


Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.

Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.
[REV 25-NOV-2014]

June 1959. "North and east elevations, George Gordon Building, 300 Arch Street (southwest corner of Third and Arch), Philadelphia. Present owner: Religious Society of Friends. Building vacant, awaiting demolition." 5x7 inch acetate negative by Cervin Robinson for the Historic American Buildings Survey. View full size.
What were these buildings replaced with?
[Check the Street View below -- it was replaced with nothing. -- Dave]
One of my cousins was a truck driver. Once I asked him whether it was true that truckers knew the best places to eat. He said they usually just ate where it was easy to park.
I’ve never had the chance to visit Philly myself, but I’ve been a long-time fan of the photos posted here. It’s always haunting to see these shots from 1959—knowing the building was just sitting there vacant, waiting for the wrecking ball, despite that incredible cornice and detail. It’s crazy to see how much of our city history vanished during those 'urban renewal' years. We’re really lucky that people like Cervin Robinson were out there documenting these buildings before they were gone for good. Thanks for sharing this one, Dave!

Their ubiquity makes them all but invisible to someone who never learned to drive, but I just noticed that the design and fonts of the "ONE WAY" and "NO PARKING ANY TIME" signs haven't changed in all these years.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5