Northeast High/Edison/Julia de Burgos, 2012 | Photo: Matthew Christopher
The former Thomas A. Edison High School at Lehigh Avenue and Seventh Street, a monumental building that was the original Northeast High School, has been all but completely stripped and is about to undergo complete demolition. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the school had been vacant since 2002.
The building, last in use as the bilingual Julia de Burgos Magnet Middle School, had become a target for scrappers and vandals. A four-alarm fire in August 2011, completely destroying the roof, solidified its reputation as an eyesore. With demolition underway, almost nothing of historic value remains inside the building.
Northeast High/Edison/Julia de Burgos, 2012 | Photo: Matthew Christopher
The site is being redeveloped through a partnership between the real estate developers Orens Brothers and Mosaic Development Partners. The Edison Square shopping center, scheduled to open in May 2014, will include a Save-A-Lot supermarket, Burger King, and Family Dollar as its commercial tenants. Phase Two of the development will see the Art Deco addition to the school, facing Somerset Street to the north, adapted for reuse as affordable housing.
Edison Square | Image: Wulff Architects
Edison Square | Image: Wulff Architects
Orens and Mosaic acquired the property from the School District several months before the fire occurred. Plans for demolition were pushed back as the developers waited to secure financing from various sources, including the Reinvestment Fund, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and the federal department of Housing and Urban Development. The use of public money in the project had also triggered a historic review of the premises through the State Historic Preservation Office.
Northeast High School, 1912 | Photo: Philadelphia Department of Records
Opened in 1905 as the Northeast Manual Training School, the building was designed by Lloyd Titus, who worked on dozens of schools as an architect for the Philadelphia Board of Public Education. The most striking feature of Titus’ stone-and-wood building was its castle-like central tower, flanked by four turrets with gargoyles radiating from all sides.
Yet the loftiness of the Gothic structure belied its original purpose: to provide free public education and vocational training to poor and working-class boys entering the industrial trades. Titus designed the school’s classrooms to be specialized learning spaces, a contrast with the multipurpose classrooms defined by divider walls that had been the previous standard in city schools. Northeast/Edison retained much of its vocational purpose throughout its history, even remaining an all-boys institution as late as 1979.
Northeast Manual was renamed Northeast High School in 1913. Amid changing demographics and heightened racial tensions, the school moved to its present location at 1601 Cottman Avenue–an area now associated with the “true” geographic Northeast, then a fast-developing community where white families had been flocking following the Second World War. The old school, which became Edison, was stripped of its connection to Northeast High.
Edison would also come to find its premises too outdated and relocate in 1988, to its current locale at Front and Luzerne Streets (now known formally as the Thomas A. Edison High School and John C. Fareira Skills Center).
Perhaps most significant in Edison’s narrative is its grim relationship to the war in Vietnam, a conflict which–much like those that have succeeded it–revealed how disproportionately America’s enlisted services drew from the ranks of the poor. Fifty-four Edison alumni perished in Vietnam, the most of any high school in the country.
Vietnam memorial, Edison Square | Image: Wulff Architects
A memorial to honor the Edison alumni will be erected at the entrance to the shopping center. (The present Edison/Fareira has a memorial on its premises as well.) The design for Edison Square gestures towards the Gothic stone figure of the school, although much of it will be new stonework. A spokesman for Mosaic Partners could not confirm how much, if any, original stone from the school would be included in the monument.
Photographer Matthew Christopher, of the website Abandoned America, calls Edison “easily the best of all the schools I have been to.” For his complete photo essay on the building, click HERE. Christopher made his first visit to the school in 2007, a time, he says, when much within the classrooms, hallways and auditorium were still surprisingly intact. He returned late last year (after the blaze) to find much of it gone, little more than a husk. His photos, both before and after, capture those elements frozen in time in the midst of decay, in the form of open textbooks, chairs, curtains, and details from murals and mosaics.
Edison/Julia de Burgos Magnet Middle School, 2007 | Photo: Matthew Christopher
Edison/Julia de Burgos Magnet Middle School, 2007 | Photo: Matthew Christopher
Edison will be remembered not only for its architectural grandeur, says Christopher, but also for what it stood for: “a huge symbol of the commitment to public education and the American Dream,” he says, “that belief that regardless of your caste background you can rise above. To see that building in that condition…is heartbreaking.”
Edison/Julia de Burgos Magnet Middle School, 2007 | Photo: Matthew Christopher
Northeast High/Edison/Julia de Burgos, 2012 | Photo: Matthew Christopher
Edison’s gargoyles will be removed and live on at another site, while salvage efforts led by the Philadelphia Salvage Company are attempting to preserve the most important pieces of the school’s interior. Soon, the final pieces of that symbol of a forgotten American Dream–the stones themselves–will bid adieu to Lehigh Avenue.
Edison/Julia de Burgos Magnet Middle School, 2007 | Photo: Matthew Christopher
Northeast High/Edison/Julia de Burgos, 2012 | Photo: Matthew Christopher
Edison/Julia de Burgos Magnet Middle School, 2007 | Photo: Matthew Christopher
Edison/Julia de Burgos Magnet Middle School, 2007 | Photo: Matthew Christopher
Northeast High/Edison/Julia de Burgos, 2012 | Photo: Matthew Christopher
Northeast High/Edison/Julia de Burgos, 2012 | Photo: Matthew Christopher
Sometimes it’s really hard to love this city.
Amazing pictures, Matthew Christopher is a wonderful keeper of the past
This is just SAD .i don’t think I’m wrong to wonder if that fire was part of a plan . You don’t have to fight a case fore preservation if there’s nothing to preserve . Once again where we’re the historical groups who say they want to PRESERVE great buildings ? M.I.A. Lots of talk , not much else . That structure was perfect for lofts and condos when it was shut down . Can you imagine what could have been if tax abatements had been applied
to reusing that gem ? I pass that structure every day I work it I swear I’m just gonna cry when it’s gone.
And what does Philly get to replace it ? A save a lot and a burger joint ! WOW ISN’T THAT GREAT ? Cousins
supermarket is just down the street so the area isn’t in need of more markets . Germantown ave is just blocks away so this just speeds up it’s decline . If they had reused that beauty that wood have stopped the decline .
Another ugly strip mall where once stood a grand structure . JUST #%£€¥ GREAT !
Thats very deep Rich
I taught English at Edison from 1964-1976. Some of my most wonderful teaching memories are of those years. there were some wonderful teachers and really good kids. It is sad that the building is being demolished.
I graduated from Edison in June 1969. I checked my yearbook but your name/photo was missing. I recall having Mrs. Roberta Hubbard for 9th grade English. I was the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper (The Flash), and Mr. George Tittle was my faculty advisor. I also worked with Mr. Don Farley, who was the faculty advisor for the yearbook.
Was Michael Huger ever in your class?
Hi. I think this is where my grandfather taught? Did you know Herb Wyllner? He retired around 1965 . He taught at the original Northeast High and I’m not sure this is the same school?
Regards
Kathy yeager
I just want to buy year books for Thomas A. Edison Hihg School for 1976 and 1977.
Hi, I was wondering if you know how can I get my high school diploma. I graduated in 1976 from Edison High School. I wonder if I had you as my English teacher.
I grauduated June 1958 and would like to get a year book or copy
Im a old head from fairhall school. went to The Old Edison. I live since 1965. Around the old Edison. I use to play half ball. Around the old Edison.
Your lack of background information is as sad as the pictures. Yes, the building itself was a marvel. You got that right. But, what went on in those hallways and classrooms over the years – GOOD and bad – is missing. “Half the teachers could not do basic math in the 1990’s”…what????
A school is about people (students,teachers,community)-not bricks and cement. I taught there during its transition to a middle magnet school and your comments about basic math and rats is way off. All stories involving the BADLANDS begin and end with d r u g s. Your photography far outshines your commentary…in my opinion.
I remembered performing on that stage for a musical.. when it was bilingual middle school. So sad to see it demolished. Year was either 1995 or 1996.
I remember the riot that took place after word of Martin Luther King’s assassination. It was not a good experience for a white boy. After fleeing to escape being beaten, as the cops sate in their squad doing nothing to help the white kids being beaten, I told my parents that I would not go back their. That would have been the end of my education. They moved, so that I could finish high school. Prejudice is not only white toward black thing. The few white boys that went to Edison when I attended live in a constant state of fear. We were beaten and robbed routinely. I also remember Aaron, who the gym one day told some black ‘kids’ to leave us alone – putting himself at risk. I was white, Aaron was not. Thank You Aaron; I forget you not. Joe Williams
I was a graduate at Thomas A. Edison, in 1966. I remember when John Fariera was my gym teacher.
After graduating from Thomas A Edison in 1983 i moved from Philadelphia. Went back to visit and just could not believe they tore the school down. Great memories in that school.
My name is Ernie Lowe and I graduated in 1966 and NONE of my white classmates were in fear or beaten. We took care of each other, that’s the Edison that I remember. I bleed green and gold. Forever
My name is Tyrone Johns and I graduated in 1966. A lot of my classmates Sacrificed the Ultimate, the Viet Nam memorial will be a nice touch. I’ll never forget by days attending Edison, Green and Gold, always.
I’m Frank Jones,I graduated from Edison in 1966.during my time there Edison was one of the most respected and feared schools in Philadelphia.we were a very diverse school there were Asians,blacks,whites and Latinos .we all bleed green and gold.at the first assembly we attended DR.Clark(D.C)said to us we don’t have white boys,we don’t have colored boys,we don’t have Latin boys,we don’t have Asian boys all we have is boys.like my brother Ernie said we took care of each other.don’t f—k with us there was a price to pay if you did.Edison mambo baby.
I I hadgraduatrd in 1969 I had no trouble with other students I enjoyed eduson
John c Farris the best principle
Class off 81good time.
Your article says 54. It’s Edison 64. Some of us won’t let them forget.
I teach at the “new” Edison, since 2014.
I hear you on the bleeding green and gold.
Most students believe that- and for those who don’t, what can/ should we do? I’m asking the experts, not the naysayers
Hay green and gold grad65how about the guys who went on after graduation to become singer 1 teddy pendergrass rest in peace.