<<--- North Philadelphia Abandoned School --->>

Edison High...it's a popular one. There are a lot of shots of that auditorium floating about.

I have conflicted feelings on the whole urbex thing. It can be risky and such places tend to be a true blight but what's inside can elicit a range of emotions from people who see them. Philadelphia, sadly, has an embarrassment of riches that way.

Centropolis · #3 Posted **Jul 30, 2012, 12:53 AM**

Jesus, Philadelphia.

arkitekte · #4 Posted **Jul 30, 2012, 3:01 AM**

I love abandoned buildings. That auditorium looks so legit.

summersm343 · #5 Posted **Jul 30, 2012, 4:05 AM**

Very nice.

My favorite abandoned high school in the area is Lambertville High in Lambertville New Jersey.

Kingofthehill · #6 Posted **Jul 30, 2012, 4:54 AM**

This is the one on Lehigh that caught on fire, right? Man, I hope Urban America can find a way to safeguard its educational and religious architecture. The reduced sizes of cities, along with ghettoization, have meant that alot of these buildings are at a severe risk of abandonment, neglect and/or demolition.

volguus zildrohar · #7 Posted **Jul 30, 2012, 5:20 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kingofthehill

This is the one on Lehigh that caught on fire, right? Man, I hope Urban America can find a way to safeguard its educational and religious architecture. The reduced sizes of cities, along with ghettoization, have meant that alot of these buildings are at a severe risk of abandonment, neglect and/or demolition.

The very same.

This is a real issue the city is dealing with now. The past couple of years has seen a rash of abandoned building fires in the river wards (there are conspiracy theories around those). The School District is contracting and closing buildings so the stock of large under/unused buildings is only going to grow it seems. It was already a problem - what's the best way to deal with such buildings? It used to be that the problems were kind of localized - industrial parcels and the like tended to be in the same places but school buildings are being targeted for closure all across the city.

This is one of those situations that demands something creative clearly.

summersm343 · #8 Posted **Jul 30, 2012, 5:29 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by volguus zildrohar

The very same.

This is a real issue the city is dealing with now. The past couple of years has seen a rash of abandoned building fires in the river wards (there are conspiracy theories around those). The School District is contracting and closing buildings so the stock of large under/unused buildings is only going to grow it seems. It was already a problem - what's the best way to deal with such buildings? It used to be that the problems were kind of localized - industrial parcels and the like tended to be in the same places but school buildings are being targeted for closure all across the city.

This is one of those situations that demands something creative clearly.

Some are thankfully being converted in some form. Not nearly enough though.

Most are being demolished, unfortunately. The most glaring example is the old John Wanamaker school (rest in peace) which is now just a vacant lot where the developer has still not started construction after months of sitting on the site.

Llyod Banks · #9 Posted **Jul 30, 2012, 6:15 PM**

Feeling the pics man

giovanni sasso · #10 Posted **Jul 30, 2012, 8:20 PM**

nice pics. i don't think this building's ever been on my radar. the bart simpson-as-heathcliff-and-2pac graffiti is sort of hilarious.

renarch99 · #11 Posted **Aug 1, 2012, 11:29 AM**

Thanks! I couldn't believe the size of the school.

The following is from the Philadelphia Inquirer Aug 4th, 2011:
THE FORMER Thomas Edison High School in North Philly was gutted in a four-alarm blaze yesterday, a little more than a month after it was sold, according to fire and school district officials.
The fire broke out in the vacant school, at 8th Street and Lehigh Avenue, about 1:31 p.m. on the third floor of the building that once was known as "The Castle" because of its size and Gothic architecture.
The blaze burned for two hours until being brought under control at 3:32 p.m., said fire Capt. Jeffery Thompson. During the intense battle, 25 houses on 8th Street were evacuated. No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire was not yet known, Thompson said.
The school, which has sat vacant since 2002, began as the boys-only Northeast Manual Training High School in 1903. It then became Northeast High School, until a new Northeast High was opened in 1957.
The building then housed Thomas Edison High School, which lost 66 of its former students in the Vietnam War - more than any other public high school in the country.
Edison High was eventually moved as well and the building became home to the Julia DeBurgos Bilingual Middle School in 1988. In 2002, that school closed.
District spokesman Fernando Gallard said the building was sold on June 30 to 701 W. Lehigh Partners LP. Records show that group is connected to Mosaic Development Partners LLC, which has the property listed on the "projects" portion of its website.
According to the site, Mosaic planned to demolish the building to create "Edison Square," a 36,000-square-foot shopping center.

LSyd · #12 Posted **Aug 1, 2012, 4:27 PM**

thanks for the great but depressing pics.

Quote:

According to the site, Mosaic planned to demolish the building to create "Edison Square," a 36,000-square-foot shopping center.

maybe fire is a better fate than demo for a generic shopping center?

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bnk · #13 Posted **Aug 1, 2012, 6:18 PM**

I had go look it up. The fire was in 2011.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/gallery?...=1&pid=8286096

renarch99 · #14 Posted **Aug 2, 2012, 1:11 AM**

Thanks!