(click image to enlarge)
Pt. 1 of 4
For starters, this place resembles more so an warzone than it does a historic high school. Second, we were hardly the only people on-site – but surely the only photographers. Yeah, it's a tough place to be, to say the least. The school does, however, feature a Top 5 room that I've ever been in, which alone made it all worth it. And without further ado…
THE HISTORY (in brief): As one of the oldest high schools in Philadelphia, the original Thomas A. Edison High School building was opened in 1890 as the all male Northeast Manual Training High School located at 8th Street and Lehigh Avenue. Eventually the school became Northeast High School in 1905 when the Northeast Manual Training High School moved to a new location and changed its name to Northeast High School for Boys. The auditorium was added in 1916 and in 1936 vocational education shops and many regular classrooms were added to the original building. /// Later, the school was named the Julia De Burgos Bilingual Magnet Middle School after the famous poet. It's hard to say what the status of the school currently is but this is/was the plan now/at-some-point: "For the School District of Philadelphia, SRK Architects in joint venture with Susan Maxman Architects is currently working on the historic restoration and adaptive reuse of the former Edison High School into a bilingual middle magnet school to house 1,600 students. At the center of the complex is a new 3-story atrium which links all shared spaces…" – SRK Architects
Could have been scenes from my old school, which reminds me, what was that Steely Dan song ? Anyway, wow, you've done it again... broought the goods home. Jeez, Northeast Philadelphia? Did you bring armed bodyguards? I'll bet there was other life in that place, perhaps not so savory ?
ReplyDeleteAnd just imagine if you'd bumped into the clown from the photo at my place in one of those dark corridors... he likes to travel, I keep bumping into him, or his evil cousins. Perhaps you've read Stephen King's "IT" ?
Anyway, many thanks for your messages over at my place ! Hope you've been able to dig out from under the wallop... in order to get out and enjoy the holidays...
All the best for you, and may 2010 be rich in abandoned buildings...
Indeed, the neighborhood has seen better days and boarded up blocks are abound. When we reached the rooftop, we saw someone leaving the grounds and then had a near run-in with someone else later on. I'm glad, of course, that your clown wasn't to be found.
ReplyDeleteWe're off to 'bama tomorrow but images will be loading all the while! Happy Holidays!!!
Is there security in this building? The reason I ask is that if it was anywhere in the UK everything - portable and non-portable - would have been stripped from inside the first weekend it closed. I think we have lost the capacity to cherish old things in this country. Love your photographs!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kerry. There are many places in this country that are left looking as if everyone just got up, walked out and left everything behind. It's kind of surreal, to be honest… and we keep finding more and more of them as the explorations continue.
ReplyDeletecrazy and sad it was destroyed like this..... Caught on fire today. You keep that 1904 book?
ReplyDeleteI saw the story and photos via Channel 6 about the fire, which isn't surprising with the amount of scrappers, in particular, going in and out of there doing work.
ReplyDeleteThe 1904 book was something I found online and not on the property. It would have been an amazing find amongst the thousands of books and such on (the soon to be former) site.