A few nice pennsylvania real estate images I found:
Looking SW at 7th St NW - Chinatown - DC
Image by Tim Evanson
Looking southwest at the west side of 7th Street NW in Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown. All of these buildings are owned by local real estate developer Douglas Jemal. Just to the left is a big Greek Revival building. That's the National Portrait Gallery, which gives Gallery Place its name.
D.C.'s Chinatown was established in 1884. But it wasn't where it is now.
The original Chinatown existed along the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue between 4th and 7th Streets, with the heaviest concentration of residences and businesses near where 4th Street, C Street, and Pennsylvania Avenue met. This was the site of Center Market. Back in the days before refrigeration and corporate ownership of food distribution, people around the United States shopped at privately or publicly owned farmer's markets. D.C.'s food markets were almost all privately owned, and suffered from poor hygiene. Shopping for food meant hoping you didn't come down with the hershey-squirts from the diseases your food would be infected with. The city itself decided to act by building a state-of-the-art market, complete with running water, ice house, and mechanical refrigeration. This was Center Market, and it was so immensely popular that nearly all the downtown trolley lines converged there.
Chinese and other Asian immigrants began moving into the area around Center Market in noticeable numbers as early as 1880. By 1884, the area was known as "Chinatown." As many as 15,000 people lived there. That's an astonishing number, considering that most buildings were only two or three stories high. People were just jammed into Chinatown.
D.C.'s original Chinatown existed as a vibrant community until 1935. Interestingly, throughout the 1800s, the federal government was so small that it could be housed in just five or six three-story office buildings. By 1900, however, it was clear that the federal government needed to grow. In 1926, Congress finally approved construction of six new massive federal office buildings. After two years of discussion, it was decided that the area south of Pennsylvania Avenue had to be totally torn down and these new office buildings constructed there. That was the beginning of Federal Triangle -- the largest conglomeration of federal office buildings anywhere in the country. The first buildings constructed were the Department of Commerce, the Internal Revenue Service building, and the Labor/ICC building (now the headquarters of the EPA). At first these buildings just uprooted the brothels, criminal hideouts, and gambling dens that formed D.C.'s infamous Murder Bay. But as Federal Triangle construction moved eastward, Chinatown had to go. Construction of the National Archives and the Apex Building (which houses the Federal Trade Commission) forced Chinatown to move.
Chinatown had a very well-organized community, however, composed of business leaders, religious leaders, politicians, and well-respected citizens. They quite literally looked for a place in the city where everyone could move together -- lock, stock, and barrel. They chose the current location on H Street NW.
At its peak, the "new" Chinatown extended from G Street NW north to Massachusetts Avenue NW, and from 9th Street NW east to 5th Street NW. But this only lasted for about 50 years. The 1968 riots which came after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. caused many businesses to flee downtown D.C. Chinatown's businesses, too, fell on hard times and many of them closed. Wealthy and middle-class Asian citizens fled for the suburbs, leaving many houses and apartments unoccupied. A mainstay of the community was the OCA Bank, but when it closed Chinatown emptied even further.
Chinatown was saved when the Gallery Place Metro station (Blue and Orange lines) opened in 1976. Determined to save Chinatown as a tourist attraction, in 1986 the city authorized the construction of the Friendship Archway, a million traditional Chinese gate designed by local architect Alfred H. Liu. Symoblizing not only Chinatown but D.C.'s "sister city" status with Beijing, the Friendship Arch is the largest freestanding traditionally constructed Chinese-style arch anywhere in the world.
But Chinatown now is in serious decline. In 1993, Abe Pollin built the MCI Center on two whole city blocks bounded by 6th and 7th Streets NW and F and H Streets NW. The arena opened in 1997, and was renamed the Verizon Center after Verizon purchased the near-bankrupt MCI communications company.
In 1999, wealthy regional real estate investors built a vast new 13-story mixed-use shopping and housing complex over the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station. Gallery Place (the building) opened in the fall of 2004. It not only revitalized Chinatown, but revitalized the entire East End. Extensive construction began throughout the area as consumers, tourists, and young people flooded the area. Huge swaths of Chinatown were renovated and turned into restaurants, trendy bars, and up-scale shops.
Unfortunately, this caused rents to skyrocket, and pushed most of the Chinese population of D.C's Chinatown into Maryland and Northern Virginia. The Da Hua market, the last full-service Chinese grocery, closed in 2005. The D.C. Office of Planning created a "cultural redevelopment plan" aimed at bringing Chinese food street vendors back to the area and building an Asian-American international business center. But that was in 2008, and nothing has been implemented as of 2012.
The huge video screens, bright neon lights, trendy stores, and fast-food restaurants (like Chopt, Fuddruckers, TGI Friday's, Chipotle, etc.) draw hundreds of rowdy teenagers to Chinatown. The area is now rife with crime, and D.C. Police, D.C. Housing Police, and anti-gang detectives constantly work and patrol the area to stop street brawls between rival gangs. The Gallery Place metro station is the worst in the system for crime (largely stolen iPods, wallets, and cell phones). Many teens hang out on the steps of the National Portrait Gallery, a block south of this intersection -- taunting one another, eating food from McDonald's, and planning thefts.
I kid you not.
Chinatown has been called "D.C.'s Times Square." It has become a terrible problem.
The National Portrait Gallery occupies the Old Patent Office Building. The Patent Office Building was designed by architect Robert Mills in the Greek Revival style. The porticos were modeled on the Parthenon of Athens. This was a major departure in D.C, where previously public buildings had been based on Roman and Renaissance structures. Construction began in 1836, and was complete in 1862. (United States patent law back then required inventors to submit scale models of their inventions, which were retained by the Patent Office and required housing.) It was only the third federal office building in the city.
During the Civil War, the building served as a military barracks, hospital, and morgue. Walt Whitman worked there as a nurse. It served as the venue for Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Ball in 1865.
The building continued to be occupied by the Patent Office until 1932. It housed the Civil Service Commission until 1953. A street-widening in 1936 sliced away the monumental stairs of the south portico (one of the worst building mutilations in the city's history). The building was due to be demolished in favor of a parking lot, but President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation in 1958 giving it to the Smithsonian Institution. It sat empty until 1964. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965. After a four-year renovation, the museum opened in the Old Patent Office Building in 1968.
The building was closed again for extensive renovations in 2000. Warren Cox and Mary Kay Lanzillotta of Hartman-Cox Architects in Washington, D.C., oversaw the renovation, which included the design of several new interior spaces and a massive new atrium. When it reopened in 2006, new additions included revamped gallery space, and the Kogod Courtyard -- an interior atrium with a canopy designed by Foster and Partners and Buro Happold. The renovated museum was named one of the "new seven wonders of the architecture world" by Condé Nast Traveler magazine.
Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA
Image by dbking
Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Laurel Hill Cemetery, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the second major rural garden cemetery in the United States and one of the few cemeteries in the country designated as a National Historic Landmark.
John Jay Smith, a librarian and editor with interests in horticulture and real estate who was distressed at the way his deceased daughter was interred in a Philadelphia churchyard, founded Laurel Hill in 1836. He and some other prominent citizens decided to create a rural garden cemetery five miles north of Philadelphia that was viewed, at the time, as a safe haven from urban expansion and that would be a respite from the increasingly industrialized city center.
Famous Revolutionary War figures were initially relocated to Laurel Hill Cemetery to increase its cache including Continental Congress secretary Charles Thomson; Declaration of Independence signer Thomas McKean; Hugh Mercer, hero of the Battle of Princeton and director of the U.S. Mint, David Rittenhouse. During and after the American Civil War, Laurel Hill became the final resting place of hundreds of military figures including 42 Civil War era generals. Laurel Hill also became the favored burial place for many of Philadelphia’s most prominent political and business figures including Matthias W. Baldwin, founder of the Baldwin Locomotive Works; Henry Disston, owner of the largest saw manufactory in the world and Peter A.B. Widener, the financier.
Designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1998, Laurel Hill Cemetery with its spectacular vistas and thousands of 19th Century and 20th Century marble and granite funerary monuments encompasses 74 idyllic acres terraced above the Schuylkill River in the East Falls section of Philadelphia. Forests of obelisks dot the rolling terrain highlighted by elaborately sculpted hillside tombs and mausoleums. Overall, Laurel Hill contains more than 33,000 monuments and more than 11,000 family lots.
Designed by noted Scottish-American architect John Notman, Laurel Hill introduced new landscape ideas and burial concepts and became a model for the rural cemetery movement. Laurel Hill Cemetery stands as a rich repository of both art and historical artifacts. Its monuments embody the rich design, craftsmanship and iconography of 19th and 20th century American funerary art, from simple obelisks to elaborate mausoleums.
Much of the significance of Laurel Hill cemetery derives from its large number of mausoleums, built in a wide variety of styles by some of Philadelphia’s most distinguished families. Classic Revival, Gothic Revival, Egyptian Revival and other exotic styles are rendered in a wide palette of materials, including marble, granite, cast-iron and sandstone. Notable artists and architects, including Alexander Milne Calder, John Notman and William Strickland contributed their designs. These monuments tell many stories of the history and evolution of not only the cemetery’s growth, but also of social and economic changes, the legacy of wars and of the individuals who shaped our nation’s history.
From its inception, Laurel Hill was intended as a civic institution designed for public use. In an era before public parks and museums, it was a multi-purpose cultural attraction where the general public could experience the art and refinement previously known only to the wealthy. Laurel Hill became an immensely popular destination in its early years and required tickets for admission. The writer Andrew Jackson Downing reported “nearly 30,000 persons…entered the gates between April and December, 1848.”
In 1978, The Friends of Laurel Hill Cemetery, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, was founded to support the cemetery. The mission of The Friends is to assist the Laurel Hill Cemetery Company in preserving and promoting the historical character of Laurel Hill. The Friends, in accordance with its by-laws, seek to achieve its mission by raising funds and seeking contributed services; by preparing educational and research materials emphasizing the historical, architectural and cultural importance of Laurel Hill Cemetery; and by providing tour guiding services so that the cemetery is available for educational use by the public.
As an important local destination, Laurel Hill is a cultural gem and a destination for historians and connoisseurs of architecture and horticulture as well as for the interested public. Laurel Hill provides a fusion of history and art and is the final resting place of many of Philadelphia’s famous and elite.
Looking SW at 7th St NW - Chinese poles and detail - Chinatown - DC
Image by Tim Evanson
Looking west at the west side of 7th Street NW in Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown. All of these buildings are owned by local real estate developer Douglas Jemal. Note the Chines-style hangers on the side of the building. During special events, banners hang from them.
D.C.'s Chinatown was established in 1884. But it wasn't where it is now.
The original Chinatown existed along the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue between 4th and 7th Streets, with the heaviest concentration of residences and businesses near where 4th Street, C Street, and Pennsylvania Avenue met. This was the site of Center Market. Back in the days before refrigeration and corporate ownership of food distribution, people around the United States shopped at privately or publicly owned farmer's markets. D.C.'s food markets were almost all privately owned, and suffered from poor hygiene. Shopping for food meant hoping you didn't come down with the hershey-squirts from the diseases your food would be infected with. The city itself decided to act by building a state-of-the-art market, complete with running water, ice house, and mechanical refrigeration. This was Center Market, and it was so immensely popular that nearly all the downtown trolley lines converged there.
Chinese and other Asian immigrants began moving into the area around Center Market in noticeable numbers as early as 1880. By 1884, the area was known as "Chinatown." As many as 15,000 people lived there. That's an astonishing number, considering that most buildings were only two or three stories high. People were just jammed into Chinatown.
D.C.'s original Chinatown existed as a vibrant community until 1935. Interestingly, throughout the 1800s, the federal government was so small that it could be housed in just five or six three-story office buildings. By 1900, however, it was clear that the federal government needed to grow. In 1926, Congress finally approved construction of six new massive federal office buildings. After two years of discussion, it was decided that the area south of Pennsylvania Avenue had to be totally torn down and these new office buildings constructed there. That was the beginning of Federal Triangle -- the largest conglomeration of federal office buildings anywhere in the country. The first buildings constructed were the Department of Commerce, the Internal Revenue Service building, and the Labor/ICC building (now the headquarters of the EPA). At first these buildings just uprooted the brothels, criminal hideouts, and gambling dens that formed D.C.'s infamous Murder Bay. But as Federal Triangle construction moved eastward, Chinatown had to go. Construction of the National Archives and the Apex Building (which houses the Federal Trade Commission) forced Chinatown to move.
Chinatown had a very well-organized community, however, composed of business leaders, religious leaders, politicians, and well-respected citizens. They quite literally looked for a place in the city where everyone could move together -- lock, stock, and barrel. They chose the current location on H Street NW.
At its peak, the "new" Chinatown extended from G Street NW north to Massachusetts Avenue NW, and from 9th Street NW east to 5th Street NW. But this only lasted for about 50 years. The 1968 riots which came after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. caused many businesses to flee downtown D.C. Chinatown's businesses, too, fell on hard times and many of them closed. Wealthy and middle-class Asian citizens fled for the suburbs, leaving many houses and apartments unoccupied. A mainstay of the community was the OCA Bank, but when it closed Chinatown emptied even further.
Chinatown was saved when the Gallery Place Metro station (Blue and Orange lines) opened in 1976. Determined to save Chinatown as a tourist attraction, in 1986 the city authorized the construction of the Friendship Archway, a million traditional Chinese gate designed by local architect Alfred H. Liu. Symoblizing not only Chinatown but D.C.'s "sister city" status with Beijing, the Friendship Arch is the largest freestanding traditionally constructed Chinese-style arch anywhere in the world.
But Chinatown now is in serious decline. In 1993, Abe Pollin built the MCI Center on two whole city blocks bounded by 6th and 7th Streets NW and F and H Streets NW. The arena opened in 1997, and was renamed the Verizon Center after Verizon purchased the near-bankrupt MCI communications company.
In 1999, wealthy regional real estate investors built a vast new 13-story mixed-use shopping and housing complex over the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station. Gallery Place (the building) opened in the fall of 2004. It not only revitalized Chinatown, but revitalized the entire East End. Extensive construction began throughout the area as consumers, tourists, and young people flooded the area. Huge swaths of Chinatown were renovated and turned into restaurants, trendy bars, and up-scale shops.
Unfortunately, this caused rents to skyrocket, and pushed most of the Chinese population of D.C's Chinatown into Maryland and Northern Virginia. The Da Hua market, the last full-service Chinese grocery, closed in 2005. The D.C. Office of Planning created a "cultural redevelopment plan" aimed at bringing Chinese food street vendors back to the area and building an Asian-American international business center. But that was in 2008, and nothing has been implemented as of 2012.
The huge video screens, bright neon lights, trendy stores, and fast-food restaurants (like Chopt, Fuddruckers, TGI Friday's, Chipotle, etc.) draw hundreds of rowdy teenagers to Chinatown. The area is now rife with crime, and D.C. Police, D.C. Housing Police, and anti-gang detectives constantly work and patrol the area to stop street brawls between rival gangs. The Gallery Place metro station is the worst in the system for crime (largely stolen iPods, wallets, and cell phones). Many teens hang out on the steps of the National Portrait Gallery, a block south of this intersection -- taunting one another, eating food from McDonald's, and planning thefts.
I kid you not.
Chinatown has been called "D.C.'s Times Square." It has become a terrible problem.
