In South Philly

In Early 20th Century Philadelphia, the lands south of Oregon Avenue were a wilderness, pockmarked with industrial uses, shanty towns, small hotels, and farms, in between snaking freight rail tracks, creeks, canals, and long roads left over from Native American trails. Isolated communities formed in this wilderness- the community known

Several readers have reached out to us over the years, wondering about the old brush factory, a group of rough looking industrial buildings at the corner of 12th & Jackson. While the sight of vacant industrial buildings is quite common in other parts of town (looking at you, Kensington), it's definitely

Much to the chagrin of the tourist business in Atlantic City, Pennsylvania legalized casinos via the 2004 Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act, which resulted in over a dozen standalone casinos in PA. As you're probably well aware, the state issued two Philadelphia casino licenses, to Sugarhouse, on the Fishtown

We don't typically have much development to cover south of Snyder Avenue, but today we can share some news of a project of some significance for the Whitman neighborhood. Every few months, usually appended to a trip to Target, we've visited the 400 and 500 blocks of Cantrell Street, hoping

The shopping centers around 23rd & Oregon aren't exactly an urbanist's dream come true. To the south of Oregon Avenue is Quartermaster Plaza, a shopping center which opened in 2004 on land that was previously connected to the Quartermaster Depot of the US Army. Hence the name. It's anchored by a BJ's,

Through thick and thin, we love our sports teams in this town. And we're also quite fond of our museums. So why, exactly, has nobody combined the two as of yet? Lou Scheinfeld wants to be the one who does it. Scheinfeld is 81 years old and has worked in

03Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods. But when you think about it, the divisions between those neighborhoods are sometimes quite arbitrary. For example, why does the Graduate Hospital neighborhood run from Broad Street to the river, but the same footprint on the other side of Broad Street include three different

A reader reached out to us the other day, having unexpectedly discovered some zoning notices on the 700 block of Daly Street. We had never visited this block before, though we covered an Acme turned thrift shop turned laundromat around the corner at 8th & Wolf a couple years ago.Laundromat on

Tasked with purchasing some ephemera for a New Years Eve party, we recently found our way to Party City, located in the Whitman Shopping Center at 3rd & Oregon. Party hats and plastic champagne flutes in hand, we made our way back toward Center City, enjoying the South Philly experience

Did you know that there was a vibrant Jewish community in South Philadelphia in the first half of the 20th century? Don't believe us? Well, someone wrote a book on the subject, so it must be true. And there's some considerable architectural evidence that backs us up as well. Previously, we've told