cast iron sidewalk

1907 North Seventh Street, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA

Is this still there?

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage...hia+County,+PA))

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displa...splayProfile=0


http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displa...splayProfile=0

__________________
"Oh, mercy mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be
No, no"

M.Gaye

I have no idea if it's still there, but I can tell you that in my most recent drives up 7th Street in that area, there isn't much of anything around now, let alone the cast iron sidewalk.

That paving would be long sold off by scavegers by now. If I had neighbors in Germantown that woke up to someone stealing their antique front doorknobs at 3am, then the cast iron sidewalk would be gone. That is, unless some miracle occurred.

I gotta see if this place still exists.

I just looked on local.live.com revealed that the two houses in the photo are still there if one looks at a bird's eye aerial of the site. But, it really doesn't look like a cast iron sidewalk is there now, even though it's hard to tell from the photo.

The photos are from May 1972.

__________________
"Oh, mercy mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be
No, no"

M.Gaye

IT SEEMS THE CAST IRON SIDEWALK WAS STILL THERE IN 1979
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage...pe=0&maxCols=1

__________________
"Oh, mercy mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be
No, no"

M.Gaye

I love how the HABS record describes it as an example of "Ferromania."

From Google Street View, it seems that the tiles have largely gone. Although there a couple of hexagonal shapes in front of the house in the view below, which might be the last remaining tiles.

What a shame. Were is the phs when this sh!t gos down?

__________________
"Oh, mercy mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be
No, no"

M.Gaye

this would be really cool to put out front. I did a search and could not find anyone selling them:-(

__________________
Chris Stock
The Stock Group
215.510.0647
Sustainable General Contracting
Historic Eco Friendly Painting
Home Restoration
www.thestockgroup.net

According to the book "Philadelphia Preserved" (2nd Ed. 1981), the cast iron sidewalk was removed in 1979 and parts of it were installed in the back porch of the Ebenezer Maxwell House in Germantown (which is a public museum, unless it went bankrupt).

Outstanding find sharkfood! I have that book and was to dumb to check it.
Thanks sharkfood, its good to know that the iron sidewalk was not lost.
Now I gotta go out and give it a look see.

__________________
"Oh, mercy mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be
No, no"

M.Gaye