently at 157,940 square feet the Wanamaker location is reportedly too small to keep up with growing sales volume and there have been talks of the store expanding, taking up the fourth and possibly the fifth floors. Should these plans come to fruition, it would be dramatic reversal from the building’s previous retail occupants who viewed contraction as the only way to achieve success at the once iconic department store.

Whether Macy’s expansion of the historic Wanamaker Building is ever realized, little doubt clouds the ongoing enjoyment of this Philadelphia temple of commerce, the product of one of America’s greatest retail icons.

Wesley Parrott, Curtis graduate, occasional Wanamaker Organist | Photo: Bradley Maule

While editing a story for the Hidden City Daily on a recent weekday morning at the Last Drop Coffee House, I ran into photographer/champion for social change Zoe Strauss and art consultant/former director of the RDA’s Percent for Art program Susan Miller Davis. As I sat down with a refill, the gentleman next to me struck up a conversation about writing and the arts. Turns out Wesley Parrott knows a little about both.

Wesley Parrott performs on the Wanamaker Organ during the Christmas Pageant of Lights | Photo: Bradley Maule

As its former president, Wesley oversaw the Franklin Inn Club, which has called Camac Street home for over 100 years. For years, it was a literary-centered club whose membership required publication of a book, but more recently the range has expanded to include visual arts, science, and other learned disciplines. Its historical roll call includes Bertram Lippincott, Owen Wister, and N.C. Wyeth among the Innmates.

As a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in the 1960s, the young organist Wesley Parrott was taken by Philadelphia—especially by the famous pipe organ at the John Wanamaker store, now Macy’s. Grand Court Organist Peter Conte—only the fourth person to hold that title in the 102 years since the organ was installed by Rodman Wanamaker, John’s son—coordinates the schedules that allow various organists to perform on the instrument, the largest of its kind in the world.

I won’t profess to know much about pipe organs, but I know a good groove when I hear it. Two Saturdays ago, I felt such a groove—literally, you can feel the music because the organ is loud— as Wesley’s guest at the Wanamaker Organ. With hundreds of onlookers gathered around the eagle below and from the balconies in the departments above, he accompanied the Christmas light show, crescendoing with “O Tannenbaum,” to much applause.

The light show runs through December 31st every two hours from 10AM to 8PM. But the 45-minute organ recitals, some of which accompany the light display, are every day, year-round. Learn more about the history of the Wanamaker Organ and check the schedule HERE. For an extensive history on the Wanamaker Building, check out Shadowbat’s feature for Hidden City HERE.

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These photos were taken Saturday, December 7th. Click any photo to launch the gallery.

It’s never hard to fill up this list each year in Philadelphia, and 2013 was no exception. If the losses seem a little less severe this time around, perhaps it can be chalked up to dumb luck. Several remarkable buildings that inspire a great deal of passion–the Boyd Theater, Church of the Assumption, Engine 46–are in extremely precarious situations, and 309 S. Broad Street, former home of Philadelphia International Records, Cameo-Parkway Records, and W. Wilson Goode’s campaign office, will probably be coming down in 2014. The human cost was even more terrible than last year, however. Once again, we lost not only buildings but also lives; in 2012 it was two firefighters who died in the Buck Hosiery blaze, and this year six people died in the collapse of the Salvation Army thrift store on 22nd and Market.

Both tragedies focused the attention of city officials and the public on the Department of Licenses and Inspections, which could have done more in the case of Buck Hosiery, but appears to have been following standard operating procedures–for better or worse–in the 22nd and Market collapse. In general, L&I is much improved in recent years, but remains underfunded and reactive, which is a recipe for accidents to happen on an intermittent yet regular basis in a city with thousands of decaying buildings and too many owners who have abandoned all pretense of caring for them. Obviously, the majority of building owners in Philadelphia are law abiding, but a remarkable number are not. In many cases this is due to poverty, yet the track record of owners who possess vast resources is oftentimes not any better, and conceivably worse because they own so many properties.

Here are the first five lost buildings of 2013. We’ll post the second five tomorrow.

Salvation Army thrift store, 22nd and Market Streets

Photo: Bradley Maule

For decades, Richard Basciano sat on prime Center City real estate and allowed it to deteriorate while other developers did the hard work of making projects happen around him (and enriching him in the process). So was it any surprise that when Basciano finally bestirred himself to tear down his buildings on the 2100 and 2200 block of Market Street and turn them into surface parking lots with an eye toward some nebulous future development, that it wasn’t done with care? In fact, according to emails published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, he pushed repeatedly for the demolition contractor to speed up the work, and on June 5th the wall of the former Hoagie City building collapsed onto the adjacent Salvation Army thrift store, killing six people. The smallest of fry in the case–an equipment operator who tested positive for marijuana–faces criminal charges, while Basciano’s exposure looks like it will be limited to civil lawsuits. But as the old mafia saying goes, the fish rots from the head, and that has never been truer than in this case.

Book Bin II, 2132 Market St.

Prior to the botched demolition of Hoagie City, Basciano tore down a little gem on the same block that featured a wonderfully decorative terra cotta facade. We weren’t able to track down much on the building’s history, however a salvage contractor from York, PA who purchased the terra cotta wrote in to tell us that it was manufactured by the Atlantic Terra Cotta company, which also produced material for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He said that the architect may have been Bally and Bassett of Philadelphia. Another reader pointed out that putti (cherubs) holding compasses are “an Italian Renaissance motif to indicate the ‘perfect musical measure,’” and speculated that the building may have been a music hall or music store originally. To take a closer look at the compass-holding cherubim, check out  Rob Bender’s superb set of closeups.

St. Bonaventure Church, 2842 N. 9th St. 

St. Bonaventure interior circa 2012 | Photo: Chandra Lampreich

Size and opulence, especially in impoverished neighborhoods, often turn out to be a building’s long-term enemies, and no one built bigger and fancier in the 19th and early 20th century than the Catholic Church. So it shouldn’t be surprising that several of the churches sold by the Diocese since the early 1990s have been torn down, including St. Bonaventure and St. Boniface, with another–Church of the Assumption–in danger of being demolished in the near future. Designed by architect Edward Forrest Durang, (who also designed the Church of the Gesu in Francisville and the Trocadero Theater on Arch Street), St. Bonaventure’s soaring steeple was a neighborhood landmark. The Catholic Archdiocese shuttered the church, along with nearly a dozen others, in 1993, and sold it and the adjacent school building to the New Life Evangelistic Church in 1997 for $110,000. Unfortunately, New Life didn’t have the resources to maintain the main sanctuary, so it moved its services into the school building. Congregations do this quite often–perhaps the Archdiocese should sell these buildings separately in the future, rather than bundling them together, since it’s usually far easier and cheaper to use the auxiliary buildings. This may well be the Archdiocese’s intention, however as of last February, the Archdiocese did not appear to have a clear strategy for what it will do with the ten churches it is currently in the process of closing.  For a poignant look at what life at St. Bonaventure was like in the decades before it closed, it’s worth browsing through the photos on the St. Bonaventure Facebook page. For Chandra Lampreich’s excellent pre-demolition photos of the church’s interior, click HERE.

Episcopal Cathedral parish house, 38th and Chestnut Streets

38th and Chestnut brownstones | Photo: Peter Woodall

Although attractive enough, the two brownstones in question are on this list because of the legal precedent set by their demolition. The two buildings were ostensibly protected from being torn down because they were listed on the City’s Register of Historic Places. However, the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania argued that demolition was “necessary in the public interest” because it needed to restore the adjacent cathedral, and the only way it could generate enough revenue to do so was by building an apartment tower on the site. The Historical Commission agreed with the Diocese’s novel interpretation, but critics worried that the case would open a small hole in the law that might be exploited in the future. As Christopher Mote put it in his article for the Daily, “they questioned whether the act of preservation in itself was a matter of necessity to allow for demolition, and whether the provision could be interpreted to favor one historic property at the expense of another.”

Third Regiment Armory, Broad and Wharton Streets

Third Regiment Armory, 2012 | Photo: Peter Woodall

The Third Regiment Armory was yet another unwieldy building with high maintenance costs that was purchased by a community group without the financial resources to rehab it or care for it long term. In September of 2003, Tolentine Community Center and Development Corporation, a small, neighborhood nonprofit known for its  weekly bingo games, bought the vacant armory from the State of Pennsylvania for $106,246 with plans to turn it into a community center. The organization hoped to receive $5 million in state funding for the renovation, but the money was not forthcoming, and Tolentine was initially barred from reselling the property due to a restriction written into the property’s bill of sale. Meanwhile, the organization struggled to maintain the building, spending more than $500,000 on repairs. Legislation from State Senator Larry Farnese eventually allowed Tolentine to market the property, which it sold in June to developer Michael Carosella for $835,000. Carosella, who tore down two Graduate Hospital-area churches for residential development several years ago, will build an L-shaped apartment building on the site with 50 units and a courtyard entrance along Broad Street.

Philadelphia lost many wonderful buildings to fire and general neglect during its long, post-World War II decline. Yet one could argue that this extended coma did much to retain the city’s diverse streetscape: relatively little got built, especially compared to cities such as Chicago and New York, so not much got torn down. As a result, there were still plenty of great old buildings to restore once Center City and its perimeter neighborhoods started to rebound. Yet development pressure has finally reached a point where buildings with larger footprints like churches, warehouses and factories have become juicy targets for developers looking to build blocks of housing. That’s what happened to several of the properties listed below, and it’s a trend that we expect will continue to grow over the next few years.

Gretz Brewery (partial), 1524 Germantown Avenue

Gretz in 2006 and today | Photos: Peter Woodall

Possibly the oldest building in the complex, and undoubtedly the most charming, thanks to its mansard roof and a pressed metal balcony with wonderful, curlicue-shaped brackets. L&I first cited the owner of property, local developer Tony Rufo, in July of 2012 for falling brick, and approved the demolition of the building in May.  The brewery shut down all the way back in 1961, and part of it has been used most recently as an auto repair shop and as an ice cream stand. Some restoration work on the mansard roof was done several years ago, but the repairs were abandoned before much progress was made. The fate of the rest of the buildings remains uncertain.

2. Ortlieb’s Brewery, Poplar and American Streets

Deconstructing the Ortlieb’s brewery complex | Photo: Peter Woodall

We almost escaped 2013 without any old industrial buildings burning down; to our knowledge, the only casualty was a small, 19th century factory at 18th and Sedgley that most recently housed a company that remanufactured axles. However, just this past Thursday, December 26th, there was a fire on top of the roof of one of the Ortlieb’s Brewery buildings waiting to be demolished. The only wonder is that it didn’t happen sooner–Bart Blatstein’s Tower Investments has done a notably poor job of sealing the property over the past decade.

There wasn’t much atop the former malt house that seemed like it could catch fire. Perhaps it was the stubborn tree that has been growing up there for the better part of a decade, maybe more. In 2012, when the demolition notices first were posted, artist Daniel Davison tied a flag to the top of the tree that read “I’ll miss you.” It was a lovely tribute, and Davison made a superb video documenting the intervention.  Someone cut the flag down along with most of the tree last fall, but it grew back again this summer.

The decaying brewery was actually quite plain compared to more ornate examples in Brewerytown, but it did have presence, looming over the corner of Poplar and American Streets. The complex was one of the few remnants of an older, pre-gentrification Northern Liberties that hadn’t been torn down or fixed up, and as such it will be missed by this semi-longtime resident who found the neighborhood’s slightly post-apocalyptic character back then both depressing and exhilarating.

6. St. John the Evangelist church and parish house, 3rd and Reed Streets

St. John the Evangelist | Photo: Christopher Dougherty

This mainstay of the Pennsport neighborhood shut its doors in December, 2012 and demolition began fewer than six months later. The congregation at the “spiritual rock of Southwark” was known for its tolerance, good works and strong connection to the community. Although church attendance had declined, and an arrangement to share the building with a Lutheran congregation ended recently, the Episcopal Diocese’s decision to sell the building puzzled many parishioners. Twelve townhouses are being built on the site in a style that Hidden City reader and friend Todd Kimmell has dubbed “Hi-Tard, which offers the return of early 70s mansard matched with the return of late 80s hi tech.”

40th Street Methodist Episcopal Church, 40th and Sansom Streets

40th Street Methodist Episcopal Church | Photo: Bradley Maule

Samuel Sloan and Addison Hutton designed this simplified, Romanesque-style church, which was completed in 1871. Three congregations worshipped there: initially the Centennial Methodist Episcopal congregation, then from 1908 to 1954 the First Church of the Covenanters, and until 2007 St. Joseph’s Baptist Church. St. Joseph’s sold the property to P&A Associates–developer of the Murano and the St. James–for $2 million. Saying that the numbers don’t pencil for reusing an older building is an easy way for developers to brush off preservation advocates, however P&A founder Alan Casnoff seemed sincere when he told us that he tried to find a way to retain the church and even offered the building to two local congregations for the purchase price. “We racked our brain for five years over this,” Casnoff said. A single story building designed for retail tenants, with plate glass windows making up most of the facade, is planned for the site.

1510 N. Broad Street

1510 N. Broad St is at center with the red plywood on its first floor windows | Photo: Google Streetview

Unfortunately, all we have is this lousy Google Streetview image with which to show you the building that stood between the long-vacant Alred E. Burk Mansion on the corner and the Art Deco storefront church to its north at 1512-1516 Broad Street.  Temple University, which also owns the Burk Mansion, tore the structure down citing structural  failures.

There were a number of buildings we considered that didn’t make it into the top ten. Here are a few of them:

Freihofer’s Bakery, 20th and Indiana Streets

Freihofer’s bakery complex | Photo: Google Streetview

Food processing was second only to textiles among Philadelphia’s industries in 1910, and gave the world such future mega-brands as Keebler, Breyers, Whitman Chocolates and Tastykake. Freihofer’s built this plant at 20th and Indiana in 1913 and sold the complex of buildings in 1958. For a look inside the factory before it was torn down, click HERE.

Second Baptist Church, 924-928 New Market St. 

Second Baptist Church | Photo: Peter Woodall

This “stucco swathed curiosity” was built as the Second Baptist Church in 1803 when Northern Liberties was still a town, sold to a Jewish congregation in 1873, and from 1965 until several years ago housed the AA Fence Co.

7-Up Bottling Plant, 819 Carpenter Street

Photo: Peter Woodall

Local lore has it that 7-Up was invented here in Philadelphia, however the company’s website notes St. Louis as the soda’s birthplace. It was a fun story, though, and noticing the tile lettering that spelled out “Home of 7-Up” was one of those discoveries that make walking in the city so enjoyable. Twenty five townhouses are planned for the site.

 The “Fake House”, 3862 Lancaster Avenue

The Fake House | Photo: Google Streetview

DIY at its finest. Creative folks turned the former appliance factory into living space and a performance venue in the late 1980s and somehow managed to carry on hosting punk shows until being evicted in 2012.  A 22-unit apartment building is planned for the site. Philly Weekly had a nice write-up about the place back in 2003 that’s worth a look.

Sunset—and Venus—over the year that was, 2013 in Philadelphia | Photo: Bradley Maule

This time last year, I sat around a fireplace with a group of friends on Mount Hood while snow fell around us, trying to determine the best time to let them know I’d be leaving the lives we were building in Portland for a return to Philadelphia. The old Portlandia/Always Sunny heave-ho. After three and a half years in the Pacific Northwest, and a lot of self analysis, everything just made sense for me to come back to the place I knew and loved. It’s the city that loves you back, after all.

I wasn’t even off the plane long enough to set my bags down when Nathaniel Popkin and Pete Woodall grabbed me by the arm at One Shot Cafe and threw me into an editorial role. A six-week festival was coming and they needed help keeping the Hidden City Daily in order. And what better way to re-familiarize myself with Philadelphia than by diving right in, working with dozens of contributing writers researching and reporting on the city around us, taking photos, and just getting out there. So I did.

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Morgan Hall, Temple University | Photo: Bradley Maule

The Year of Our Lorde Twenty Thirteen: Philadelphia.

The Good: Hall & Oates were voted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Singh Center, Morgan Hall, Gerri LeBow Hall, and DEC Center each opened, giving their respective universities new architectural icons. The Popup Garden kicked so much ass over the summer on South Broad Street, they decided to do it again in the winter at Penn’s Landing. Speaking of, Penn’s Landing’s next incarnation, from the desk of London’s Hargreaves Associates, is slowly coming together, and it’s infinitely better than what’s there now (Winterfest notwithstanding). Bald eagle populations have rebounded so well that they’re now casuallygliding down the Schuylkill in broad daylight.

The Bad: Hoagie City collapsed onto the Salvation Army, resulting in seven deaths—and a recharged L&I. Twenty-three schools closed. In their tenth season at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies stunk, and Ruben Amaro continues to make them worse.

The Philly: Brooklyn tried and failed twice to cash in on the sixth borough, as 3rd Ward and Brooklyn Flea both came and went in a flash. Even as Kenny Gamble’s Universal Companies have breathed fresh air into communities like Hawthorne and Nicetown, his Center City properties at the Royal Theater and Philadelphia International Records have languished; in the next year, those could become a high-end residential building and a 47-story hotel-condo tower. Dan McQuade wrote a silly story tracing Rocky’s training run in Rocky II that became an internet sensation—and a marathon-plus.

Johnny Brenda’s turned 10. Mural Arts turned 30. Guild House turned 50. The Lincoln Highway turned 100. The Hidden City Daily turned two.

And before we crank year three into high gear, let’s take one last look back at this one. From the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge to Poquessing Creek, from Morris Arboretum to Citizens Bank Park, through the crossroads at the heart of town under the big Quaker, these photos represent the City of Philadelphia I knew in 2013.

PS: Happy New Year!

Photo: Clem Murray for The Inquirer

• An Inquirer piece chronicles the physical and emotional toll of the students and staff of the Kensington High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (KCAPA) on Front Street, which has seen its operating budget shrink from $3.3 million when it first opened the doors to its new building in 2010, to $2.2 million today. Principal Debora Carrera explains that students and staff “all have to wear more hats.” Teachers chip in for necessities. Students assist in watching over the hallways. Without the same degree of emotional support, fights are up, and class attendance is down.

• Never mind its naïve business model, City Council President Darrell Clarke’s proposal for a revenue-generating conglomeration of cafés in LOVE Park would be regulatory nightmare, reports the Daily News. The federal government would be owed the return of its grant money for Parkway improvements from the ‘70s, and Harrisburg would want to review it. Such a redesign would also require a compensatory land grant to the park system, in keeping with the parkland-protection ordinance that Clarke himself co-authored.

• The Resource Exchange, specializing in the reuse of arts and entertainment supplies, will move from its current Port Richmond location to 2nd & Cecil B. Moore, says Generocity.org. Executive director Karyn Gerred explains that the new location affords more space, better access to transit, as well as a steady clientele in the area’s burgeoning arts community. In turn, the foot traffic would bring an added focus to an “underutilized northern section of 2^nd Street in Kensington.”

• The Atlantic Cities discusses the University of Richmond’s digitization of an expansive collection of American maps from the 1930s. The enhanced collection—now available for the public’s perusal—allows for a quick comparison of early maps of various eastern seaboard cities; the “tiny Philadelphia” of 1776 requires a closer look.

You can store whole buildings in here if you really wanted to | Photo: Bradley Maule

With all of its peers gone, the former Electric Storage Battery Company factory now demands passersby’s attention with its ostentatious color scheme. The heavily-altered, patriotically-painted building, now a Devon Self Storage, towers over its North Philadelphia neighborhood–visible from as far away as Center City–but was once just one of many factory buildings that stood near this location.

Ever been at City Hall’s observation deck and wonder what the red-white-&-blue building way up yonder is? Now you know | Photo: Bradley Maule

William Warren Gibbs, then Vice President of the United Gas Improvement Company, started the Electric Storage Battery Company in 1888. Gibbs, a serial entrepreneur, saw the potential of electric power and had interest in jumping on the electric bandwagon. Having no knowledge about electric batteries himself, Gibbs acquired numerous small electric companies and purchased the patents of French inventor Clement Payen, hoping to create a commercial application for all this new electric battery technology. He then drew investments from some of the richest men in the country: P.A.B. Widener, W.L. Elkins, Anthony N. Brady, Thomas N. Ryan, and William C. Whitney, nearly all of whom wanted to develop electric trolleys and taxis.

Gibbs had no real interest in long-term work in any of the companies he started (which might explain why this once-wealthy man died penniless) and handed over operations to Whitney, a New York tycoon, by 1894. On December 4th of that year, Whitney acquired the rights, licenses, and patents of every other battery producer in the United States, making the Electric Storage Battery Company a monopoly until 1903, when some of those patents expired.

After that, the already rapidly-growing company expanded a break-neck speed. By 1900, the Electric Storage Battery Company’s “Chloride Accumulators” and their new series of “Exide” batteries powered everything from trolleys to submarines, making them the largest company of their kind in the country, with sales offices in nine cities. The company spent the next 15 years overwhelmed by work as Exide batteries became the standard for early electric cars, then evolved into the standard for starters of early automobiles. In 1913, the company’s factory at the Southwest corner of 19th and West Allegheny couldn’t keep up. They acquired the Warden Power Company Building across 19th Street (demolished 1998) and moved in. Before alterations and additions were even complete, a six-story factory was built on the same piece of property (demolished 2002). These new buildings, in addition to their factory in Camden, still weren’t enough.

In 1916, having just received a major contract from the U.S. military (who was a year away from entering World War I), the company’s new president, Herbert Lloyd, knew that the already-largest electric battery production space in the world would need to grow to accommodate the growth. The company acquired a 1.6 acre triangular piece of land bounded by West Allegheny Avenue, 19th Street, and the Reading Railroad tracks. The houses on this property were demolished and the 1800 block of West Hilton Street, which ran through the property, was eliminated.

The firm of William Steele & Sons was commissioned to design the new building. Originally planned at seven stories, the demand on the Electric Storage Battery Company was so great that once completed at the end of 1917, the building was now eight stories and over 200,000 square feet. Even after the new building was constructed, there was still not enough space. In 1919, a short addition was added to the new factory, filling in the rest of the triangular property at the Northwest corner of 19th and Allegheny (mostly demolished, some parts still stand).

19th & Allegheny: USA! USA! | Photo: Bradley Maule

The Electric Storage Battery Company continued at their massive complex at 19th and Allegheny for the next few decades. In 1951, they moved out to Rising Sun and Adams Avenues, leaving their multiple buildings behind. The company still exists today as Exide Technologies, based in Milton, Georgia with locations all over the world, including a local office in Downingtown. The buildings south of Allegheny Avenue became home to the Remington-Rand Univac corporation, where they would develop ground-breaking technologies into the 1960s. The factory on the Northeast Corner became home to several clothing and hat companies, most notably W. Seitchik & Sons.

W. Seitchik & Sons, a men’s apparel company in operation since the 19th Century, came to purchase the building by 1956. From here, they produced and sold clothing for four decades. The company is still active today, with a small factory in Juniata Park and a showroom in New York City. Starting in 2001, telecommunications equipment was installed all over the building, making it a glorified cell tower until the old structure was purchased by the California-based Devon Self Storage chain and completely overhauled for that purpose by 2006, giving it the wacky appearance it has today.

The enormous All-American storage unit is all that remains of the Electric Storage Battery Company’s once massive 19th & Allegheny complex. Though more or less disfigured beyond belief, the building remains, not left to the same fate as its companions on the corner.

President Obama first hinted at the federal Promise Zone plan in the 2013 State of the Union Address | Photo: Charles Dharapak, for the Associated Press

• During the Johnson and Nixon administrations, Philadelphia found itself indelibly tied (by name) to the federal government’s “War on Poverty.” Today, a half-century since the declaration of that protracted war, President Obama is set to announce a renewed offensive, with West Philadelphia—specifically Mantua and adjacent neighborhoods—being selected as one of five White House “Promise Zones” across the nation (the others being in Los Angeles, San Antonio, southeastern Kentucky, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma). The neighborhood—with a 51% poverty rate and 13.6% unemployment rate—will receive “preferential treatment when applying for federal grants to boost early education, reduce crime and spur economic growth,” reports the Daily News.

• Plan Philly reports that the phase-two plan of Forest City Enterprises’ Museum Towers project near 18th & Spring Garden Streets received “generally favorable comments” during the non-binding Civic Design Review Committee’s Tuesday meeting. If the Zoning Board of Adjustments approves a few variances in late February, what is now a surface parking lot will give way to a 16-story tower (with 270 units) and 16 townhomes—nearly doubling its current inventory of 300-units. Architect Sandy Silverman’s design will attempt to conceal the project’s necessary 4-story, 400-spot parking garage with the townhouses. Construction would begin this spring.

• NewsWorks previews a year of Shakespeare in Philadelphia, this the 450^th anniversary of the Bard’s birth. The Free Library and the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre will gear their programming towards narrowing that gap of time, a task that theater director Carmen Kahn explains is easier than the uninitiated might think.

• The Corn Exchange Building at 2nd & Chestnut in Old City is an apt physical reminder of the sways of that section’s story, demonstrates Naked Philly, from its beginnings as a late-antebellum upstart financial enterprise, to these more diverse days with occupants serving the banking, nightlife, and journalism sectors.

Allen Lane Station? Oh yeah, that’s up on Allens Lane | Photo: Bradley Maule

He owned and sold slaves, he hated Ben Franklin, and he didn’t want America to declare independence, so he rode out the Revolution in England. And yet, he left us with an icon of American independence, a Philadelphia neighborhood, and a city Billy Joel sang about because it had a better cadence than Bethlehem.

William Allen was a lot of things to a lot of people in colonial Philadelphia. The son of merchant William Allen, Sr., he built on the wealth established by his father, a friend of William Penn’s. The younger Allen contributed to the founding of Pennsylvania Hospital and what would become the University of Pennsylvania; he was the 26th Mayor of Philadelphia (1735–36) and Chief Justice of the Province of Pennsylvania from 1751 to 1774.

He married the daughter of Andrew Hamilton, the Philadelphia lawyer who with Edmund Woolley is credited for the design of Independence Hall—which Allen helped Hamilton finance by buying properties for the purpose of building a Pennsylvania State House. His own daughter married Penn’s grandson John, whose uncle Thomas (William’s son) sold Allen’s business partner a 5,000 acre plot north of Philadelphia along the Lehigh River. Allen bought it and laid out ‘Northampton Town’, which officially became Allentown in 1838 after decades of colloquial use. (Allen’s son John built Trout Hall as a summer retreat in 1770, and it stands today as the oldest building in Allentown.)

While the State House was rising on Chestnut Street, Allen built his own 47-acre estate eight miles northwest in Germantown. Completed in 1750, Allen’s home Mount Airy would leave its handle on the neighborhood long after its short life. James Gowen, for whom neighboring Gowen Avenue is named, demolished Mount Airy in 1848 and built Magnolia Villa. The latter in turn went through a number of uses, including the American Classical and Military Lyceum, where future general George Meade and rear admiral Samuel Du Pont were counted among its students.

The Lutheran Theological Seminary, where Mount Airy got its name 264 years ago | Photo: Bradley Maule

In 1760, William Allen sponsored young artist—and fellow Loyalist—Benjamin Rush’s trip to Florence and Rome, where he would study the ‘science’ of painting; West later painted this portrait of Allen | Image used with permission of Germantown Historical Society

The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia now occupies the site, where a bronze tablet claims the first shots of the Battle of Germantown were fired in October 1777. That’s especially interesting considering Allen was a steadfast Loyalist, and the ensuing victory gave the British Army control of Philadelphia, capital of the young United States, ultimately leading to the Continental Army’s retreat to Valley Forge. Allen’s Loyalist views eventually clashed with his independence-minded former friend Franklin, whose stature he helped to elevate as a printer, clerk, and Postmaster General. Of Franklin, Allen wrote to Thomas Penn in 1764:

“I must assure you he that he has been for many years and still is the chief author and grand abettor of all the seditious practices in the government and is continually infusing into the people’s ears his Republican Anarchial Notions, being a printer he has frequently published the most virulent pamphlets against government, among the rest you no doubt have seen that which he calls your epitaph, he is a very artful man and can color the worst designs with very specious glasses.” (From William Allen, a 1930s thesis on his life at Germantown Historical Society.)

Needless to say, with the winds of change blowing (so often fanned by Franklin himself), Allen resigned as Chief Justice in 1774 due to his Loyalist tendencies and advancing age. He went to London, where he published The American Crisis: A Letter, Addressed by Permission of the Earl Gower, Lord President of the Council, on the present alarming Disturbances in the Colonies. He stayed there until 1779, when he returned to Philadelphia. He died the following year at his Mount Airy estate.

A Pennsylvania historical marker and pedestrian plaza were dedicated in 2009 at the corner of Germantown Avenue and the street bearing his name, Allens Lane. Or is it Allen’s Lane? Allen Lane?

The Fairmount Park Commission liked to issue credit where it was due: the lane was Allen’s | Photo: Bradley Maule

Surveyor John Hills agrees: his 1808 map labels Allen’s Lane | Map via PhilaGeoHistory.org

According to street signs and the Streets Department, the road which dates back to 1746, running from Germantown Avenue down to the Livezey Mill on Wissahickon Creek, is Allens Lane. According to SEPTA and an apartment building referencing the station a block away, it’s Allen Lane. And according to Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, as well as some of the oldest maps of the area, it’s Allen’s Lane.

As a lifelong neighborhood resident and an archivist at both Germantown and Chestnut Hill Historical Societies, historian Alex Bartlett knows his Mount Airy. “I grew up, and have lived almost my entire life, in fact, a block away from the Allen Lane station,” he says of the stop on the Chestnut Hill West regional rail line. The Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary Philadelphia, Germantown and Chestnut Hill Railroad opened the line to Chestnut Hill in 1884. “I have always heard that the ‘s’ was left off of a sign by an early sign painter for the Pennsylvania Railroad… [but] I have never heard of any source confirming or disproving this story.”

Attempting to confirm or disprove the story, I turned to SEPTA’s former Manager of Rail Planning Harry Garforth, now Amtrak’s Principal Officer of Northeast Corridor Planning. “There are several timetables listed in this booklet [about the Chestnut Hill line, published by the PRR Technical and Historical Society] and a short description of each station. The station name used in the description is Allen Lane,” he explains. “Interestingly, there is a copy of an 1884 timetable, the year the branch opened, which lists the station as Allen Lane, then another in 1895 showing Allen’s Lane. Every other reference to the passenger station, block station, electrical substation (built 1918), and freight service uses Allen Lane (no ‘s’).”

By the way, that 1884 timetable? For its production, PRR used their regular printers: Allen, Lane & Scott Railroad & Mercantile Printing House.

Detail of Baist’s Map of Philadelphia and Environs, 1889 | Accessed via PhilaGeoHistory.org

Al Giannantonio, longtime president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the PRR Technical and Historical Society, offers similar, inconclusive evidence. “The 1910 G. W. Bromley Atlas shows the street name after which the station was named as Allens Lane, as do most other maps of the area,” he says, checking his resources. “The station in both the PRR CT 1000 (a form listing all stations and instructions) and in the four-volume history of the PRR prepared by Coverdale & Colpitts show the station name as Allen Lane. Yet strangely, Baist’s Map of Philadelphia and Environs (1889, above) shows the street as Allen Lane and the station as Allens Station. “I would tend to believe that a sign painter could have left off the ‘s’ and it took for the duration of history,” Giannantonio surmises. “The historical records of the PRR lean toward Allen Lane Station, so that is the way it probably should stay for any new signs (and schedules) produced.”

Coincidentally, SEPTA is in the process of producing new signs. Signage upgrades are part of an overall station improvement project in SEPTA’s Capital Budget. However, as SEPTA’s Senior Long Range Planner Jennifer Barr indicates, “the name of the [Allen Lane] station has never really been a topic, so there is no motive or to plan rename or revise the station’s name.”

Allens Lane: don’t call it Allen Lane—unless you’re talking about Allen Lane Station. | Photo: Bradley Maule

That’s just fine with historian Bartlett, the Mount Airy lifer. “I see [the street name] referred to with and without the apostrophe; however, it is never referred to as ‘Allen Lane’.” Still, he says, “long-timers like myself would probably rather see the SEPTA sign left alone.”

Allens, Allen’s, Allen. Grays Ferry or Gray’s Ferry? Penns Landing or Penn’s Landing? Something so ordinary as a pesky apostrophe can complicate even the most basic level of planning. Shame it’s not as simple as Mount Airy. Or is it Mt. Airy?

* * *

A final aside on William Allen, especially for Penn State fans: Allen Street, the primary cross street between Beaver and College Avenues, leading directly to PSU’s Old Main, is also named for William Allen: the second president of the University, 1864-66, William Henry Allen—no relation to the justice Allen.

“Keith L. and Katherine Sachs in the Anne d’Harnoncourt Gallery, which houses 5 Postcards by Jasper Johns.” (Photo: Constance Mensh, for the Philadelphia Museum of Art

• The Philadelphia Museum of Art announced the third most generous gift in its history—the addition of 97 works from the private collection of Keith and Katherine Sachs—“transporting that institution,” declares The Inquirer, “into the front ranks of large museums with holdings of late-20^th and early 21^st-century art.” Four decades in the making, the donation will accentuate and deepen the PMA’s holdings of significant artists like Ellsworth Kelly, Jasper Johns, and Howard Hodgkin.

• Inga Saffron sees a net-gain for the corner of 3rd & Market Street, which will lose Marvin Ginsberg’s “exuberant landmark … of retail hucksterism,” the Shirt Corner, for a $20 million renovation of early 19^th century commercial structures into a 59-unit mixed use from developer Leo Addimando. Saffron praises the dueling concerns for historical retention and period honesty. “The result should be a handsome, cohesive building. It won’t be as pure as the Colonial restorations at nearby Independence National Historic Park, but it may be more honest: All the new portions will be clad in a red brick different from the 19th-century facades, to acknowledge that this is 21st-century construction.”

• The Philadelphia City Planning Commission’s Citizens Planning Institute, which trains neighborhood leaders in the logistics of collaborative community planning, celebrated the graduation of its seventh class since its beginnings in 2010. The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog reports that the annual update to the comprehensive Philadelphia2035 plan was amended to the event, and Mayor Nutter stopped by to thank all those dedicating their time and energies towards proactive planning across the city. “At one time, the City Planning Commission was one of the premier planning agencies in America,’ said Nutter. It’s returning to that role, he said, and it’s because ‘the citizens have demanded more, demanded better’ of the city and its planners.”

• The Passyunk Post reports that the Free Library Branch at Broad & Morris closed on the last of the year “to make way for the planned multi-use wellness complex being built by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.