Last Light
Light Filters Down Below
Photographer Jessie Fox found herself down below, in an abandoned subway station; here's what she saw > more
Benediction At St. John The Evangelist
Demolition on St. John the Evangelist begins on Monday. John and Joan Pettit, longtime parishioners of the church, share their experience there, and Chris Dougherty brings us this photo essay of the church before the salvaging began and the wrecking ball came > more
A First Visit, A First Year: The Barnes On The Parkway, A Photo Essay
Accompanying Ben Leech to preview the Ellsworth Kelly exhibition, Brad Maule makes his first visit to the Barnes Foundation on the Parkway. This photo essay presents his first impressions > more
Stories In The Ash
On Saturday, a small late 19th century factory burned--another "warehouse fire." But it was more, of course. We have a little history and some photos to give you a peek inside > more
Hangin’ With The Ghosts Under City Hall
Riding shotgun with Sam Robinson on the City Hall basement beat, Brad Maule lugs his camera and tripod through narrow corridors and dank dungeons for this set of unusual photos of the oft-photographed building > more
There’ll Never Be Another U
As the window appears to close on the opportunity for saving the SS United States, Chandra Lampreich squeezes through for a spectacular look at the spectacular ship > more
Remembering Buck, One Year Later
After a year of coping with the loss of the Buck Hosiery mill and two firefighters who died trying to put out the fire that brought it down, the city's would was ripped open again over the weekend in Fabric Row. Theresa Stigale remembers Buck with these photos taken in that fire's cleanup > more
A Moment For Atonement
Another Furness church is likely going the way of the dodo. Brad Maule took his camera there to bid it a proper farewell, just in case > more
Mechanics, Manifested: Phila U’s DEC Center In Photos
Philadelphia University's DEC Center takes a strong stance on unusual—just like the college it's built for. Brad Maule profiles the building in a mini-photo essay > more
Goldtex: A Retrospective/Encore
As Goldtex marches toward the finish line, Theresa Stigale and Ethan Wallace bring us another look at photos they took on visits there in 2003 and 2009, respectively > more
Wrong Side Of The Tracks: Newkirk Viaduct Monument In Photos
Brad Maule joins Brad Peniston in dusting off a 175 year old public artwork that stands mysteriously next to a seriously active railroad trunk in Southwest Philadelphia > more
I Like To Be Here When I Can
Three and a half years after moving to Portland, Oregon, Brad Maule realized he missed his Philly skyline. So he's back, and he's on board with Hidden City > more
The Architecture Of Overbrook Farms: A Portrait
What's at stake in the battle to make Overbrook Farms an historic district on the Philadelphia Register? Join us for this photo essay and find out > more
There’s No Beauty Like St. Bonaventure
And nothing so vulnerable, either. Photographer Chandra Lampreich takes us inside > more
What’s In An Odonym?
Out of use street names hover like ghosts of a city that once was. Peter Woodall takes us on the candlelit tour > more
There’s A World Going On Underground
Tom Waits was right--there is a world going on underground, and Brendan Clinch has explored a good portion of what lies beneath Philadelphia, from sewers to train tunnels to abandoned subway stations > more
One Place, Six Photographers
Our photo workshop in November produced some stunning images, which isn't surprising, since several regular contributors to the Daily were on hand and the locations were particularly evocative. This definitely isn't student work! > more
The Phantom Station
The trains don't stop anymore at the Spring Garden subway station on SEPTA's Broad-Ridge spur, but one of our intrepid photographers managed to take a closer look, and brought back this photo portrait > more
Still A Beauty
Last moments for the Church of the Assumption? With demolition permitted beginning tomorrow, Photographer Chandra Lampreich takes us inside today > more
24 Hours In The Life Of The City, Part Two
All 1,800 images from Philly Photo Day will be displayed Thursday at the Crane Arts Building. We've got a sneak preview of some of the most arresting images, which were all shot on Oct. 26th. > more
America’s Oldest Yarn Mill: A Portrait
125 years of industrial history had accumulated at the Wilde Yarn textile mill in Manayunk by the time it closed in 2008. A group of photographers documented that rich legacy this summer before it was dismantled. Here's what they saw. > more
24 Hours In The Life Of The City
Twenty four hours and 1,800 photos add up to one heck of a portrait of Philadelphia. We've selected some of the most arresting images from last month's Philly Photo Day for this exclusive sneak preview > more
In The Neighborhood, Defying Labels
Jessie Fox spent more than a year photographing the neighborhood lately dubbed "Templetown." Her photos, published for the first time here, document a rich vein of community life > more
Unmitigated Beauty
On Day Four of Furness Week, we've got a luscious photo essay featuring one of Furness's remaining masterpieces, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Plus we took a side trip up to the attic above the skylights--it doesn't like Grandma's! > more
A Haunting Place
For Halloween, we're taking a visit back to the now-demolished Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry, an institution with a black history that later was much-beloved by urban explorers > more
Find The (Most) Signs, Win A Prize!
We've collected some of the best vintage signs from around Philadelphia. Think you know the city inside out? Here's a chance to test your knowledge > more
Memorials Of Brick
In Philadelphia, smokestacks were once the most prominent feature of the skyline, competing only with church spires for dominance of the horizon. They towered above every mill, factory, and plant, rising hundreds of feet into a smog choked sky > more
The Metropolitan Opera House Revisited
Eric Blumenfeld, who recently purchased the former Divine Lorraine hotel, is now talking about helping to restore the Metropolitan Opera House. We've got photos of the bedraggled North Broad Street beauty taken this summer, plus a few dug out from the archives of the 2009 Hidden City Festival > more
A Subway Stop in Bloom
The Spring Garden subway station gets an art installation worthy of its name > more
A Goodbye Look At The Ortlieb’s Brewery
We explore the soon-to-be demolished Ortlieb's Brewery complex on 3rd and Poplar Streets in this photo essay > more
At Broad & Arch, Views From A Still Forgotten Tower
The 1929 Liberty Title & Trust tower--the only building on the block not to succumb to the wrecking ball--seems like a certain future hotel. But a year and a half after the opening of the expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center, it remains empty > more
New Life for the Logan?
Philadelphia's movie palaces have not fared well over the past 50 years. All but a few dozen have been torn down and nearly all the ones that are left are in rough shape. Somehow the Logan managed to survive, and thanks to the efforts of a local doctor, it's in surprisingly good condition > more
Greetings From…Park(ing) Day 2012…Wish You Were Here
Photographer Dominic Mercier set out to hit all 49 Park(ing) Day parks. He didn't make it everywhere, but he sent us these... > more
Northern Liberties Then & Now
Northern Liberties has changed so much lately that even 10 years ago seems like a distant era. Join us as we take a dip via photo essay into the semi-recent past, when rotting factories and vacant lots still dotted the neighborhood > more
Almost Heaven On The Eighth Floor
As the former refrigerated warehouses at Delaware Avenue and Beach Streets become the "Waterview Grande" apartments, Ethan Wallace remembers another recent use: the Eighth Floor nightclub, which closed in 2003. Here's the interior of the club, empty and silent--a memory > more
The View Inside (And Out) The Dazzling Ship
Matthew Christopher takes us on a photo tour of the SS United States, the subject of a new book by Steven Ujifusa. Here's the stripped down ship in all its massive glory > more
Jebney Lewis and the Commotion Festival Super Creature
In collaboration with young people in three Philly neighborhoods, artist Jebney Lewis has created a Frankenstein-like 20-ft-tall sculpture called Super Creature of Energy and Power. Lee Tusman talks with the artist about temporary installations, artistic collaborations, and Voltron. > more
Still More Silence Inside The Mount
You wanted more Mt. Sinai Hospital and we deliver with this photo essay by Chandra Lampreich. As an extra bonus, a vintage 2006 Philly skyline taken from the hospital's roof--"the top of the mount" > more
In The Silence Of Mt. Sinai
Shadowbat takes us inside the empty corridors of Mt. Sinai Hospital, whose developers report some progress toward eventual reuse > more
Anything But Sober
The 19th century beer barons of Philadelphia built breweries that looked more like castles than factories. For our third and final Beer Week installment, we visit the suitably ornate yet sadly vacant Rieger & Gretz Brewery on Germantown Avenue, which a neighborhood group hopes to put on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places > more
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, at 409 N. 13th Street, 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 Fishtown landmark, Cramp Shipbuilding Machine and Turret Shop. It was demolished in early Spring of 2011. > 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
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