In Old City

McGarry's Jewelers is an amazing local business success story. They've been operating since 1854, and that was so long ago that Old City was just known as "City" back then. Over the course of their history, we imagine they had a few different locations, and as far as we can tell they

It felt like the end of an era a couple years ago, when we shared the news that the longtime homes of Swift Food Equipment and Economy Restaurant Supply were listed for sale. For decades, 2nd Street in Old City was the place to go to buy restaurant equipment, with Swift

Long before we were born, and surely before you were born as well, the Delaware River was the commercial engine of Philadelphia. Even into the 20th century, factories operated along the waterfront and ships ran cargo to and from piers up and down the river. In 1919, the City of Philadelphia built Municipal

It was well before our time and it was probably before your time too that Old City was known more for manufacturing than for nightclubs and art galleries. At this point, virtually all of the neighborhood's industrial past is gone, with many of the old buildings demolished and some converted

For much longer than we've been alive, 2nd Street in Old City has been the place to go downtown if you're in the market for restaurant supplies, be it a couple cases of glassware or a 6' griddle. Thanks to a combination of the internet and natural attrition, we're now left

109-131 N. 2nd St. was home to the National Products Company, a restaurant supply business, for the better part of the 20th century. Sometime in the middle of that wonderful century, they clad their building’s facade in orange tiles, making it one of the more unique structures in town. In the early 2000s, after

Wow, have things ever changed at the southwest corner of 3rd & Market. If we turn back the clock a few years or a few decades, Suit Corner was operating out of a double-wide commercial space, selling suits as gaudy as the paint job on the facade. Unfortunately, a fire

We were making our way through Old City the other day and it struck us that a new building had sprouted on the 100 block of N. 2nd Street, seemingly overnight. Okay, overnight is a bit of an exaggeration, but it's undeniable that the progress at The National project at 109-131

Suit Corner held down the southwest corner of 3rd & Market for way longer than we can remember, selling sometimes garish suits at always reasonable prices. Shirt Corner, a similar store which we believe was owned by a member of the same family, had a similarly long run on the

A reader tipped us off recently about a big new building currently getting framed at 222 Vine St., and we're kinda amazed it hasn't come onto our radar previously. For whatever reason, a one story building was constructed at this address back in 1960, a structure that has housed an