Old City was a very different place in the 1970's as evidenced by photos taken then. Very few people lived in Old City, but Market St was...

The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized bank in the US. It was chartered in February 1816, handled all...

Built between 1846 and 1848, St. James the Less is the first pure example of a Medieval Gothic Parish Church in the United States. The...

The John Stortz & Son machine shop at 210 Vine St. was founded in 1853, and the fifth generation of the Stortz family is still making...

312-14 Race St dates to 1831 and operated as a hotel, tavern or restaurant throughout most of it's history. In the late 1800's it...

Peter A.B. Widener (1834-1915) was born in Philadelphia to a poor family and trained as a butcher. He made his first small fortune by...

You may be wondering, why pick a seemingly random year to look back at our neighborhood. 1914 was the year WWI began. It as also the...

Rusting away at the edge of center city is the Willow St. Steam Plant. Built at 9th & Willow St. in 1927 by Philadelphia Electric...

Demolition and construction will likely be starting soon on a new project at 207 - 11 Vine St. 207 Vine is a parking lot. 209 Vine St...

The 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery was the first protest against enslavement of Africans made by a religious body in the...

At the corner of Broad and Fairmount Streets in North Philadelphia is a building that is historically significant on a number of...

At one time, the Market-Frankford line (The El) had a branch that ran south on Delaware Ave. down to South St. The Delaware Avenue El...

In the 19th century, paving city streets was considered the most important civic improvement for the modernization of American cities,...

Over the past 100+ years the city has seen a number of interesting vehicles for specialized uses. Here are a few examples... 1910...

The building at 313-315 Vine Street at the corner of N. Orianna Street was built in 1899 and was the Philadelphia location of the Charles...

You can still see the faded sign (1st photo) for Leas and McVitty Incorporated Oak Tanners on the side of the building on Vine St., just...

In 1896, Philadelphia initiated a waterfront improvement project to widen Delaware Ave from 50' to 150' and construct piers at the ends...

Few people today know that there used to be an island in the the Delaware River between the downtown areas of Philadelphia and Camden....

Henry Wilbur, a Vineland, N.J. hardware store owner, teamed up with Philadelphian Samuel Croft in 1865 to manufacture candy and...

The corner property at 318 N. Lawrence Street dates back to around 1920. Originally housing the General Express shipping company (1st B...