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  #21  
Old Posted Jan 25, 2009, 2:21 PM
City Streets City Streets is offline
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Freedom of speach.......

Why attempt to pigeon hole the site by limiting it to Philadelphia ??
There are too many other locations that contain quality architecture ,
to snub them from the site .

Yes , I agree . There are mounds of structures built before the suggested
time frame . I picked it because of the ornate quality of the time.....
and with contributions from other cities ( hopefully ) ......eighty years
seemed long enough .

But , if your not happy......You can do a Philly 1700 to 1940 , if you
like .
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  #22  
Old Posted Jan 25, 2009, 3:28 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by City Streets View Post
Why attempt to pigeon hole the site by limiting it to Philadelphia ??
There are too many other locations that contain quality architecture ,
to snub them from the site .

Yes , I agree . There are mounds of structures built before the suggested
time frame . I picked it because of the ornate quality of the time.....
and with contributions from other cities ( hopefully ) ......eighty years
seemed long enough .

But , if your not happy......You can do a Philly 1700 to 1940 , if you
like .
Why? Mainly because this section of SSP - Buildings & Architecture - is already pretty general AND Philadelphia's (and the surrounding suburbs) architectural heritage is already so rich that it deserves its own special thread.

Just a thought.
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  #23  
Old Posted Jan 25, 2009, 4:43 PM
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....The Thread.....

Yes , it's a good thought . I don't know that this site requires a name
change , but I get your point .

I didn't want to make anyone feel excluded from posting great info or
snap shots of other areas , loaded with that periods architecture .
ie , Boston , NYC , Atlanta , Chicago , SanFran , etc. not that this
will ever get that big but , ........It's my first attempt at something like
this .........wanna help ?? ........post .
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Last edited by City Streets; Jan 25, 2009 at 7:44 PM.
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  #24  
Old Posted Jan 25, 2009, 10:21 PM
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Let's throw it against the wall and see if it sticks.
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  #25  
Old Posted Jan 25, 2009, 11:22 PM
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.....All righty then.......

Well at least your idea will make it a hell of a lot less expensive in
travel expenses .

Now all I have to do is scrape the ice off my 35mm and go take
some shots .

Thanks for your suggestion . Like you said , let's see if it sticks .

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  #26  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2009, 12:39 AM
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who else likes the Reading Terminal?





Quote:
Reading Terminal, 1893
1115-1141 Market Streets, Philadelphia PA 19107 (northeast corner of 12th Street)
© Helene Schenck & Michael Parrington, Workshop of the World (Oliver Evans Press, 1990).

The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was originally built c.1838 as a coal road, extending from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia. The company extended its lines and acquired control of other roads; by the 1890s, it had over 2,000 miles of railroad lines terminating in Philadelphia, at four inconveniently located passenger terminals. To consolidate their operations, the company undertook the construction of a major terminal together with railroad lines connecting the old terminals. The tracks and trainshed opened for travel in 1893.

Reading Terminal was typical in layout of the "stub" type railroad terminal. It consisted of two major building elementsa headhouse, containing passenger facilities and offices, and a train shedseparated by a lobby or concourse. The eight story headhouse was designed by Francis H. Kimball and built by Wilson Brothers & Company in an Italianate style. The headhouse facade on Market Street was constructed using granite, brick, and terra cotta, with a copper cornice. The train shed behind it extended north to Arch Street. The tracks of the terminal railroad came into the train shed at 25 feet above street grade; thus the principal floor of the station was at the second story of the headhouse.

In the vast space on the ground floor under the train shed, a market hall was constructed into which were moved two important markets. They had been located in the area between Market and Filbert Streets and had to be demolished for the erection of the station. Descended from Philadelphia's original market, founded in 1693, their importance to the city was recognized, and the occupants of the old markets were transferred to the new market hall without interruption to business, even before construction of the headhouse. The Reading Terminal Market remains Philadelphia's principal farmers' market.

The headhouse contained the waitingrooms, ticket office, baggagerooms, diningroom, etc., as well as the general offices of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Co. The passenger lobby was 50 feet deep and extended the width of the building. But the chief feature of the terminal was and is the train shed, with its "great threecentered, pointed arch roof in a single span for the whole width of the tracks," for a total length of 267 feet and height of 88 feet. 1 It covered 13 tracks and eight platforms. The roof was constructed of wrought iron, and all the iron used in the tensile members was required to be double rolled after, and directly from, the puddled muck bar—more specifically, no scrap was allowed.

At the time the terminal was built, it was the widest singlespan train shed in the world. Although it was superseded later by the roof of the Broad Street station of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Philadelphia, the Reading terminal regained its prime position when the Broad Street shed was destroyed by fire in 1923 and not rebuilt. The Reading shed remains as the oldest longspan roof structure in the world as well as the sole surviving singlespan arched train shed in the United States.



Update May 2007 (by Harry Kyriakodis):
Still standing. Dragged down by the failure of surrounding lines on which it depended for traffic to offset the loss of the coal business, the Reading Company declared bankruptcy on November 23, 1971. In 1976, the 143-year-old P&R ceased to exist as a railroad company. Most of the Reading's assets were transferred to federally financed Conrail, although SEPTA took over its lackluster commuter rail operations. Meanwhile, Reading Terminal had entered a deep decline. The last train departed the forlorn station on November 6, 1984, accompanied by much fanfare. Immediately thereafter, Reading Terminal was replaced by the new Market East Station, a block northeast and part of the early 1980s Commuter Rail Tunnel project.

The abandoned terminal's fate was in serious jeopardy in the following years, with several plans offered for its demolition or adaptive reuse. Fortunately, it was located squarely within the Market Street East Redevelopment Area, a colossal urban renewal effort east of City Hall envisioned by city planner Edmund Bacon. After many years of negotiations with the Reading Company, the Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia purchased the historic terminal so that it could be incorporated into the Pennsylvania Convention Center in the mid 1990s.

The shed was masterfully rehabilitated and converted into the Convention Center's Grand Hall and Ballroom. While its exterior was restored to original appearance, a free-standing "building within a building" was added inside to contain meeting rooms and a ballroom, yet still preserving a sense of the shed’s historic spacious quality. The iron trusses overhead were repaired and painted their original color, and the original south curtain wall of glass and copper was cleaned and restored. The Grand Hall has a terrazzo and marble floor with ten pairs of stainless steel rails inserted to represent the thirteen train tracks that had once been there. And twelve large pylons providing HVAC air intake, lighting, and power mimic the former station's train bumpers. The shed connects to the Convention Center's Exhibit Hall via a pedestrian bridge over Arch Street located in the exact place where tracks used to enter the shed. Also, an elevated truck dock from Vine Street uses part of the Reading Railroad's old right-of-way to service the Center's Exhibit Hall.

The Reading Terminal headhouse revealed itself to have quite a handsome edifice once cleaned of generations of dirt and with its original façade restored—it had undergone a "modernization" in 1948. Interior renovation work included extensive demolition to create an open multilevel public atrium—with escalator, grand stair, and skylights—that provides direct access to the Grand Hall, Market East Station, and the Gallery. The old entrance lobby on Market Street reopened in 1998, along with a Hard Rock Café in part of the ground floor. The rest of the historic structure is connected by a footbridge over 12th Street, and is now part of the nearby Philadelphia Marriott Hotel. The hotel expanded into the long-abandoned upper floors of the headhouse, creating meeting rooms and 210 new guestrooms by demolishing old partitions and ceilings. An elegant ballroom on the second floor has a 35-foot vaulted ceiling and occupies the space of the station's former passenger waiting room.

Reading Terminal Market continues to thrive as a food market and tourist attraction, especially after its revitalization in the early 1990s. Over eighty merchants offer fresh produce, meats, fish, groceries, flowers, baked goods, crafts, books, clothing, and specialty and ethnic foods.
http://www.workshopoftheworld.com/ce...y/reading.html

More info here http://www.arch.state.pa.us/pdfs/H001457_01B.pdf
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Last edited by theWatusi; Jan 26, 2009 at 12:49 AM.
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  #27  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2009, 12:47 AM
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and to continue to show my love for the Reading...

The Terminal Commerce Building



Quote:
Terminal Commerce Building / North American Building / 401 North Broad (1930)
401 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA (northeast corner of Callowhill Street)
© Harry Kyriakodis (2007)

Occupying an entire city block at Broad and Callowhill Streets, this structure was touted as being the largest commercial warehouse building in the nation when completed in 1930. The Terminal Commerce Building cost $4 million to construct and was built by William Steele & Sons, a longstanding Philadelphia construction firm. The building offered about 13 million square feet of floor space, including showrooms and offices for the numerous firms that made their headquarters there. The massive edifice even had a freight station beneath it, which replaced the Reading's North Broad Street Freight Station and rail yard that had previously been on the site. Rail service was provided by the Reading's now-abandoned "City Branch" right-of-way, which passed underneath. The Terminal Commerce Building was reputedly used to manufacture tanks during WWII. And from the 1940s to 1973, it was the main U.S. Army Induction Center in Philadelphia, striking fear in the young men who entered or even passed by it. The Reading Railroad sold the structure in 1955, whereupon it became known as the North American Building. By the 1980s, it had become a low-rent office and light-industrial center. It more recently has been repositioned as a "carrier hotel" housing telecommunications, computer and other high-tech equipment. There are dozens of fiber optic lines into the building, large Internet servers, huge back-up power generators, and a number of telecom tenants. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
http://www.workshopoftheworld.com/ce..._commerce.html

Lots more great information about the building here http://www.arch.state.pa.us/pdfs/H097510_01B.pdf
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  #28  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2009, 5:13 PM
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Then and Now

You know what might be a fun thing to add to this thread? Then and Now pictures. Once the weather warms up, I might be inclined to go out and take some Now pictures.
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  #29  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2009, 6:20 PM
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.......Not a billboard ........



Ok !
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Last edited by City Streets; Jan 26, 2009 at 8:52 PM.
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  #30  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2009, 6:30 PM
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......Anyone ???.......



I shot this last summer , but was told to move my car , therefore I
was unable to obtain history or current use of this structure .

It's in Society Hill section , near Old City Tavern .
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  #31  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2009, 6:45 PM
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.....Speaking of which , is here......




South 2nd . .......Love the period dress of the employees .

Wish the picture was better ......sorry 'bout that .

.........Watusi , I worked on the PennCentral RR , for two years . It was a good
but dangerous job .........Then I went back to school .

PS ; LOVE the old Reading Terminal .
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Last edited by City Streets; Feb 3, 2009 at 10:21 PM.
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  #32  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2009, 7:37 PM
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A couple of buildings I noticed when I was visiting Philadelphia a few years ago:

1. Witherspoon Building (1897) http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=139318

I took this photo in 2006.


I took this photo in 2006.

2. Market Street National Bank (1930, currently a Residence Inn Philadelphia City Center):

I took this photo in 2006.




I also like the PSFS building and of course the Philadelphia City Hall.
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  #33  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2009, 8:31 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by City Streets View Post


Why is this here ??
Well, we are looking at pictures of older buildings in the city, many of which have been torn down (such as Broad St Station). Many of the older buildings which remain but may have been rehabbed, (or defiled) since they were built. I think it would be nice if we could post older, archive pics of the buildings and then show a comparo to what that building (or lot) looks like now. For many of the older buildings that are no longer there, it would be nice to see a reference point to what replaced it...to bring it into context with the modern world.

But, since you are the thread starter, you call the shots
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  #34  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2009, 8:34 PM
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Wats, that's what that building across from the Inky was for? I always thought it was a part of the Baldwin works that somehow managed to survive...
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  #35  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2009, 8:39 PM
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The Merchants Exchange

Quote:
Originally Posted by City Streets View Post


I shot this last summer , but was told to move my car , therefore I
was unable to obtain history or current use of this structure .

It's in Society Hill section , near Old City Tavern .

City Streets, that is the Merchant's Exchange:

THE MERCHANT'S EXCHANGE

During Andrew Jackson's first tenure in office, Philadelphia — along with the rest of the nation — was in the midst of an economic boom. Transportation advances in the forms of canals and better roads opened up the West for economic exploitation. A generation of industrialists came to the fore. Businesses were born to meet the needs of a burgeoning population, augmented by large numbers of immigrants. The growing community necessitated a new center for business.

In 1831, a new group of nabobs representing the social and business aristocracy organized into a society for building an Exchange. Included in the group of trustees for the new enterprise was Stephen Girard, arguably the wealthiest man in the nation. After the charter for the First Bank of the United States lapsed, Girard bought the building and established a bank named for himself in its quarters. Not surprisingly, then, the site chosen for the new Exchange was within eyesight of Girard's bank.

To design the Exchange, the directors chose a rising local architect, William Strickland. Strickland was the architect of the steeple on Independence Hall, the U.S. Naval Asylum, and the U.S. Mint. He had also just submitted a much-admired blueprint for the Second Bank of the United States which he would later build.

THE STRUCTURE


To the non-virtual walker the building almost seems to be two distinct and handsome structures. On the Third Street side, the rectangular main structure mirrors the 1830s American's fascination with Greek architecture. The august Corinthian portico with four columns and two pediments stands on top of a heavy basement level featuring four stout columns with capitals which look like corn husks. If the Greeks had a god of money — this could be home.

Yet, it's the semi-circular portico, an ingenious adaptation for an odd-shaped lot, that makes the Philadelphia Merchant's Exchange truly memorable. Dock Creek, a turgid and polluted inlet of the Delaware River, once flowed along what is now Dock Street on the building's north side. After the creek was paved over, the city of William Penn's uniform grids had one of its few curved streets. On the basement level, the Exchange's curve follows the outline of Dock Creek and melds into it. From the second story rise six Corinthian columns. Sets of stairs, watched over by recumbent lions (imported from Italy, a gift from a local merchant in 1838), run up from both sides of the basement level and lead to tall doors. Long, svelte windows give way to rectangular blank inserts under the portico. The lip of the portico is decorated by shells of Minoan design.

An 1831 local newspaper piece declared, "Philadelphia is truly the Athens of America." How apropos then, that Strickland based the Exchange's tower on the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens. Ships could be seen approaching up and down the river, if viewed from the tower.

After Strickland finished the Exchange, the city gained what one architectural critic called an "audacious building, looking out from its sweeping curve with such graceful bravery as gives a veritable Victory of Samothrace air."

THE INTERIOR

The Exchange Room in the curved section of the building was remarkable. It had a mosaic floor, domed ceiling supported on marble columns, and frescoes on the walls and ceiling. The fresco painter was Nicola Monachesi who had executed frescoes in many of Philadelphia's Roman Catholic churches.

Real-estate dealing, auctions, and business transactions of all kinds took place in this room, where shipping reports and both local and from all over the world were posted.

Inside the building was a post office. further, many marine insurance companies with names like the Delaware No. 3 had offices in the building. Architect Strickland retained an office for himself at the Exchange. Naturally some space was given over to a coffee shop.

EXCHANGING THE EXCHANGE


By the Civil War businesses had begun to move toward the western part of the city. Eventually, Broad Street would became Philadelphia's new financial and political center. Hence, the first Exchange was dissolved in favor of the Corn Exchange in 1866. By 1875 the Philadelphia Stock Exchange took the place of the Corn Exchange. Though offices were still leased in the Merchant's Exchange, its interior gradually fell into disrepair. In 1900, the Stock Exchange moved back to the structure for a time, but the building started down a steep slope of decline. In 1922 it was sold to a firm that made it a Produce Exchange. An open-air market surrounded the Exchange. Vendors hawked vegetables from pushcarts. A gas station was built on the Dock Street side.

Photographs of the era show the magnificent building surronded by rickety sheds and trucks from the Garden State, across the river.

In 1952, the Independence National Historical Park bought the structure and maintains offices here to this day.

At the Exchange's dedication speech in 1832, Solicitor John Kane looked 150 years into the future and remarked, "the building which we have founded shall stand among the relics of antiquities, another memorial to posterity of the skill of its architect — and proof of the liberal spirit, and cultivated taste, which, in our days, distinguish the mercantile community."
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Last edited by winxs; Jan 26, 2009 at 8:56 PM.
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  #36  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2009, 9:04 PM
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......Not meant for you......

Quote:
Originally Posted by winxs View Post
Well, we are looking at pictures of older buildings in the city, many of which have been torn down (such as Broad St Station). Many of the older buildings which remain but may have been rehabbed, (or defiled) since they were built. I think it would be nice if we could post older, archive pics of the buildings and then show a comparo to what that building (or lot) looks like now. For many of the older buildings that are no longer there, it would be nice to see a reference point to what replaced it...to bring it into context with the modern world.

But, since you are the thread starter, you call the shots

I'm sorry for not erasing that post . It was in reference to something else that was there ........and to be honest ....I didn't know how to delete it .
My apologies.......Please continue .
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  #37  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2009, 10:36 PM
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Originally Posted by hammersklavier View Post
Wats, that's what that building across from the Inky was for? I always thought it was a part of the Baldwin works that somehow managed to survive...

No, the Baldwin Works was on the West side of Broad South of Spring Garden. It's all gone.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_Locomotive_Works
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  #38  
Old Posted Jan 27, 2009, 12:25 AM
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I have a feeling this is going to be a great thread.



Here is Philadelphia in 1905.

photographer unknown



There is a sign on top of the building directly to the right of City Hall.
"The North" something or other....does anyone in Philly know the full name?

This is a great photograph to study :
The woman with the hatbox...the street vendor...the horse turds....the automobile zipping around the corner....the mystery pole in the center of the street.
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  #39  
Old Posted Jan 27, 2009, 12:40 AM
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North Broad looks good without check cashing places and fried chicken joints, doesn't it?
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  #40  
Old Posted Jan 27, 2009, 3:17 AM
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^ That's actually South Broad Street looking north.

Look at all of those road apples.
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