Delaware Ave and Washington St: A Changing Scene

Delaware Ave and Washington St

A Changing Scene

In our last post, you saw the intersection of Delaware Ave and Washington St as it looked in the 1950s.

The Atlantic gas station dates to the 1920s.  The classical Greek style "pavilion," the original facility, was probably designed by the architect Joseph F Kunz, who did many service station designs for Atlantic Refining Co., many in this classical style, as told in a blog no longer available on-line.

 

The utilitarian vitreous enameled panel structure was a later addition.  In my memory, in the 1950s the Greek pavilion housed the restrooms.  When the gas station was razed in 1964, the Greek pavilion was acquired by Chick Laird, a well-known local philanthropist, and donated to Tatnall School on Barley Mill Road, near the now-residence of President Joe Biden. It was repurposed as an open air structure and still stands on the grounds of the Tatnall School campus.

The intersection has even more recently been rebuilt and now is the location of the small H. B. DuPont Park.  Nothing recognizable from the 1950s remains. 

The intersection has another monument in its history.  In 1895 a statue of President James Garfield was erected there, as documented by a postcard in my collection, postmarked 1912.

In 1916 a street widening led to the relocation of both the massive stone Swedenborgian church, rebuilt at Pennsylvania Ave and Broom, and the Garfield Monument, moved to Concord Ave and Jefferson St.  When I was a kid, the President was subjected occasionally to being ringed, quoit -style with a bicycle tire.