Next to the Philadelphia Nursing Home at 2100 W Girard Ave. are two buildings that look somewhat similar but are in drastically different states. One building houses the offices for Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention for the City of Philadelphia. The other has trees growing out of it.
According to folks at the Lead Prevention office, both buildings were originally part of the campus for Lankenau Hospital. The hospital moved to the site in 1872 and occupied some of the buildings that now make up the Nursing Home until moving to the Main Line in 1953. Doing a little more research, we determined that the Lead Prevention office building was constructed in the 1920’s, and housed the Lankenau Medical Center Research Institute. From what we can gather, its abandoned sister building was also associated with LMCRI. The institute moved to Fox Chase in the late 1940’s, and that’s where our information dries up.
From the looks of it, the Lead Prevention office has been in its space for quite some time. Is it possible that the other building has not been in use for sixty years? Both the abandoned building and the Lead Prevention office seem to have a ton of development potential in an up-and-coming area. We’re not holding our breath, though- the entire property, including the Nursing Home, are owned by the State of PA. Le sigh.
