A Downtown Lifetime

A few years back I found three old framed photographs in a thrift shop, with scenes of Downtown Philadelphia, time ago. Of the three, this one shows the spot that I pass through most frequently:

Looking West from the SE corner of Juniper & Market Streets.

Based on the cars and the phrase "The New 57" on the washing machine ad, this picture was taken the year I was born, 55 years ago, and I was slightly surprised that so many of the structures are unchanged.

City Hall is at left, at the end of the block with its clock partly visible. The exact spot where the old photographer stood (about 2 ft. to the left) is now occupied by a news stand.

The two tall structures that dominate the photos are both hotels, but these are their backs. The low building with the billboard on its roof disappeared at least thirty years ago (i.e. before my arrival in the city), but the older, taller ones farther along were still there with sex shops at street level until the mid-1990s.

The trolley cables and tracks are long gone, as is the concrete island on which people waited for a car.

It occurs to me that this huge empty space (now the parking lot), in the very heart of the city, exists entirely by accident and shows that the whims of business interests have always, and still do trump any intelligent or creative use the place might have been put to. Yes it's just another corner, during another lifetime, in the city.