PERSISTENCE AND AMBITIONS

The 20th century brought reflections of nationwide forces that had a profound local impact. After the modernist landmark office tower, the PSFS building, was built in 1929-32, the Depression and World War II effectively forestalled further tall buildings in the area, so that much of the old two- and three-story texture survived. Similarly, the rise of the automobile and the suburb meant that the regional dominance of the retail stores in the northern part of the area was eroding, as was the area's attractiveness for new residential investment. Parking became a voracious new force. The neighborhood was bypassed by major governmental initiatives like sweeping demolition in the name of urban renewal or the building of highways, the latter a prospect that South Street narrowly avoided in the early 1970s.

Even before the Depression, period photographs show that poverty in the southern parts of the district could be painfully evident, but that the neighborhood provided ways to make do, with sidewalk commerce, private philanthropy, and especially rental. Old rowhouses were altered and subdivided into multiple apartments, sometimes better described as tenements. If hygienic improvements and street-front cosmetics in such adaptations were meager, such units provided low rents for both homes and small businesses adjacent to the downtown flow of opportunity, nurturing many through hard times.

Recreational uses continued nonetheless. More theaters cropped up on three edges of the area around the turn of the century, while restaurants and nightclubs occupied some of the larger houses. Photographs of Locust or Camac streets from the 1930s through the 1950s show an insistent sea of neon, of pizza shops and Chinese restaurants, small hotels, and bars.

Quietly, in the 1960s and 70s the neighborhood began to be rediscovered. Small new brick rows and townhouses were built that generally respected the textures of the place, along with a few tall apartment buildings closer to Broad Street. Often the old was adapted, and the low rents in subdivided old houses on Spruce and Pine attracted new residents, many of them students drawn by the centrality of the location, the nearby schools, and the new counterculture night life rising to the east on South Street in the 1970s. The neighborhood also became a favored area for gay and lesbian residents, many of whom renewed historic small houses in the area.

 


Instructions: Click on the small image to bring up a full-screen view. This will appear in a second window.

  • E1a. Architectural office for Mellor & Meigs, 207 S. Juniper Street (built 1912, Mellor & Meigs, architects).
    Gelatin silver print, ca. 1912.
    Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Mellor & Meigs Collection.

    In 1906 Walter Mellor and Arthur Meigs founded a firm that soon became a favorite for work in Philadelphia's elite suburbs. Their gracefully composed buildings were often informed by an anglophilic medievalism, but at the same time by an appreciation for the broad textures and large parts that defined a species of early modernism. From 1916 they were joined by George Howe, who left the firm in 1928 and began to work with a different notion of modernism (see item E4).
Architectural office for Mellor & Meigs
  • E1b. Mellor & Meigs office, drafting room.
    Gelatin silver print, ca. 1912.
    Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Mellor & Meigs Collection.
Mellor & Meigs office, drafting room
  • E2. Western Union, 1103-13 Locust Street (built 1922, W. Welles Bosworth, architect).
    Gelatin silver print, ca. 1930.
    Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Dillon Collection (photo #460).

    A handsomely proportioned and boldly detailed building by the company's Boston-based architect. In the previous decade, Bosworth had designed the main campus for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his alma mater. After World War I he led the restoration efforts on several of the most famous French cathedrals and palaces.
Western Union, 1103-13 Locust Street
  • E3. Map of area, 1930.
    Photocomposite from Elvino V. Smith. Atlas of the 5th to 10th Wards of the City of Philadelphia… (Philadelphia, 1927 [rev. 1930]), plates 9-11, 14-16.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Map of area, 1930
  • E4. Philadelphia Savings Fund Society Building, 12 South 12th Street (built 1930-32, Howe & Lescaze, architects).
    Gelatin silver print by Harry S. Hood, ca. 1940.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.

    For an earlier view of the site, see item C15.
Philadelphia Savings Fund Society Building
  • E5a. Preliminary design for stores and parking garage for the Girard Estate, northeast corner of 12th and Chestnut streets (Ballinger Co. and Harry Sternfeld, associated architects).
    Photograph of perspective drawing, 1938.
    Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Ballinger Collection (#4839).

    Sternfeld had earlier worked with Ballinger on the Federal Court House and Post Office, two blocks to the east. For an earlier view showing the buildings of "Piano Row" on this site, see item C13a.
Preliminary design for stores and parking garage for the Girard Estate
  • E5b. Executed design for stores and parking garage for the Girard Estate (built 1939-40, Ballinger Co., architect).
    Photograph of perspective drawing, ca. 1939.
    Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Ballinger Collection (#4895).
Executed design for stores and parking garage for the Girard Estate
  • E6. South East Corner Twelfth and Locust Streets, Formerly an Oyster House -- Now (1914) Vacant.
    Watercolor by J. Riegel, Jr., 1914.
    Bryn Mawr College, gift of Joseph M. Fox, 1975.
South East Corner Twelfth and Locust Streets, Formerly an Oyster House
  • E7. 1104-12 Walnut Street.
    Photograph, 11 February 1927.
    Philadelphia City Archives (1708/ #23837).

    For an earlier view of the site, see item A3.
1104-12 Walnut Street
  • E8. The Inasmuch Mission, 1011-19 Locust Street (built 1913-14, Duhring, Okie & Ziegler, architects).
    Photo-mechanical reproduction after watercolor by Frank H. Taylor, ca. 1920s.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.

    A mission described as being located "in the very heart of a district which has been for years felicitously known as "Hell's Half acre." It was described as the project of a bishop and an "ex-bum," materially aided by a $100,000 gift from Mrs. George Woodward, heiress to the Houston estate in Chestnut Hill.
The Inasmuch Mission
  • E9. 1301-07 Pine Street.
    Photograph, 11 October 1928.
    Philadelphia City Archives (1221/ #18869).
1301-07 Pine Street
  • E10. Juniper Building, office building under construction, southwest corner Juniper and Walnut streets (built 1921-22).
    Photograph, 3 November 1921.
    Philadelphia City Archives (833/ #17905).
Juniper Building, office building under construction, southwest corner Juniper and Walnut
  • E11. 1303-21 Locust Street.
    Photograph, 12 September 1928.
    Philadelphia City Archives (903/ #25408).
1303-21 Locust Street
  • E12. 1304-10 Lombard Street.
    Photograph, 17 Oct. 1913.
    Philadelphia City Archives (923/ #7757).

    For a later view of this site, see item E20.
1304-10 Lombard
  • E13. "What do you all want to do wif dat pixture tak'en contraption . . .," view, northwest corner of Jessup and Irving streets.
    Gelatin silver print by George Mark Wilson, ca. 1923.
    Library Company of Philadelphia, Gift of Mrs. Margaret O. Sweeney, 1979.

    Wilson recorded his reply as: "madam, . . . we are interested in quaint old residences and beautiful women and desire to have the camera record both." He called the building "a good example of a skilled mechanics home . . . of 60 to 80 years ago."
view, northwest corner of Jessup and Irving streets
  • E14. Basement bedroom, 1225 Pine Street.
    Photograph, 4 September 1914.
    Philadelphia City Archives (1220/ #9243).

    Indexed at an early point under "tenements -- slums."
Basement bedroom, 1225 Pine Street
  • E15. Passage to houses within residential court, 1316 Lombard Street
    Photograph, 27 February 1930.
    Philadelphia City Archives (923/ #28290).
Passage to houses within residential court, 1316 Lombard Street
  • E16. South Street, looking east from 12th Street
    Photograph, 30 April 1930.
    Philadelphia City Archives (1476/ #28467).
    The view offers a glimpse of the varied commercial life on the South Street, and includes the Standard Theater, a home to African-American entertainers and integrated audiences from the turn of the century until it closed in 1931.
South Street, looking east from 12th Street

VERTICAL CASE

  • E17. Garage, northwest corner Juniper and Locust streets (built 1949).
    Photograph, 1959.
    Philadelphia City Archives (903/ #7305).
    For an earlier view of the site showing the Library Company's Furness-designed quarters, see item D4.
Garage, northwest corner Juniper and Locust streets
  • E18. Post-1950 Site Development, area map color-coded by building period (Historic Preservation Planning Studio, Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania, December 1999).
Post World War II Site Development
  • E19a. Robert Russell Homes, 1201-13 Lombard Street (built 1962-63, Frank Weise, architect).
    South elevation by Frank Weise.
    Courtesy of Frank Weise, Philadelphia.
Robert Russell Homes, 1201-13 Lombard Street
  • E19b. Robert Russell Homes, 1201-13 Lombard Street.
    Photograph, January 2000.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Robert Russell Homes, 1201-13 Lombard Street
  • E19c. Robert Russell Homes, 1201-13 Lombard Street.
    Typical plan by Frank Weise.
    Courtesy of Frank Weise, Philadelphia.
Robert Russell Homes, 1201-13 Lombard Street
  • E20. Casa Fermi, 1300 Lombard Street (built ca. 1964, Stonorov & Haws, architects) and The Carriage House, 1311 Lombard Street (built 1960s, Frank Weise, architect).
    Photograph, January 2000.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.

    For earlier views of this site, see items C9 and E12.
Casa Fermi, 1300 Lombard Street
  • E21. Horizon House, southeast corner 12th and Lombard streets (built ca. 1969, Francis, Cauffman, Wilkinson & Pepper, architects).
    Photograph, January 2000.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Horizon House, southeast corner 12th and Lombard streets
  • E22. Townhouses, 413-19 South 12th Street.
    Photograph, January 2000.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Townhouses, 413-19 South 12th Street
  • E23. Map of area, 1984.
    Detail from Philadelphia, axonometric view of Center City by David A. Fox (Philadelphia, 1984).
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Map of area, 1984
  • E24a. Townhouses, 206-10 South Sartain Street.
    Photograph, January 2000.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Townhouses, 206-10 South Sartain Street
  • E24b. Townhouse, 1101 Lombard Street.
    Photograph, January 2000.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Townhouse, 1101 Lombard Street
  • E24c. Slovic House, 244 South 12th Street (built 1992-95, David Slovic Associates, architects), view from northwest.
    Photograph, January 2000.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Slovic House, 244 South 12th Street
  • E24d. Houses, 1100-06 Rodman Street (built 1999-2000, Murphy Architectural Group, architect).
    Photograph, January 2000.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Houses, 1100-06 Rodman Street
  • E24e. Duplexes, 1204-12 Locust Street.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
    Photograph, January 2000.
Duplexes, 1204-12 Locust Street
  • E24f. Townhouses, 264-68 South 11th Street (Cecil Baker, architect).
    Photograph, January 2000.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Townhouses, 264-68 South 11th Street
  • E24g. Townhouses, 205-09 South Jessup Street.
    Photograph, January 2000.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Townhouses, 205-09 South Jessup Street
  • E24h. Townhouses 1134-46 South Street.
    Photograph, January 2000.
    Library Company of Philadelphia.
Townhouses 1134-46 South Street
Introduction | From Edge to Center: Movin' West | Communities | Commerce |Enclave
Persistence and Ambition in the Twentieth Century | The Cassatt House | Prospects

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