I have admired this row of Victorian-style houses in West Philadelphia for many years. They were built ca. 1900 across from what had been the fairgrounds for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Fairmount Park as the city expanded across the Schuylkill River, helping the area develop into a fashionable neighborhood. By the 1940s, conditions in the neighborhood had declined sharply and the structures, which had been divided into small apartments were not maintained and deteriorated badly. When I first saw the row in the late-1990s, many of the houses were in pretty rough shape, while a few had begun to be renovated. The neighborhood has continued to rebound since then, especially with the reestablishment of the Girard Avenue trolley and the move of a popular children’s museum into nearby Centennial Hall.
