Above Broad & Spruce in 1983

Above Broad & Spruce in 1983This is a photograph I shot from what was once Anderson Hall on the Northwest corner of Broad and Spruce which once housed The Philadelphia College of Art. This is probably the 7th floor where the illustration majors were situated. It was an old office building and the windows could open offering fairly interesting vistas such as this uninterrupted by filthy panes of glass.

Of course the shot may have shown a little more if I weren’t so afraid of leaning out of those windows.

I had written about the squat brick building Southeast corner of Broad and Spruce before; it’s place in music history, and the sorry fate it met. At the time of this photo, the first floor on the corner was Ike’s, a place where you could get something to eat. I think Gamble-Huff music occupied another part of the building and I’m not sure if they had other tenants.

Eventually a large part of the ground floor became Utrecht. When it did, it was in more capable hands than when it was on the ground floor of Anderson Hall during my time as a student of P.C.A. It was a Soviet style art supply store back then with long lines, constant shortages and abysmal service. When it moved catercorner from it’s old location to where Ike’s was located in the photo above, it improved immensely. It wasn’t huge, but the prices were fair, and they always seemed to have what I needed.

Sadly Utrecht is gone as is the building.

I love the cigarette billboard. What a throwback. Before the building came tumbling down, the billboard always seemed to feature one Apple iDevice or another. Nothing like The Taste of Success!

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2 Responses to Above Broad & Spruce in 1983

  1. OldNFO says:

    Nice backstory, thanks!

  2. Joe_Williams says:

    Thank you!

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