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PHILAPHILIA: Empty lot of the week - Market Street Shitpile
Believe it or not, this shitty little pile of dirt is actually an historical site. This plot once held the Indian King Tavern, a famous inn where Benjamin Franklin would meet with his Junto, a group of the smartest motherfuckers he could find. The Indian King would later become the one of the city's earliest Masonic lodges.
PHILAPHILIA: Empty lot of the week — Market Street Shitpile
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.
VERY Empty Lot of the Week
240 Market St. — Wow, this empty lot is completely useless ... it's not even a parking lot! Situated on a fine part of Market Street, this lot hasn't seen a building in 25 years. It doesn't get much worse than this ... a perfectly good piece of land just sitting there collecting party puke and bumshit.
Believe it or not, this shitty little pile of dirt is actually an historical site. This plot once held the Indian King Tavern, a famous inn where Benjamin Franklin would meet with his Junto, a group of the smartest motherfuckers he could find. The Indian King would later become the one of the city's earliest Masonic lodges. Is that historic enough for you? NO? OK asshole, the Indian King also holds the distinction of being the first bar on Market Street, back when Market Street was called High Street. Is that enough?
The Indian King was so famous that after it was torn down in 1731, the sign that stood over the door was on display inside the building that replaced it as late as 1806. Things get historically cloudy about the lot between then and 1858, since the address numbers changed over that time. At some point in that range of dates, a massive five-story commercial building was constructed that would stand for the next century and a half. The first records of it call it the J.C. Howe Dry Goods warehouse.
1860 view from Baxter's Panoramic Business Directory.
The building would hold tenant after tenant after tenant. They seem to change every few years and primarily consist of clothing stores/factories. Joseph Shoeneman & Co. in 1895, United States Knitting Mills in 1906, Louis Biberman and Bros. in 1913, Girard Dress Company in 1920, Mesirov Trousers in 1949, the list goes on. On July 27, 1957, the building was purchased by auctioneer Julius Gordon for $1 and would become colloquially known as the Gordon Building. Gordon would run his auction house out of the building for the next 30 years.
The Gordon Building in 1972. Image from PhillyHistory.org, a project of the Philadelphia Department of Records.
On Dec. 18, 1987, a SEVEN-ALARM fire took down the building and caused $1.7 million worth of damage to surrounding buildings. It ends up Gordon was storing 55-gallon drums of kerosene in the building in order to fuel three kerosene heaters he was using to warm the building after its heating system broke. One of his employees started the fire after tipping over one of the kerosene heaters while refueling, causing the building, packed to the brim with cardboard and merchandise, to go up in a big fucking blaze that Philadelphia firefighters still talk about. One hundred sixty-six of them, using 48 pieces of large equipment, took three hours to put the massive fire out. It was one of the largest Philadelphia fires of the 20th Century. Here's a YouTube clip of the original news report:
After the fire came the Blame Game. Some blamed Gordon for keeping all that kerosene around, other blamed L&I for not being thorough enough in its inspections and follow-through. Gordon was arrested in November of 1988 and in November 1990 was sentenced to two years' probation with some fines. The remains of the Gordon Building were removed shortly thereafter, creating the Market Street Shitpile as we know it today.
All these years later, the lot is still owned by the Gordon Family and sits there looking like shit. To be fair, the family seems to be paying the lot's $3,470.98 property tax bill every year. So what the fuck are they waiting for? Sell the lot!!! Any number of things could be built here: apartments, storefronts, galleries. Shit, they should re-build the Indian King Tavern here, even though no one really knows what it looks like.
Maybe they should put up a set of giant statues of the original 12 members of Ben Franklin's Junto wearing old-timey Kung Fu outfits, kicking the shit out of a statue depicting your average Jersey Popped-Collar Douche that frequents Old City nightclubs, while Phillip Syng pours molten silver on his face. That would be an acceptable use of the space. Get to it!!
That video is amazing all around. But the best part of it might be a 1987 Jim Gardner saying it'll probably become a parking lot.— thegreengrass
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