The sign in the window of 523 references Carpenter's Machinery Company, located on North Third Street. In 1986, when I started my woodworking company, Carpenters was still in business on Third. I bought my first bandsaw there, and it's still operating in my shop 40 years later. Third Street used to have a cluster of machinery dealers and industrial suppliers, sadly all gone now except for one: AA Abrasives, at No. 121. It's still a nice street if you like hipster retail and dining.

The look of the street is very typical of Philadelphia commercial architecture in the 19th century. If you want to see good examples of that style, unpolluted by modern additions, go to Cincinnati. I was just there last week and much of the Over The Rhine neighborhood still looks like this.

The pipes, valves and fittings supplier is still in business today:

https://www.cooneybrothers.com/resources/roller/cooney-brothers-celebrat...

This block is now the home of the National Constitution Center. I'll keep my political comments on this to myself.

No mistaking the one and only 1957 Chevrolet out front!

My searching eye was immediately drawn to 527, the tallest-kid-in-class of the group.

It had an inauspicious start: during construction for the Collins Co. (a paper company) in 1881 it assaulted its neighbor:

After that it seems to have settled down, and relations with the neighbors, if maybe not on the level of besties, nevertheless managed to stay out of the papers. Eventually it came to be acquired by Tinkler and Co, a maker of urinals floor coverings, whose name seems to grace the window in the picture seen here.