Forgotten Philadelphia: Lost Architecture of the Quaker City

by Thomas H. Keels

How does a landmark become, after just a few generations, a landfill?  In Forgotten Philadelphia , Thomas Keels takes the reader through a lavishly illustrated journey through three centuries of Philadelphia's what was built, how the public perceived the value of certain buildings, and why those buildings were eventually demolished.  In writing that celebrates Philadelphia past without ever being sentimental, Keels describes a city that was always reinventing itself, filled with people who always had a very measured view of the worth and beauty of its public architecture.

Genres: Architecture, History, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published September 28, 2007

About the author

Tom Keels is the author of five published books on Philadelphia, with one work in progress:

-- Wicked Philadelphia: Sin in the City of Brotherly Love. The History Press, 2010.
-- Forgotten Philadelphia: Lost Architecture of the Quaker City. Temple University Press, 2007.
-- Philadelphia Graveyards and Cemeteries. Arcadia Publishing, 2003.
-- Philadelphias Rittenhouse Square (with Robert Morris Skaler). Arcadia Publishing, 2008.
-- Chestnut Hill (with Elizabeth Farmer Jarvis). Arcadia Publishing, 2002.
-- Rainbow Cities: Philadelphia's Three World's Fairs. Under contract to Temple University Press, 2012.

In addition, he is a lecturer, tour guide, writer, and radio commentator specializing in Philadelphia history and architecture.
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Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent survey of Philadelphia's checkered architectural history, Thomas Keels's book contains great entries on Philadelphia's most important and emblematic demolished buildings. Each entry, containing so much material on the physical and cultural history of the city in such a succinct way, becomes enigmatic and thought-provoking. Each is almost a little novel, like Feneon's three-line novels, bringing us into a complicated world by focusing on the circumstances of the creation and destruction of important buildings, monuments, and public works.

Notes:

Each entry is a compact history lesson, an intriguing short story and a heartbreaking snapshot of the architectural beauty that could have filled Philadelphia if not for "progress". Even from its earliest days, Philadelphia seems in thrall to a cheap sort of progress, so there's no sens of preserving beauty and history and culture. A rich and varied social history emerges in not only the building of the structures, but also in their destruction.

The Know-Nothing riots and church burnings stand out as significant acts of domestic terrorism, protest and conflict. Many country estates show the outrageous excesses of the rich and the ever-clinging love of Europe in all things. Ironically, the Natural Park Service's Independence Historic Site ended up destroying many more Victorian buildings than it saved early Colonial buildings, creating a homogenized, dead, sparse Old City. Philadelphia hit its peak in terms of financial and cultural relevance before the beginning of the 20th century.

Philadelphia had its own shot at Jazz Age exuberance, beautiful cinemas and apartment buildings, but it all decayed into retail space and ghettos in a few decades. Though less known for it than Chicago and New York, Philadelphia had its fair share of monstrous housing developments that bred crime on an unprecedented scale. We get an ambivalent sense of two schools of urban planning. The first would demolish all, the second would only incorporate the old into the new.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book made me feel sad although most of the buildings were demolished long before I was born but some I do recall. What is very sad about Philadelphia is that the (building) landscape is quickly changing from grand buildings into reflective window cigarette lighters and Storage Bin Modern monstrosities (some) that won't last 15 years let alone 150 years. Just recently, a local real estate guy arranged for an historically significant property (Frankford Chocolate) to be demolished and turned into more Storage Bin Modern monstrosities and that makes me feel so sad and mad at the same time. Once this was known as the City of Homes: "...Lining Philadelphia’s straight, gridiron streets, the row house defines the vernacular architecture of the city and reflects the ambitions of the people who built and lived there. Row houses were built to fit all levels of taste and budgets, from single-room bandbox plans to grand town houses. The row house was easy to build on narrow lots and affordable to buy, and its pervasiveness resulted in Philadelphia becoming the “City of Homes” by the end of the nineteenth century. As Philadelphia emerged as an industrial epicenter, the row house became synonymous with the city and was held up as an exemplar for egalitarian housing for all..." (excerpt from "The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, Row Houses by Amanda Casper) Ah, well I do go on...

DD@Phila

[Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written and illustrated history of the great buildings lost to the city of Philadelphia in the name of development. Also included are old plans to improve the city which we were fortunate enough to never see come to fruition.

[Think-On-It]

If you'd like to know what I thought of this book, please contact me directly and I'd be happy to discuss it with you.

All the best,

- TB