Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartphilly
Green is good. Always thought Franklin Square was in an odd place straddle by 676 and the busy Race street over the Ben Franklin Bridge to NJ. Chinatown needs more space. This section of the city is always full of people out and about.
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Just in case some people don't know this, but Franklin Sq. was one of Penn's original 5 public squares. So it existed long before the bridge and certainly the highway. I've always wondered how the bridge ended up in that spot and not alittle further north. I've seen old photos taken back around 1900 and the whole area around the square was very much 'old City' like. Part of the area was Philly's skid row, parts which lasted until the 50's. It's amazing to think what that area might have looked like without the wholesale demo for Independence Mall and before that the bridge cutting through the area, and more recently the highway tearing things up. Sortof surprised the park wasn't 'repurposed' in some fashion.