Last Light
Neon’s Alive
We're nuts about vintage neon. The modern and retro stuff, not so much until we saw Rob Lybeck's photo essay on neon signs around town > more
Oh Boyd!
As of this month, the Boyd Theater has been closed for 10 years. It's not much of a showstopper on the outside, but the interior is another story and we've got the pictures to prove it > more
Truth in Advertising
A collection of some of Philly's best bar signs, vintage and otherwise. We bet you haven't seen most of these gems! > more
Back To The Future
OK, we figured you might not believe that Philly is a great city for Art Deco architecture, so we sent Laura Kicey to shoot some of the most stunning examples around town > more
Jack of All Trades
This handsome and useful Fishtown fellow has done a little of everything: fire house, Grand Army of the Republic meeting hall, post office, Army-Navy surplus store--perhaps even a speakeasy and brothel--and home to Ampere Electric for the last 62 years > more
Inside SEPTA’s “Nerve Center”
Steve Weinik gives us a glimpse inside a little known, very important, and incredibly cool corner of Philadelphia, SEPTA's multi-modal control room, the only one of its kind in the US > more
RIP, Buck, From Your Neighbor Viking Mills
With a vigil for the lost and injured firefighters and neighborhood scheduled for Sunday at 6PM, we send this offering of love > more
Up Close and Impersonal
Philly's high-rise architecture from the 1950s, 60s and 70s can be tough to like, much less love, but these buildings can have an abstract beauty when photographed from the right distance > more
Now You See Them, Now You Don’t
Building don't have souls (don't they?), but there is something ghostly about these composite photos by Andrew Evans of buildings meeting their maker > more
What the Hale is in There?
The top floors of the exuberantly ornate Hale Building have been abandoned and inaccessible for decades, and we've been wondering what's up there for at least that long. Now, at long last, we have the answer > more
Adiós, St. Boniface
Hidden City board member Bob Beaty sent along photos by Wojo Photo - Chamyang Unkow, who captures the scene on Norris Square-- > more
Another Hole In The City
In Frankford, Chandra Lampreich has a look before the final demise of Frankford Central United Methodist Church > more
Steam Punk
The Willow Street Steam Generating plant is a brooding presence on the northern edge of Center City, an asbestos-filled monster that once turned coal to steam. Follow us as we take a look inside this industrial relic, which been abandoned for more than 40 years > more
Beauty On High
In their wisdom, the architects of Center City's ornate buildings put some of their most extravagant decorations too far up to be seen from street level. We sent Rob Lybeck out to show us what we've been missing > more
Truly Divine
The Divine Lorraine is gutted now, but not so long ago its garish color combinations and haunting atmosphere were a magnet for photographers. We've put together a group show from that time--four photographers, four visions of the grand old hotel > more
Signs of the Times
The signs of Germantown Avenue in the Fairhill neighborhood in all their funny, faded, hand painted glory > more
Lunar New Year Starts With a Bang
The Mummers Parade isn't the only loud, colorful New Year's celebration on the streets of Philadelphia. Photographer Dominic Mercier captured the action in Chinatown on Sunday > more
When Banks Looked Like Cathedrals
A glimpse inside the other--and perhaps even more spectacular--abandoned bank building under the El in Kensington > more
Gone to Seed
Nature has returned to an abandoned bank in Kensington that's slated to be demolished to build affordable housing > more
“The Burg”
Introducing another potential site for the 2013 Hidden City Festival, historic Holmesburg Prison > more
Into the Light
The faded beauty of the former Fourth Reformed Church in Roxborough, through the lens of Laura Kicey > more
Paint It Black
A peek inside the former Gilbert Spruance paint factory in Port Richmond, a survivor through Philadelphia's long industrial decline that was derailed by the Environmental Protection Agency > more
Happy Holidays From Hidden City
Warm holiday wishes from all of us at Hidden City Philadelphia and the Hidden City Daily--we're thrilled to be part of the vital conversation about Philadelphia past-present-future and we hope you'll join us as a member. Each membership donation is matched by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Philadelphia Arts Challenge > more
Naval Gazing
Laura Kicey's unsettling photos of the old barracks housing at the Navy Yard, scheduled to be demolished December 27th to make way for South Port, a new multi-modal marine terminal. The suburban-style houses were used for training exercises by SWAT and demolition teams > more
Demolished Buildings of 2011, Part Two
Conkling-Armstrong Terra Cotta, Sidney Hillman Medical Center, The Spectrum, Poplar St. A.M.E. Zion, and dozens of buildings at the Frankford Arsenal: RIP > more
Demolished Buildings of 2011, Part One
Monastery of St. Clare, Shawmont Pumping Station, Crompton and Knowles Loom Works, Orinoka Mills, and Cramp Turret and Machine Shop: RIP > more
Wish You Were Here
As 2011 comes to a close, we're taking a look at some of the buildings that got demolished this year. First up, the Cramp Turret and Machine Shop in Fishtown, a majestic industrial building that was the historic Cramp Shipyard's last surviving structure > more
They Never Sing in Public
Hidden City's 2011 holiday party is being held at the memento-filled home of the Orpheus Club--a strange and wonderful holdover from the 19th century life of "Old Philadelphians" > more
Playhouse of Democracy
Introducing another potential site for the 2013 Hidden City Festival, the Uptown Theater, an Art Deco movie palace that went on to fame as Philadelphia's answer to Harlem's Apollo Theater > more
Not Long For This World
We always try to give you a peek behind locked doors and boarded up windows, in this case the soon-to-be demolished St. Boniface in Norris Square > more
American Versailles
Whitemarsh Hall was a Jazz Age palace of gargantuan proportions that stood for only six decades. Today, some of its remnants decorate a suburban subdivision built on the grounds of the estate. > more
Family Affair
We are pleased to present Stortz & Son as a potential site for the 2013 Hidden City festival. The fifth-generation company has occupied the same building in Old City since it was founded in 1853 > more
Faded Beauty
The 2013 Hidden City Festival will showcase a dozen abandoned or obscure heritage sites around Philadelphia. Germantown Town Hall might be one them > more
A Wrinkle In Time
Furness Week, final day: A look inside the Undine Barge Club and Castle Ringstetten, two Furness-designed buildings dripping with 19th century atmosphere. If you didn't attend our Furness birthday party, here's a chance to see what you missed > more
Cream of the Crop
A second helping of choice shots from Philly Photo Day. 24 hours + 900 photographers + our gritty city = some amazing images > more
Pick of the Litter
Highlights from the more than 900 submissions to last Friday's Philly Photo Day. 24 hours in the life of our city, the familiar and the strange, the sad and the beautiful. Call it photographic crowd sourcing > more
The Kelly Natatorium
Introducing our first feature previewing potential sites for the 2013 Hidden City festival. This week we take a look at the Kelly Natatorium inside the Fairmount Water Works, on the Schuylkill River just downstream from Boathouse Row > more
Halloween, Shmalloween
For our money, there's nothing haunted about Eastern State Penitentiary, but there is something haunting about the decaying prison in these photos from Laura Kicey. Enjoy > more
Look Down!
A former coal dealer's building below the Reading Viaduct holds a trove of coal and railroad company memorabilia > more
Vintage Signs: A Contest
Step right up! Signs from some of the more obscure corners of the city. Guess the location of the signs, win a prize > more
Artifacts from a Filthier Age
Photographing the boot scrapers of Center City, once a decorative and decorous way to remove mud, excrement and other undesirables from one's shoes > more
Cold Storage, Warm Light
Finding beauty in the Philadelphia Warehousing and Cold Storage Co.'s industrial architecture through the lens of Harry Byrne > more
Progress
Exploring an alley near Jewelers Row, where the ornate architecture of another era survives amid the flotsam and jetsam of the present > more
The Cliffs
Photographing the ruins of a mansion built by the merchant who created the first nautical chart of Delaware Bay > more
Typology: Shrinking Windows
As Philadelphia companies downsized, so did their factory windows--often in the most ad hoc fashion > more
What’s in a Name?
Beach Street, along the Delaware River just north of Penn Treaty Park, through the lens of Katrina Ohstrom > more
We Made Steel
Most sources say that Midvale Steel was demolished in the 80s. But two buildings remain from its original Nicetown plant, tucked away inside a SEPTA maintenance facility > more
Stone Menagerie
Form hasn't always followed function. Decoration was once king, as Rob Lybeck shows us in his photos of the creatures--some real, some fanciful--gracing buildings in Center City > more
Splendor in the Woods
Six photographers' views of the recently dismantled Shawmont Pumping Station north of Manayunk along the Schuylkill River Trail > more
Up in the Club
Documenting the early-80s nightclub inside the historic Uptown Theater on North Broad Street > more
Poor Clares: An Inside View
A photo essay documenting the interior of the Monastery of St. Clare in Francisville before nearly all of it was torn down last week > more
Warnings, Exhortations & Requests
Katrina Ohstrom documents the street signs of Kensington (plus one from Ridge Ave.) in this photo essay > more
Philadelphia Afloat
Steven Ujifusa captured a confluence of antique ships docked on the Delaware waterfront yesterday, which makes them part of Philadelphia as far as we're concerned, even though technically they were suspended above riverbed belonging to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania > more
Cramp Shipbuilding Machine and Turret Shop
Images from the many-windowed Fishtown landmark, demolished in early Spring > more
Lite Brite
The Cira Centre's LED lighting has always been the building's weakest element (garage aside) until Brad Maule, of the late PhillySkyline, worked a little camera magic > more
Underfoot
Rob Lybeck looked down to find today's photo essay. Fortunately, he found more than chewing gum, cigarette butts and hamburger wrappers > more
Delaware and Shackamaxon
A rare survivor from our city's maritime past sits empty across from the new(ish) Sugarhouse Casino. > more
Forlorn and Forgotten
Harry Byrne brings us this photo essay on Mt. Moriah cemetery pre-cleanup, when nature still held sway > more
Arsenal Remembered
Ethan Wallace's photo essay looks at the Frankford Arsenal circa 2010, shortly before demolition on the north side of the property began > more
© 2011 Hidden City Philadelphia |