In Bella Vista

If you don't live in Queen Village, Bella Vista or Hawthorne, you've probably never heard of little Hall Street, which runs east-west between Montrose and Carpenter Streets. It's one of those streets that appears and then disappears willy nilly, only to reappear a few blocks later and then dead end.

The southwest corner of 10th and Fitzwater is relatively inconspicuous today, standing across from a far more noticeable corner occupied by popular brunch spot Sam’s Morning Glory Diner and diagonal from the Palumbo Playground.  But at one time, this corner was occupied by quite the imposing structure.  Starting with its opening in 1872, The Maternity Hospital

Back in June, we told you about plans for two new homes at 606-08 S. 8th St., a Bella Vista Lot that curiously sat vacant for many years. Just a few days later, the combination of the excavation efforts and rainwater caused a nearby garden wall to fall in. It was

A reader checked in the other day, wondering about 1009 S. 7th St., a building that lost its facade awhile ago, and is still waiting for it to be replaced. Looking at Google Maps from 2011, you can see the bricks were still there...

But as the photos below reveal, the

Several months ago, we told you about Mildred Court, a plan to redevelop half of a square block in Bella Vista, including a former 7-Up bottling plant on Carpenter Street. In the intervening time, the project has gone through the civic design review process, and has gotten approval from the

Cinema Treasures tells us that Ripley Music Hall opened at 606 South St. in 1909 with a seating capacity of 500. However, the image taken from G.W. Bromley’s Philadelphia Atlas tells us that by 1910, the theatre was known by the much more hilarious handle, the Hippodrome.

In 1925, the Hippodrome underwent major renovations, which,

1016 South St. stands directly next to Philadelphia mosaic artist Isaiah Zager’s greatest masterpiece, the walk-through debris sculpture aptly called the Magic Garden.  While the eyes of most viewers will understandably be drawn to this highly unusual sight, right next to it stands a building with a fair degree of its own

A couple of years ago, we reflected on the state of retail on South Street and lamented the numerous vacancies, pointing to the corner of 6th & South as a prime example of just how far South Street had fallen. On the 600 block, we counted several vacant storefronts, including

A few months ago, we told you about four foundations that had been poured on the 1300 block of Bainbridge St., which represented the first phase of twenty-two new homes replacing a big surface parking lot on this block. Sitting next to a gas station and in the shadow of

In our last post, we told you about four homes filling in a vacant wooded lot in Fairmount, and wondered how a lot could sit vacant for so many years in such an established neighborhood. As it's strange to see vacant lots in Fairmount, it's also unexpected to see vacant