Market East should be one of the most vibrant and desirable neighborhoods in Philadelphia. With its location in the heart of downtown, everyone should want to live there- but that hasn't really been the case, historically. We don't know that we can pin down exactly why Market East has lagged behind

The first mile of North Broad Street beyond City Hall is currently in the middle of a staggering transformation. Perhaps the lynchpin of this progress is the redevelopment of the Divine Lorraine, the wonderful building at Broad & Fairmount that sat vacant and blighted for years until it finally reopened as

As it has gentrified over the years, the Graduate Hospital neighborhood has become a bedroom community, of sorts, for downtown Philadelphia. Historically, and similar to other South Philly neighborhoods, there were numerous corner commercial establishments in Grad Hospital, but as the years have rolled along, we've seen quite a few buildings shift

Historically, the 2200 block of N. 22nd St. was entirely residential, with a few dozen twin homes with enormous backyards. As we do mean enormous. In greater Center City, lot sizes are generally in the 1,000 sqft range or smaller, even though minimum lot size standards require lots to be

From 1893 until 2012, the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parochial School occupied the Romanesque building at the northeast corner of Moyamensing Avenue & Reed Street. That's a loooong time. But as was the case with the Holy Spirit School we mentioned earlier this week, the Sacred Heart School was closed a

The cleverly named Avant Gardens landscaping company made its home at 102 W. Berks St. for some time, from 2004 until sometime in the last few years. In 2011, the owner of the business started thinking about greener pastures (see what we did there?) and put the property up for sale for

Philadelphia is home to so many churches. And while these houses of worship still play a huge role in numerous communities, many congregations have moved out of the city or disappeared entirely, for a host of reasons. The Archdiocese hasn't been immune to these changes, as dozens of Catholic parishes and schools

Historically, there were a couple of homes at 3933 and 3935 Powelton Ave., and as was the case with many large homes in the area, they eventually got carved up into small apartment buildings. But time was not kind to these buildings, and both were torn down in the late 1990s or early 2000s, along

The two industrial buildings at 2139 E. Huntingdon St. were originally home to the Franklin Carpet Mill and were built during a time that the surrounding neighborhood produced goods in countless factories in every direction. The property is on the National Historic Register, and its nomination shows that the three story building

The northeast corner of Broad & Alter has been sitting, underused for as long as we can remember. Over the last five years or so, the property has sat vacant and overgrown, surrounded by a construction fence. On the positive side of the ledger though, the property did feature a