That doesn't suck. I've spent enough time in small places to know how valuable that can be.

Now what's up with the cemetery building?

That's the Norman Castellated Brownstone cemetery gate (Stephen Decatur Button, 1855). The cemetery "closed" in 2011, and was in a strange circumstance, having no identified owner. There are now a corporation and a "Friends of" group attempting to maintain the cemetery and at least stabilize the gatehouse. It's suffered decades of neglect.

Thanks for the info. What an interesting place.

Mount Moriah? I've also only seen pics. Wow.

Did you at least get your ID?

Interesting photos, both of them. I had never heard about the first (the Cemetery). The bathroom…I’m amazed it is even as big as it is, allowing for a separated toilet. Do you think other alterations were made to accommodate this?

It's possible that they made this change at some point eliminating a linen closet or something, but the frames seem kind of beat up, like it's not recent. These bathrooms are usually very tight.

I did at least get my ID. When I got on the right route it was actually very easy and not much of a walk. I made sure I had every bit of paperwork I would need and more. Coincidentally my dad had lived out here when he went to Penn almost 70 years ago. It was pretty much working class white back at that point and he lived in a house where a widow rented rooms, and took the trolley to Penn.

But, how did you happen to be inside?

These are listing photos. I look at local real estate every day and I recognized the street name and general appearance because I had just been out there

Here's another picture of the bathroom. That sink is very small, there was probably a really small wall basin originally, and the door overlaps the bathtub.

Heh. It's HouzzGray.

Sorry it was so difficult to get the real ID. Here (northern VA) any DMV can do it for you. Easy peasy.

What an interesting cemetery. The propped up walls, leaning headstones and all the birds add just the right touch - it would made a great movie location. That doesn't sound like a pleasant way to spend your afternoon - and it was hot and humid yesterday. There isn't a location in Center City where you could get your Real ID? It took me less time than that to drive 30 miles to the airport to get my Global Entry/TSA cards and return home. But I think I was just lucky.

I've never seen attached ranchers like that but I do remember flying into Philly in the early 1970's to interview for positions here. I took a cab from the airport to Center City and I was rather surprised at the depressed areas we drove through. I don't know if he was correct but the driver told me that it was old military housing and they're rented to low income families.

That housing along the expressway is all gone, replaced with new subsidized housing. I was across the river from that.

@maire_cate

The expressway went past the Tasker Homes public housing project. This had followed the typical public housing project trajectory. There is newer subsidized housing there now. It's still not a great location with the refineries and such right there.

Please tell me you photo-shopped the ravens in the top picture.

Pal - thanks for finding the photos.

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I couldn't remember the name of the neighborhood but it certainly left an impression on my first visits to Philly. I always thought it was a shame that the main entrance to the city from the airport went past the refineries and the projects. The highlight of the trip was the mothballed fleet at the Naval Shipyard but even that has changed as older ships are sold or salvaged.

It's fascinating to see how the older neighborhoods evolve. According to the historic portion of the Phila. Atlas my DD's condo in Northern Liberties was a carpet factory in 1860, by 1895 it was a hat manufacturer and slaughter house. It sat vacant for years until a developer purchased the complex and converted it into condos.

Actually that's not my picture of the cemetery, but the cemetery needs no atmosphere added to the pictures.

When I moved here (mid 80s) I was thoroughly unimpressed at how ugly it was. There were no skyscrapers taller than city hall yet, city hall tower was black and covered with scaffolding they could not afford to remove. They Bellevue Stratford was reopened but not redeveloped, and closed again in 1986, and there were two gas stations, public housing towers, a number of surface parking lots, the abandoned Ridgway Library all on the main street within a few blocks of City Hall, and that was on the good side of City Hall. Then in 1991, while I was not living here, the Meridian Plaza Fire right across from City Hall--which was not torn down until 1999.

Northern Liberties started to take off in the 1970s but it never really had much traction until close to 2000. I can remember walking up there in the 1980s and not seeing a single person for blocks at a time. I had a friend who lived in an Actual loft there in the early 1990s and there were lots of shells and empty lots. By actual loft I mean completely un-redeveloped factory space with very steep stairs, a manual freight elevator and a rudimentary bathroom and kitchen put in it so it was legally habitable.

When I moved here (mid 80s) I was thoroughly unimpressed at how ugly it was.

Amen to that. We moved here (to the suburbs) at the same time. The changes in the city since then have been extraordinary, although sadly confined to only certain parts.

The Meridian fire was in my husband's office building (thankfully at night, but three firefighters died).

Maire-Cate, when we were kids and traveling to or from the airport or Scott Paper headquarters where my dad worked, we called that area (with the refineries) stinky town.

I know a couple people who grew up in throwing distance of this sort of stuff

DH moved here the summer before we married and lived in the old Croydon apartments at 48th and Spruce because it was the cheapest place he could find near school. It wasn't even an efficiency - one room, one bathroom, a hot plate and small refrigerator. It wasn't the worst part of the city but one day while sitting in a deli having lunch 2 fellows came in and robbed the cashier. As they were leaving the Sunshine bread man came in carrying large plastic trays of bread and blocked the door. They panicked, shot and killed him as they fled. When he called that night to tell me about it I just keep thinking that this is the City of Brotherly Love and I'm moving there. When I was hired by the Free Library I was assigned to the NE Regional on Cottman Ave and I found an apartment near the Shriners Hospital on the Blvd. It seemed safer but blandly sterile.

Ah Cyn - the aromas of the city. When we lived off Roosevelt Blvd in NE Philly there were times the aroma of baking cookies floated over the neighborhood from the Nabisco factory. Then if we drove further north you might drive right into the horrendous stink of whatever chemical they were manufacturing at Rohm and Haas in Bristol.

I lived at 48th and Pine. The block was nice, actually picturesque but at that time that was the western boundary in that area. The supermarket at 48th b/t Spruce and Pine must have been getting stuff getting too close to expiration from a better neighborhood, because the frozen stuff that partially thawed and re-frozen appearance. On the rare occasion I took the subway to 46th and Market I used to more or less run until Walnut. If there was a car obviously abandoned (say partly up on the curb or very illegally parked) after about a day or so there would usually be someone calmly stripping it of parts.

And now they're stealing catalytic converters from parked cars in under 5 minutes.

I just clicked on the map and I had the streets wrong - I was close but the The Croydon was 49th and Locust. It was empty for many years and had become a haven for drug users and squatters. It's been totally renovated and according to the website the "Croydon is nestled in the garden district of western university city." I've only been back to West Philly a few times since we moved out of the city but we were on Penn's campus.