In the Navy (Yard)

 We've got a fun post coming up today- we're looking at South Philly's famed Navy Yard, then heading straight up Broad Street to Center City, where we'll see some awesome neon. 

Navy Lodge, Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA

The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard opened on what was then known as League Island (the water in between has since been filled in) at the southern tip of the city in 1876. Over the years, it built hundreds of ships for the Navy. It built its last ship in 1970 as the government began to contract out construction but remained open for maintenance. BRAC recommended this base for closure in 1991, but it did not close fully until 1995. The Navy does still maintain a small maintenance area on the western eld of the base. The main area began being redeveloped into an office park in the early 2000's, while the circa-1970 base housing occupying much of the eastern part of the site remained abandoned until demolition in 2007 and is now used as an imported automobile holding lot. Outside of the main area, three things remain, all of which are abandoned- a WWII-era hangar that has been designated historic (despite being abandoned it does get sporadic use- it served as a makeshift movie studio for multiple M Night Shamalyan films and was also where Pope Francis flew in for his 2015 visit), a small group of 1940's base housing that inexplicably wasn't demolished with the rest of it, and the Navy Lodge. 

The Navy Lodge was the hotel on base, which judging by its condition was kept in use at least a little while after the base closed. It had shut down by 2012, and within the past few years landscape maintenance has stopped. By nature of being a military-owned property, it hasn't caught on with explorers yet. This was as close as I was willing to get with the No Trespassing signs up.

Penn State at the Navy Yard

The offices that are filling in the main circle of the Navy Yard have some interesting designs. This one's one of the few non-offices and serves as a satellite campus for Penn State. It was built in 2014 on what was at one point tennis courts for the base.

Building 624, Navy Yard

Aside from the base housing, they left up all the Naval buildings that were not in the way of planned construction. A few have come down since then, but in the off chance they can be reused at some point they do not want to throw away the opportunity. Building 624 is one of them. It dates back to WWII and has not been reoccupied since the base closed. Hopefully they can find someone willing to convert this to offices or apartments, as it is a great candidate for either. In the meantime, you can enjoy 624's mysterious basement goldfish colony.

Building 83, Navy Yard

This one's a little older than 624 but has a similar story. It is still vacant, with hope that one day they will be able to restore it. The one-story brick buildings adjacent to this were also vacant for several years but have since been converted to an extension of the Penn State campus.

Building 543/Urban Outfitters, Navy Yard

Dating back to 1938, this was one of the buildings ships were actually assembled in. It is one of the eight buildings Urban Outfitters took over in the early days of the Navy Yard office park to serve as their world headquarters. It is the largest, and primarily contains offices for their Anthropologie subsidiary. It also contains a fairly popular company-run food hall.

Building 15 sits across the driveway from it. This one's quite a bit older and may even be original to the yard. The less attractive yellow building in back is one of the largest ones still used by the Navy.

Aircraft Carrier, Navy Yard

I wish I caught the name on this one, I'm curious to know what it's doing here. Most ships still here are being kept for refurbishment, but this one looks like it's been offline for a while.

Some barges were docked next to it, most likely also for refurbishment

Building 3, Navy Yard

This one is also used by Urban Outfitters now. They really did a fantastic job converting these without altering the appearance at all.

Building 1, Navy Yard

This one is one of the original structures on site, and originally served as a storage building. In its later years, it was home to Navy offices. I am not sure what's here now, but the fact that it was restored recently implies it changed hands.

USS Shreveport, Navy Yard

The Shreveport was constructed and deployed first in 1970 and served up until being decommissioned in 2007. After decommissioning, she was towed to the Navy Yard for storage. Unfortunately, at the end of last year, the decision was made to scrap her. She was towed to a scrap yard in Texas in December.

Blockbuster Bag, Stadium District, Phila, PA

It's not every day you find a Blockbuster bag on the sidewalk. I don't know where it's been so I wasn't gonna touch it, but I thought it was worth a picture at least.

Talk of the Town/Ace of Steaks, Packer Park, Phila, PA

Longtime steak shop Talk of the Town changed hands in 2019 and is now known as Ace of Steaks. Between being in a densely populated area and practically across the street from the stadiums, this place does a ton of business. I've heard good things about it but have yet to try.

Johnny Chang's, Lower Moyamensing, Phila, PA

Considering this is a Chinese restaurant and sushi bar, and that Chang is a traditionally Chinese name, wouldn't it be logical to assume Johnny Chang is an Asian-American restauranteur? No, he's a high-ranking member of the Philly Mob. It could very well be a coincidence they have the same name, but this part of town is where most mafiosos reside. Mob ties or not, I've heard very good things about the food here. It's on my list of restaurants to try.

John Lerro Candies, Melrose, Phila, PA

This place is a South Philly fixture. John Lerro began making candy in the late 1800's and opened at this storefront in 1916. The candy-making process was moved out to Darby in the 50's, but they maintained this as a retail space. Sadly, that came to an end during the Covid lockdowns, ending an incredible 104-year run at this location. There's good news though, the Darby kitchen is still open and owned by the 4th generation of the Lerro Family. They sell through their website these days.

Bambi Cleaners, Lower Moyamensing

Broad Street is famous for its vintage signage. While on an unremarkable building, the Bambi Cleaners has one of the most interesting signs. It's been here since the early 60's, and somehow has avoided Disney's signature copyright lawsuits. 

Beneficial/Wendy's, East Passyunk, Phila

While I can't say for certain, it is very possible this was built as a Beneficial. It closed its doors in 2011 but reopened as a fascinating Wendy's in 2017. Bad news is that the revival was short-lived. Wendy's shut during the lockdowns too. It currently sits vacant, but with a practically brand-new interior it shouldn't sit empty too much longer.

PECO/Valu-Plus/Rainbow, East Passyunk

Philly locals may know PECO as a utility company, but once upon a time, in addition to electricity, they sold appliances. This was one of their stores, which opened in the 30's. I'm not sure how long they lasted, but it was open in the 60's at least. More recently, it became a Valu-Plus, which was bought out by Rainbow in 2010. If you look closely, you can see the labelscar from P(hiladelphia) E(lectric) CO(mpany) on top.

PSFS/Citizen's Bank, East Passyunk

PSFS opened this branch in the 20's. This was a popular building prototype for them, which makes them one of the earliest chains with a standardized design. It became Citizen's Bank after parent company Mellon sold off their retail branches. 

Prudential Bank, Newbold, Phila

Prudential Bank is one of the last local bank chains left in Philly now that the all-consuming blob from Hellaware WSFS swallowed up Beneficial and Bryn Mawr. They have 10 branches, three of which are in South Philly. They were established in this part of the city in 1886. They all appear to be in newer buildings, so it wouldn't surprise me if this was a relocation of the original.

Update: Between me writing this part of the post and it actually being published, it has been announced that Lancaster-based Fulton Bank will be acquiring Prudential. It was nice while it lasted. :(

PGW, Passyunk Square, Phila

Here's another one of Broad Street's iconic signs. To my knowledge, unlike PECO, the PGW never had a retail operation. Their neighborhood outposts are for customer service and bill paying. Between the internet rendering them obsolete and the looming threat of the City selling PGW to a private supplier, I have a feeling this office is living on borrowed time. One in Center City closed without replacement recently, leaving five in operation. Hopefully whoever takes this over will see the value in preserving the sign. Another one in West Philly has similar signage to this.

Valley Green/Univest Bank, Newbold

Prior to Valley Green Bank opening here in 2012, this building housed City social work offices. I'd assume it was built for that purpose. It does match a lot of Philly's 60's/70's municipal architecture. Univest, another one of Philly's last local banks, bought them in 2018.

Dolphin Tavern, Passyunk Square

You could be forgiven for thinking this was a dive bar. For much of recent history it was. The original Dolphin Tavern closed in early 2012, but by the end of the year it had reopened as a trendy nightclub. I really appreciate the fact that they made no alterations to the exterior aside from getting the neon back in working order. Some more work was done inside, but it's still got a ton of its original character. The rebirth was a good thing, as from what I'd heard the final days of the original establishment it was operating as little more than a low-end strip club. Its new owners run several other restaurants and venues throughout town.

Meglio Furs, Newbold

The Meglio's opened this fur shop in 1944 and operated it up until around 2000. Their son ran a law firm on the second floor of the building, and I believe all three lived above that. Despite the storefront and law firm sitting vacant for two decades, the apartment was still occupied. They either moved out or passed on recently, and the building was sold in 2020. Since then, the store's interior has been gutted but it does not appear anything has been done beyond that. Upper floors were renovated and are all apartments now. Regardless of what moves in, they better keep this sign.

In the windows, which I'm surprised hadn't been boarded up yet, old advertisements remained up until it sold.

I think these are from the early 90's, but I could be mistaken.

One lone mannequin stands in the window. I'd assume it had a fur coat on over the regular clothing at one point. Older photos of this place show there was a second mannequin here as recently as 2012. No idea what happened to her.

Here's another photo. I was hoping to see indie to the actual store, but all the windows were boxed in with wood paneling. The one exception was the door, but two sets of glass doors on a sunny day leads to enough glare to make seeing inside impossible.

The sign remains, though since the upper floors were redone the marble panels have been pulled off and ground-floor windows boarded. I get gutting out the interior to attract a new tenant, but I think it would have been better off without the other alterations.

Dante Theater/Institute of Culinary Arts, Newbold

The Dante Theater opened its doors in 1937. It operated as such until 1964. The Institute of Culinary Arts opened in 1988, but I have reason to believe that was only its current form. Pictures online show a very 60's interior, so something similar must have been there in the interim. They appear to still be operating here, despite zoning permits being filed for some heavy construction here. Current plans call for partial demolition of the existing building and a 2-story overbuild. I can't imagine the institute will stay here through that and are probably in the process of finding new digs.

Philip's Restaurant, Passyunk Square

Philip's was an Italian restaurant, but you wouldn't be able to guess by the name. It was opened in 1942 by Philip Muzi, who decided to use his first name as it was during the early days of WWII (side note, who's ready for WWIII!?) when Italy was an enemy. It closed in the late 90's after the founder's son retired. He passed away a few years later, but his widow continued to live up above here until her passing in 2017. The building sold not long after that, but so far nothing appears to have changed. As far as I'm aware, everything is still set inside as it was on the day it closed.

St. Rita's, Newbold

St. Rita's opened in a former horse stable on the site here in 1906 and operated out of the building while the present church was being constructed. It opened in 1915 and had served the community for over a century. In 2003, it was designated the National Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia, which operated in tandem with the parish until it was turned over exclusively to the shrine in 2016. Since then, the former parochial school (formerly to the right) has been demolished, and last year was replaced by St. Rita Place. That serves as a center for the shrine in addition to apartments for seniors in need.

Broad St. Diner, Passyunk Square

This diner originally opened in the 60's, but that run came to an end during the recession. It closed in 2010 and sat empty for a few years before being bought and reopened in 2012 after extensive renovations. I believe the new owners are the same people who own the Melrose Diner to the south of here. Ironically, the renovations done presumably with the intent of making it look more 60's (what other reason would they add all that stainless?) actually had the opposite effect.

Boot & Saddle Bar, East Passyunk

As you could probably infer from the name, Boot & Saddle originally opened as a honky tonk in the 60's. A country venue may seem out of place in downtown Philly, but South Philly's residents are a little more redneck [in a (subjective) good way] than you would think. Oh, and also half of the Oak Ridge Boys hail from here. Boot & Saddle closed in the 2000's but was purchased and reopened in 2013 by the same owner as the Dolphin seen earlier. 

As with the Dolphin, the neon was restored here when they opened. Now there's some bad news, the Covid lockdowns did this place in a second time in 2020. It currently sits vacant, but I'm holding out hope it reopens before long.

Sixers Mural, Passyunk Square

The far wall here was exposed after the auto shop that once stood here was demolished in 2016 for new development. That hit a snag and was held up for a bit, and the Sixers had just made the playoffs and revealed their new logo (a modern spin on the Philly Bicentennial logo, which I like 1000x better than their previous and for once I seem to be with the majority opinion here. They haven't fully switched yet, but it is slowly being phased in), so to make the best use of the exposed wall, this mural was added. Construction on the new building finally began in 2019, but this was a good use of the space in the meantime.

McDonald's, Graduate Hospital, Phila

McDonald's first opened on this site in 1973. The original mansard roof building was demolished in the early 2000's and replaced with the retro-style one seen here. It never got the exterior gray paint, but the inside was redone in 2017. That remodel was short-lived though, and the restaurant closed when the landlord sold the property early last year. It was quickly demolished after closure, but so far nothing else has been done with the property. It had a ton of surface parking area and is a block up from some massive developments in progress, so the real estate is probably more valuable than the restaurant ever could have been.

Ridgway Library/HS for Creative and Performing Arts, Bella Vista, Phila

This library opened in 1878 on land left to the Library Company of Philadelphia (different than the main Free Library system, this system was founded by Ben Franklin) by the Rush family. It closed in 1965, but appears to have been used by the city for something until the 80's. It sat abandoned for a few years, but finally in the late 90's, the School District bought it. After constructing a massive addition on the back, it reopened as the High School for Creative and Performing Arts by the end of the decade.

Rite Aid, Graduate Hospital

Rite Aid opened this location in 1994 on the site of an old Ford dealership. I would have expected this block to have been more densely developed at one point given its proximity to Center City, but apparently the Ford Dealer, which opened sometime between 1910 and 1942, was the first thing ever built here. This location got the Wellbeing remodel and new signage in 2016 and was one of the later holdouts to get the new logo. The new signage went up in January of this year.

Sunoco, Bella Vista

While this building dates back to the 60's, it appears this property was home to a service station as far back as the 40's. Prior to that, the Howard Hospital stood on this site. It operated from 1853 and closed after merging with the Penn Graduate Hospital in 1929. I'd assume Sunoco bought the site from them. It is a corporate-owned location, and from the amount of attention it gets I'd assume is insanely high-performance. For starters, it was one of few corporate-owned A-Plus locations to not be sold to 7-Eleven. It gets remodeled to the current standard every time a new design comes out. The exterior look seen here is from 2013 and replaced a remodel that only occurred 2 years prior. Earlier this year, it was redone once again with the new A-Plus logo and canopy design.

Gino's/KFC Sign, Bella Vista

While KFC totally redid the outside of the Borad Street Gino's when they took over in the 80's, they left the roadside sign alone. As far as I'm aware, this was the only surviving Gino's sign frame until it came down with the building last year. A 7-story apartment building is going up on the site now.

District Health Center 1, Graduate Hospital

You may recall seeing another delightfully midcentury modern yet run-down District Health Center in my previous post. Here's another one. It opened in 1960 but closed its doors in 2019 after relocating the offices to a rented space further down the street. People were pretty worried what would happen to this after it closed, but fortunately it was placed on the city's historic register to protect it from demolition. Now, plans have been revealed to redevelop this entire block and show this building being restored to its 1960 glory. It's pretty exciting.

Apple Store, Rittenhouse Square, Phila

I am very much not an Apple person, but I've gotta give them credit for having great store designs. This location is one of the more unique ones, blending the original 1923 bank building with their signature ultra-sleek design. I believe its last banking use was as a TD Ameritrade, which closed in the mid-2000's. Apple opened in the space in 2010.

Penn's Landing, Old City, Phila

In recent years, Philly has realized surface parking isn't the highest and best use of their Delaware River waterfront property. They started doing a seasonal ice-skating rink here in the 2000's, but more recently became a year-round event. It changes over to roller skating during the warmer months. They've also worked to expand the offerings here, adding food stands and arcade games, a Ferris wheel, and most recently a merry-go-round apparently purchased from a Westfield Shoppingtown mall. While this is meant to be a temporary use until the parking lot it sits on gets redeveloped, I'm hoping they can find a new location for everything here. It is a great asset for the city to have.

I'm not sure if this was due to the RiverRink's growth or if they just decided it would be useful to have a stairway down from Market Street here, but this was a recent addition. The lights on it change color, which is a neat touch.

I took a bunch of pictures from the Market Street Bridge here, just playing around with my camera's settings. Our plans for the evening had just fallen apart, so we were out killing time instead. In all honesty, we probably had more fun this way. I'll go more into detail about what led to this in a few photos.

Despite the amount of things they've put here, a large portion of the parking lot is still operable. 

I think this picture was the result of a fisheye setting I found.

I was just using a point-and-shoot camera here, so nothing crazy fancy. This was the result of me setting the exposure length to the maximum.

I forget what this setting was, but it really seemed to amplify the colors.

Chinese Lantern Festival, Chinatown, Phila

Every year, Franklin Square Park gets an impressive installation of backlit paper sculptures, which is open to visit and explore.This was our original plan for the night. A group of us thought it would be a fun activity, not thinking to check the price. We got there and found out it was $30/person and quickly changed our minds.

These pictures give a taste of what's there, but it's only what we could see from the road.

Xe Lua, Chinatown

South Broad has awesome neon, but Chinatown's deserves an honorable mention. This is one of my favorites.

David's Mai Lai Wah, Chinatown

David's pretty infamously got rid of their outside neon sign, but fortunately the window signage is still intact.

Joy Tsin Lau, Chinatown

Somebody deserves to get run over by the Chinatown Bus for what they did to this. Joy Tsin Lau was a popular dim sum house and a neighborhood fixture for decades before it sadly closed in 2019. It briefly operated as a furniture store, but in 2020 the iconic facade was stripped from the building. What replaced it, you might ask? Gray paint over the existing brick. Very much not professionally done, I might add. To add insult to injury, it was being converted to another restaurant, which could have just as easily kept the original facade.

Wawa/Old Nelson, Rittenhouse Square

I don't have a store number for this, but I'd assume it was one of their oldest. It most likely opened in the 60's. During Wawa's quickly-reversed decision to exit Center City in the late 2000's, it was sold to Old Nelson, a Center City deli chain that operates a pretty similar store model. They've done some repainting, but overall it still looks like a Wawa inside.

Rite Aid/Jane G's, Rittenhouse Square

This building is obviously much older (from 1929 to be exact), but I don't know the full retail history before Rite Aid opened up here in the 70's. The building's historic name was the Aldine Trust Building, so possibly a bank was here originally? Rite Aid relocated down the street to a freestanding location in the 90's, and this became a Chinese Restaurant called Jane G's. They opened an offshoot called Dim Sum House by Jane G's in University City more recently, which overtook the original in popularity. In 2019, they turned the original into another location of Dim Sum House. The "by Jane G's" part of the name doesn't carry any weight anymore as no restaurant exists with that name, but they do still use it.

Boyd Theater, Rittenhouse Square

I've posted a few pictures of this place in the past, but to refresh- The Boyd opened in 1928, and at the time was one of many theaters in Center City. It originally featured just one main auditorium, but expanded twice in the 80's. By the 90's, it was the last regular non-art film theater in Center City. It was getting run-down, but maintained its significance through the 90's. It held the world premiere for a few movies in its time, but most notably hosted 1993's "Philadelphia," with Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. In Hanks' words, it was "a real movie palace." It sold to United Artists in 1998, who ultimately wound up closing it in 2002 due to the costs of maintaining the building. Plans for what to do with the building went back and forth between deolition and restoration, but ultimately the main auditorium was demolished in 2015 for a new apartment tower. The main lobby (vacant) and 80's additions (which had become a Gap store) were kept. The lobby's facade was restored in 2019 in preparation for a Spanish restaurant to open, but due to Covid those plans fell through. Now, Gap had been booted from their part, and work is underway turning this into Bankroll Club, a high-end sports betting bar.

Brooks Brothers/Staples, Rittenhouse Square

The building this sits under was first constructed in 1923 as the Greenfield Building, which had a bank on the ground floor. It was given an exterior remodel in 1949, bringing it to its current appearance. I would assume that's when the bank was switched out for a Brooks Brothers store, seeing how their logo is set in the stone above the entrance. Brooks Brothers relocated to Walnut Street in the 90's, and this location was converted to a Staples. It's the only 2-story location I know of.

Snellenburg's Garage, Midtown Village, Phila

After learning of this place's impending demise, I made a point of snapping a few pictures every time I was in the area.

The Dunkin Donuts here was one of my frequent stops when I would go out on a walk. It's right at the point where coming from campus on a hot day I'm starting to get thirsty and an iced coffee is sounding refreshing.

Here's a peek in one of the back windows. This area was a lobby for the office space above. The parking garage is only over the middle of the building, on either end retail went all the way up. The far side was Snellenburg's Mens' store, while this end was an extremely large (no pun intended) Lane Bryant. I'm not sure when Lane Bryant closed, but it was open through the 40's at least. After they left, the upper floors were converted to offices. Those were completely vacant by the late 2000's. The other side became home to a Mandel's department store after Snellenburg's closed, but also turned over to offices before long.

Looking around back, they had a neat fire escape balcony. Honestly it doesn't look like a bad place to sit for lunch or something if you were working in the offices here. I believe the upper bridge connected the adjacent building to the upper paring deck. That building was originally offices, and was converted to a hotel in 2019.

The area that sticks out on an angle here was the spiral ramp for cars coming up. Next to it, there used to be a series of bridges connecting the garage to the building on the other side. That building was not built as part of Snellenburg's, but was annexed by them as an extension of their store. It's the only part of Snellenburg's that was not demolished. Instead, it was stripped down to the concrete frame and totally re-clad. It was during this the bridges between the buildings were cut. There's a Mom's Organic Market on the ground floor now, and an architectural design center above it.

Jeweler's Row, Washington Square West, Phila

There are quite a few neat old signs on Jeweler's Row, this is one I didn't notice until more recently. I like the textured backgrounds, I wish more signs still used them.

Former 5-and-Dime?, Jeweler's Row

Going by the appearance of this building, I think it might be an old Woolworth or Kresge. The building does go all the way through the block to much busier Chestnut Street, but the entrance on that side is significantly smaller, making me think this was actually the front of the building.

I've already posted a few pictures of this set of buildings, but like with the garage, knowing their days were numbered I snapped a few more pictures. The city's still in general shock they allowed these buildings to be demolished. Most of these were about 150 years old, and character-defining features on Jeweler's Row. Currently the site is occupied by the "Toll Hole", as Toll Brothers have yet to start construction of their new condo tower here.

At first I didn't realize the project involved the demolition of this building around the corner on 7th Street, but I noticed the orange sticker in the window this time. This one wasn't a major loss. It appears to have been part of the original Midtown Diner, built in the early 70's.

University of Pennsylvania, University City, Phila

Penn's got one of the most interesting campuses of any of the schools I've seen. They make a special effort to make their buildings unique, and the age of the school results in a wide range of architectural styles. This building, the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter, especially stands out. It's midcentury modern for sure, but the taller concrete pillars give it a hint of art deco as well.

Penn Pavilion, UPenn

After 5 years of construction, the largest wing of UPenn's Hospital finally opened last year. It was built on the site of a former Hilton, later known as Penn Tower. Its foundation broke a record for the largest concrete pour in city history. I'm amazed at the size of this place, especially since it's 100% expansion. It didn't replace anything.

Pennsylvania General Hospital Wall, University City

PGH closed its doors in 1976 and was demolished pretty quickly after that for UPenn's expansion. They did leave the exterior fence and retaining walls intact for a few blocks, which is a cool reminder of what used to be here. It stands out, as practically everything that lines it is new.

Blockley Hall, UPenn

I'm not sure exactly what this building is used for, but it seems like a gray area between hospital and academics. Its name comes from the neighborhood's history. Prior to the Act of Consolidation in the 1850's (which merged all of Philadelphia County into the City of Philadelphia), this area was Blockley Township.

Richards Labs, UPenn

It's a cool building no doubt, but I was surprised to learn how architecturally significant these were. They were designed by famed architect (and Penn faculty member) Louis Kahn in 1962 and were heavily influential to modern design. Ironically, the innovative design was not suited well for medical labs. The open layout and abundance of sunlight would have been great in any other application than medical research. Rather than ruin the buildings design, they were converted to university offices and computer labs in 2016.

UPenn Quadrangle Dormitories

This has to be my favorite building on their campus. It was their first set of proper dorms, opened in 1885. The insides have been modernized over the years, but the outside looks the same as it did back when it first opened.

As a freshman, I was so jealous of the kids that got to live here. I go to Drexel, which literally borders Penn. There, I was put in a plan 40-year-old cinderblock dorm that was supposed to be temporary when it was first built. That being said, in hindsight I'm glad I was put there. Building deficiencies aside, it was a great community.

I've put enough night pictures in this post, I think this song would be appropriate... even if it's about a totally different city.