Repurposed Schools
by Photo J
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Forensic Science Center Serves and Protects Poplar • Austin Albright
Forensic Science Center Serves and Protects Poplar reopened as the Philadelphia Police Forensic Science Center. The exterior remains the same as it did upon its completion, along with a 1960 addition in the rear, while the interior was redone. The total cost of the renovations totaled over $11 million. This cost was calculated to be 20% less expensive as compared to constructing an entire new building. The former Mary Channing Wister School sits at the corner of 8th and Poplar Streets. As with many of the Philadelphia public schools built in the 1920s, it was designed by Irwin T. Catharine. Construction began in 1925 and finished in 1926. In 1988 the school was successful in its bid to be added to the National Register of Historic Places. At the time of its addition the school was already vacant for several years. Fifteen years later in 2003, the building was
The center now has a variety of units and departments located within it. Some of these include a crime-scene unit, a firearms unit, and chemistry labs. These services are used by the Office of Forensic Sciences to help identify perpetrators in various crimes.
by Austin Albright
Some residents such as Hali Williams, 19, sees the Forensic Science Center as a positive presence in the neighborhood. “It’s been there for as long as I can remember,” says Williams. “I always see officers and they’re mostly friendly and make me feel safe.” At the same time, other members of the community are not so sure. Tod Roberts, 16, or “T-Time” as his friends call him, plays soccer across the street from the site. “With everything going on I got to watch myself with police,” says Roberts. “I think they make our neighborhood safer, but I got to be careful sometimes.”
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Frederick Douglass Mastery Charter School • Montana Bassett
Frederick Douglass Mastery Charter School
Frederick Douglass Mastery Charter School sits on West Norris Street and was repurposed into a charter school in July of 2015. After low-test scores and broken agreements about raising the students’ academic performance, the district’s charter office did not want to reopen the school, according
to an article by Martha Woodall, an Inquirer staff writer. Douglass being one of the first seven District schools to be repurposed into a charter school only to be repurposed again due to low academic performance brought on this decision.
by Montana Bassett
One such student, Tamier, 12, has been there since before it was repurposed into a charter school. He says this is not the first time the school has come under new management. “I think it was the test scores, they weren’t high enough so they kept wanting different people to be in charge,” he said.
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Scholar Academies heard about the decision not to reopen the school and stepped in, asking Mastery Charter Schools to take over. According to their website, Scholar Academies is an organization that is geared towards giving students an high quality public education. Mastery Charter Schools, according to their values listed on their website, put the student’s achievement above all else to encourage success. The students are noticing
improvements in the day-today activities within the school and educational success. “Now we have been passing, things are getting better and I think they are going to stick with Mastery,” Tamier said. Charter schools have been reusing buildings throughout the city. In fact, an article by Kristen Graham, an Inquirer Staff Writer, says this is likely to continue. “Pew found that more than 40 percent of cities’ closed building were resued by charters,” she writes.
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William Penn High School • Michelle Naef
William Penn High School 1333 North Broad Street was once the address to William Penn High School. The school closed down in 2010, due to poor student performance and declining enrollment. Since the school was vacant, Temple University bought the property for $15 million
in 2014 to implement a new design plan and install the new Temple Sports Complex. The knocking down of the high school and building a new field has all happened within this past year. There are two soccer fields that allow Temple’s teams to play on, a
by Michelle Naef
track surrounding the fields. It is a little bit farther from the main hub that is the campus of Temple University, but is a quick walk from Cecil B. Moore Avenue. According to Phillymag.com, this space will not just be used for sports but also will have a new building to “house some community job-training programspart of a plan that was first discussed when Temple bough the William Penn campus last year.” The jobtraining programs would be for members of the Laborers’ District Council Education and Training/Apprenticeship Fund. The positives of this will help many in the future. As much growth has happened within this past year, many of
the locals from the community were not happy about it in 2014, before it was built. According to Phillymag.com, the locals of the community felt that their voice was not heard when the building was
bought. They did not want stadiums and they did not want their community to go down because of it. Originally, William High School was supposed to re-open as a career and technical institute,
but that never happened. Due to the district having budget cuts, the plan was not attainable. So, Temple still went ahead with their actions to fulfill their plan to what the area is today.
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Edward W. Bok Technical High School • Michelle Saverino
Edward W. Bok Technical High School
The Edward W. Bok Technical High School use to be a public high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The building was completed in February 1938 by the Public Works Administration (WPA) as a vocational high school at 8th & Mifflin Streets. Bok was reorganized in 2006-2007 to prepare students for jobs in
by Michelle Saverino
modern technology. After the 2012-2013 school year, the shutdown.
businesses, entrepreneurs and creatives,” according to their official websites.
“Bok is a commercial property located in South Philadelphia (equidistant between Center City, the Navy Yard and University City) and home to a thriving and growing community of innovators,
Oscar Reyes, a resident of South Philly and someone that comes to Bok for Kickboxing classes. He says the business started about a month in half ago knows the owner of the Kickboxing business and he
9 “Well, it would help better, if it were a school, true, but if it’s okay for the neighborhood, I guess it’s okay,” says Reyes.
had the gym at south 13th street and he was offered a space in the basement of Bok. Reyes says, “Well, I’m not sure how it will affect, that schools have closed to do this business, but it seems to be a big business that these people are making. As far as business, “there is a bar on the top floor and it is always full of people, also they cut hair, there is a restaurant, people come for events and they bring food. Also, people come for conferences and make private parties, I guess.” “Not sure how many businesses there is but I imagine there are around 30.”
“I imagine that education should come first, no, there are many schools that are closed and there are children who stopped going to school. Or have to go further where they would have to go, because I imagine what those that live here, that could come to this school, now have to go
to another school further and will have to walk farther, “says Reyes. “A historic vocational school closed by the School District of Philadelphia in 2013, we are working to lovingly restore the building into a new, richly layered and constantly evolving center for creatives, small-businesses, non-profits, small-batch manufacturers and beyond.”
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Mary Channing Wister Public School • Conor Rottmund
Mary Channing Wister Public School
Before being repurposed for the Philadelphia Police Department, the former Mary Channing Wister Public School now houses the Forensic Science Center. After closing its doors for good, the school remained unoccupied and unused for many years. In 2003 building was reopened
under the operation of the police department’s Office of Forensic Science. Despite the fact that the exterior of the building looks just as it did when students traversed its halls, the interior was completely redesigned and renovated to serve as a state of the art forensics laboratory.
by Conor Rottmund
Construction on the Mary Channing Wister School began in 1925 and was completed a year later in 1926. It is a three-story brick building with large columns on either side of each entrance. Another staple of the buildings design is the freestanding porticos adorned with colorful tile.
11 Beginning with the Wister school, the Philadelphia Board of Education erected five buildings between 1925 and 1929. The first three schools to be built by the district were the Wister School, the Edwin M. Stanton School and the Lydia Darrah School. The three schools were built nearly identical to one another over three-year span with only minor variations between each design. The last two schools to be built during this period, the Spring Garden School and the Edward M. Paxson School were more dramatic variations on the original Art-Deco design. The five schools were built from blueprints by Irwin T. Catharine. Catharine served as the chief architect of the Philadelphia public schools from 1920 until his retirement 17 years later. Over the course of his tenure as chief architect, his designs led to over 100 new buildings in the district. The building is located on 8th Street in the Poplar neighborhood of Philadelphia. In 1988, the US government placed the Wister School on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Franklin Learning Center • Hannah Pittel
Franklin Learning Center
The former William Penn High School for Girls, now known as Franklin Learning Center High School, is a high school building that was built in 1908-1909 in the ClassicalRevival style. The building is located in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania neighborhood of Spring Garden. the building was designed by Henry
deCoursey Richards. The building is four stories and is made of brick and limestone. The building was named after Philadelphia founder William Penn. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The building is now named the Franklin Learning Center and is a charter school.
by Hannah Pittel
The Franklin Learning Center is a repurposed school that is now a charter school in Philadelphia. The Franklin Learning Center is located on North 15th Street, right off of Broad Street. The charter school serves 817 students from grades nine through twelve. Community members living in
13 the area feel a that the school draws positivity towards their neighborhood. Many community members are also welcome to use the parking lot after school hours which is a great convenience to them due to difficult parking in the city. Logan Smith was taking a smoke break after a long day of work. Smith feels that the school is good for the neighborhood, however, Charter schools have too many restrictions on admissions and that the school should have been repurposed into another public school.
Many community members in Philadelphia feel similarly about Charter schools because of the massive twenty three schools closing. There are not enough places for kids to go as well as over crowding and violence in schools that stayed open.
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Bok Technical High School • Geneva Hefferman
Edward W. Bok Technical High School
Edward W. Bok Technical High School located at the corner of 8th and Mifflin Streets, closed in 2013 as one of the Philadelphia School Reform Committee’s 23-school closure. Since then, the building has been reopened as a commercial property,
now housing more than 20 businesses, including the Bok Bar which utilizes the school’s rooftop for bar seating with a view. Saleem Aquil, a part-time security officer for Bok Bar, reflects on his memories of Bok when it was still open
by Geneva Hefferman
as a high school. “You had to have good grades to get in. Everybody wanted to go [to Bok], my grades weren’t good enough, but some of my friends went here... It was a good school at the time my friends went, back in the early ‘90s, after that I don’t know, I don’t know why they closed it.”
15 Currently, Bok is hosts a variety of businesses and organizations with architects, charitable organizations, a local boxing club, craftspeople (including jewelers, fashion designers, artists, etc.), a day care and more. The building’s website boasts that almost 80% of its tenants are residents of South Philly, emphasizing its community focus.
“It was better as a school, but since they closed it, what else were they going to do with it. The best they could do was allow someone to rent it out to small business like they do.” Aquil described the building’s transformation as a give and take. “Some people benefitted and some people got hurt, as far as them putting schools together. There’s always benefits in things, as well as hurt.”
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Bok Technical High School • Kevin Barr
Bok Technical High School
The Bok Bar is a bar set in the property which once housed the Bok Technical High School. The building was purchased in 2014 from the School Reform Commission by a group called Scout Ltd., who uses other space in the building in order to provide an affordable spot for artists and others. Bok presents a variety of
affordable food options, which are mostly Vietnamese and Filipino dishes, served alongside a plethora of craft beers and wines. Even with the affordable menu, the views that the Bok Bar provides are priceless. A full drink and food menu is available on the bar’s website, which can be found at http://www.bok-bar.com.
by Kevin Barr
However, there is a certain charm that the Bok Bar provides. It’s history as a former school still lingers, with the building emanating an eerie feel with every turn one takes as they make their way to the elevator which transports patrons to the rooftop bar. The halls are dimly lit, and the bathrooms at the
17 establishment are those that were once used by the school. Despite the establishment’s past, the crowd is far from
Tues-Thurs, 6pm-1am Fri-Sat, and 2-10pm on Sundays. The establishment may close in event of dire weather, with updates being posted on their
a younger one; most of the attendees on the Wednesday night are fresh from a day of work, some dressed in business-casual attire, and others still bearing the formal business wear from a long day of work.
social media outlets. Plans are in the works to create a permanent restaurant within the location, and the Bok will remain open until the weather is too cold for it to remain functioning as an outdoor establishment. However, for
The Bok Bar’s hours of operation are 6-11pm on
those in search of good food and drink with an even better view need to look no further than the Bok.
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Thaddeus Stevens School of Practice • Conor Gray
Thaddeus Stevens School of Practice
by Conor Gray
Broad seemed to happen out of no where following Blumenfield’s purchase of the three historic buildings construction began almost immediately. The Thaddeus Stevens school is the only project that is currently finished although construction on the Divine Lorraine is expected to be completed this fall.
Eric Blumenfield has become the first name to come to mind when thinking about
apartments. The school was located on the corner of Broad and Spring Garden Street in
the revitalization of North Broad Street, in particular the Poplar neighborhood. With his notable purchases of the Metropolitan Opera House and the impossible to miss Divine Lorraine many did not notice his purchase of the Thaddeus Stevens School of Practice. In just over a year Blumenfield transformed the inside of the school into loft
Philadelphia and in 1988 was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The majority of the School building has been left in tact “You can still see where the lines on the basketball court were on my floor” Said Jeff, a tenant of one of the lofts. This restoration of North
“I think its great” said Jeff “you see whats happening in Detroit right now with all the abandoned buildings, and its just nice that we aren’t letting that happen here. Its good for the neighborhood and its good for the city.”