Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

GoldenMonkeyRedux t1_j5r0q8n wrote

Actually, there is a big caveat: Penn and Drexel did literally eminent domain the “black bottom” which was a formerly wealthy neighborhood between 32nd and 40th or so. The wealthy moved further west into places like Spruce Hill and the area became a neighborhood for low-income African Americans who were discriminated against elsewhere. The city declared the area blighted and the universities grabbed it.

The 3400 block of Sansom is basically all that exists of the original architecture. Urban renewal was a bitch.

2