|
|
|
PHILAPHILIA Empty Lot of the Week - The Long Bastard
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
PHILAPHILIA Empty Lot of the Week — The Long Bastard
A weekly series of foul-mouthed investigations into empty lots, dead-ass proposals and other design phenomena in Philadelphia. Find more stories like this at Philaphilia.blogspot.com.
North of the entire 3000 and 3100 blocks of John F. Kennedy Boulevard
It just keeps on going!!
This lot sure is a bastard. A Long Bastard. West Philly's east-west blocks are already longer than Center City's, and this lot is as long as two West Philly blocks. That's long!! For 59 years, this parking lot has dirtied up an already dirty spot that was empty before it was even a parking lot. What a piece of dung.
In the early 19th century, the site of this block would have been described as a small part of the massive estate of the Powel family, a wealthy Welsh family that had their hands in everything, especially real estate. The parcel of land that this lot stands on was so large that it was becoming a town upon itself called Powelton. The neighborhood to the northwest still bears this name.
This map from 1808 shows the Powel property. The lot would be located just above the middle stream coming from the Schuylkill.
After the consolidation of 1854, the site of the lot, which was now part of the coterminous city/county of Philadelphia, became part of the street grid and could be described as part of Filbert Street. After 1859, the current street numbering system came into effect, making this the 3000 and 3100 blocks. A large confluence of train lines ran diagonally through the site. By the end of the 19th century, however, the streets were eliminated and the location was now part of the Powelton train yards that still operate to the north of the lot today.
The lot still rocking train lines in 1931. Most of what is in the lower half of this picture is gone now, consumed by Penn or Drexel. Image from PhillyHistory.org, a project of the Department of Records.
This use would continue for the site until 1953, when the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin built their new HQ and printing plant along the 3000 and 3100 blocks of Market Street. Filbert Street was brought back to life, but was named Pennsylvania Avenue (later renamed JFK). The area north of the new street became the empty surface parking lot as we see it today; 31st Street was never brought back, so the two-block-long lot looks like one long-ass block.
This lot has been the subject of numerous Dead-Ass Proposals over the years, so many it's hard to keep track of them all. When 30th Street Station was built, it was assumed that this area would get filled in with related development. It never happened. In the mid 20th century, UPenn had an expansion plan that included this lot. Never happened. In the 1980s, talk of decking-over the Powelton Yards and filling the area, including this lot, with skyscrapers, was all aflutter. It NEVER HAPPENED.
Today is no different. Drexel University has big plans for this lot and the area surrounding. Their current Master Plan shows them building a good-sized building on the western side of the lot by 2016:
There it is in the middle. 2012-2016? Well, 2012 is over, so don't run out of time. Build now!
So there might actually be a chance that this lot will get filled. Drexel has more future maps showing the rest of the lot getting built on after 2016, but experience tells me that you can't rely on a Master Plan after only a few years have passed. They need to get on the ball already and start building here. Instead, they seem to be knocking down buildings they already in order to replace them with new construction. The new stuff is pretty nice, but this empty lot should be a building priority. Well, what are you waiting for? Get started already!!!
This aerial view from Google is the only way to see the whole thing.
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
