On the Other Side

 Basically everything I've posted from Philly so far have either been either Center City or University City. I figured I'd shake things up a little and head west this time. Once you go beyond the West Powelton neighborhood, things get scary fast... but there's also so much cool stuff to see! But before we get to that, I'll throw you a few photos from when I went home for the weekend. (As I write these in retrospect, I'm realizing freshman Plaza ACME went home way too often and now know why it took him so long to get to his first college party).

Woolworth/Valu-Plus/Rainbow, Cobbs Creek

I've got some more daytime coverage of this coming up later this post, but I really liked how this nighttime shot came out. This store opened as a Woolworth in the 20's. I don't have a closing date but it's been kept intact enough I'd assume they closed no earlier than the 70's. It then became Valu-Plus, who added their signature blue sheet metal façade. Rainbow bought them about a decade ago, and really hasn't done much with the space. I believe the Villa (now a DTLR) next door was also part of Woolworth, but perhaps was an expansion. The decorative stone railing along the roof doesn't quite match the one over Rainbow. Correction: Villa was originally a Bank.

McDonald's, Upper Darby, PA

This location opened in the 90's as a rather unique McMansard- the tower over the entrance used to be taller and mostly glass. It was eyebrowed in 2016.

7 Stars Inn, Kimberton, PA

This inn first opened in 1736 following approval from the court of King George II, though the building was actually constructed in 1718 as a homestead. In 1808, it adopted the 7 Stars name, though nobody knows what it came from. Many many places in the area have adopted the name as well, but more likely were named for the inn. Today, the inn is famous for their incredibly large portions.

Farmhouse, Spring City, PA

This building dates back to the mid-1800's. It's hard to judge when it was abandoned. Half the roof has fallen in, which would normally make me guess it was within the 30-40 year range, but it's looked exactly like this for as long as I can remember. The yard was being used by a local farmer to graze cattle in up until recently, but it appears to have been totally abandoned as of this year.

Lebow Furniture, Royersford, PA

There's not much information out there on this place, but if the vertical sign is any indication, Lebow had been here for decades. Over the years, they expanded into the building down the hill from their original, and opened an annex across the street. They closed their doors in the mid-2010's. Part of the building is now offices for a state senator (Not to get political, but I hope that space becomes vacant again real soon), and the rest sits vacant.

Abandoned House, Spring City, PA

This stretch of road contains a number of abandoned houses. Some may sit on land owned by developers, others maybe just because of how busy the road is. Of them, this is the most impressive. I'd estimate this was built in the 1870's and last occupied  in the early 2000's. It's not looking too great right now, but I'll give whoever owns it credit for keeping the place sealed up.

The Exton Radioshack Saga Concludes

After several months of construction and effectively rebuilding the space, Mattress Warehouse is up and running in the old Radioshack. One thing I thought was interesting was that Vitamin Shoppe recycled their old sign when the new façade was done, despite them having a new logo.

The "Chinese Wall", Logan Square

This wall here is one of the few remainders of Philadelphia's Broad Street Station, which served as the Pennsylvania Railroads headquarters and main station from 1891 until its closure in 1952. It was served by a stone viaduct cutting through the city all the way from the Schuylkill River to City Hall. It was called the Chinese Wall due to its resemblance to a certain Great Wall. After being replaced by Suburban Station and its underground line, most of it was removed and redeveloped into Penn Center. Closer to the Schuylkill, parts were kept as its elevation was needed to get JFK Boulevard (where I'm standing here) over the river. The excess off to the side was kept, though its time is coming to an end. Plans were recently announced to develop an apartment tower on the wedge in between JFK and the new railroad bridge. 

Lee's Market, Powelton Village

This corner store has probably been here close to 100 years, though not always as Lee's. They likely came around in the past 30 or so years, removed the previous tenant's name from the old sign, then added their own over the door.  They were still open fairly recently, but last time I passed by it looked like they were done for good.

St. Agatha's, Mantua

This church first opened in 1865 (though the current Durang-designed building didn't come around until 1878). It suffered a fire in the 60's, but was restored and reopened. It then suffered another fire in 1976, at which point the neighborhood had gotten bad enough that they were closed and merged with St. James' down the street. The church and school were bought by a preservationist in the 80's, who turned both into apartments primarily marketed towards students.

Highway Church of Christ, West Powelton

This church first opened in 1890 as St. Stephen's Lutheran Church. By 1942, it had become a Baptist Church. Its most recent incarnation came in 1955, when the Highway Church of Christ bought the building. They have let the building fall into rough shape in recent years, but I believe they were still operating out of here as of when I got the photo. They appear to have since closed. This street is seeing a lot of new development, which makes me worry this will be torn down before long.

Mobil/Getty/Gulf, West Powelton

I really have no idea what banner this station is selling gas under now. It is still open and has a "We're Going Gulf!" sign over the store, but the Gulf tarps have fallen off of the main sign, uncovering the Getty. 

Mobil/Lukoil?/Dunkin & Subway, West Powelton

This was a 70's Mobil that possibly replaced the one seen in the previous picture. I'm guessing it became a Lukoil, but it had been abandoned long enough by the time Dunkin moved in that it's really hard to say. These stores get a lot of traffic as they have public restrooms and are right across from Drexel's athletic fields, which do not. After games, there's usually a pretty long line in here.

Aldi, West Powelton

This land was originally home to the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, which was torn down by the housing authority in 1959 for the Westpark Apartments (seen to the right, it has a reputation for being the scariest Section 8 Project in the city). They sold off extra land along their western edge in the 90's, and Aldi opened their location here in 1997. It was expanded and remodeled during the Summer of 2017, and had its logo updated not long after.

Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co, Millcreek

For decades, this was the largest office building in West Philadelphia. It was built in 1917 on land bought from the Insane Hospital. Its history gets a little cloudy towards the end, but it was split up into smaller offices and sat largely vacant by the time the City bought it in 2008. They spent 50 million dollars gutting out the inside and restoring the exterior, with plans to turn it into the new Police headquarters. In 2017, those plans were scrapped after the city realized it was stupid to move them to an area this far from Center City. Now, work is underway outfitting the old Inquirer building for the police. This was sold last year for only $10 million to UPenn, who is planning on using this as medical offices in a partnership with CHOP. Work is underway and it is projected to be operating sometime next year.

This building had its own power plant behind it, which has been abandoned for years. The city didn't restore it, and it has fallen into bad enough shape it cannot be saved. Demolition is supposed to be underway now, though as of last week nothing looks different.

CVS, Millcreek

The Insane Hospital still exists, but in a much smaller footprint. This was one of their more recent dispositions, which they sold to CVS in 1999. They did remodel this store to their 2010's décor, but have kept a number of elements from the original look inside. 

Cousin Danny's, Dunlap

Honestly I thought this place was abandoned when I got this picture, but a few seconds later somebody walked down that ramp and they didn't look like a squatter. I can be sure that Cousin Danny's Banquet Hall is long closed now, though.  They likely only operated on the first floor, then had apartments above. Judging by the sign, I don't think Cousin Danny's was the original tenant, but it had been used commercially since the 20's or 30's.

A&J Hardware Store, Dunlap

This hardware store closed in the mid-2000's. They ironically didn't seem to do a good job maintaining it, as it fell into terrible condition pretty quickly. A few months after I was here, they fenced off the entire building. It was declared Imminently Dangerous last summer and demolished by the city.

Old Mexican Restaurant, Dunlap

As you can probably tell, I'm getting pretty deep into the bad part of town. Please appreciate the risks I'm taking because I'm stupid to bring you quality content. A long-abandoned bar on the corner here was recently demolished by the city after being declared Imminently Dangerous. In bringing it down, a little piece of its past was uncovered.

This mural looks like it would have gone in a Mexican restaurant, so that's what I'm assuming the bar was before. If their hairstyles are any indication, I'd figure this dates back to the 30's. Sadly but understandably, this was all stuccoed over a few weeks later to seal the building next door's wall. Now I'm really wishing I jumped the fence and pulled the wood paneling off of the other room's wall, as it looks like they had another mural there.

This isn't today's official song recommendation, but I feel like it fits the vibe of that mural so perfectly I had to throw it in. Dean Martin is one of my favorites!

Neet's, Dunlap

This bar was a long-running neighborhood fixture and one of two buildings left on the block when it closed and was subsequently demolished earlier this year. This one has a happy ending though- the demolition appears to have been for new development. It was sold to a company who currently has about half the block, indicating they're going to be doing something big.

KFC-LJS/Checkers/Citizen's Bank, Dunlap

This is one of the more bizarre series of conversions I've seen. The site was home to a Gino's back in the 60's, which became a KFC when the chain went under. They replaced it with the current building in the early 2000's, adding a Long John Silver's. It became a short-lived independent restaurant after they closed in 2010, before becoming one of the rare dining room Checkers. They closed in 2019 and the space was quickly taken over by Citizens Bank, who relocated from a stately 1920's former PSFS down the street. Funny enough, they kept the KFC architecture in place, only adding their signage and some green paint.

Penn Fruit, Cobbs Creek

It's not something you'd guess by looking at it, but this was actually Penn Fruit's very first location which opened in 1927. It was obviously remodeled over the years, but kept its original footprint up until the chain went under 50 years later. It's now split between an Olympia Sports (local chain, not the one that went under recently) and a discount store. I believe the stainless steel front was added during the Penn Fruit days, it makes me happy to see the discount store side is still bothering to keep it polished. Also of note is the Sunshine Market to the right- it began life as an ACME, likely in the 30's or 40's. It closed in 1969 when a new store opened north of here.

Here's some urban blight along Market Street. Parts of town with elevated subways generally aren't great. You'd be hard pressed to find somebody that wants to live up here where the trains pass every fifteen minutes. I say that, but some areas of the city (particularly Fishtown) are seeing enough development and demand for housing that they are building huge apartment complexes right up against the El there.

Provident Tradesmans/PNC, Garden Court

If I were to guess I'd say this entire building was once occupied by Provident Tradesmans Bank, which PNC swallowed up. PNC may have used it as a regional headquarters for a bit, but was definitely out by the time their building in Center City was completed. They continued to operate a branch on the first floor, leasing the rest of the building out. Most of the upper floors became offices, but the second level became a nightclub and the basement a copy center. It was mostly vacant by the time PNC closed their branch in 2016, and was sold last year to someone who intends to keep retail at street level, and turn the upper floors into single-room tenements. 

Heading down the back alley behind the Penn Fruit we saw earlier, there's a pretty impressive surprise! They must have had a rear entrance here, and nobody over the past 43 years has cared enough to take it down. At this point, this is the only remaining Penn Fruit sign.

Next door to that, on the back of the Rainbow, we've also got a very clear Woolworth's scar! I missed it on this trip, but across the alley there's an old McCrory's sign as well. Getting back here is 100% worth the risk of getting stabbed.

McDonald's, Garden Court

This location opened in 1983, and got McBoxed last year. As a result of that, it's one of only three nice and modern looking buildings on this street.

Another of which happens to be the Foot Locker across the street, which was remodeled and given a Puma Lab store in 2015. My sources are failing me for this one, but it really looks like an old 5-and-Dime, and has another, older-looking, frontage along Chestnut Street that also fits the look. According to Maps, this location has reopened, though I do have my doubts. It was cleaned out entirely by looters twice this year. The Payless next door was originally McCrory's (which maybe was an expansion to the Foot Locker building??). It closed during their bankruptcy last year and has since become an Islamic store (there's a surprising number of them here, I counted 5 others within a 1-block radius).

The ground level of all of these buildings is occupied, though all the upper levels appear to be abandoned. They are still good-looking places and remarkably intact from when they were first built (likely thanks to their semi-abandonment), so I'm hoping someone can save and restore them.

Here's the Rainbow and Villa by daylight. Villa was given a huge makeover when it became DTLR, making it the third nice store on the street. It was also ravaged by looters last month and is still marked on Maps as "Temporarily Closed," but if Foot Locker is any indication they'll be open again.

Forman Mills, Garden Court

Forman Mills likes to take over old grocery stores and places like that, so it was interesting seeing this one in an old industrial building. It's also one of the largest Forman Mills I've ever seen.

Amoco/BP/Conoco, Spruce Hill

This station began life as an Amoco in the 60's or 70's and was later sold to BP. Like most Philly-area BP's, it was sold to Conoco in 2016. While 76 and Phillips 66 are both Conoco brands that were in the market here at one point in time, this is the first time Conoco itself has been in the area.

KFC/Checkers, Spruce Hill

KFC first opened this location in the 80's. It closed in 2008 and was replaced by Checkers the following year. It's one of only two Checkers' I've ever eaten at; I got the chicken sandwich. They were running some kind of promotion on it, and it was actually cheaper for me to buy two of them than one. It closed in March for the coronavirus lockdown, and never reopened. It's still furnished, has its signs, promotional posters, and (now-tattered) flags flying over it; but it's covered in graffiti, has a few broken windows, and a parking lot filled with used tires. It's also been removed from their website, so I doubt they'll be reopening it.

This week let's do some Springsteen!