Detalicznych

This week we're wrapping up our trek through Port Richmond. If you thought the Kmart was interesting, wait til you see what else the neighborhood has to offer! 

Also, if you were wondering, this post's title is just "retail" in Polish. Because of the neighborhood. Yes, I had to look it up.

ACME/Pathmark/Shoppers World, Port Richmond

ACME opened this store around 1980 and gave it a complete remodel in the mid-90's. Despite the interior being practically rebuilt, it only got the mini version of their peaked entryway on the outside. It closed during the early-2000's post-Albertsons acquisition massacre, where the majority of their small old stores were shut down. It became a Pathmark afterwards (after seeing so many stores go from Pathmark to ACME, it's interesting seeing one that went the other way). Pathmark closed with the chain in 2015, and ACME did not seem to have an interest in taking this store back. Shoppers World opened in 2018. They expanded the facade, as you can see under construction here, but kept the same general look.

Interestingly, this kept ACME's 90's red/white/blue décor well into Pathmark's tenure. Seeing that Shoppers World had already remodeled the interior made me worried that I had just missed my chance to see it, but I later found out it closed with their post-bankruptcy décor. It soothed the pain a little bit.

Toys R Us, Port Richmond

TRU opened this store in the early 80's. It remodeled from the shingle roof exterior to the blue box look in the early 2000's, and again in 2011 when a Babies R Us was shoehorned in. They also stripped most of the exterior ornamentation at that time. This store closed with the chain in mid-2018, and was replaced by a Burlington last year. 

Sunoco, Port Richmond

I think it is highly likely Sunoco inherited this one from someone else... perhaps Amoco or Texaco. They were never big on mini convenience stores tucked under the awning. They don't have much room to work with here, so they haven't really had the chance to rebuild like they have with other locations.

Walmart?/Bally/LA/Ross, Port Richmond

I couldn't figure out exactly what this place started out life as. The 1996 aerial, which I encourage y'all to take a look at, almost looks like it says Wal-Mart. Whatever that was, it was gone by the early 2000's. It operated as a Bally Total Fitness until LA bought it in the early 2010's. They closed in 2015 and Ross opened the following year.

Rickel/NWL/America's Kids, Port Richmond

I don't have much information on this, but the 1996 aerial shows this as a Rickel Home Center. They went bankrupt not long after, and the space sat vacant for several years before National Wholesale Liquidators moved in. They too went bankrupt, and closed most of their locations (save for 3 in NY and one in Philly) in 2011. Small-ish  chain (a few clusters of stores around NYC and Chicago, the rest along the east coast) discount childrenswear store America's Kids opened in 2015 in about 2/3 of the store. The remainder is still vacant.

Pathmark/Forman Mills, Port Richmond

Port Richmond's original Pathmark, seen here, opened in 1978. They relocated to the former ACME seen earlier in 2005, and became Forman Mills the following year. They put in minimal effort converting the store, in typical Forman Mills fashion, and as a result is still easily identifiable as a former Pathmark.

Liroy's, Port Richmond

In between all the stores, this one little industrial building held on for several years. It finished up life as a nightclub in the 2000's, and sat empty until it was demolished last year for a new Chase Bank.

Checkers, Port Richmond

Checkers and the stores to the left of it were added to Forman Mills' oversized parking lot in 2011. Checkers has closed quite a few locations in town over the past year, but this was not one of them.

Eckerd/Rite Aid, Port Richmond

Eckerd opened here around 2000 on the site of what looks like an old supermarket, and was sold in 2007. Like the one down the street in Olde Richmond, it was upgraded to 24-hours in 2016. Unlike that one, they didn't add permanent signage for it... at least not until the new logo made its way onto this store earlier this year.

Richmond Diner/Spice Grill, Port Richmond

This Diner operated from the 50's through the 2010's, but unfortunately didn't make it much longer than that. It has been Spice Grill, a Chinese restaurant, since at least 2014.

Wawa, Port Richmond

Wawa opened this location in the late 70's. While the yellow siding usually indicates the store was given a cheapo remodel, that's not the case here. The interior was last redone in the early 2010's, then for whatever reason they came along and just swapped out the gray siding for yellow in 2016.

Sunoco, Port Richmond

Next door to Wawa, there's a very nice Sunoco. The old service center was converted to an A-Plus most likely in the 90's, and was remodeled to its current look in 2016. 7-Eleven bought this location, but so far has not yet converted it.

Krakus Market, Port Richmond

This was the place I went to get perogies from. I stand by my belief they were the best in the city. Krakus was a polish grocery store that opened in 1992 in what looks like an old 5-and-dime (someone feel free to check me on that [address is 3148-52 Richmond Street]). They sadly closed not long after my visit, as the owners were retiring without someone to pass the business on to. The building doesn't have a new tenant just yet, but a 2-story addition is currently being framed atop it. I suspect they will be apartments.

Tea Rose, Port Richmond

I don't have much history on this place, but think I remember hearing the name set into the tile was a Chinese restaurant that operated out of here in the early 1900's. It appears the old storefront is currently being used as an extension of the house above it that it was once carved out of.

Mutual Hall, Port Richmond

This community building is one of the neighborhood's older structures. It opened in 1874. All I could really find on it was that the local library operated out of here from 1897 to 1910. It has sat vacant since the 2000's, though the bottom floor was given a fresh coat of paint more recently.

Rose Garden, Port Richmond

I beg your pardon? Rose Garden was a florist that opened here in the 50's or 60's, before closing in 2015. The awesome neon sign remains up, but in pretty rough shape. More recently, the paper has fallen down from the windows. The interior is gutted, with the exception of one gorgeous stainless steel counter.

Delaware Generating Station, Fishtown

Philadelphia was once home to three coal power plants along the Delaware River- Delaware, Richmond, and Southwark. Over the past several decades, all of them have closed. This one was the largest. It began production in 1923, but was shut down in the 60's. PECO kept it around as a substation and backup generator until the 90's, but it has been completely abandoned since then. It and Richmond became very popular with the urbex crowds, but every account I've heard of exploring this place involved running into vagrants so I never tried. Southwark was decommissioned as a backup much more recently, but is starting to become one too. That timing worked out well, as last year there was some surprising but welcome news from Delaware- the old plant is being converted into apartments!

While wandering around here, I was wondering how they could possibly reuse this. Apartments were the last thing I was expecting. I guess with it being such a hulking space, it's easy enough to divide up into anything.

For a power plant, it's a beautiful building. I'm glad they were finally able to do something with it. Not that there was much urgency, it's solid concrete so there wasn't much threat of it rotting away.

As part of the conversion, they are building a two-story addition on top. I'm not sure what exactly that means for the courtyards/lightwells/whateveryacallems.

Ease of entry is the biggest factor in making something big with explorers.... or homeless people. The barbed wire fence had a few gaps in it and the wrought iron fence looked climbable, and as you can see the door is wide open. 

All three power plants had piers going out into the river with towers on them to unload coal from ships. I believe the plans I saw call for this to be turned into offices on the upper floors and a restaurant on the bottom.

Wells Building, Northern Liberties

This complex was a hodgepodge of industrial buildings that had grown and been added onto between circa 1870 and 1950. The northern end was originally part of a sugar refinery and southern a box factory. It was likely all one tenant by the mid-1900's, but had been split up again more recently. For the past decade, it had been vacant except for Wells Meats on the northern end. Everything except the Wells portion was sold in 2019 and quickly demolished. Townhomes are currently going up on the site.

Bamboo Bar, Northern Liberties

The Riverfront area first saw a revival in the early 90's. Most of the businesses that came with it have been replaced by now, but outdoor tiki bar Bamboo Bar seems to still be holding on, or at least was pre-covid. It was looking a little rundown and overgrown last I passed by, but hopefully that was just temporary closure for the lockdown.

Phlirt, Northern Liberties

After most of the industry moved away from the waterfront, a surprising number of strip clubs came to fill the spaces they left behind. This one changed hands a few times before ultimately closing in 2012. It's now slated for demolition to build a new apartment complex on it and the Greyhound depot next door.

This historic row of houses also sits on the property. They went up in the early 1800's and are the only completely intact row of pre-industrial revolution houses left east of I-95. They were most recently split up between several businesses, but have been vacant for about a decade. They were threatened with demolition at one point, but thankfully the new plans for redevelopment call for restoring the row.

Mobil/Lukoil, Northern Liberties

Mobil rebuilt this station on the site of an older one in the 90's, shortly before the Exxon merger. It was divested to Lukoil. Rumor has it Wawa wants to build a store in the parking lot next door, but can't get zoning approval so Lukoil is safe for now.

Reading Freight Depot, Northern Liberties

It looks like a low-end strip mall now, but back in the 1920's this was a bustling railroad freight depot. The lines closed in the late 70's, so chances are this was converted to retail not long after that.

Finnigan's Wake/GoPuff, Northern Liberties

This building was originally built in the early 1900's as a box factory, and changed hands several times, surviving a massive fire in the process, before becoming a bar in 1997. Its façade was equally loved and hated by the community. Finnigan's Wake closed in 2015, and in 2019 was stripped down and replaced with something less... tacky when delivery service GoPuff turned it into their corporate headquarters.

Rite Aid, Northern Liberties

By my count, Rite Aid has 78 stores in the city. Of those, only 13 don't have a Wellness or newer decor, and two of those have the red/blue stripes look. This is one of them. It opened in 1996, making it one of the very last to get it. I did stop by and get interior pictures at a later date, so keep an eye out for those!

Yards Brewery, Callowhill

Every city has their own failed 1960's urban renewal story. Philly's wasn't as bad as others since it is a little distanced from Center City, but the short story is they bulldozed the entire Callowhill neighborhood and replaced it with an industrial park. This building was a warehouse originally, and most recently used by Destination Maternity. After they left, the neighborhood was starting to change and so did the building. Part of it is still being used for storage as the City Archives, but the end facing Spring Garden Street was turned into Yards brewery's new home (They moved from the Riverfront). They're a smaller operation, so I'm not sure how far their reach is, but they're very popular locally. The rear of the building became a Flex Target, and a portion of its parking lot is now being developed as apartments.

Guild House, Poplar

To be totally honest, I kinda hate the design of this building but have forced myself to appreciate it. It is architecturally one of the most important buildings in the city. Architect Robert Venturi is credited as the father of Postmodernism, and this is his oldest surviving project (Grand's Restaurant, his first, was demolished in the 90's). That makes this the world's first Postmodern building. 

Spring Garden Station, Poplar

This station operated from 1910 until the former Reading line was rerouted in the early 80's. It has sat here decaying ever since, but now it's become the center of a new legal fight. Reading International, the holding company that succeeded the railroad and now owns the property, is trying to demolish it. However, the civic group that is in the process of redeveloping the old viaduct into the Rail Park is suing to stop them, as they claim their easement gives them the right to restore and use the building- plus, it's not like Reading is doing anything with the land anyway. Nobody expects this to be resolved quickly, so hopefully even if Reading wins the building will stick around a while longer.

Spring Garden Farmers Market/Spaghetti Warehouse/Union Transfer, Callowhill

This building was built as a farmer's market in 1889 to replace the public market that used to operate in the middle of Spring Garden Street. It closed in 1918, and the building changed hands several times since then. It became a Spaghetti Warehouse in the 90's, which closed around 2010. The following year, it was converted to a live music venue called Union Transfer, named for one of the building's previous tenants, which has kept a surprising amount of the Spaghetti Warehouse look in place.

Assumption BVM, West Poplar

Beautiful church, isn't it? Would you believe it's been abandoned for nearly 30 years? The outside has held up remarkably well. It was consecrated in 1849 by then-bishop-now-saint John Neumann and was later the home parish of St. Katherine Drexel. After nearby Callowhill was razed in the 60's, the neighborhood took a serious turn for the worse. They kept this church open as long as they could, but it held its final mass in 1993 when the archdiocese closed a large portion of the churches left in bad neighborhoods. The old school and rectory saw new life as offices, but the church's doors stayed shut. It's a shame it couldn't have held on just another 10 years, as this neighborhood turned back around quickly. Like the Delaware Plant, this is one of the city's most popular urbex destinations. I haven't been in here yet either, but this one I would consider. Unfortunately, this one's future isn't as certain. Demolition permits were filed in 2012, but community backlash prevented anything from happening. Those permits expired, but still nothing has been done to protect the building.

Arco, Callowhill

The western edge of Callowhill was spared from destruction for the most part, so there's still a few non-warehouses left, including this long-abandoned Arco station. I first got a picture of it in 2015, and since then the parking lot has been taken over by a local building supply wholesaler.

Girard/Mellon/Citizens Bank, West Poplar

Girard opened here in the 60's, and was sold to Mellon in 1983. After Mellon exited retail operations, it was sold to Citizens Bank. Citizens moved to a new location a couple blocks west of this in 2019. I haven't seen anything explicitly calling for this building's demolition, but there are plans to build apartments here and I have a feeling they're not planning on just putting them in the parking lot.

De-Roading, University City

Two blocks of Lancaster Avenue were taken out in the 70's to make Drexel's campus more pedestrian-friendly, leaving a half-block stub between Market and 32nd. That finally got ripped up and replaced with a walkway in 2018 since it really didn't serve any purpose. I caught it here just as work was getting started. The old Firestone's parking lot is still accessible from JFK Blvd.

30th St Station, University City

The SEPTA regional rail platforms look neat at night. It's also weird seeing it when there are so few people on the platform.

It's been a while since I've thrown any relatively new music your way; here's something from 1999-