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| Back in 2002, I was a frequenter of the Penrose Diner, at the triangle intersection of 20th, Penrose and Moyamensing. Pretty much every Sunday, I'd leave there and see
these abandoned rowhomes on the other side of Penrose Avenue. It was the sort of thing you'd only see if you were dining at the Penrose, staying overnight at the Airport Tower Hotel (now a
Days Inn), or made a wrong turn off of the Platt Bridge or from the stadiums. One of those afternoons after a short stack with a side of pork roll, curiosity got the better of me, and what I saw I just couldn't believe. It was like someone walked into the neighborhood with a bullhorn and announced that everyone had to get the hell out -- now! -- and people did. A lot of the houses weren't boarded up so you could walk right in and see the couches and board games and magazines and cabinets with ketchup and maple syrup. And it looked like these homes, the Passyunk Homes, hadn't been lived in for over a decade. Close, but not quite. Passyunk Homes were built after World War II as temporary housing for returning GIs. Well, the 70s rolled around and all those veterans had left for the greener pastures of Chester and Gloucester Counties, and the city was a different place ... so Philadelphia Housing Authority assumed responsibility for Passyunk Homes and made them low-income oriented. Somewhere along the way -- 1962 to be exact -- there was an explosion on Hartranft Street that killed four people. For you see, there are HUGE oil refineries belonging to one of Philly's biggest corporate citizens, Sun Oil Company (Sunoco), right across 26th St (the road between 76 and 95 that crosses the Platt Bridge) from Passyunk Homes. Whether or not this caused the start of a decades long slick is up for debate, a debate that is going to court as we speak. But what IS known is that the slick was bad enough in 1996 that Passyunk Homes' 500+ existing families were told they had to move, and that PHA would help them move. Then-star shooting guard of St Joe's basketball team Marvin O'Connor's family was one of those evicted. His father died of cancer while he was at St Joe's. Whether it was related to a contaminated ground, I honestly do not know, but the Packer Park Civic Association claims that that part of South Philly's cancer rate is higher than average. So this curiosity that struck me led me back soon after with John to really check out the grounds of Passyunk Homes. We discovered the brand spankin' new rec center and office building that was completed in 1995, a year before eviction. We saw signs of life, but not the kind that realtors use to make a sell. We saw a cop who approached us with a "what in the holy fuck is the matter with you" look when he saw our cameras, advising us to be as quick with our shoot as possible so that the undesirables don't see our equipment and think "goldmine." (His words.) So here we are, Passyunk Homes, circa 2002. Google Maps' satellite imagery looks like it was taken probably late 2003, after the demolition of Passyunk Homes was complete. But the pictures which will launch by your clicking the "GO" below ... they were taken just before that. –B Love |
