A Quick Trip Downtown and a Return to Devon
I've gotta say, I'm actually pretty excited for today's post and I'm hoping you guys are too! I got a pretty wide variety of stuff and a lot of ground covered in this set of photos. Let's get started!
This opened as the independent Franklin Plaza Hotel (named for the adjacent office complex), but rebranded to Sheraton several years ago. This entrance used to have an awning above it for the Phillips Seafood House in here, which closed a few years back. When they took down the awning, they uncovered Franklin Plaza's sign, which stayed exposed for a few years. Finally, in 2017, they replaced the Franklin sign with their own. This sign didn't last long- the hotel lost their Sheraton franchise because it was too run-down for corporate's liking. For the past year or so, it has been operating as the Philadelphia 201 Hotel while they go through and thoroughly remodel it floor by floor. Once this project is done, it will once again become a Sheraton.
This, and the cafe on the corner, are the only two buildings left on this block south of the Callowhill Cut. They, alongside the property in between, appear to be owned by the same company, making me thing demolition is in the near future and we should be seeing a new apartment tower or something along those lines take their place.
Work is underway turning the old Fresh Fields/Whole Foods into a Target! Overall, Target really did surprisingly little to the building. On the outside, they replaced the front awning and added a red and gray background for the sign. On the inside, the abstractly angled wall separating the store from the second floor breakrooms is still there, complete with the same windows Whole Foods had.
Here's part of the infamous former Reading Railroad cut. While a lot of it still sits abandoned, a few blocks of it have been converted into parking. Part of the plan for the Philly Rail Park is to turn this into a park in addition to the above-ground Reading Viaduct. I can definitely see them finishing the viaduct part of the park, but enough stuff has been built in this cut I can't imagine them being able to take it back. Plus, a few blocks of it go under buildings and probably wouldn't be that pleasant to walk anyway.
Spring Garden Street is lined with what I'd call rowmansions. They're significantly larger than your typical Philly rowhome. This particular set was built in 1885. As the area has become more commercial, a lot of these have been converted into offices or divided into apartments. When this one became a tax office in the mid-70's (I know that because my bathroom at home was added onto the house in 1974 and has that exact same tile), they resized the doorway and set the address into the tile as a mosaic. you can see a sliver of what the original door would have looked like to the left.
An 1870-built rowhome here was torn down in 2015 for a new mid-rise apartment tower. Plans must have hit a snag, as the rubble here remained until late 2017. The new building is finally in the finishing touches of construction now.
Green Village closed here in 2016 after decades of serving the corner here. They occupied the bottom floor of three old rowhomes from the early 1900's. I believe the one furthest left is the oldest, probably from the first decade of the century if not before (it looks old but I can't find any records on it), and the ones to the right were built in the 1920's. After Green Village closed, the buildings were bought by a developer who plans to demolish them for a new 14-floor hotel. The building sits abandoned while plans await approval. Once built, the (now former) Subway building next door is going to look odd sandwiched between two tall buildings.
This cabin was built in 1759 by Revolutionary War doctor Bernardhus Van Leer. It is rather primitive for something in this area built this late in the colonial era, since it was Van Leer's secondary home. He had a much larger brick home in Marple Township. The property it sits on became home to Conestoga High School (perennially ranked best public school in Pennsylvania but I'll refuse to give them credit for it since they usually beat my school at everything). Stoga maintains the cabin and uses it as part of their US history courses.
ACME opened this store May 21, 1952 (scroll down about halfway on this page to see an ad for it when its grand opening). It was relatively short-lived, another store replaced it in 1966, which in turn closed when ACME expanded their nearby Devon store in 2003. At some point after, it became home to a Thrift Drug which sold out to Eckerd in 1997. They closed in 2005 due to competition from a CVS nearby, ironically located in the 1966 ACME. It sat vacant for a while, but ultimately became a Goodwill in 2015.
This former Pure had been vacant for years, having last housed a coffee shop that moved to Wayne in the late 90's or early 2000's. I was getting worried about it since there's so much development going on along this street, but by some miracle it was saved. It was renovated in 2018, turning the original building into a counseling center and the addition into a boutique. They did a fantastic job remodeling, but it did come at the cost of some of the original historic elements. The blue (well, formerly blue but still original) roof tile and rain gutter downspouts survived unaltered up until the remodel. The roof was retiled with slate and extended outward to create an awning over the entire front, and the two smaller awnings above the window and door were removed. To really appreciate how little this had changed since 1930, here's a picture of what it would originally have looked like.
This was in the last three days of their closing sale and the very last time I got here before they shut their doors. Now that I'm thinking about it I'm not sure why I couldn't go on their last day; it was summer between senior year and college and my internship was over, so I know I had nothing better to be doing. Oh well. I got here in the final week at least.
I'm 99% sure this was an Esso, but just about every gas station used a pinstriped tile facade in the 50's. It's been home to Ed Forde Service Center for a long time. It was looking a little rundown when I got this photo and I was worried they wouldn't be around much longer (apparently Wawa's been trying to snap up the property across the street for years now, maybe they'd choose to take this property instead), but thankfully they recently did quite a bit of work on the place. They got a new sign, repainted the pinstripes, pressure washed the tile, and straightened out that sagging awning.
Waterloo Gardens' original and flagship location, which has been vacant since 2012, appears to be under construction now. What are they doing? You'll have to wait until my next post to see. I've got some in-depth coverage coming up.
This Sunoco opened in the 70's, and closed in 2008. The property, along with the adjacent parking lot, has been owned by a developer for a few years now. He's desperately been trying to get apartments built here, but neighbors keep shooting down the plans (since apparently an abandoned gas station and a gravel lot is better?). He's threatening to give up on the property, but I have a feeling something's going to get built here before too long.
The garage space inside has been taken over by the Horse Show grounds next door, who are currently using it for storage. The Horse Show has been a strong supporter of the proposed project, since it includes a garage that will increase parking for their events; plus, they'll get a decent amount of money for selling him the parking lot.
Office Building, Berwyn, PA
This building dates back to the 50's, and most likely housed one tenant. For most of recent history, it's been split up between several businesses. The building has slowly been emptying out over the past few years so it (alongside an abandoned strip mall and a Handel's) can be torn down for a large apartment building, which will thankfully feature a new Handel's on the ground floor, in addition to more retail space. Unlike the development in Devon, I have a feeling this project will be approved rather quickly.
This station is practically across the street from the Sunoco we just saw, though they dropped the Sunoco branding a few years before the other one closed and has been operating as Liberty since then. From my experience, they've got the cheapest gas on the Main Line. They're my go-to if I need to fill up in the area.
This bank likely opened in the late 60's. There's a good chance it was built as a Sovereign, since they were headquartered in nearby Wyomissing until they
For some reason I wanna say this opened in 1974. It's the right time period for a Friendly's of this model, but I have no idea where I would have read that. In 2016, it was given a very misguided facelift where they painted all the brick gray while leaving the interior unaltered from its last remodel (circa 1990). My understanding is that a number of their remaining locations got that same remodel, and this one should consider itself lucky since it got to keep the original lantern-style lights as opposed to the industrial-looking LED floodlights other locations got. Unfortunately the remodel was not enough to put off the inevitable, and they closed in late 2018. The property's gotten disturbingly overgrown in the relatively short time it's been vacant. I think whoever owns it is anticipating tearing this town for whoever moves in next, and therefore isn't going to waste any resources on upkeep.
This store had received a remodel in 2014, right before Wawa kicked off their current remodeling campaign, so I was surprised to see it in their list. I was even more surprised to see what they did with it. Literally everything was gutted out and rearranged to match the layout of a brand-new store (while most remodels involve gutting out all the old fixtures, most keep the original layout). If you remember, I mentioned a store in the last post that got its bathroom totally redone again only a couple years after they redid it the first time. That was this one. They gutted out the bathroom again when the only thing that changed in their design was the tile color. It's even the same pattern.
We took a quick glance at this place a while back, and I felt I had built up enough courage to come back and finally explore this place. Or so I thought.
I feel like I've been overdoing it with country music lately, so here's a very 1972 pop cover of a country classic.
I love the pure variety of retail you cover on your blogs! Keep up the good work! (by the way, this is Flickr user Simpsonfan311)
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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