Spring Garden School No1, located on 12th street between Ogden and Parrish, was designed by Philadelphia School District chief architect Irwin T. Catharine and built in 1928. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and closed in the late 1980′s (Spring Garden School was moved to 1146 Melon Street, formerly home of the Oliver Cornman School around 1986, and the building was briefly used by The Pan-African Studies Community Education Program but seems to have been abandoned within a couple of years).

The building appears to be in quite good condition despite years of neglect, but being surrounded by low-income housing is most likely a major stumbling block preventing it from serving any purpose other than a source of blight. Hopefully it can be put to some use before it catches fire or suffers further damage, but I’m not holding my breath. Property records indicate that the building was purchased by the Philadelphia Housing Authority in 2009.

Some of these images were featured in issue 19 of Megawords Magazine and in the Spring 2013 issue of Jacobin Magazine.