Plaza ACME, Apparently a Historical Preservation Enthusiast

It would seem this week's set of photos unintentionally focuses on some of the Philadelphia's more threatened historical buildings. Don't worry, there's still quite a bit of retail in here as well- and it's some interesting stuff if I do say so myself.

The Bulletin Building, University City

I put up some pictures of this place last post and gave the history, but just now realized I have a better photo that shows the whole building. The windows facing the street are original to the building, but the ones on the side with the Drexel sign were carved in a few years back. The façade remodel last year only impacted the one side, the streetfront one is more or less the same as always. Also of note is that I just found out as part of the renovation, its name has officially switched back to the Bulletin Building from One Drexel Plaza. Drexel does still own it, but has moved the classrooms and offices to a new building and now merely acts as the landlord here. 

The subway station headhouse here closed a couple weeks back as part of the station's renovation. Plans are to tear this one down and build a modern one in its place. The headhouses under the railroad bridge in the background were rebuilt last year, and the one across the street from this one is next in line.

22nd and Market, Rittenhouse Square

Developer and parking lot operator Parkway started buying up the western end of this block in 1997, and within the past 5 years has cobbled together most of the east as well. Currently, they own everything except the middle one of the three remaining buildings on it. It would seem that owner was refusing to sell, so when development plans were announced earlier this year, they didn't take up the full block as expected. Ground broke a few weeks ago for a new 18-story office tower, which will occupy the parking lot space as well as the site currently occupied by Golden Lake. Golden Lake was pretty bad, but they were cheap and relatively close to my apartment so I used to go there a lot. It's sad to see them go, but probably for the best.

Ye Olde Cleanery, Rittenhouse Square

In spite of the fact that half their sign's covered up by another store, this place is actually still open (or at least was at the time I got the photo. The windows were papered over last time I passed by). They used to occupy the ground level of 2 rowhome units, but sometime in the 2000's they scaled back to 1. The parking lot that surrounds this on 2 sides has since been developed into a 250-room "micro" hotel. It doesn't sound especially fancy from its name, but it stands in stark comparison to this little rundown place.

Target, Rittenhouse Square

I showed the outside of this place a couple posts ago, and swung by again later to check out the interior. A lot of my pictures didn't come out, but hopefully these two are enough to tide you over. This was on the second floor of the store, where basically everything except food and clothing is sold. Those two are on the first floor.

Really bad picture, but I kept it since it showed the fancy logo on the bars where the staircase turned. You can see the grocery section in the background. This store is small by Target standards, so most departments were scaled down. Food was the exception, they have the full selection here.

Boyd Theater/Sameric, Rittenhouse Square

This opened in 1928 as an independently-owned single-screen theater, and operated as such until the Sameric chain bought them in 1971. They added on three smaller auditoriums adjacent to the entryway, fronting Chestnut Street. The theater closed its doors in 2002 and was never intended to be left abandoned, but just one plan after another kept falling through. Some called for restoring the building, others involved redeveloping the site. Finally, in 2014, Pearl Properties bought it. They decided to save the parts of the building along Chestnut Street, but demolish the main auditorium for a 24-story apartment building. There was a ton of outcry over this, but the plans went through. The tower opened its doors early last year. The 70's addition was gutted out and turned into a Gap store. The main lobby pictured here was supposed to become a Spanish restaurant last year, but so far nothing has come of that. The façade and marquee have been restored though.

Chestnut Street Storefronts, Rittenhouse Square

This part of town's still got plenty of intact late 1800's storefronts along it, it's one of my favorite places to walk. The areas above the stores were most likely where the owners lived, but now are for the most part rented out as apartments or office space.

Emergency Aid Building, Rittenhouse Square

This place opened its doors in 1927 as a hotel for women, run by the WWI-born Emergency Aid charity. In 1952, it was sold to an order of nuns who continued to operate it as a women's hotel, but offered longer term accommodations to house the poor. In 2003, it was sold again and turned into low-income apartments, and began allowing men to live there. It was a surprising history to learn, as this is in an incredibly nice neighborhood and frankly just doesn't look like it's here for the poor. It even had a high-end gelato shop on the bottom floor. When I got this picture, somebody coming out of the building asked what I was doing. I explained that I just liked the building, to which she replied something along the lines of, "If you lived here you wouldn't, I'm moving out next week and couldn't be happier". We talked for a minute and I found out it's got a serious mold problem inside. Until they fix it, we can still enjoy the Arthur Loomis Harmon-designed exterior.

Oliver H. Bair Funeral Home Site, Rittenhouse Square

I was surprised to learn this was not built as a funeral home, rather it began life in 1910 as a fireproof garage for UGI. It changed hands a few times and was given a drastic colonial-style remodel in 1950. It became Oliver H Bair Funeral Home in 1988, who got kicked out and moved to Upper Darby 9 years later when the parking authority bought the building. The vacant lot behind this was once home to a theater, which burned down in the 90's. The Parking authority bought that site, along with the three buildings here we'll be looking at today, with the intent to build a new garage. Thankfully, that plan never came to fruition. The three now-abandoned buildings were threatened again in 2017 as a new developer wanted to take them down for a new 40+ story apartment tower. A compromise was reached with the historical commission- two would be saved, but Bair could be torn down because it was in such bad shape. It came down in mid-2017, and work on the tower began last year.

Warwick Apartments, Rittenhouse Square

This 7-story apartment tower was built in 1901. It was also bought by the parking authority in 1997 and tenants were given 30 days to vacate. The current owner originally wanted to demolish it, but due to its listing on the historic register could not get permission to. Instead, they are just going to build around this and turn it into affordable housing. It's a win-win, the historic building gets saved, and the developer gets the tax credit for including affordable housing in an otherwise very high-end development.

It's certainly one of the city's taller abandoned buildings, and has surprisingly few broken windows for how long it's been empty.

The awesome stone detailing around the entryway is what most likely landed this place on the historic register in the first place, and thereby saved its life.

Rittenhouse Coffee Shop, Rittenhouse Square

This building was the oldest of the three, but you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at it. It was originally an 1855-built rowhome unit (like the one to the left of it), but was given its current façade in 1923 when publishers John A. Buchanan & Sons moved in. In more recent years, it's been a few restaurants, and was last home to the Rittenhouse Coffee Shop (Not to be confused with the 2nd Fret Coffee Shop, which was in the unit next door. It became famous on the music scene in the 60's. The Velvet Underground, Joni Mitchell, and Arlo Guthrie all played there in their early years). It was also abandoned after the PPA bought it in 1997, and saved as affordable housing due to its historic designation. Sadly, as the restoration project recently discovered that the building had decayed beyond repair, so they will have to demolish it. I'm pleased to report that they will actually be rebuilding a replica in its place, using salvaged materials.

I really liked the French windows up on the second floor. Heck, who am I kidding, I like just about everything about this building!

Close-up of some of the terra cotta detailing that was added on during the 1923 remodel. I didn't get a picture of it, but the Rittenhouse Coffee Shop sign had been removed shortly before my visit, uncovering Buchanan's old labelscar.

Second/First Presbyterian Church, Rittenhouse Square

This building was built in 1872 by the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, which was merged with the First Presbyterian Church in 1949. They moved to this building so the property the First occupied could be redeveloped.

United Bank of Philadelphia, University City

Chances are this was built as something else, since the building looks like its from the 60's and United Bank has only been around since the 90's. They were never a large bank, but they used to have a handful of locations around the city. Now they only have two. This location closed in 2012, and is now being used as a community center. I think it's only an interim use, as they've done no actual work to the building- the logo is even still on the awnings. Chances are it will be redeveloped in the not too distant future.

Old Storefronts, University City

This stretch of road used to have a lot of stores along it, almost all of which are closed now. It's surprising since this is not a bad neighborhood. Some of them have had the ground floor units turned into apartments, but the one on the corner here remains vacant. The upper floors on the corner were still being used as student apartments at the time I got this picture, but the property has since been listed for sale and the tenants evicted.

Postpubescent Deformed Karate Tortoises

A firehouse near my school's athletic fields had this sign out. We can be relatively confident they didn't get any kind of Ninja Turtles licensing here. And they're fighting my school's mascot, which is kinda weird. Like they could have made the dragon any color, but they chose to make it blue and gold, which feels like a deliberate dig at us.

Christ Memorial Church, University City

This church first opened as the Christ Memorial Reformed Episcopal Church in 1887. In 2004, lightning struck the steeple that once stood over the entryway, causing it to fall into the roof. The church then consolidated operations into the chapel, where it remained until it closed in 2009. It later became home to another small congregation, and the former rectory became a women's shelter. Restoration work on some of the stone walls was done on the building after its then-owner, who planned to fully rehabilitate the building, bought it in 2012. However, after years of trying to find something to do with the building, they realized that there were enough things wrong with it that it couldn't be saved. Demolition began Summer 2018 and slowly progressed through early 2019. While I'm still devastated they tore this down, I kinda get their reasoning and appreciate that they did a ton of salvage during the process. 

The chapel, which was still in use at the time I got this photo, was in the part with the pointy roof.

The site is currently getting redeveloped by another developer into a 7-story apartment building. It's going to be at ground level and won't have a setback from the sidewalk. It's safe to say this corner will look a lot different once that's done.

Henry's, University City

There's really no history out there on this place, but it's safe to say Henry's has been closed for a very long time. It was an Indian grocery store for a few decades, and more recently has become home to a Szechuan restaurant.

Kabobeesh, University City

This restaurant began its life in the 40's as a stainless steel diner. Kabobeesh has been here for several years, but didn't ditch the diner look until it was boxed up and slathered in stucco in 2014. Despite all the work they did on the outside, it still looks very much like an old diner inside. I enjoyed the food here, but their sign is super misleading. They're an Indian/Middle Eastern restaurant with a heavy focus on meats. While they do grill most of it, barbecue is not the word I would use to describe that

Penn Fruit/Thriftway/Shop N Bag/Supremo, University City
 Penn Fruit would have opened here in the 50's, and most likely closed with the chain in the 70's. It became a Thriftway not long after, which closed in 2001. Supreme Foodmarket opened here in 2003, and ironically then became part of the Shop N Bag co-op (which is the same company as Thriftway). After IGA bought the Thriftway company in 2016, this store rebranded to Supremo. Supremo and Supreme are the same company, which appears to slowly be rebranding its store fleet. Most of their stores happen to be in ethnic neighborhoods, which I believe is the reasoning behind their name change.

They're still using Penn Fruit's old entryway, but have tiled over the terrazzo. I'd assume the ceiling over this part was done by Thriftway, it looks very 70's.

Somehow they wound up with ACME-branded reusable bags.

The décor here looks incredibly early 90's, but believe it or not Supreme installed it when they opened.

The arch roof had a drop ceiling added in at some point, which I'll again blame Thriftway for. The décor reminds me of that used by A&P/SuperFresh in their 90's Superstores.

The service departments had awnings over all of them, which really isn't helping them look any less outdated. 

The store's pretty run-down and I haven't spoken kindly about the décor, but overall I actually really like this place. They've got good prices and a great selection.

Barnes & Noble/CVS, University City

CVS moved into half the old UPenn Barnes & Noble space when their store a few blocks down the road got demolished for a new apartment building. CVS then reopened in the ground floor of the new building, so I suspect this location was originally meant to be temporary. Going off this suspicion, I have a feeling the unusual ceiling and mostly burned-out accent lighting may actually be left over from Barnes & Noble.

Obviously if it was meant to be temporary, they changed their minds. Not only is it still here over a decade after the original location reopened, but it's been given a remodel too!

Neil Diamond is great, but Sweet Caroline is so overplayed. So let's go with another one from him.